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Your Personal Toolkit Gets a Makeover Are you one of the people whose life has been turned upside-down recently? Maybe you’ve lost a job? Left the workforce to care for a new baby or family member? Or perhaps you’re instead looking to restart your career – or begin a new one - after a prolonged absence? You may also find yourself at a bit of a loss if you’ve relocated to a new state – or a new country – without a job in place. Even if you DO have a new position, you could very well be dealing with a different corporate culture than what you have been used to. This is especially true if you’re changing careers. I’ve changed careers dramatically twice before. Twice more in a not-so-major way. And over time, I’ve discovered that old skill sets have an interesting habit of re-emerging in new, useful ways. Here’s a little of my story, followed by a few suggestions on how you can evaluate and apply your existing skills to new opportunities. I began my first career in the high tech industry as a financial systems analyst working for a large electronics manufacturer. Like many young people right out of college, it took a little time to discover my true strengths and interests. I eventually segued from a design role into sales and marketing of hardware, software, and consulting services to both Fortune 500 and startup companies. My second career was not exactly as I had planned it. I’d always envisioned myself as a working mom, a career woman whose ambition and accomplishments would serve as a model to my children, especially to any daughters I might have. That idea went out of my head as soon as I held my first baby in the birthing room. I couldn’t see being separated from him for long periods of time. Or happily jetting off to a business meeting without imagining his little face crying for Mama. Fortunately, my husband was fully supportive of my decision to become a stay-at-home mom. While my kids were growing up, I began a third career as a freelance writer developing marketing materials for small businesses and non-profit organizations and managing the financial matters for my husband’s medical practice. Some say that multi-tasking doesn’t work, but I thrive on juggling multiple balls at once. And, honestly, it reassured my inner businesswoman that I still had an identity beyond that of “mom.” Six years ago, I decided that my freelance business would go into a new direction, one that I had always longed to dive into. Communications and organization may have always been my strong suit, but performance was my lifelong passion. I became a professional actress and voice talent. You’d think that my earlier corporate experience would have been as useful as a screen door on a submarine. It IS a pretty far stretch between computer engineering and sketch comedy. Well … surprise, surprise. Those old skill sets have come in pretty handy. Yes, I’ve dived seriously into acting classes and voiceover coaching, which I continue to enjoy taking. There’s always something to learn and work to master. As an artist, you’re never “finished.” Apply your existing skill sets in new ways to new tasks You have to develop new skills and different ways of thinking when you change careers. But now, there was some active reshuffling of my skill sets going on that proven invaluable. And anyone going through a similar reordering of their life and/or career will discover the same to be true for them. Here’s how it worked for me: Technical computer science skills and systems development experience teaches logical thinking. Computers only do what you tell them to do. Maybe someday, artificial intelligence will transform into independent thinking, but we’re not there yet. In both on-camera and voiceover work, logical thinking lends itself to script analysis, which is the process of figuring out what’s going on in any given scene. Acting is really about reacting to the other people and events going on around your character. Breaking down a scene essentially means that one event or exchange of conversation is going to affect your character in some way, which in turn must affect those others around you. How will you do this? Actions beget consequences. It’s the old if-then-else logic, even if the “else” is something unexpected or irrational. It’s still a reaction. Sales and marketing experience figure heavily into supporting a new business. While agents, referrals, casting sites, and current clients may provide new opportunities, it’s still incumbent on the voice actor to develop their own business with some form of marketing. Anytime a voice actor secures work outside of an agent, there will also be the ongoing need to prospect for business, network, negotiate, provide customer service, invoice, account for income and expenses, pay taxes, manage a network of customer contacts, and keep an online professional presence up-to-date. Business in general requires its executives and employees to be well-organized, punctual, and more or less methodical. So helpful to an acting career! I’m still surprised by how many creatives are challenged by keeping things straight and orderly. Once, I was helping a studio filter hundreds of actors through an afternoon program in which each could meet a panel of casting directors face-to-face after delivering a one-minute monologue. It was a pretty straight-forward system to queue or “batch” (an old IT term!) the actors to be “processed” as quickly as possible to respect the casting directors’ valuable time. I was amazed at the time at how many actors commented on my organizational skills, saying that they could never have done the same. Really?! It seemed that anyone in my old business life could have done the same thing. Thinking about it from a business person’s perspective, was how impressive most actors truly are. Few of my former co-workers would have had the guts to stand alone on a stage and perform a monologue before a panel of critical judges. Now, that takes talent! And bravery. Punctuality is essential to a successful acting career. Forget those stories about the divas who hold up production by arriving hours after a call time. Very few actors can afford to risk their careers like that. Most I’ve met are conscientious, very hard-working people. There’s an axiom: “Early is on time, on time is late, and late is unacceptable!” – author Eric Jerome Dickey Translated to the entertainment world, it’s: “If you’re 15 minutes early, you’re on time. If you’re on time, you’re late. And if you’re late, you’re fired.” – multiple acting coaches Or something along those lines. Punctuality is essential. And you’re never going to get there without a somewhat organized calendar. Coming from the corporate world, professionalism and attention to customer service were a given. Anyone who came across as deliberately provocative, belligerent, difficult, argumentative, or downright disrespectful wasn’t around for the long haul. It’s not that those values are absent in any way in the entertainment industry, but it certainly seems that more people get away with it. The worst ones may make the headlines in the tabloids you see at the supermarket check-out line, but it’s not just on the A-list or decision-making levels. There does seem to be an inflated sense of self in even some fledgling actors that they’re entitled to behaving badly. And I’ve seen a few get rather badly burned for it. Talk about self-sabotage! And so unnecessary. Don't under-estimate the value of parenting skills! Life skills help you anywhere, anytime, and in most any capacity. Parenting is considered one of the toughest jobs in the world. It changes you in fundamental ways. For me, it’s made me more selfless, more aware of the needs of others. I’m able to better see through the eyes of others and understand other perspectives. I’m more grateful for the blessings I have. And I’ve developed a degree of patience that I didn’t think possible. Yes, also the ability to clean up poop, vomit, and other unpleasant by-products of the human condition and not shirk so much at the thought of having to do it. These parenting skills have certainly come in handy in my new line of work! Actors play off of others and need to pay attention to react to what the other person is saying or doing. We all do better when we help our scene partners perform at their best. It’s a business of constant rejection, criticism, and judgement, whether it’s deserved or not, and it takes a strong person to take it all in stride and provide perspective. The hours are long, we’re often at the mercy of a schedule we do not make or control, and occasionally we’re not too thrilled with the where, when, how, or why we have to do something. This is the downside of the business. Parenting experience comes in handy, especially when others on set are throwing tantrums like a toddler. Evaluate your existing skills to recognize new opportunities We all have more skills than we realize. If you’re not sure of the value of yours or how they can be presented as a strength, try this short exercise: Write down your goals and needs. This could be for a specific job, a new career, or your desired lifestyle. Break down each goal into individual pieces. What’s required each step of the way to move closer to reaching your goal? Set a deadline for yourself to meet each step, otherwise it may not get done. List the skills that you think you need to be successful in meeting each one of these steps. They can be “hard” skills like learning an industry-standard software application tool or “soft” skills like being able to walk up and talk to strangers at a conference in order to start a business conversation. List all the skills – major and minor – that you have. It helps to organize them by group, in categories like office skills (computer proficiency, even punctuality), social skills, industry-specific skills, etc. Map your current skills to the individual steps that lead up to realizing your goal. Which skills satisfy a known requirement, like knowing how to use a specific software program? Which are useful, like a “soft” skill of working well on a team? These “soft” skills can be the deciding factor as to whether they hire you (who can take direction well, working as part of a team) over another candidate. Can any of your current skills be reimagined or applied in a new way? The ability to write clearly and thoughtfully, in an organized fashion, can lead to opportunities within corporate communications departments, marketing houses, or advertising agencies, as well as to freelancer gigs as a technical writer, content writer, or communications specialist. As another example, the ability to speak in front of groups and think on your feet can pave the way to many entry sales opportunities. It’s one thing to learn about a company’s products and services so that you can represent them. It’s quite another to be able to comfortably speak in public – after all, it’s long been considered the #1 fear of so many people. And if you can do so in an informative, persuasive style … you’re golden! Link your existing skills as stepping stones to new opportunities Give it a try! You’ll probably discover that you are more experienced and qualified for that dream job than you think. Even if you don’t have skills that map directly to your career objectives, I bet you have some that will make getting those additional skills a bit easier. Are you an avid video game player? Guess what … you’ll have a basis to explore careers in computer science, computer graphics, even voiceover for video games. You’ll need training, of course, but your previous experience – even from playing games – gives you an insight into an industry that offers multiple career opportunities. We’re always learning new things, upgrading various skill sets just by being active in the world. Hey, I’ve learned more than I thought I would about home repairs since becoming a homeowner! Not that I expect to begin a new career as an electrician, plumber, or even a decent handyman, but just knowing my way around a hammer or a drill has made me eligible as an actress for a role in a commercial or industrial for one of the big box home repair conglomerations. You may find that one of your former primary skills becomes an essential backup. One that may not earn you money, per se, but helps you to do so using a new skill set. And the things you enjoyed before, but didn’t earn a living at, can flip-flop to become your primary source of income. Much like someone turning a hobby into a thriving business. That’s what I experienced moving from the business world into entertainment. I think of it as an inverse relationship. In my first career as a sales exec, the business and “hard” computer skills were the primary requirement for the job. My passion for performance, which helped enliven my sales presentations, was a “soft” supportive skill that was not deemed necessary to do the job well, but was invaluable, nonetheless. As an actor, the performance skills are primary, but the supportive business skills (organization, focus on customer service, professionalism) are what help to set me apart as a “smart” actor who’s known to be “easy to work with.” Think of your skills as building bricks that can be shuffled around in multiple combinations to create different structures, those structures being the opportunities you want to pursue. You may be a brick short here and there – hey, you’ll know what you need to work on! – but the point is that you have a lot more material to work with than you may have originally thought. If nothing else, it will help you assess exactly what you bring to the table and figure out what you need to get to your goal. And that type of goal-setting activity alone can take you a long way to achieving your dream.

Making Disaster Work For You And another year is gone like that. And not the way it was supposed to. You know what I’m talking about. 2021 was supposed to be the year of getting back to normal. The pandemic should have been in our rearview mirror months ago. Yes, in some ways, we’re almost there. And in an ironic sense, technologically ahead of schedule in the way that remote work and communications have been accepted as viable alternative options. I’d heard that it was projected to have taken us at least ten more years to reach that point. But by and large … no, in real life, we’re still restricted in too many ways. The pandemic continues, with omicron now the variant du jour. We’re nearly two YEARS into it, for crying out loud. Raise your hand if you’re not sick and tired of the whole thing by now. No one wants another lockdown, but the numbers are rising, albeit of symptoms that are less severe overall. Mask mandates are still with us in many areas of the country, vaccination cards a must to show in New York if you’re going to dine out or see a show (and Broadway has closed down again, as of this writing). Covid continues to rule. Maybe 2022 will finally see us emerge from under the pandemic’s shadow. Taking a long view, we know that this WILL pass. Eventually. We’ll look back and see where we did some things right and how in others we could have been far more effective in dealing with this pervasive virus. When you do look back over the decades, it’s almost funny to note how we’re so good at predicting some things and absolutely clueless about others. I used to subscribe to the Futurist magazine, published by the World Future Society, because I worked in tech, enjoyed reading science fiction, and liked to see what real world futurists thought would actually come about within my lifetime. Some speculated that personal computing devices would come into their own in the early 21st century. I don’t recall many warning that a global pandemic would blindside us and derail the world economy. Lesson here: Expect the unexpected. We’re not going to see everything coming. Especially out of left field, like a global pandemic. But even in a field like the computer industry, where we can foresee new technology taking shape, certain developments can surprise us. And when they do, we’ll often look back to discover that we had bet on the wrong horse and now have to scramble like mad to catch up. If it’s not too late, that is. Apple Computer wasn’t too late. Barely. When Apple was near bankruptcy in 1997, due to expensive products that were poorly aligned to what the market wanted, very few investors foresaw Apple rescuing itself (with help from Microsoft, its arch-rival!) to become incredibly profitable within a dozen years. No one, except for Steve Jobs himself, saw what was to come: the iMac, iPod, iPad, and iPhone revolution. While I haven’t had the pleasure of working for Apple, I did work for a few companies that learned this lesson of change – and our human unwillingness to embrace it in time - the hard way. Rev up the “way-back” machine for a trip to the late 80s/early 90s. I was an IBM sales rep, charged with selling “big iron.” Management was pushing mainframes, while my customers were more interested in exploring distributed networking and smart terminals, later referred to as personal computers. IBM had its own line of PCs that it wasn’t quite sure what to do with. They were very highly successful at the time, but expensive. IBM still thought of itself as a mainframe company with mainframe pricing. The benefit to customers was in the “value add:” systems engineers and support, plus consulting services. My customers, however, were primarily interested in lower-cost alternatives. They read the trade magazines, where the back pages advertised mail-order PCs. Ha! “Big Blue” management scoffed. What business in their right mind would risk their operations on cheap machines made by amateurs? Especially by this guy Michael Dell somewhere in Texas. Never heard of him. Right…. Well, we all know how that worked out. IBM finally sold off its failing PC line to Lenovo in 2005. Here’s another lesson in learning from your customers. Or at least paying attention to what they’re saying. They are the marketplace, after all. A few years after the IBM story, when I was working for a database company, I received a call from a customer in Research Triangle Park, the North Carolina think tank area where so many innovations were coming from at the time. And still are, I believe. My customer wanted to know if my company was on the Internet so that he could research our product line digitally. Huh? He didn’t want a handy-dandy brochure like everyone else? What a concept. I’d heard of a network that the government and certain universities were using but that was about it. He said he wanted to know our address on the world wide web. The world wide what? I asked around the office. No one knew what he was talking about. I called headquarters in California to talk to the engineering department, figuring they’d know something. They’d heard of the web, but that was about it. Not a priority. A flash in the pan, they said. Wouldn’t last. What didn’t last was the database company. Gone soon afterwards because they were market-deaf. Run by some top flight engineers who really knew their stuff and built the best technical product, but couldn’t market their way out of a paper bag. They should have listened to my customer. Within a year, everyone knew exactly what the world wide web was and was scrambling to get on it. And tech-savvy customers decided that the web was where the true leading edge tech companies announced their latest products. The ones they would partner with to automate their operations. A seriously missed opportunity. But it’s not just businesses that are resistant to change. People are notoriously slow to do things differently, especially when they’ve had success with them. I’ve worked alongside colleagues with serious tunnel vision. They held a rigid view of what worked and what didn’t. And now we come to what it was like for a woman working in a traditionally male-dominated field. I was often the only woman on my team, especially when I was with small startup companies. Fine with me, I always liked running with the boys and proving myself. One such company was staffed with guys who were absolutely sports-obsessed. They used sports metaphors for just about everything. Their idea of taking a break during the work day was to hold a vertical jump competition. I’d just watch from the door with a bemused smirk on my face. At 5’3” and sporting a narrow suit skirt and pumps, I wasn’t about to start jumping. Not a contender for any basketball team, nor was I interested in trying to be. These same guys would repeatedly tease me that I had to talk sports, and football in particular, if I was ever going to break the ice with a sales prospect. Uh, no. Sorry. Not my thing. And I didn’t talk sports. Didn’t have to. I found something better, something these sales prospects (mostly men) were happy to talk about. And probably rather relieved that they could talk about something once in a while that they truly cared about that was NOT sports-related. I talked family. And kids. Especially their kids. Hey, play to your strengths, even if it is a bit stereotypical for a woman to talk about family. These guys would break out with the biggest smiles when I asked about their children. Out came the photos and the stories. I actually found my biggest success when I was pregnant and visibly showing. Truthfully, I think it flustered a few of these guys; the older ones were certainly old-school and a bit protective towards women. They couldn’t bring me inside their offices fast enough, urging me to sit down, and concerned that I wasn’t overdoing it coming to talk with them. I never sold so much software and services so quickly. I think they were afraid that I might go and have that baby right then and there in their offices if they didn’t sign. So the greater lesson, besides the advantage of selling while visibly pregnant, is to just take things as they come. After all, what else can we do? Our predictions take us only so far. Best to assess every situation as it comes up, see where things are going, and take appropriate action, rather than hide our person or business heads in the sand. Be flexible and look for the positive in every detrimental situation. One of the benefits I found during the pandemic was the opportunity to take my favorite workout classes from home from my favorite instructors who had migrated on-line. No travel time, minimal equipment investment, and they offered “on demand” classes to play when no live class was scheduled. As someone whose high energy level needs to be channeled through daily exercise, it’s been a boon. I can even take my favorite classes with me when I travel! 2022 will be an interesting year. In a positive sense, I hope. When we return to fully “normal” operations, I hope business will realize and take advantage of the benefits that DID come out the pandemic, like of the ability to work well remotely. Let’s hear it for the hybrid in-person/remote work option! So convenient for so many people and an opportunity for businesses to hire great employees outside of their local areas. As for me, I’m planning for a great year. I’m an optimistic realist, so I’m also preparing backup plans in case the unexpected throws me off course. And keeping a positive attitude throughout. Happy New Year! And all the best to you, your work, and your family!

Getting Down to What’s Really Important ‘Tis the season for creating holiday wish lists. Toys. Clothes. High tech stuff. Dream vacations. Even household appliances. All great stuff to find under your Christmas tree, next to your Hanukkah menorah, or wherever they may appear. But I’ve found that as I’ve grown a bit older, my holiday wish list has morphed to something, well, more amorphous. I really don’t need more stuff. Actually, I prefer to pare down and give things away to charity that are no longer useful and just take up space. It’s freeing to have less clutter underfoot. And my basement looks a whole lot better for it, too. What I wish for now is something that’s both more and less substantial at the same time. More substantial as it contributes to my happiness by providing a sense of living a fuller life. Less substantial because it isn’t about “stuff.” It’s about people. Interesting and accomplished people who enjoy exchanging ideas, experiences, and philosophies. People who are creative and caring, who take charge of their circumstances, no matter how difficult, and build new enterprises and lives for themselves and others. People who also value friendship and who are making the world a better place just by being in it. We can all use people in our lives like that. People who value quality over quantity, substance over show. They’re not about showing off wealth or career highlights. If anything, they like to fly under the radar and just connect with others on topics that matter to all of us: family, friends, and our place in the world. Like Bob, a down-to-earth kind of guy who likes to run out and get ice cream with his kids. Oh yeah, he makes a lot of independent films, too, but that’s not what he wants to talk about when he meets you. Like Sarah, who’s battled breast cancer more than once, yet keeps a positive attitude and is more interested in knowing what’s going on in your life than in telling you about hers. Or Matt, who swapped out his corporate suite for a home workshop, where he crafts beautiful handmade furniture that he enjoys selling at arts festivals around the country. He’s always been a people-person. Now he meets folks from all walks of life. The older we get, the more we hone in on what really matters to us. OK, not everyone may feel this way, but it does seem that the fluff falls away for most of us as time goes by. We get down to the basics. After all, how much stuff do we really need? The true gifts are those things that really makes us happy and gives our lives meaning. Friends. Family. Meaningful work. Charity. Good deeds done spontaneously for others. These seem to make most people truly happy. So my holiday wish is to expand my circle of friends and acquaintances with these types of folks. How do you go about meeting them? Simply enough, you start out by being open to meeting new people. Networking – even on Zoom! – at events, meeting friends of friends or other acquaintances through business or personal events, or even through mutual interests enjoyed together. We can still do this through online groups, but in-person is better, if and when you have the opportunity. Hopefully, 2022 will offer more human-to-human interaction than we’ve experienced these past two years or so. Keep a positive attitude and listen to other people’s stories. We’re all natural storytellers – it’s been humanity’s favorite way of communicating for eons. Everyone has a journey, things they’ve learned on the way, mistakes they’ve made, successes, and disasters they’ve narrowly adverted. Or not. When you meet someone interesting, see how you can be of service to them. Perhaps you can introduce them to others whom they might enjoy meeting, too. Maybe you can offer useful advice (but only when asked!) or share your knowledge or area of expertise to help solve their problem. Just show that you’re genuinely interested in them and what they have to say. These networks grow organically over time. Friendships and business relationships take time to root and mature. Nurture the ones you value and let those you don’t fall away. Keep negative, destructive-thinking people at bay. We do pick up on the energy of those we keep company with and often unconsciously take it on ourselves. How many times do you feel uplifted when an especially positive person of goodwill comes into the room? Have you ever felt the warmth or happiness sucked out of a space when a particularly negative individual approaches you? It’s real. And be such a person yourself. (Of course, if you’re reading this, you already are!)  Be the kind of person you’d like to meet and you’ll attract them into your life. Wishing everyone a happy and healthy holiday season!! May you receive all you need and welcome it with an open heart.

Funny Mom-isms at the Expense of Your Kids I like a cleverly worded piece of copy. Even better if it’s funny as hell. Best if it comes on a dish towel that I can buy and take home. I’m not one to pick up miscellaneous tchotchkes much. If you’re not familiar with Yiddish, a tchotchke is a miscellaneous small item, usually something you don’t really need. Like one of those souvenirs you pick up on vacation, certain that it’s a great reminder of your trip and useful, to boot – only to pick it up months later, wonder why you bought it, and then toss it in the trash. A tchotchke can also be a small gift that someone buys you as a thank you for your hospitality. Or because they’re trying to get something useless out of their house. Kinda like fruitcake, but less seasonal. If I’m ever going to pick up a tchotchke, it’s going to be useful in some fashion. I don’t collect knick-knacks; I just don’t like non-functional clutter in my home. if I don’t need it, I enjoy it in the shop and leave it at that. But I had to buy one particular tchotchke a few summers ago while browsing through a gift shop while on a beach vacation. It’s useful. It's funny. And it brings a smile to my face every time I use it. It’s a dish towel that reads: Good moms let you lick the beaters. Great moms turn them off first. Cute, huh? Well, it appeals to me. I’m a mom. A mom who bakes. Well, once in a while, if I’m being honest about it. But when I do, I give my kids the option to lick the beaters and scoop out any remaining chocolate batter from the bowl. (Yes, it's almost always chocolate.) The spoon I reserve for myself. I come by it honestly, as my mother has always loved to bake and claims that she planned her dinners around her dessert choices. “Hmm, brownies for dessert. And marzetti goes with brownies….” And that’s what we’d have. Licking the beaters was literally icing on the cake. That two-liner joke and its absurd humor appeals to me on many levels as a mom, a daughter with fond memories, and someone who loves unexpected twists on the ordinary. It makes you think about the little kindnesses moms show their kids on a daily business, even though most go unnoticed as such. It’s also a sad reminder that some moms should never have become moms in the first place, and that we all should appreciate the good ones we have, and not just on Mother’s Day. Mostly though, it’s a fun jab I like to throw at my kids, because I like to keep them off balance with my humor now and then. They get a kick out of it, though they might worry about me a bit. I’ve found plenty of pithy, funny one and two lines on greeting cards, magnets, and postcards over the years. Yes, there are plenty to be found online, too, but I prefer the joy of discovering them while browsing through a little shop when I'm on vacation. They're the kind of funny tokens you can pick up and actually hold. I started making notes of my favorites. Here are some other mom-related funnies: If I ever go missing, please follow my kids. They can find me, no matter where I try to hide. Treat your mom to a margarita. You’re probably the reason she drinks. You can’t scare me – I’m a mom. That last one also works for grandmas, teachers, nurses, or anyone else who’s had to put up with … a lot. Perhaps Mark Twain started the whole thing. He wrote: My mother had a great deal of trouble with me, but I think she enjoyed it. Yes, Mr. Twain, I’d say she probably did, though I suspect from your supposed antics that she enjoyed it most when you grew up and moved out of the house. In a future post, I’ll share more of these 1-2 liners. Hopefully, you’ve enjoyed a few of these!

Their Continuing Mission: Telling Stories of the Human Condition. I’ve always been more than a little tentative about tackling Shakespeare. OK, I admit it, I’ve been downright skeptical and even a little scared. The only Shakespeare I had studied was in ye old high school English classes of yore. My college years? Business, statistics, and computer science – nary a Shakespeare class. And while I’ve always loved acting on stage, I never imagined myself doing Shakespeare. Ever. Even now, when I’m a full-time actress and voiceover talent, I’m not aspiring to tackle the Bard in a full-on production. While I’ve done some stage work, I prefer working in front of the camera and behind the mic. My training and experience have all been along those lines. But in skirting Shakespeare, I’ve learned that I’ve missed quite a bit along the way. I’m not talking about one of those rare auditions that requires a Shakespearean monologue in addition to a performance from the usual arsenal (occasionally a contemporary dramatic or comedic monologue, more often one or more scenes from the production’s script). Up to this point, I’ve politely declined the opportunity, as I felt totally out of my league. The archaic language itself was most intimidating, as well as what seemed excessive wordiness, references to mythology or ancient Roman events and individuals, and an implicit requirement to master a dialect that screamed “thee-ah-tur.” I left those auditions to those who had grown up on stage, memorizing and mastering all of the Bard’s many works, certain that I’d only embarrass myself in comparison. Recently, though, I decided it was time to tackle two fears I’ve had in performing: singing and Shakespeare. I’m not one to let fear govern my actions and decisions, so I decided it was high time to take them on. In addition to beginning singing classes (and I’m really enjoying them!), I signed up for a six week course that promised to “humanize” Shakespeare. Essentially, it taught us how to break down the language barrier, placing Shakespeare’s work within its historical and cultural context, giving us insight into Shakespeare’s personal and professional life and how they influenced his work. I’d heard for years that Shakespeare was well worth studying, as so many contemporary stories on TV and film are loosely based on his classic plays, though wrestling with the same questions of power, love, and fortune. Until the instructor mentioned it, I hadn’t realized that one of my favorite shows of all time, Star Trek (doesn’t matter which series) also saw itself as an epic retelling of some of the bard’s classics. His own teacher and mentor had been a regular on one of the Star Trek series and had described how the audition process highly valued Shakespearean training and experience, requiring actors to audition with monologues from his plays. No wonder that lauded Shakespearean actor Patrick Stewart was cast as the iconic Captain Jean-Luc Picard in the Next Generation series. I consider his casting to be the main reason why the NG series is one of the best. Once we dived in, I found that the language wasn’t as intimidating as I’d thought it would be. Our eyes and ears began to recognize, understand, and then see past its archaic forms and usage to appreciate the human story that was being told. After all, while culture, national identity, and roles in society have changed over the centuries, human nature has remained fairly constant. Once in a while, we’d come across language identical to how we use it today. It was jarring to realize that dialogue written over 400 years ago could have easily been spoken in daily conversation by people today. A good teacher can make all the difference to how the student perceives and relates to the material. I loved learning about his plays within their historical context. Especially interesting were the stories of Shakespeare’s personal and professional challenges and how elements of these would seep into his plays: verbal jabs at his rivals, couching political commentary in such a way to get past his censors, acknowledging his audiences with a wink and a nod and inviting them to enjoy a joke at his characters’ expense. He walked the fine line between flattering those in power and pleasing the working class and their coarser appetites. Similar to today’s producers, in which the most successful projects are those that are well funded, popular with the masses, and bring profitable returns to investors. Telling stories of the human condition never grows old. The language and context changes, but the essential truth of our struggles and relationships is a constant. No matter if it’s played out in an old medieval castle or on a ship hurtling at warp speed among the stars.

Letting Go of Inhibitions “Don’t make that face or it’ll freeze that way!” – everyone’s mom Yeah, well, most moms used to say that, but I’m a mom and I don’t believe I’ve ever helped pass that story on to the next generation of gullible kids. Besides, I’ve found that making faces can make oneself some pretty decent money. Recently, I was delighted to be booked for a job that required both voice over and on-camera work. I love VO and film/TV work equally – they’re my “twins” and, like any good mom, I don’t play favorites. It was great fun to first create my character with just my voice, and then react with some pretty expressive faces for the close-up photography that will accompany the audio. My character was a rather moody individual, vascillating from bossy and stubborn to maternal (with a rather saccharine edge) to cruel and intolerant. Throw in some manipulative behavior and the desire to coddle an adult child, and you can correctly presume that she was fun to play. While I have my moments as a real mom, the character I played was a bit of a departure from my everyday self. But that’s why it’s called acting. It’s about letting go of your personal ego to inhabit a different character and peer out at the world through her eyes. You need to develop a good sense of the character, her background and hopes and desires, disappointments, and all that made her who she is, right on up to the moment that the scene takes place. If the script doesn’t tell you outright or reveal it during the course of the story, then it’s up to the actor to create the history, psychological makeup, foibles and fumbles, and incorporate it into the character. And be ready to change it once you’re on set, should the director (or writer) make some adjustments on the spot. Sometimes, I wonder if kids and older people have an easier time creating these character stories and inhabiting their imagined personas. On both ends of the age spectrum, I’ve noticed that there’s more of a willingness to play and less worry about appearances. I’ve seen this especially among women who are moving into and through the second half of their lives. Personally, I feel like I’m truly at more ease with myself, accepting who I am as a person, acknowledging both my strengths and limitations. There’s less concern about looking a certain way or fitting in with your peer group. You’re more comfortable expressing yourself as an individual, and you certainly don’t worry as much about what people think as you have before. Most of all, after years of hard work in a career or building a family, there’s a desire to have more fun, and to more fully experience life and all its choices. Maybe that’s because you’re also aware that the years ahead are more finite than you’d like to believe. Always a scary thought. Followed by the realization that for some number of those years, you may not have the physical or mental ability to live life as fully as you can right now . Perhaps because of all that, it’s easier to channel your inner child more freely and to just let go of your inhibitions. Maybe it’s nature’s way of preparing you to eventually enter your “second childhood” (another scary thought!). But I think it’s just the willingness to play again. And creating and inhabiting a character on stage, on TV, or on film is great fun. That inner child of mine gets a big kick out of making faces to express a silly point. A poignant look is worth a hundred lines of dialogue. And the right expression can tell a life story in a brief moment. I recall a business client telling me many years ago that he could always spot an employee of a certain big name corporation that had a very conservative, button-down reputation. Something about walking around like they had a stick up their nether region. I had to stifle a laugh, because I had previously been with that company, but it wouldn’t have helped me to tell him that. And there was some truth to what he said. What’s more interesting is that I’ve run into some of my former colleagues from time to time, and it seems that they’ve almost all mellowed considerably. A few have completely departed from their starched-shirt persona and seem like totally different people, working in artistic fields and looking nothing like their younger selves. They’ve relaxed into themselves, just as I have, and we’re all looking for different ways to play and live our lives. It just goes to show you that people do change over time, hopefully for the better, and sometimes in unpredictable ways. We’re not static and if we give ourselves permission, we can discover different aspects of ourselves and reveal them in play. “You can’t judge a book by its cover.” – yup, everyone’s mom again The moral of the story: listen to your mother. Once in a while, she’ll actually pass on advice that still holds true today.

Psst. Wanna buy some chocolate? And other effective sales strategies Quick! What’s the first thing you think of when you hear the word “sales?” Maybe it’s a generational thing, but growing up, images of sleazy used car salesmen used to immediately spring to mind. Snake oil salesmen promising miracle cures. Relentless telemarketers interrupting at dinner time. Ugh. That’s why I shied away from a sales career. I could never see myself as a pushy, obnoxious sales person. Or the type that oozes false friendliness to entice gullible people to make poor investment decisions that benefits no one but myself. Yup, I watched a lot of TV, saw too many movies featuring that stereotype. No thanks! On a practical level, I couldn’t see myself working on 100% commissions either. No wonder the underhanded salesmen on the big and small screens tried every trick they knew to separate people from their money. Clearly, they were desperate. Again, something I didn’t want to be, if I could at all avoid it. Who wants to live their life like that?! That’s how I thought about sales. Ewwww. About as attractive as a worm wriggling and writhing on the sidewalk after a heavy rain. Slowly dying. Or about to get stepped on. Imagine, then, when actual experience dispelled the stereotypes. I'm not saying there aren't those who fit the sleaze bag mold (we've all come across one or two), but they’re outweighed by many more nice, honest, hardworking individuals. I actually became one of them. The good guys, that is. It all started innocently and innocuously at first. Did you ever trick-or-treat for UNICEF as a kid? Like millions of elementary school kids, I did. It was expected of us every Halloween. We were trained to be pint-sized sales people and collect change to help alleviate children’s suffering around the world. A noble cause, but allegations of financial mismanagement by UNICEF and its beneficiaries has pretty much ended the trick-or-treat program. Or you can accept the company line, aptly put by Evelyne Guindon, executive director for UNICEF Quebec in 2006 when they ended the program, “ the annual loose change collection isn't worth the money that's amassed.” Did you ever sell wrapping paper or magazine subscriptions for school-sponsored fundraisers? I see you raising your hand. Yup, in junior high, I was one of the many students encouraged to raise money for needy, deserving kids by selling magazine subscriptions during the holidays. And to entice us, the more we sold, the better the prizes we could win. I was in it to win! I remember trudging door to door in the cold and the snow, asking neighbors if they wanted a magazine subscription. Or if they’d like to get ahead of their renewals for the low, low (well, really not so low) price I was offering. Bummer. I was turned down every single time, though I did occasionally collect a Christmas cookie from a neighbor who felt sorry for me. My parents usually bought the one subscription to TV Guide that saved me from looking like a total sales loser when the school tallied the contributions. I think I won a pencil for my efforts. It got better in high school. I actually had a pretty good time selling giant Hershey bars for $1 each during chorus practice. For a charitable fundraising drive, of course. So many kids, the teacher who was working with one group or another didn’t notice the passing of chocolate and dollar bills up and down the rows. For a few weeks anyways. Soon after, the school issued a ban on anyone selling anything for any reason on school grounds. I had to take my operation outside, which didn’t work so well, as I lost the opportunity to wave chocolate under the noses of bored, confined teens. I also put on a few pounds when I couldn’t make my sales goals any other way and just bought the remaining bars for myself. Then there was the summer I went over to the dark side. After my junior year of high school, I took a job as one of those dreaded telemarketers calling at dinner time and during the early evening, selling coupon books for discounts on local attractions and restaurants. I was better at it than I had thought I could be and my conscience started pinging. I worried that I was preying on little old ladies with nary a dollar to their names, who were just so lonely and desperate to talk to anyone that they’d give up money for food and medicine to keep me on the line. Never mind that we were just moving down pages of the citywide phone book. I felt like I could be a horrible human being. Yet I stayed, because other types of summer jobs had all been long filled. Furthermore, I was exceeding my numbers and felt good about it, since I saw many other young people regularly being fired for not making their quotas. Soon enough, I found myself promoted to a “special” room for their top telemarketers. The company kept us happy with goodies that none of the other telemarketers knew about: pizzas, cookies, brownies, and soft drinks. All to entice us to stay and make money for them. So I stayed. Why not? The pay was decent, for a high school kid anyways, and the extras were fun. Not to mention that I had lots of laughs with the other girls in our special room. (For some reason, very few boys ever made it to this “executive” level.) We’d call up people and introduce ourselves with made-up names, some exotic-sounding and others just plain silly. We were “Bambi” and “Tawny” and who knows what else. It was a game to see who could convincingly present herself as something other than a know-nothing high school or college kid and still make a sale. We were golden as long as we produced. And we did produce, until the company determined that they had saturated the local market and abruptly closed up shop and disappeared. And I mean disappeared. Wham! Drove to their offices one day and they were gone without a trace. Pizzas and cookies? Gone. Fortunately, the few extra pounds that they produced eventually disappeared, too. Yeah, I felt a little guilty about selling their entertainment discount books. True, it was legitimate and I even bought a book myself for discounts at shops and restaurants around town. But enough to justify the cost? Eh, not really. I certainly hoped that my elderly customers used more than enough of those coupons to make up for the cost of the book. The whole experience left me feeling that I might have been a little too good at selling something questionably useful to lonely, neglected elders who just needed a human being to talk to. After that experience, I stayed away from studying sales and marketing in college, though I might have found the courses interesting. I couldn’t shake the impressions of sleazy salesmen or unscrupulous business practices from my mind. So later in my working life, when I had the opportunity to move into technology sales, I was more than a little surprised to learn that there is such a thing as consultative sales: listening to the customer to understand their business problem, seeing if and how my company’s products and services could help them, and then proposing tailored solutions for a winning outcome for us both. It was a sweet spot. It appealed to my heart and mind as an interesting, challenging, and totally “above board” way of doing business. And no lonely, desperate little old ladies were financially harmed in the process. The image of the sleazy salesman was relegated to the old movie or TV show, where he belonged. Now, well into my adult years, I’m at peace with sales, though I still shy away from “dialing for dollars” when I’m helping with charitable fundraising drives. Trading products and services for dollars is fine, calling people up asking for donations is out of my comfort zone. I still think of myself as a consultative sales specialist when I’m marketing my voice over services. Every “sale” is a “win-win” situation for both the customer and myself, though I like to give a “value add” (to use a term from my long-ago IBM training) to every professionally-produced voice over that I send them. That’s usually on the order of multiple recordings to choose from, very fast delivery of their audio files, and highly responsive customer service. I’m happy when my customer is happy. Fair, honest exchanges of goods, services, time, and effort. That’s really what sales is about and if it’s done professionally and with the best intentions, it’s an honorable vocation. And one that can leave you feeling great about yourself and your work, and appreciative of your customers. No sleaze. No extra pounds. No self-doubts. Ah! A clean conscience and a good night’s sleep instead.

Transforming with Confidence As a kid, I loved playing Monopoly. I especially loved being the banker, a role I commandeered more often than not. Maybe it had to do with being the oldest of three siblings. Or being a little bossy. Either way, no one was surprised when I chose to study business in college and major in finance. It made sense. All through public school, I was the one who handled the money and managed the books for social organizations, theatrical productions, and fundraising efforts. I also took a lot of pride in saving the money I earned babysitting, watching the numbers grow in my savings account. Earmarked for college, of course. Let me say straight out that babysitting back then was NOT as lucrative as it is today for my daughter. I started at 50 cents an hour, and topped out at $1.50 an hour for New Year’s. Usually that included watching three kids AND a big dog, feeding everyone, cleaning up, bathing the kids, and putting them to bed. Babysitting pay was well below the minimum wage. Fast forward to today. My daughter says that some families are more than happy to shell out $20 an hour for her to watch one sleeping baby while she does her homework. Way above minimum wage, not to mention an easy-peasy job. Sheesh. I was born too early, methinks. So, yes, business was a natural field for me. My parents agreed, with my dad pushing studies in computer science as a possible career choice. Actually, they were more than a little relieved, as my first choice since early childhood was to be an actress. And it was fun teasing them throughout my school years that this indeed was what I was going to do. I loved acting – hey, I performed in plays throughout school and my early adult years, and I’m pursuing it now full-time – but back then, I knew I really wanted to start off with a business career. The Monopoly banker in me wanted to make sure that I could actually make an independent living right from the start. Having a corporate ladder to climb suited me pretty well, too. I studied quite a bit of computer science, but my sweet spot – and where I made my career - was where IT intersected business, solving both everyday and long-term strategic problems. The really techie, hands-on stuff wasn’t for me. I figured that out pretty fast when I took a class in Assembler, a computer language that a techie friend later described me as akin to programming on bare metal. Feeding a stack of punched cards to the computer at 2 am in the basement of the engineering building just didn’t cut it. Especially when I had to run the stack again and again because a single, teeny-tiny typo would kick out the entire job after 20 minutes of processing and I’d have to start all over again. Aarggh. If I had to be up and about in the middle of the night, hanging out in the computer lab was not where I wanted to be. These courses, however, set me apart from most business students and launched me into a pretty good career in IT. And I found myself transforming from student to employee, finance major to, well…. The Monopoly banker turned cyborg. Finance meshed with computer science and applied statistics and, before I knew it, I was churning out solutions to financial and engineering problems with computer assistance. A few years later, deciding I needed more human interaction and less time sitting at a desk, the cyborg morphed into a technical sales and marketing rep. “Power suit” included. (Translation: a killer marketing suit, usually a tailored red jacket with some shoulder padding, accompanying a narrow and preferably short skirt. “Power” was a thing at the time. Power software, power marketing, power this, power that. It was as ubiquitous a business word as “solution,” as in “we have a solution to every problem under the sun.”) The biggest transformation in corporate and personal identity was still to come. Years (and a wedding dress) later, I morphed into a mommy. Suddenly, after one look at baby, I found myself compelled to reverse course from the corporate climbing Type A exec and become a stay-at-home mom. Something I never thought I’d choose to do. In my field and at that time, there was no part-time work option. It’s funny how you discover things about yourself as you move through life. Priorities shift, your focus changes. When I became a mom, I came squarely face to face with the realization that I wanted – no needed - to be with my growing family and not miss my kids’ childhood milestones by being off on some business trip. As those priorities changed, skill sets were reshuffled and used in different ways. Sure, I added all sorts of new skills: cleaning up baby after some truly impressive diaper blowouts (up the back, down the legs – how do they DO that??!). Managing five things at once on two hours of sleep. Impersonating Elsie the Cow when I was hooked up to that breast pump. (Sorry, guys. TMI.) My inner business woman kept everything in order and enjoyed being efficient with her time, like paying the bills while nursing. And, of course, those diapers were really very nicely stacked. And talents that had been playing only small supporting roles in my business career started to emerge front and center. I’m talking creativity, like the kind enjoyed as a child. For me, before and during my Monopoly years, that was performing, writing, music, and art work. I’d always been creative, though it ended up taking a back seat to practicality. But those dedicated mommy years leaned on those creative skills to teach, entertain, and guide my kids as they discovered their own talents and special interests. And they paved the way for morphing from mommy to artist and entrepreneur; my transformation into an actress and voiceover talent. Ever feel like you’ve come full circle in life? I do, from creative little kid to ambitious corporate gal, and now to performing artist. Every change incorporated what came before, though different facets of my personality came to the forefront as my primary role in life changed. Skills and talents that I leaned on heavily before are now just applied in different measures and in different ways. Now, instead of using my creative inclinations to support a business career, it’s flipped. All that business know-how supports my acting and VO work. I bring in my sales and sometimes techie persona when I narrate corporate and training videos. They come out to play in TV, film, commercials, and industrials when I’m cast in strong, take-charge roles, like business and medical professionals, attorneys, and tough, protective mama bears. And those dedicated mommy years provide the flipside: caring, nurturing, and emotionally-driven characters for both VO and on-camera work. We assume different roles as we move through life, but they just build on one another, creating layers that form a more and more interesting person. (At least we hope so!) They never go away. They just morph from one thing to another and occasionally merge to become something new. I’ll always be the mom. The businesswoman. Even the pint-sized Monopoly banker. Yup, she’s still right here, actively keeping an eye on things. I’m the money manager in my household and the keeper of the family ATM. At least as far as my husband is concerned, who likes to call it “getting his allowance.” He may think I’m just catering to him and his need for easily available cash. But, according to my 10 year old self, it’s the Monopoly banker who’s really calling the shots. Just don’t tell him that. He doesn’t read my blogs. 

It’s a People-Oriented Industry Mix and match. Here’s one of my favorite things about being cast in a new project: discovering friends or long-time acquaintances who’ll be working with me. On camera or behind the scenes – I love seeing familiar faces and recounting all the other productions we’ve worked on together. Don’t get me wrong. I thoroughly enjoy meeting new people and laying the foundation for new friendships. I’ve met people from all walks of life and, in talking with them, have found more things we have in common than either of us would have believed possible. Sometimes the coincidences are downright spooky. Most recently, while we were on a little break from shooting a commercial together, another woman and I were talking about our kids. Turns out our oldest children are the same age. And I mean the same age . Same month, same day. Born just a few hours apart. Who’d a thunk it?! What’s the children’s song? Make new friends, but keep the old. One is silver and the other’s gold. (I remember that from my kids’ preschool TV-watching years!) I love showing up on set, or scanning the call sheet the night before, to see which names and faces I recognize. You just never know who production has mixed together. And it often seems like a bit of a mix and match. Who looks like they can play someone’s parent or child? Who looks like half of a long-married couple? Sometimes, casting is trying to find a match for an actor who’s already been booked. Other times, they’re looking for two people who just seem like they go together. More than once, I’ve found myself paired with the same individual over and over again. This is especially true when I’m playing part of a couple, especially if casting is leaning into a certain ethnicity. (I confess to having a mischievous moment now and then, ribbing my real-life husband about it!) Honestly, I always get a little kick out of meeting my on-set “hubby of the day.” It’s fascinating to discover how people see you, especially when you’re paired as a couple. It varies depending on your role and the type of production. What’s your characters’ histories and why are you in this particular story? Are you working class? Or are you both enjoying an upscale retirement? What’s your background, are you urban or rural residents, happily married or on the brink of divorce, victims of a crime or perhaps the masterminds of a shady operation? Pairing people who look like a matched set tells the audience one thing. Pairing two people who clearly aren’t can raise an eyebrow … and interest in the story. Regardless, it’s always a treat to see friends on set and reacquaint with those whom I’ve worked with before. Last week, during a very long day filming a commercial with a lot of down time, I had the pleasure of hanging out with another actress from my same agency. So much to talk about and catch up on, it helped idle time fly by. I had brought my computer to set, anticipating I’d have the opportunity to catch up on my work, but once we saw each other, well, not much work ended being done. And that was just fine. It made my heart so much happier to spend that time with a friend. When I’m with several people and we all know one another, there’s usually a brief accounting of, “what did we work on together?” It’s interesting to learn about their other projects and who worked with who, particularly those for which I’d also auditioned but hadn’t been cast. It’s an insight into which way casting had leaned (and perhaps why) and how the project had turned out. Sometimes, the end result is quite different from the audition sides any of us had originally seen, which could explain those casting choices. When I see old friends, classmates, or others in my agency, our time on set together is a chance to share experiences, as well as to recommend certain good acting classes, coaches, or production teams we’ve enjoyed working with. Many actors create their own original material, so it’s also an opportunity to catch up on each other’s skill sets and see if there’s a possibility of collaboration. None of this is to say that actors just hang around kibbitzing all day instead of working. Far from it! Most of these conversations are in bits and pieces throughout a long shoot schedule, during the lunch break, and only if any free time isn’t spent reviewing and rehearsing lines or blocking, assimilating script changes and dialogue, or being touched up in hair and makeup. Like anything in life, a friendly familiar face can just make your day that much brighter.

Generational Markers & What They All Mean We have attack owls in our neighborhood. Big, old MEAN owls who aren’t shy about letting you know that you’re trespassing on their turf. These attacks seem to come in the early morning hours or in the early evening, when the light is a bit diffused. Joggers have especially been their victims. Owls have been reported striking people on the back of the head, occasionally raking their hair with their talons, and more often than not, making off with a hat or two. It’s gotten to the point where joggers are considering wearing bicycle helmets, uncomfortable as those may be. It could be that poor light is reflecting off headphones, airpods, or even a bright hair tie that the birds mistake for prey. That’s being generous. A number of people have deduced that most attacks seems to be coming from one particularly aggressive male who always seems to be in a bad mood. Perhaps he’s just guarding his territory. Or he doesn’t like the jogger’s choice of headgear. Whatever the reason, the last thing anyone expects is a dive-bombing owl with an attitude. I mean, come on! Who amongst us, city slickers that we are, thinks of owls as combative?! Most of what we know about owls comes from books and TV. For heaven’s sake, owls are WISE. They’re PATIENT. And they have a gentle sense of humor. Right? Evidently, this local owl never got the memo. Earlier or rural generations would, of course, know better. (I googled it, to be sure.) But we who’ve been raised on G-rated TV and movies think of the gentle, fatherly Owl from the animated Winnie-the-Pooh movies and TV shows. And the scholarly owl who challenged us to find out how many licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Roll pop. Maybe even the silently spooky owl slowly rotating its head around 360 degrees on a ghostly Halloween night. Chances are that if any or all of these images came to mind when you read “owl,” well, then we’re probably more or less of the same generation. The phrase “the ties that bind” refers to a common idea or belief that links people together. For most of human history, that meant family or tribal traditions, religious communities, national or cultural identities, or social classes. Members of these groups share common experiences and a common outlook on life. Being part of these groups, speaking the lingo, breeds familiarity and comfort, and members can usually identify one another – even those we’ve never met - because of it. Shared generational experiences create these types of groups, too. We have quite a lot of generational experience to draw on. Factor in major national or world events, like World War II, the moon landing, 9/11, and Covid, to name a few. Living through one or more of these events with our peers shapes our viewpoint. Even when different generations experience a major event like the Great Recession together, how they perceive and react to it differs based on where they are in their lives. Our choices of entertainment alone give us many common reference points and touchstones. Popular TV shows for kids will have them using catch phrases from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (“cowabunga!”) or sharing years later which Power Ranger they dressed up as for trick-or-treating. And then there’s video games and social media, which seem to change just about every day. And don’t forget about music! Music spans all media and changes frequently enough to give each and every generation something that’s uniquely theirs. We seem to gravitate most to the music we liked while we’re growing up and during our young adult years. I remember my grandparents playing their big band albums. My parents gravitated to Broadway show tunes. And I favor music from the mid 60s through the 80s. Well, most of it. Not disco – never liked it, even at the height of its popularity. (Sorry, disco lovers.) Perhaps more so for older generations than today’s Millennials and Gen Z’ers, TV shows and commercials provide strong ties that bind. Just like popular radio shows did for earlier generations. TV entertainment from the 60s and 70s – including commercials! – binds together my generation. Of course, with less choice than more recent generations, it was easier for us to have these cultural references. After all, we only had three channels to choose from, plus one for public television and (if we twisted the rabbit ears just the right way) another to tune in the toons on a Saturday morning. Almost everyone watched the same shows and talked about them at school the next day. I imagine it’s harder for today’s teens to all get on the same page, with hundreds of channels and TV shows competing for their attention. It’s certainly overwhelming for me! I have never heard of a quarter of these shows that play on cable stations I don’t even have paid access to watch. Millennials and Gen Z’ers manage to comb through them and find shows that they collectively claim as theirs. But do they provide the same strong common reference for their generations that we had? Maybe so, but I doubt they’re on the same order of what we remember. Hop aboard Mr. Peabody’s Wayback Machine with me and remember: We had wise old owls advising us to enjoy our Tootsie pops to the (not) bitter end. We sang those commercial jingles about Oscar Meyer baloney and McDonald’s hamburger ingredients – and some of us STILL know all the words by heart (guilty!). We knew that the Maidenform woman could show up anywhere in her lingerie and not be arrested for public indecency. We knew the Breck girl had fabulous hair, that Coke taught the world to sing, and that Choo-Choo Charlie could engineer the heck out of a train with his Good ‘n Plentys. And long before the worries of global cooling (70s), global warming (80s & 90s), and climate change (2000s), we knew exactly what the native American elder was saying about pollution. No words necessary; the single tear trickling down his cheek spoke volumes. It works in reverse, too. What binds one generation together totally befuddles another. I have usually no clue about the popular references my teen daughter and her friends like to use. And they want to keep it that way. (So I’ll play dumb about the things I DO get, just so they’ll let me listen in, thinking I’m totally in the dark. Heh heh.) And she rolls her eyes at cultural references from my generation that still give me a good laugh. I’m sure you know: kids can spot fakers a mile away. Especially those in entertainment trying to imitate they way they talk, act, or dress. Why? Because generational differences are usually at play. For example, my daughter and her friends mock the dialogue in a popular cable TV show about high schoolers. They can tell it was “written by a middle-aged woman” (it is) because “no real kids talk like that.” Perhaps an earlier generation of kids once did, but the word choice and cultural references are archaic according to today’s audience’s standards. And these kids, like every generation of kids before them, laugh or disdain (it varies on a daily basis) at older adults’ attempts to “look cool.” So, as a mom, I don’t even try to communicate in her lingo. If I did, I’d earn an eyeroll and an admonition that I’m only embarrassing myself. If I did it within earshot of her friends, then I’d be embarrassing to her. That makes sense. We had similar rules when we were her age, back when the dinosaurs roamed the earth and watched themselves hauling rock in “The Flintstones.” Fine with me. My contemporaries and I still enjoy our little coded phrases and kitschy commercial jingles, making fun of things that our kids would be hard-pressed to figure out. Every generation has its markers. The secret is to use them to find and make new friends. And share old memories.

Even the Energizer Bunny has a Breaking Point It’s summer and for the first time in nearly 18 months, we can honestly talk about traveling and taking vacations once again. Of course, for some of us, there may have been some unwanted “vacations” during the pandemic. My sympathies to those who were let go through no fault of their own. It’s painfully obvious driving around that all too many businesses – large and small, but mostly small – weren’t able to survive months of lost revenue. I sincerely hope that all those affected, including the business owners, have been able to pivot and find new opportunities going forward. For those who kept “their nose to the grindstone,” though, a mental health break is well overdue. It doesn’t matter whether your business just barely survived or enjoyed record profits, we’re all stressed from uncertainty, staffing concerns, and inventory shortfalls, to name just a few worries. Many of us assumed heavier workloads as companies tightened their belts and dealt with labor shortages and higher expenses. We’re tired. Our nerves are frayed. And we’re irritated at the long confinements we had to endure. Vacations are necessary, even if it’s just to get away for a few days now and then. Our mental and emotional health suffer without them. An honest-to-goodness relax and free-your-mind type of vacation usually needs about a week. It takes a few days to decompress from the stress of work and everyday life. How many times have you heard someone complain that, by the time they finally were able to unwind from work and relax, it was time to wrap up their trip and head back to their regular routine? Yup, me too. And there’s truth to it, especially if (like me) you’re prone to making lists, reviewing your to-do schedules in your head, and planning out your calendar weeks in advance. Sometimes a mental health break can be as little as a long weekend or – when there’s no option for some time off – a quick change of scenery during the work day. I like to stretch my legs and focus on something more than just my computer screen. The neighborhood park is not far from our home and just a ten minute walk around its circular design is enough to clear my mind. I especially enjoy seeing the little kids on the playground or riding their bikes as I stride along (jumping last minute out of their way plenty of times!). Just being outside in nature is often enough to rejuvenate me. My body is moving, my eyes can work the long distance vision again, and the sounds and smells of the outdoors are refreshing. Assuming that the neighbors have scooped up after their dogs. Taking a quick break for every few hours of work has its benefits, so here are a few good excuses - er, reasons - for taking a little time out: You’ll feel more relaxed. Your stress level goes down. Your mood improves. Your productivity improves. Your creativity is sparked. You’ll generally feel happier. Chances are people will pick up on your improved mood and be happier around you. You can think more clearly. With new stimuli, fresh ideas for solving stagnant problems often pop into your head. You’re more receptive to different perspectives. You have time for reflection. You’ll have had at least a little time just to yourself, without outside demands. One last benefit: It keeps you from going bonkers. Or developing tunnel-vision. If nothing else, the quick break reminds us that we’re human and not machines. We need time to refresh. Come to think of it, even machines break down if they’re not allowed to cool off from time to time. Human or machine, we all need to hit the off switch from time to time. Even writing this blog post has been a bit of a break, too. Just doing something different and using a different part of my brain is a nice change of pace. Ahhh…. OK, break’s over! Back into the closet for me (also known as my home voiceover studio). At least for a little while. 😊

Assess. Pivot. Proceed. And Have Fun. As an actor, you always have to be prepared to throw away … well, your preparation. And just go with the flow. I love it! While I’m a very organized person with to-do lists out the wazoo, I’ve always enjoyed a degree of spontaneity. I like the idea of something new popping into my world to stir up the old routine. Even back in my days in the business world, I looked forward to unforeseen challenges. And I had the right job for it. As a sales exec, you could be sure to always expect the unexpected. Clients, prospects, and leads – not to mention the brass in my company – could throw a “must have,” “need now,” or “extremely urgent” request on my desk and I had to stop whatever I was doing and resolve it. Especially if there was a problem involved. You learned very quickly that if you didn’t adapt to these changing situations and take charge of them, you were going to have a tough time succeeding in the job. But I thrived in that environment; I was certainly never bored. A lot of people don’t like that uncertainty in their work or their lives. I understand that – there’s much to be said for routine and the satisfaction of getting things done according to schedule. I like that, too … as long as the routine doesn’t segue into monotony. But I find it rather exciting not quite knowing what each day will bring. What’s in my morning email? Perhaps a new audition? Or – dare I hope – a booking? Anything can happen and it often does, including having a well-planned day’s schedule being unceremoniously booted into the next week. Life as an actor is a study in uncertainty. Unless you’re at or near the upper echelons of the business, you have to be quite flexible and responsive to the demands of those in charge. The decisions of casting directors, directors, and producers dictate what you can work on and in what capacity, as well as when and where. So how do you learn to handle things when your plans are suddenly upended? When a monkey wrench is thrown into the work you’ve done up to that point, forcing you to throw out hours of preparation in exchange for a few minutes of reworking your approach? I see it as a three step process: Assess Pivot Proceed It’s up to you to take in the changes, figure out how to go in a new direction, and then quickly move forward. Fortunately, this process can be learned and practiced in a very fun way. Did you know that there’s a whole genre within the acting world devoted to responding quickly to change? It’s called improvisation , or improv for short, and it’s an invaluable skill for any actor to acquire. You don’t need to be part of an improv troupe to participate (though you’ll have a great time if you do!). You just have to be ready to handle sudden changes that are thrown at you from any direction. Sounds scary, but it’s sort of like the game of hot potato you played as a kid. You learn to think on your feet and react quickly as you catch, receive, and throw ideas and actions off to someone else as soon as you receive them. Reaction is everything and it’s often hilarious. Honestly, an improv class is something that each of us could benefit from, whether or not we’re performers. I’ve never met anyone whose entire life has gone according to plan without some kind of unexpected interruption. It helps to have another tool in your set of handy experiences that teaches you how to handle unexpected events. Here’s an example of how improv training helped me recently. I was on the set of a music video the other day. The script was sent well in advance and I saw that my character began and ended the action in the video and had the only scripted lines. Sweet! As with any other acting job, I dived into the script to get a better idea of the storyline and my role within it. I took what the writer had created and constructed an entire background for my character, fleshing out her life story and imagining how she’d react to those around her. And, of course, I learned my lines well. Once on set, however, I was told not to worry about my lines. They were to be only a guidepost and that I should just feel free to improvise as needed. Rather than panicking, I thought: terrific! I was just offered creative freedom and the ability to take my character down any number of possible roads. Depending on what the other characters in the scene did, my reactions would be natural responses to whatever was going to happen and the words would just flow. I knew the essentials of what my character had to say, but I wasn’t constrained by a strict recitation of planned words. That freedom added to the “realness” of the story and let my character be the grounding force in the midst of all the zaniness surrounding the other characters. I was told that the ending had changed, too. Fine! I was happy to chuck the scripted version and play along with the director’s vision of how the new scene would play out. As it turned out, the result was much funnier than originally written. Line and scene changes are not at all uncommon on many sets, and actors are expected to incorporate them pretty quickly with minimal preparation. Improv training helps one easily let go of one direction and embrace another. My actions and lines in that last scene ended up being totally improvised with just minimal suggestions from the director. Then, to add a little more spice to the finished product, I had a little impromptu ADR session directly afterwards. We recorded a bunch of improvised phrases and laughs that came right off the top of my head as I replayed that final scene in my mind. Later, post-production would choose which of those they wanted to insert into the final video. I’ve always enjoyed thinking on my feet, but those improv classes I’d had over the years really taught me that there’s no “right” way to do things. Either something works or it doesn’t. And what does work is a very subjective decision that we can’t always predict, so it’s best to just “throw it out there.” Just listen to what the other people are saying and doing and react honestly in turn. You don’t need to be funny, just authentically “real.” This doesn’t mean you don’t need to fully prepare for a role! Most jobs will expect you to follow the script with perhaps only a few adjustments. Even when you’re being encouraged to improvise, you have to know what’s going on in the story and your character’s purpose as part of it. You still need to do your basic script analysis: the who, what, when, where, and why of any scene. Once on set, though, the actor has to be prepared to throw off all thought of their preliminary work and just meld into their character’s essence. Improv does all that for you. It trains you to free yourself from rigid preparation and to instead focus on the other people in the scene. Yes, the words and motivations are all there, we know what our character wants, but we’re not mentally inhibited by our preparation. The audience doesn’t want to see actors who seem to be disconnected from what’s going on in the scene. They want to believe that what’s taking place on the screen or stage is real and get lost in the story being told. Unless it’s Shakespeare, they probably won’t know or care if a line here and there is different from what’s written. Audiences want to see emotional and physical responses, because those are what trigger visceral reactions to the story in ourselves. Some of the best, award-winning scenes come from “mistakes” or improvised lines and reactions. When scene partners throw you a curve ball, which cause you to react in an unexpected or unrehearsed way, magic can happen. Sometimes it’s an improvement on the original material; that’s why comedians are popular choices if their acting is up to snuff. Remember Robin Williams? Pure genius! He improvised most of his lines in the animated version of “Aladdin.” The producers knew he was comic gold and that anything he said was going to be funnier than just about anything the writers could dream up. They were right. The animators were quite busy just keeping up with his flow of consciousness. His performance as the genie felt real. Authentic. And, of course, hilarious and immensely entertaining. So go ahead and sign up for an improv class. It may seem scary, especially if you’re not an actor or someone who can think on their feet. But it’s terrific training in learning how to deal with the unexpected in life, and often with a dose of good-natured humor. And that’s something we can all benefit from. And guess what? You’ll feel like a little kid again. You’re given permission to just be you and simply react to what’s going on around you. No right or wrong responses. Nothing is dumb. There will be plenty of funny moments, enjoyed by everyone in a nice non-judgmental way. (Isn’t that great for a change?!) And you’ll probably make some new friends. Besides, it’s really fun.