The Best Kept Secret in Entertainment

No…it’s not how to attract the attention of top agents…

Or that short actors are put in platform shoes or on apple boxes to make them look taller…

Nor is it how celebrities can manage to adopt eight children, travel the world, stay in shape, head their own charity, run a multi-million dollar company that sells luxury goods, film multiple projects a year while doing press for all of them…and still manage to look well-rested.

For the past two weeks, I was volunteering for an organization more secretive than the Masons.**

**Okay, I might be exaggerating a little bit there…

An organization that is over 100 years old…

An organization devoted to helping actors and anyone else in the entertainment industry—lawyers, burlesque performers, ushers, photographers, opera singers, costumers, grips, producers, stage managers, circus clowns...

Yes, even you, skeptical clown man!

Everyone that I have told about it has never heard of it, and I only heard about it after becoming active on LinkedIn during the early days of the pandemic.

It’s not a union.

It’s not exclusive.

And it’s not limited to New York or Los Angeles.

Do you know what it is?

Are you stumped yet?

The organization is The Actors Fund.

Originally founded in 1882 in response to the anti-actor sentiment after Lincoln’s assassination, The Actors Fund was created to help actors and other performers, who were often discriminated against, get a proper burial after death.

Since then, The Actors Fund has become a national non-profit organization that offers all kinds of services to anyone in the entertainment industry.

Some of the many initiatives the fund has supported throughout the years have included:

• Senior care

• Affordable housing

• Retirement planning

• Access to healthcare

• Emergency financial assistance

• Education and career counseling

• Support for those with HIV/AIDS through Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS

• And much more…

While some services are still restricted to the cities where the fund has offices (NYC, LA and CHI), the internet has made other services accessible to all.

You, too, can attend a class in New York from your rooftop in Seattle! Or Minneapolis! Or Phoenix! Or…Keokuk, Iowa.

Just some of the interesting workshops coming up on the Career Center’s calendar this month:

• Managing Cash Flow

• Mindfulness Meditation

• Budgeting Nuts & Bolts

• Good Grief: Grief Support Group

• How to Job Search During a Pandemic

• Asian American & Pacific Islander Entertainment Professionals Gathering

• Mind, Body, Spirit: A Group for Black Women Working in the Entertainment Industry

Did I mention these services are all FREE?

Your money is no good here!

Back in May, I took the LinkedIn Suite for Entertainment, which is a trio of workshops on how to use LinkedIn effectively, and I participated in the 15-day LinkedIn Challenge that followed.

About a month after the challenge, I learned about LinkedIn’s Social Sales Index, and discovered that I was in the top 1% in my industry and in my network (translation: I’m working LinkedIn’s algorithm better than 99% of people in the industry), and I have The Actors Fund to thank for that!

After the challenge, I have been telling everyone about the fund, and promoting their services to all of my performer friends.

When the September challenge happened, I signed up to volunteer as an ambassador, helping to support others doing the challenge.

If you want to sign up for any of these upcoming workshops through the career center, you must first take the Career Center Orientation, which is offered every Monday except on legal holidays.

The LinkedIn Suite for Entertainment and LinkedIn Challenge will ONLY be offered one more time this year, in November.

Next year, they plan to offer it, but fewer times overall, so if you want to up your LinkedIn game, sign up for November’s workshops!

Click here to sign up for the orientation and see all of the other resources and workshops at The Actors Fund’s website.

And please—don’t keep this a secret!

A Kick in the Pants (for Those Not Wearing Pants)

Well, I don’t know about everyone else, but for me, the New Year is off and running! I had an extremely busy week this past week. A bunch of jobs, TONS of auditions, and lots of my self-imposed projects to get to. 

In fact, I still have more to do, so I’m going to keep this week’s blog short. Or try to. I’m not necessarily known for my brevity. 

I don’t like this picture, but I couldn’t find another “Kick in the pants” pic

If you’re anything like most of the people I know, you probably wrote off last year. You probably abandoned your pants, threw out your makeup, stopped shaving, and haven’t had a haircut in recent memory. 

Honestly, some of these things are kind of liberating. Razors are expensive, doing your hair and makeup is time consuming, and yoga pants are just so damn comfortable!! (As I write this, I am guilty of ALL of the above)

At the same time, after a while, the lack of effort can leave you feeling dumpy and uninspired. 

At some point, the world will return to at least some semblance of normality.

When it does, do you want to emerge from your house looking like Rip Van Winkle, with birds living in your beard, muscles atrophied, and not knowing (or caring) wtf everyone out in the world is even doing anymore? 

When depression sets in, it’s easy to sink into a pit of doing nothing. The dirty kitchen and the pile of laundry that could be clean or dirty (you’re really not sure anymore) just perpetuate the feeling. 

Often, just taking five minutes to scrub the tub (even though you don’t want to) can lead to cleaning the whole house because it makes you feel better. 

If you spent last year as an ostrich, hiding your head in a hole (LALALALALAEVERYTHINGISTOTALLYFINETHISISALLFINE) then your physical body is probably not the only thing looking like it just slept for 100 years. 

This whole past year, I’ve heard people lament on social media “We are going through trauma—don’t ask us to be productive.” 

I’m not. 

But I am asking you all to consider that in these instances, cause and effect are hard to pin down. When I’m depressed, I might not feel like cleaning my house, but cleaning the house always improves my outlook on the world

Everyone deals with trauma differently. My way is to (like my mother) try to control the chaos. “If I work harder, I can make everything okay!” 

I need to remind myself to relax and slow down sometimes. To tell myself it’s okay to do nothing, because I’m really bad at sitting still.

Similarly, other people need a good, swift (but kind) kick in the pants to get up.  

In either case, we both need a reminder that self care is not just eating ice cream and watching TV, and that busy doesn’t necessarily equal productive. 

Real self care often involves making yourself do the things that truly nourish your body and soul. It’s not about avoidance or escape, but allowing yourself to do things that bring you back to yourself.

Meditation. Going for a walk. Eating healthy food. Improving your home environment. Working on a meaningful goal. Allowing yourself space to BE. 

Even this garden gnome is wearing pants…

Start by giving yourself permission to do whatever is easiest. Whatever empowers you or inspires you. 

Often I think the people who post those comments on social media feel they’re being judged because they’re not doing enough.

I’m not judging them. I have compassion for anyone who feels overwhelmed, unfulfilled, undeserving and yet wanting more, because I have been there.

I do have a hunch that often, some people don’t allow themselves things that they really enjoy, that feed their souls, because they believe they don’t really deserve whatever it is they want.

For some, it’s hard to give themselves permission to enjoy life when others are suffering.

When you’re in that place, the key to getting out of it is giving yourself the time to take one small piece of action that empowers you to do more. 

Not doing more because you need to be productive. But doing more of what makes you feel empowered as a human being.

If you’re an artist like me, that might mean allowing yourself a little bit of space for creativity. 

The times during the pandemic that I’ve felt the best have been when I’ve let go of the need to be productive, without immediately filling that void with media to numb myself.

I love my TV and podcasts and audiobooks and games as much as anyone else, but after a while, I start to feel like I’ve been living on a diet of Surge and Papa Johns (which, coincidentally, was my diet in college). 

Everything in moderation

I feel grounded and whole when I just sit and play around on my ukulele. When I take a really long walk and let myself think. When I have silly, absurd, rambling conversations with my roommates. When I take the time to cut up vegetables and cook something good. 

Right now, I’m going to go do my yoga.

Not because I’m better than anyone who’s sitting on their couch. Not because I’m trying to get in shape. Not because I need to check it off my to-do list, but because it’s one place that I can allow myself to just be, and I feel better when I grant myself permission to do that.

If you can’t give yourself permission, I grant you mine.

Consider this your (kindly) kick in the pants.