Here’s the first of my promised expansions! As I mentioned in my last post, I took an Image Intensive with Sam Christensen! I had been hearing about the intensive for the last few years because some friends from scene study had taken the class and raved about it, but whenever the intensive was happening I always had some sort of conflict.

One of the things that really hit me in Taiwan is that the key reason I was stalled in my NYC acting game was that I hadn’t been dealing with the business side: the promotion, the submissions hustle, the mailings, the auditions. I just didn’t like doing it. So I didn’t do it.

I felt like I needed some serious guidance before I could feel comfortable with how to and what to promote of myself. I had a strong feeling that this intensive would give me the tools and clues I needed to hit the ground running, and promised myself I would take it when I was back from Taiwan.

That chance finally came in late March! In a nutshell, it was a four-day branding intensive during which I and the rest of the participants told little stories about ourselves and wrote down short descriptions about everyone else and, sometimes, ourselves. We filed these descriptions away and, with help from Sam and Ken, each ended up with pages full of working self-descriptive vocabulary to use in audition, interview and general life situations.

I ended up with a renewed energy about my own power to promote myself and an improved sense of confidence in myself as an individual. Yay!

So, part of my silence on ze blog these past months was because I was actively getting all of my acting biz ducks in a row: new headshots, new look on the website, having great auditions and call backs, creating a website for my show Lillian Smith: Being Heard, and upping my social media game.

My momentum is building, which is extremely exciting. I’m loving this renewed sense of power over my career and what I have to bring to the plate! So, I’ll end this with a look at my “7 essences”–phrases that describe key aspects of what makes me Lulu–and a listen to Iggy Azalea’s “Work” because that’s just what I’ve been doing…. Werkin on my sheeeeiiiiiiit!