Tag Archives: podcast

Celebrating 200 Episodes Of The Podcast (or Come and Celebrate With Me!)

Posted on June 12, 2015 | 2 comments

Remember a while ago how I shared that the podcast I work for was celebrating 100 episodes? Well, enough time has passed now that we are now getting ready to celebrate our 200th episode!

200 episodes of a podcast is a rarity. I hate when I find a podcast that I love and they quit after a few dozen episodes. It isn’t easy to have a podcast go up regularly (we post one once a week), so it’s something to be proud of when we hit major milestones like this!

We’ve got a 2 part celebration for our 200th and you can celebrate with us even if you aren’t in LA! Both parts of the event will be coming up on June 29th (a Monday), so mark your calendars now!

First, we will be doing a live recording at SAG Foundation. We will be doing a Q&A with the team behind the tv show “Defiance”! While this event is being done at the union, it is open to both union and non-union guests. But RSVPs are required and seating is limited. So if you’d like to join us for the first part of our 200th episode celebration, go to this link and reserve your spot. But if you’d like to watch our live recording and you aren’t in LA, that’s ok! We will be live-streaming the event through SAG Foundation’s live-stream. To join us for that, you can come to this link on the 29th at 7pm.

After what I’m sure will be an awesome recording, we will be moving from SAG Foundation to The Parlor on Melrose to have a great after party! We will be partnering with the LA Actors Tweetup for the after party and will be having a photo booth by The Headshot Truck and sweet treats by Sugar Swag Bakeshoppe.

You can see the event invite on Facebook as well. Only the recording requires RSVPs. The after party is open to all and no RSVP is needed (although you can say you are attending on Facebook so we can be excited to see you!).

This is going to be such a fun evening. I know that the live-recording will be great because we have amazing guests for it. And I think everyone can agree that an after party that has a photo booth and treats is a win!

I’m so excited to be able to celebrate the podcast’s accomplishments. Even though I am a part of the team, I’m really celebrating our two hosts Trevor and AJ. They did this podcast for a long time without ever having any help. I was the first team member added and while I helped to coordinate interviews, they still had to do so much of the work on their own. Now we have a slightly bigger team, but this is all done with the leadership of the hosts. They are the captains of the ship and we should all celebrate them for creating (and maintaining) not only an amazing podcast but the wonderful community that they have created around it.

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Posted in Acting, Celebrations, Fun Stuff

Tagged acting, event, Inside Acting, party, podcast

Getting My Butt In Gear (or Missing Out On Fun Stuff To Work)

Posted on May 1, 2015 | Comments Off

I wrote recently about how I needed to get back into the job hunt more seriously. It’s never easy to find day jobs (or additional day jobs), but it is a necessary evil of life.

My unemployment ended recently. And even though I was only getting about $90 a week from it, that money really did help me out. And while I could reapply for unemployment, I don’t think I earned enough W2 money recently to qualify for enough unemployment to get money after taking in consideration how much I make at my at home box office job. I also don’t want to have to keep depending on unemployment.

After my WIF meeting, I was really feeling motivated. I had to really plan time every day to apply for new jobs and to expand what my job searches were like.

In the past, I really just tried to find data entry/virtual assistant type work that I could do in-between my clients at my current job. I like my hours and was hoping to keep my work hours similar to what they are like now.

But I’ve now expanded my search to include evening and weekend work. This might mean that I would end up working 50-60 hours in a week when you add up the time between the two jobs. While this isn’t what I want, this might be what I need.

And since I’m getting serious about looking for a job, I’m starting to turn down social events in order to spend that time job searching. I was supposed to go to a really fun event by AJ, who hosts the podcast I work for, this week. I had been looking forward to it because AJ was in town and wouldn’t really have other time to hang out. But because of other things, the only time I could dedicate to job hunting would be during the event.

I had to let him know that I couldn’t go, and while it made me pretty mad about the situation, I did manage to find 7 day jobs that would be perfect for me and sent my cover letter and resume to all of them. So the missed event was worth it for my job hunt.

I’m probably going to have to miss another event tonight that I wanted to go to because I need to spend more time searching and applying for more jobs and I already have a busy afternoon with work and then my workout.

Even with canceling a couple of events, I’m still living a very social life. I just have to keep reminding myself that I need to pick and choose what I go to and that missing these events will benefit me in the long run. And once I get another day job, I’ll have more money to go to better social events.

Let’s just hope that this job hunt ends soon (and successfully)!

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Posted in Acting, Tough Stuff, Work

Tagged job, podcast, social, unemployment

Another Native Foods Dinner (or Healthy Food And Awesome Conversation)

Posted on April 3, 2015 | Comments Off

The Inside Acting Podcast dinner at Native Foods was Wednesday night and it went great! This is where our last dinner was (and where I ended my cleanse).

I love that we are doing more gatherings as a team and with our listeners. And the fact that we had 2 hangouts in a week is super awesome!

While Native Foods isn’t where I would usually chose to go out to eat (I don’t eat soy that often and it’s a vegan restaurant so a lot of options have soy in it), but the food there is pretty awesome. And they do have a soy-free menu to look at, so I’m able to find what doesn’t have soy pretty easily.

I ended up getting the same salad I had last time (it’s super filling and the dressing is so good!), but I only ate about half of it. And that was because I was too busy chatting with everyone who was there!

It was a lot of the same people who were at the picnic, but there’s always so much to talk about every time we meet up.

A lot of the discussion was about industry news going on and it’s always great to hear what others feel about news that I have strong options on. And someone at the dinner had recently connected with Billy DaMota so we were talking about how awesome he is and how he does so much for actors.

We also chatting about recent guests that were on the podcast and the new membership program that we just launched. It’s an amazing program that allows our members to share wins, information, and events that would benefit the group. It’s like our own Facebook where we can make sure that the good things we post don’t get lost online in a newsfeed. I think that having our membership program is just going to make our community stronger and more prepared for all the opportunities that come our way.

I didn’t end up staying too late. I’m still feeling like a party pooper when I get exhausted so early. It didn’t help that on that day I got up at 6am instead of 7am (and since I go to bed at the same time every night I pretty much lost an hour of sleep). But I was there for a good couple of hours so I felt like I was able to socialize with everyone.

I’m not exactly sure when our next podcast hangout will be. But I will for sure share it on here. I’d love to have my blog world and podcast world come together!

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Posted in Acting, Food, Fun Stuff

Tagged acting, dinner, Inside Acting, podcast

Podcast Picnic (or A Perfect Sunday Afternoon)

Posted on April 1, 2015 | Comments Off

The podcast I work for is doing more and more hangouts with our listeners. I like this! We had a hangout recently at Native Foods (and we actually have one there tonight if you want to join us!) and we have more in the works.

This past weekend was a hiking and picnic hangout at Griffith Park. I had every intention of doing both the hike and picnic, but sadly I had a bad hip day that morning. So hiking was not going to be a good idea.

But I wasn’t going to miss out on the picnic! Since I wasn’t doing the hiking, I let another podcast team member know that I would get there early to save a picnic area for us. The park was a bit crowded (the hazards of being there on a gorgeous Sunday afternoon), but I found parking after a while and a perfect picnic spot!

A couple of listeners of the podcast got there before the hikers were back. And a few minutes later, the hikers had finished their hike (they all looked like they had an awesome time) and we were ready to have our potluck picnic.

I brought some hummus, carrots, and pita chips. And everyone seemed to bring something different so we had an entire table full of food (sadly, I was so busy hanging out with people, I didn’t get a chance to take any other pictures at the picnic).

This picnic was just another awesome couple of hours with like-minded actors. Everyone is motivated and not just sitting around waiting for their “big break”. And everyone there was more than willing to share advice and stories with the rest of the group. That is such a rarity. I’ve encountered so many actors who believed that if they struggled to find the information at one point, everyone should have to do the same struggle.

Because Griffith Park shuts down at sunset (and cars can be towed starting then), the picnic wasn’t as long as I wish it would have been. Time flew by so quickly and there was so much more that we all wanted to talk about. Good thing that we are all pretty much going to be at the event tonight so we can continue our conversations.

If you aren’t a listener of Inside Acting and you work in the entertainment industry in any field, I highly recommend listening to our podcast! We just launched our new website (which is very nice looking) and our new membership program (which lets you be a part of our online community, mastermind group, and courses).

And hopefully I’ll see some of you at Native Foods tonight!

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Posted in Acting, Fun Stuff

Tagged acting, hangout, hiking, Inside Acting, picnic, podcast

Another IAP Hangout (or The Entire Team In One Place)

Posted on February 17, 2015 | 1 comment

I love that the Inside Acting Podcast is doing more and more hangout with our listeners! It was great when we had our Chipotle meetup, but not everyone was able to make that one. So we scheduled another dinner meetup for this past week.

The dinner was at Native Foods, which is a vegan restaurant very close to my house. At first, I wasn’t planning on eating there because it was going to be on the last day of my cleanse. But I did a lot of research on their menu and discovered 2 things that were actually cleanse-friendly (most of their food has soy in it which was not allowed on the cleanse). So I decided that I would celebrate the end of my cleanse with a meal that wasn’t prepared by me (the first meal like that in 28 days!).

I ended up getting a salad which was ginormous and super delicious! I was only able to eat about half of it, so a friend of mine ended up eating the rest. It felt so decadent to eat something that someone else made. I don’t know if I’ve ever felt that way about a restaurant meal before because I used to eat a lot of prepared foods (whether it was delivery or frozen meals from the store).

When I got to Native Foods, a couple of people were there. But before we knew it, we had about 25 people there! We took over a majority of the seating inside (we gave them a heads up about our group and they said “bring it”). It was so great to reconnect with old friends and to meet lots of new people. And everyone is so amazing and awesome!

And within the 25 or so people who were there, the entire team behind the podcast was there! I don’t believe that we have all been in one place at one time, so of course we took a team photo.

I ended up being at Native Foods for almost 5 hours. Time flew by just chatting about random stuff with everyone there.

I’m so happy that the podcast is now becoming a more social thing. And if you are interested in finding out more about our future hangouts (we’ve got a couple of ideas in the works right now), I recommend joining our email list. We send weekly emails and include any podcast events in the emails.

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Posted in Acting, Celebrations, Food, Fun Stuff

Tagged acting, dinner, Inside Acting, podcast, vegan

Podcasts and Twitter (or An Evening Out With Some Actors)

Posted on December 18, 2014 | 1 comment

Monday evening was a pretty fun evening for me. I had done my workout in the morning so I would be free for the festivities.

First, there was a gathering for fans of the podcast that I work for. Also, some of us on the team of the podcast attended. It was a casual get-together at Chipotle. I got there a bit early and met up with the community manager and one of the hosts of the podcast.

It was a nice catch-up for us and I’m always happy to go out and get some Chipotle. Soon, some of our listeners showed up to hang out with us and meet the team in person.

I love getting to meet new people who are as motivated as I am to work in the entertainment industry. There are so many people out there who aren’t working hard for themselves and are waiting for their agents and managers to do everything for them. I’m not like that and it’s so great to find others like me.

After dinner at Chipotle, we walked a few blocks down the street to where the LA Actors Tweetup was happening. On the way, we passed a step and repeat for some event that Netflix was doing. There wasn’t anyone there, so we took the opportunity to take a photo or two.

We got to the Tweetup just as it was starting. I hadn’t been to a Tweetup in a while. They are either on nights that I have other things to do or I’ve been out-of-town. But since we were doing the podcast hangout before the Tweetup, I made sure to clear my schedule.

I got to see some friends who I hadn’t seen in a while and meet a bunch of cool new people. But around 9pm, I was exhausted. I had gotten up at 6am and I didn’t know it at the time but I was getting sick (as soon as I got home that evening my nose was completely stuffed up). So I made my rounds of goodbyes, which always takes forever, and headed back home.

It’s always so great to meet people who support the same things that you do or support the projects that you are a part of. I really should make more of an effort to attend more Tweetups and similar events. For a while, I didn’t want to change up my workout schedule because I was scared that it would be a sign that I would stop going. But now I’m feeling more comfortable shifting my workouts as long as I’m still getting my 3-4 workouts in during the week.

Again, this is all a great sign that I’m transforming into a better person.

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Posted in Acting, Celebrations, Food, Fun Stuff

Tagged acting, hangout, meeting, podcast, tweetup

A Disneyland Tease (or A Mini High School Reunion Steps Away From The Happiest Place On Earth)

Posted on April 24, 2014 | 1 comment

On Easter Sunday, I had absolutely no plans. I was going to do some cleaning in my house and get ready for my work week, but it was a pretty unscheduled day.

I had an errand that I had to do in Anaheim and was planning on putting that off for another day until I saw that a friend from high school was at Disneyland that day.

My friends Ali (who co-hosts The Super Fantastic Nerd Hour podcast) and Nhu-An (both of whom I went to high school with and are now engaged) were at Wonder Con in Anaheim and decided to take their day off to do a Disneyland adventure. I totally wanted to join them, but my pass was blacked out for the day. And I didn’t want to spend a lot of extra money on a blackout day ticket. I really wanted to go into the parks, but I knew that spending that money wasn’t the right choice.

I had messaged them both to see if they would be spending any time outside of the parks on Sunday so I could meet up with them and say hello. Even though it seems like I keep in touch with a ton of people from high school, I had not seen Ali nor Nhu-An since we graduated high school in 2001.

When they messaged me back, they said that they planned to spend the entire day at the parks. So I suggested that maybe we meet up for a drink or something in Downtown Disney toward the end of their day. We agreed to meet up around 9:15pm between the parks so we could have a quick catchup.

I did my errand in Anaheim and then hung out with a friend until it was time to go over to Disneyland. You can actually park for free at Downtown Disney for 3 hours, so at least I didn’t have to pay the $16 to park at the parks. I walked over to where we were supposed to meet when I got another message.

They were at dinner and running late. But they could still meet me when they were done. So I hung out between the two parks for a while. It’s actually not bad there. I was able to see the fireworks (even though I couldn’t hear the soundtrack that went along with it).

While I waited, I did some work on my phone and played a couple of rounds of Words With Friends. And then Ali and Nhu-An came out and we had a mini reunion outside the gates of the parks.

It was actually pretty fun. We chatted about some random stuff from high school and Ali and I discussed podcasting. I’m trying to hook him up with a fun guest (and if it happens I’ll totally share it on here) for his podcast and he is having some technical issues that the hosts of the podcast that I work for can probably help him with.

We only hung out for about an hour before they were both ready to head back to their hotel (they had just had a full day at both Disney parks). Before we said goodbye, we got a quick picture together to prove that we had a (almost) 13 year mini reunion.

While I haven’t really stayed in touch with a lot of people from high school in real life, I love that since we all stay in touch virtually it’s not awkward at all when we get together even when it has been a long time since we saw each other face to face. I also like how all the high school cliques that used to exist are pretty much gone now and everyone I stay in touch with over Facebook is very supportive of each other. I sometimes wonder if high school had been like this if I would have still felt like such an outsider.

Either way, this was a great way to spend a Sunday that was completely open for me! And in less than a week, I’ll be spending 2 days at Disneyland with my parents!

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Posted in Celebrations, Fun Stuff

Tagged California Adventure, Disney, Disneyland, high school, podcast, theme park

The Pie Hole (or Discovering Deliciousness in Downtown LA)

Posted on August 30, 2013 | 2 comments

I was very lucky this past week to get to try out some pies at The Pie Hole. I’m usually not in downtown LA, but on this particular day, I was out there to help out with an interview for Inside Acting.

I knew that we were all meeting at The Pie Hole to interview Lindsay Hollister. What I didn’t realize was that Lindsay was one of the owners of the bakery! It was a little too noisy to do the interview in there, but we did make a stop afterwards to try out some pies (and do a little recording to review the bakery for the podcast).

First of all, I have to say that Lindsay was so generous to let us try all of these pies. I would have been more than happy to pay for them, and I know that I’ll be going back in the near future to purchase some (I’m thinking of getting one and bringing it to Thanksgiving this year).

I was a little too focused on trying the pies, so I only have one picture.

Starting in front and going counterclockwise we have a chocolate crostata, mushroom and spinach pie, mac and cheese hand pie, maple custard pie (slightly hidden), and a side salad (the guest co-host can’t have gluten).

I didn’t try the side salad, so I don’t have a review on that, but I have lots of yumminess to say about the other pies!

The chocolate crostata was so rich! It was like a fudgy chocolate brownie on top of a pie crust with caramel and sea salt on top of it! I really loved the crust on it, it was so nice and flaky.

The mushroom and spinach pie was a really great savory pie. I didn’t try much of the crust on this one (I was sharing it with a couple of people and just dug into the filling). The mushrooms are so nice and chewy (like a perfect piece of steak). It wasn’t too rich but it was nice and filling.

The mac and cheese pie was my favorite of the savory options. The crust reminded me of the nice crusty top of a mac and cheese casserole (my favorite part to eat). The pasta inside was perfectly cooked and it wasn’t runny (a problem I’ve seen before). When I go back, this is something I know I will be getting.

And finally, the best pie (possibly ever!): the maple custard pie. This is seriously the best pie ever. It is like a creme brulee inside of a pie crust. It’s not overly sweet and the maple flavor is a wonderful touch. Even though we were sharing all of the pies, I know I ate a good portion of this one! It was addicting! I really want to go back to have this again, but since it is a bit of a drive away, I won’t be going too often.

I highly encourage all of you to go and try The Pie Hole. It’s seriously a gem in downtown. And no, they aren’t paying me to say this. They don’t even know I’m writing a blog post about this. I had no idea that when I was going to work at the interview that we were going to get a tasting too. But I’m so glad that we did because now I’ve discovered my new go-to place for desserts!

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Posted in Food, Fun Stuff

Tagged dessert, Los Angeles, pie, podcast

Live Podcast Episode (or Another Way You Can Support Me)

Posted on January 25, 2013 | 6 comments

I joke that I have a million day jobs. It really does feel that way. But in reality, I have more like 6 or 7 (depending how you count them).

One of my day jobs is production coordinator on the Inside Acting Podcast. I’ve been a fan of this podcast since day 1, and in August I started helping out on their podcasts.

The two guys who host it, Trevor and AJ, are really great guys and I’m glad that they are my friends. I love helping out with this podcast because it really is a great way to learn new and interesting things about the entertainment industry.

The podcast has done 93 episodes so far. And for the 100th episode, we have something really amazing planned.

We are doing a live podcast episode partnered with SAG-AFTRA and the SAG Foundation!

The live podcast will be on March 12th at 7pm at the SAG Foundation office. Everyone is welcome to attend! And I’d love to see some blog readers there!

If you want to attend, you can email the podcast at insideactingpodcast@gmail.com and let us know you want to attend. Please only do this if you really can go. There is limited space, and we want to make sure the room is filled with amazing people!

And if you don’t listen to the podcast already, you should totally check it out! It’s available for free on iTunes or you can listen to it from the website. A lot of new people start from the beginning of the episodes and make their way through, and I think that is awesome! The podcast really has grown and evolved over the past 93 episodes.

It’s nice to have something happening in a day job that makes me this excited. I miss feeling this way sometimes. And I know that every day leading up to the live episode is going to be just as exciting!

6 Comments

Posted in Acting, Fun Stuff, Work

Tagged acting, Inside Acting, podcast, SAG-AFTRA

What I’m Listening To (or I’m Not A Music Person)

Posted on October 12, 2012 | 2 comments

I spend a lot of time in my car. I work 6 days a week at one job, and I never know when I’ll be driving to an audition somewhere across town. I like driving (I get that from my mom). I don’t even mind traffic all the time.

I have a cable that I got installed in my car so I can play music from my iPhone through my stereo speakers. I love having this. But most of the things I listen to aren’t music.

I don’t particularly love music. If I have a visual memory tied to a song, I love it. So most of the music on my phone are soundtracks from musicals, tv shows, or movies.

But what I love listening to are podcasts. I’m obsessed with podcasts. And I’ve had some friends ask me in the past for some recommendations on podcasts, so I figured I’d put them all up here.

So here they are:

Entertainment Industry Related-

Inside Acting Podcast (yes I work from them now, but that just started so I’m not totally biased)

KCRW The Treatment

KCRW The Business

KCRW Film Reviews

KCRW Hollywood Breakdown

How I Met Your Mother Podcast

Making it With Riki Lindhome

News Related-

Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me

KCRW LA Observed