6. HOW TO BE A PERSON: Day One
The Newsletter for Sunday, January 7th 2024
On a podcast I heard a founder of a startup say “Day one, your product is never worse.” He was talking about encouraging early adopters to sign up for their product even though it wasn’t complete. When you admit that today the thing you have to offer is only going to get stronger and better you enter into a covenant with yourself (I’m talking to me right now): I must improve and grow Bold Acting Studios or no one is going to come. So …
Welcome to HOW TO BE A PERSON. I'm re-branding the Bold Acting newsletter as such because although it’s a little to prescriptive and a lot presumptuous, when any of my content tends towards the self-helpy I get the most likes, views, follows. And I like to talk in this manner – and people respond to it. So, I’m going to stop hiding my light under a bushel as Madiba was fond of saying. RIP.
It's still Bold Acting Studio, but it's also how to be. Not according to me necessarily but in a corroborated effort, as I have to learn to be a person too. Still. Over and over.
I have only been a teacher for a year, but I’ve been a student of acting for 30 years. This is my strength. Everyone is bragging how long they’ve been doing it. I’m betting people want someone that has been too busy acting and producing his own stuff to teach until now.
I've always been in a class of some sort or another. A through-line in all these classes is if you want to become a better actor, one must become better attuned to the human condition.
Many of my students come and ask me for advice: on confidence, on work ethic, presence, on how to start, on what's important. It’s weird to think that these days in this influencer era we’re in real mentorship is in short supply. I see plenty of people with nothing to hustle, busy telling people how to live their lives.
My aim is not to make return customers but to launch independent creatives. What is taught is crystallized into a cohesive nugget that hopefully spurs on more learning and an antidote to being in a state of want.
So welcome to day one of the HOW TO BE A PERSON newsletter. Even though I've been doing this for almost a year, it feels like a new beginning and not just because it's a new year. Never skip over an opportunity to reinvent. No matter how many times you've already done so. Tell people you’re something and then prove it to them every day, every day, every day.
You’ll still find the weekly newsletter in your inbox and on the podcast feed. It will just have a different name. Separately, the Bold Acting Podcast will continue, but will be interview-based as I speak to experienced contemporaries on how they've survived in showbiz. I've got a new website coming at the same address: boldacting.com. On it you'll be able to avail yourself of classes, coaching, and a weekly AMA happening Wednesdays at 9:30 AM (Starting January 17th, 2024). Click here or the calendar link below to sign up. Ask me how to get an agent or if I think you need new head shots, or how to save money even if you don’t have any. This will be a weekly state of the industry chat that is free and open to anyone.
You can also book a free 15-minute Discovery Call: https://calendly.com/mail-wey/15-minute-free-discovery-call. Let’s talk about your acting goals for 2024. I’d love to connect with you.
Lastly, there are two new in-person classes starting January 21 at Groundglass Casting here in Toronto. From 1 to 4 PM is the Commercial Audition Class. Here I put my experience acting in over 300 commercials to work. I will teach you everything I know. And from 5 to 8 is the On-Camera Scene Study Class. A new scene and a new scene partner each week using scripts from recent film and television. Email me directly for more information at jasonbryden@gmail.com or go to boldacting.com.
I’m excited for 2024. Welcome to How to Be a Person: Day One. Let’s reinvent.
PS — Here’s your unsolicited advice for today: “It’s not fair, and don’t be late.”
Here’s the Calendly link again. I’m new to this app. Thank you for your patience.