Tag Archives: mentoring

Another Evening Of Mentoring (or Having Faith In My Agents)

Posted on June 16, 2015 | Comments Off

Last week was another meeting of my WIF mentoring circle with our mentors. I’m really enjoying seeing almost everyone every month (and my mentors every other month) and I really do feel like as a group we have really bonded.

At this meeting, we updated our mentors on what we had gotten accomplished since our last meeting with them. I had known a bit of what my fellow mentees had done since we had our potluck last month, but everyone had some really great updates.

Some people had booked some amazing work in their fields since even our meeting last month. I love to hear that they are all doing so well and that they are moving forward in their careers. Sometimes I feel like I am so far behind in my career compared to all of them, but it does inspire me to see what is possible.

For my update, first of all my mentors asked me to log all of my auditions between our last meeting and this meeting (so 2 months worth). I had 4 auditions, and I was pretty happy about that. My mentors seemed a little surprised by how few auditions I had, but they also understood that the industry is a bit slow right now. But they still questioned why so few auditions when the other actress in the group had about 10 times the number of auditions as me. But you really can’t compare us since we are totally different types and she is non-union while I am union.

My mentors did ask me about how I feel about my agents. Honestly, I love my agents. They have worked so hard for me and truly believe in me. But I think that since I know them so well it might be tough for others to understand why I believe in them so much. It probably seems like blind faith.

But not all agents would have worked as so hard for me as they have. They have stuck with me through lots of weight changes (and some hair changes). Not all agents would have dealt with that. I bet that most agents would have dropped me for gaining weight.

But my agents believe that I can book work at whatever weight I happen to be. And they know that it’s just a matter of time before I book something great. And they know I work really hard all the time. When I’m not auditioning, I work hard at building my reputation in this industry as a good, reliable, and knowledgable actor. And hopefully with that reputation casting directors and other industry people will remember that and bring me in for parts that are right for me. And many of my auditions are at casting offices that I’ve auditioned at before. So it’s not that I’m not a good actor, it’s that the part I auditioned for wasn’t right. And hopefully those offices will keep bringing me in until the part is right for me.

I know that it’s tough to understand sometimes why I’m being so patient about lack of auditions. Or why I trust my agents so much when I don’t have dozens of auditions each month. I guess it’s because I have faith in myself and my career. I know that when it’s my time to shine, I’m going to be totally ready and prepared for it. And all I have to do is keep getting prepared and be patient because eventually it will be my time.

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Posted in Acting, Fun Stuff

Tagged acting, audition, mentoring, Women in Film

Another Evening Of Mentees (or Advice and Socializing)

Posted on May 21, 2015 | 3 comments

My second mentee only meeting with my Women in Film mentoring group was this past week. I offered to host again because it’s pretty convenient for me to have the meetings in my house. Plus it seems to be centrally located for the rest of the group.

Only about half of our group was able to make it, but I was still excited to catch up with those who were going to be there. I took the opportunity to use my new serving dishes I got from my grandparents and they were perfect!

Since the group was smaller this time than in the past, we only spent about an hour catching up on the goals that we have gotten done and what our goals for our next meeting will be. It still inspires me every time when I hear what everyone else is doing with their careers. I’m so lucky that I was matched with this group who are all very motivated and are dedicated to getting as much out of this mentoring group as possible. This is exactly what I was hoping to get out of doing a second mentoring circle.

I hate that I feel like I’m trash talking my old mentoring group. I’m not. But with that group our mentors weren’t as tough on us about attending meetings and they never told us to meet on our own between the meetings with them. And the other women in the group were mostly absent from the meetings. I really only got to know 2 of the other women because they were the ones who showed up for the meetings.

After our hour of catching up, we ate some dessert and started to me less formal and more social as a group. It’s not that we haven’t been social in the past, but this time we really relaxed and started to share fun and silly stories. I got to know the ladies much better and I feel that we got to bond a bit more as a group. I’m hoping that if we try to stay to time limits with our personal catchup and goals discussion that at future mentee only meetings we can continue to be more social and not just about business. It was a really nice touch and I think that everyone else enjoyed that too.

We will have another meeting with our mentors next month (the date isn’t set yet), and I’m hoping to have fun news to update everyone with. Since everyone else always seems to have such great news and stories to tell everyone, I feel almost a bit competitive and want to have some awesome news of my own.

So I’m trying to work on my career much harder than I have in the past just so I can feel like I can keep up with everyone. But I think that is one of the reasons you get into a mentoring group like this. You get motivated by everyone else to better yourself and you have a great group to lean on and ask for help.

I’m working on some ideas about what will push me farther in my career, and I’ll be sharing one of those things with you all tomorrow!

3 Comments

Posted in Acting, Food, Fun Stuff

Tagged acting, dinner, goals, grandparents, mentoring, social, Women in Film

Hearing Some Non-Nonsense Advice (or A Substitute Mentor)

Posted on April 30, 2015 | 2 comments

I had my next Women In Film mentoring circle meeting with my mentors this week. This meeting is different from the potluck dinner last month because our mentors were there to give us advice and help guide us in our careers.

One of the two mentors I have wasn’t able to make it for the meeting, but our mentors arranged to have a substitute mentor on hand so that we would still have 2 mentors at the meeting. I thought that that was a very nice gesture and really appreciated it.

We were missing a couple of fellow mentees at the meeting, but a majority of us were able to make it. And since we had a substitute mentor there, we spent the beginning of the meeting going around and telling her about our careers and the goals that we set 2 months ago and that we have long-term.

I’m very embarrassed to say that I didn’t do so great with my goals I set 2 months ago. One of them was to get through the film festival, so that one I did accomplish. But the one I really wanted to work on was saving money so I could get back into improv classes. I was really hoping to have about a quarter of the money that I need by now (or more), but I was also hoping to have more luck finding a secondary day job.

I know that I can ask for the money for the class for my birthday, so no matter what I will have the money by August. But hopefully I can have enough money together that I can register for the class by my next meeting with my mentors in 2 months.

As we were going around the circle talking about our goals, our guest mentor was pretty tough on us and not accepting any excuses we had about why we didn’t get our goals done. She was encouraging me to attend casting director workshops (I personally don’t believe in the ones that you have to pay for and she respected my opinion on that). She also said that while I love my agents, perhaps I need to find agents that get me out more often. I completely understand where she is coming from with that idea, but I know that I’m pretty much going out as often as my direct competition does. And I doubt that new agents would work with me as much as my current agents do.

But hearing that tough love did motivate me to do more for myself. My agents do work hard for me, but I can make their job easier. Besides getting into the improv class, I really need to update my reel. I also am going to continue working on my networking with casting directors and writers. The more people who know me, the better.

While I did disagree with some of the ideas that the guest mentor had for me, so much of what she was saying was exactly what I needed to hear. Even when she was talking to my fellow mentees about how they need to stop making excuses and being victims of their circumstance, I took that to heart. I can’t force anyone to give me more auditions, but I can make it so I’m a more desirable actress for casting directors to want to bring in. And that’s how I need to focus myself on my career.

While I think that both of my regular mentors are amazing and are so generous with their time and their advice, I’m a little sad that our guest mentor won’t be at the next meeting to check in with all of us. Maybe I’ll run into her at another event in the future and I can have an amazing career update to give to her!

2 Comments

Posted in Acting, Fun Stuff

Tagged acting, mentoring, motivation, Women in Film

WIF Mentee Potluck (or How Many People Can I Fit In My House)

Posted on March 19, 2015 | 1 comment

With my new WIF Mentoring Circle, our mentors want us to meet with them every other month. For the in-between months, they want all the mentees to meet on our own. We set up our meeting when we all met for the first time, and I agreed to host.

We decided to make our meeting a potluck so everyone signed up to bring something different. Obviously I would have the plates/cups/silverware for everyone, but I also wanted to have some food. I knew that the days leading up to the meeting would be stressful, so I did some searching online for easy appetizer ideas. I ended up deciding on doing a meat and cheese plate with some crackers. And fortunately, Trader Joes has some pretty incredible things so I was able to make this pretty easily.

I got the tray and bowls at Ross Dress For Less because I realized as I was getting ready that I have no serving platters. That tray was $6 (I’m thinking about going back to get another one) and those bowls were in a set of 4 for $7.

I spent most of my afternoon cleaning my house (doesn’t everyone do that when company comes over?) and my fellow mentees started showing up right on time at 5pm.

With all the food that everyone brought, my dining room table looked pretty full.

We all grabbed some food and then sat in my living room area to chat.

I was pretty shocked that all 8 of us who were able to make it fit into my living room pretty easily. I’ve never had more than 5 people over but with my new couch and the rearrangement of my living room I can fit more people than before!

We all went around the group and shared what we had done since our last meeting last month. We got advice and shared stories and it was really a great evening of women who really are working hard to make it in the entertainment industry.

We ended up meeting for almost 3 hours (we might have to figure out an agenda for our next meeting so we don’t run crazy long). This mentoring circle is such a huge difference compared to my other mentoring circle. I don’t know if anyone in my last mentoring circle really met outside of our group meetings. We definitely weren’t told that we needed to do so (I like that my current mentors really want us to meet during the in-between months).

I’m excited to see how the rest of this year goes with my mentoring circle. I have my next meeting next month (that meeting is with the mentors as well). Hopefully they will have some guidance on how we can run our own meetings to maximize what we get out of it.

In the meantime, I’m just so grateful that my mentors and fellow mentees are just as enthusiastic about getting as much out of this year as I am!

1 Comment

Posted in Acting, Food, Fun Stuff

Tagged acting, dinner, meeting, mentoring, Women in Film

Meeting My Mentoring Circle (or Being In The Minority)

Posted on February 19, 2015 | 4 comments

Last night was the first meeting of my new Women In Film mentoring circle. I was a little nervous going in because of my experience with my last mentoring circle. While I really loved getting to know the women in my last circle who showed up, out of 10 women only 3 of us regularly attending the meetings. And while I understand that we all live busy and crazy lives, it was still disappointing.

One of my new mentors is a manager and the other is a producer. They were both so nice at the meeting and their stories and experiences were amazing to hear about.

After our mentors introduced themselves, we went around introducing ourselves. In my last mentoring circle, almost all the mentees were actors. There were some writers, but most of them were also actors (I think there was only 1 writer who wasn’t an actor as well). But in this group, there is only 1 other actor! Everyone else has such a variety of jobs. There are writers, directors, producers, and even someone who helps entertainment industry companies rent office space!

Not only did all the other mentees have a wide range of jobs, they were all super supportive and enthusiastic about the mentoring circle and what we can accomplish as a group! My old circle was supportive, but we were looking more toward our mentors as guidance to what our group should do. This time, we are taking charge of things and are planning our own mentee meetings between the meetings with our mentors (I’m actually in charge of organizing our mentee meeting).

I left the meeting feeling super positive and excited to see what the next year will bring for me and the other women in my mentoring circle. I really feeling like I was put into an incredible group that will help me reach my goals (and of course I will help them as well).

I’m not trying to put down my last mentoring circle. I learned a lot from my mentors and the other women who regularly attended the meetings. But I really felt like there was so much more that I could have gotten out of that group than I did. And maybe part of that is my fault that I did not ask to see if we could do more. But now I’m super motivated to make this next year super productive and I know that this mentoring circle will help me reach my goals.

4 Comments

Posted in Acting, Fun Stuff

Tagged goals, mentoring, Women in Film

Getting Ready To Get Mentored Again (or A Evening With WIF)

Posted on November 20, 2014 | 2 comments

When I did the WIF Mentoring Circle the first time, I was so excited to have a bunch of meetings with other motivated women for a year. At first it seemed great, but after the first meeting, pretty much only 2 other mentees came to meetings. And while the agreement was to have 6 meetings within a 12 month period, my group only had 4 meetings in 18 months.

It wasn’t a total loss. The other 2 mentees who came to the meetings were awesome and I learned a lot from them. I wasn’t supposed to be allowed to apply for another mentoring circle until my group completed all 6 meetings, but since it was announced that that would not be happening, I applied for the Winter circles.

In my application, I said how I could see how amazing the mentoring circles could be, and sadly that wasn’t my experience with my group. I was so excited that I was accepted again, and there was a mixer this week to meet some of the other women who would be in the program this time.

The event was a pretty casual evening. There were food and drinks (I ate before I went so I can’t tell you if the food was awesome but I’m assuming it was) and most of the evening was unstructured so we could just chat with some other woman at the event.

I was at a table that happened to be full of non-actors (a rarity and a nice treat!). We were all chatting and I don’t quite remember how the conversation got started, but I started chatting with the woman sitting next to me about the podcast Serial (which we are both obsessed with!). It turns out this woman (who I didn’t ask permission to name on my blog so I won’t right now) got a fellowship for WIF through UCLA where she is in the screenwriting program. That’s pretty awesome!

After about an hour at the event, the women who run the mentoring circles spoke and explained that we will know who our mentors and fellow mentees are by the end of the year. They haven’t put the groups together yet, so if there are people who we want to have in our circles we can request them (but no guarantees).

After the speech, I got up and spoke to the woman in charge. I just wanted to thank her again for accepting me into the program for the second time. And I wanted to make sure that I would have different mentors this year. I loved my mentors, but I think part of doing this experience again is to meet more people and expand my networking circles. She said that they would do their best not to put me with the same mentors again, and if for some reason it wasn’t like that, I can let them know.

After that, I decided to head home so I could get some work done before having to work the next morning.

Overall, it was a super successful kick off to the next mentoring circle. I’m so excited to see who’s in my group and who my new mentors will be. I can’t wait to find out what everyone’s specialty is and what jobs my mentors have. But I’ll have to wait a bit to find that out.

2 Comments

Posted in Acting, Fun Stuff

Tagged acting, mentoring, mixer, Women in Film

End Of The Mentoring Circle (or One Final Lunch)

Posted on June 30, 2014 | Comments Off

My WIF Mentoring Circle has pretty much come to an end. My group had a lunch meeting this past week and the mentors announced that this would most likely be our last gathering. We might have one more in the fall, but we have been told that we can apply for new mentoring circles when applications are being accepted again.

I had gone into the mentoring circle experience with really high hopes. Since Women In Film could no longer match mentees with their own mentors, they hoped that these circles would create a little community where all the mentees could help and support each other.

The first meeting of my mentor circle had about 10 mentees (plus our 2 mentors). But after that first meeting, there was only one other mentee who attended all the meetings. There was another mentee who attended all but this last one, but she is based in NYC and is about 7 months pregnant and unable to travel now. But she still joined us by phone to join in on the conversation.

Pretty much everyone else who attended that first meeting never came back for another meeting. It was a little disappointing. I was totally looking forward to getting to know the other women and to see how we could all help each other reach our goals. I believe that over the other meetings, there were 2 women who each showed up for one meeting. But 5 women never came back at all.

I didn’t get to know those 5 women really at all. But the 2 women who were there at pretty much every meeting I did get to know. And I keep in touch with them both outside of the meetings. I share my successes with them and they share theirs with me. If my entire group (or even half of my group) were filled with women like these 2, I would have zero complaints about the mentoring circle.

But I am going to apply for another one. I’ve talked to a few people who were in other mentoring circles and they did not have as high of an absence rate as my group did. Also, their groups did meet 6 times within 12 months (which is what the application for the groups said we would do). My group met 3 times within the year plus this 4th time after the one year mark had passed.

I don’t want to say that my group was a dud. That’s not it at all. I did meet amazing women and I’m so grateful that both of my mentors have said that I can always come to them for advice. I just wish that I had gotten to know other women who are in the same spot in their career as I am. I wish that I had more chances to get to know the women in my group.

I think I can apply for a new group in the fall or near the end of the year. As soon as I can turn in an application, I will. And hopefully my next mentoring circle will be everything that I am hoping for.

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Posted in Acting, Fun Stuff

Tagged acting, mentoring, Women in Film

More Mentoring (or This Is Exactly What I Needed)

Posted on July 25, 2013 | Comments Off

Yesterday was the second meeting of my Women In Film Mentoring Circle. The meeting was held again at UTA (which has the most gorgeous building in Beverly Hills).

For this meeting, only about half of my fellow mentees could attend, so there was a lot of personal attention. And our mentors arranged for a special guest to be there who is an agent as well as a manager.

While it’s great to be around like-minded people who aren’t looking at you like they are trying to figure out what they could gain, there’s just so much about this meeting that was exactly what I needed at this point in time.

I’m still pretty pissed about the car accident. Right before going to the meeting, I had my phone interview with the adjuster from the other driver’s insurance company. I felt like I had to defend myself a lot, but fortunately the adjuster seemed to almost side with me more than with her own customer. It just put me in a downer mood.

But the first thing that we did in our meeting today was to go over what we’ve accomplished since our last meeting. And even though I feel like I’m gotten nothing done, when forced to figure out what to share, I’ve realized that I’m made some great steps (including getting some clips from the scenes I shot up on my online casting profiles).

Also, it’s nice to hear that I’m not the only one struggling. Lots of people don’t like to share when they are having a tough time. Everything is sunshine and rainbows with them. It’s similar to how some actors like to hide the fact that they have a day job and want people to think that all they do is acting. I don’t understand why others hide these things. It’s so isolating and knowing that you aren’t the only one frustrated really helps make it seem more bearable.

I got some great advice from the mentors, guest, and my fellow mentees at the meeting. The other mentees and I are really trying to help each other out however we can. One offered to help me edit a demo reel when I’ve got more clips together. Another is going to help me with some stuff on here. It’s nice to have that sort of support. The only other place I’ve felt that was at The Actors’ Network, and since TAN is online only now, some of that is gone.

So after leaving the meeting, I really felt like I had some great steps to take to help my career. I have a plan for right now, and I know exactly where I can ask for help if I need it. And hopefully at the next meeting, I won’t struggle to find accomplishments to share but instead will struggle to edit down all of the accomplishments that have come my way.

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Posted in Acting, Fun Stuff

Tagged accomplishment, acting, mentoring, Women in Film

Mentoring Circle (or Women Who Support Each Other)

Posted on March 22, 2013 | 2 comments

Yesterday I had my first meeting with my Women in Film mentoring circle. This circle consists of two mentors (my mentors are a tv producer and film agent) and 8 mentees.

We met at UTA which is one of the big agencies in town. It was a pretty intimidating building.

Makes me so grateful that my agents are in a location that is very welcoming and makes me feel like part of the team.

Our group had a lunch in one of the conference rooms, and for this first meeting, we just did introductions. Most of the women in my group are actors, but most of those actors also do something else (like how I produced the documentary). We do also have a writer and director in the group and I’m excited to get to learn from them.

One of the greatest things about this group is how nice and supportive everyone is. I try to be supportive with all my fellow actors out there. When a woman who is my direct competition (I joke that she is my evil twin) needed to know where the audition we both had was going to be, I gave her the info without hesitation. I know some people wouldn’t do that because it increases their chances to book the role, but I know that if I’m meant to book it, I’ll book it.

I’m so used to having to watch out for these ultra-competitve actors (and many of them are rude and try to knock you off your game in the waiting room). It was truly a breath of fresh air knowing that I wouldn’t have to encounter that in this room.

We will be meeting again in about 2 months (the program is designed to have 6 meetings in a year). I’m hoping to connect with some of my fellow mentees on Facebook or twitter because I’d love to be around supportive people more than every other month.

I think in any industry that is competitive, it is such an asset to find people who just want to make sure that everyone gets ahead and nobody gets left behind. I’m so lucky that I was put into a group like this where that is happening.

2 Comments

Posted in Acting, Fun Stuff

Tagged acting, mentoring, support, Women in Film

Getting Mentored (or Wanting to Have Positivity Around Me)

Posted on November 29, 2012 | 1 comment

I joined Women in Film last year during one of their membership drives. Honestly, when I joined, I wasn’t sure what I wanted out of the membership. At the time, I was at an old job where I only worked Monday-Wednesday, so I had time to attend a couple of events. But what sparked my interest the most was their mentoring program.

The mentoring program then was a one on one program where everyone got matched up with someone in the industry. They might not have been in the same part of the industry as you, but that’s a good thing in my mind. A bunch of my friends and I all applied for the program in January. And then we waited.

Out of the 6 friends that I know who applied, only 1 got a mentor. The rest of us didn’t hear anything.

Well, it turns out, way more people applied this year than expected, so they changed up the program for the future. Now, we are going to be in mentoring circles with 9 or 10 mentees and 1 mentor.

Personally, I’m super excited about the change. I think that it will be amazing.

Since there were so many of us who applied in January who didn’t get matched, Women in Film hosted a get together for us this week. It was a little party to say thank you for being patient and an opportunity to mingle with other mentees and some of the mentors.

This event was exactly what I needed. There are far too many negative people in this industry. People try to put you down or make you feel less so that they feel more. There are so many scams out there that seem legitimate. But this event was all positive people who just want to help look out for one another and make sure that we all can succeed together.

There are very few industry places where I feel this much positivity. Being a member of The Actors’ Network is like this too (if you aren’t a member of that organization yet and want to check it out, there are 2 free orientations left this year). I feel like I need to be a more active participant with this positive groups to outweigh all the negativity out there. It’s tough with the job right now. I need to find a way to balance working so late 3 nights a week and trying to attend events. But whenever I do make it, I feel like I’m recharging my batteries and I’m ready to go out and battle whatever I encounter out there.

1 Comment

Posted in Acting

Tagged mentoring, positivity, The Actors' Network, Women in Film

Tag Archives: mentoring

Another Evening Of Mentoring (or Having Faith In My Agents)

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Hearing Some Non-Nonsense Advice (or A Substitute Mentor)

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WIF Mentee Potluck (or How Many People Can I Fit In My House)

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Meeting My Mentoring Circle (or Being In The Minority)

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Getting Ready To Get Mentored Again (or A Evening With WIF)

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End Of The Mentoring Circle (or One Final Lunch)

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More Mentoring (or This Is Exactly What I Needed)

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Mentoring Circle (or Women Who Support Each Other)

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Getting Mentored (or Wanting to Have Positivity Around Me)

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