 I just spent the last six weeks listening to the podcast Audrey Helps Actors and there's a 91 episode so I listened to it while driving, working out, skating, and even while getting ready for a self-tape. And it has changed my life as far as how I look at acting and how I'm approaching a career in acting. I first heard about the podcast many years ago and honestly after this song... Audrey Helps Actors because they don't know anything. I thought she was super annoying and rude, like what actors don't know anything. Okay maybe a lot of us don't know a lot of stuff. Months later I saw that a friend was doing this thing called Self-Tape May and I barely looked into it and I didn't end up doing it but I was like oh like self-tapping a bunch that sounds cool so that inspired me to do self tapes every single day of July 2021. This year an actor that I worked with emailed me a discount code for casting networks and turns out it was Audrey's discount code and so I was like okay let me look at this podcast again. I realized Self-Tape May was a part of the podcast so I was like okay let's do the Self-Tape May thing. I signed up even though I was going to be in out of the country for 11 days and then camping for five days in May. I was like I can do it. I can do it. Yeah I did two self tapes this Self-Tape May but don't worry I already have plans for next year. I'm already so excited for next year. So who is Audrey Maher? She is a working actress. I'll leave her IMDb in the description so you can check out all of the different things that she has been in and she's also the host of this podcast and she shares a bunch of information about the business of acting but also the training. Acting classes but not just different acting techniques but taking classes for auditioning, taking classes for acting on camera or acting for TV, voice training and therapy so that you can actually get your mind right so that you can be able to use your emotions. I need to go to therapy. She also talks a lot about business and finances. Episode 57 is a really great one on finances and she talks a lot about where your money is going because you're going to need to hire a publicist and a lawyer and a stylist and all your managers and your agent. I've heard about story and tone and style but deep down inside I really believed like my acting. They're going to cast me no matter what because my acting is going to be really good. No no no now I'm finally starting to understand why and how you would change your audition in order to cater to a specific show. Like I wouldn't send the same audition to a Disney Channel original movie then I would send to Better Call Saul. Even if it was the exact same dialogue it would be completely different. The lighting, what you're wearing, the tone of it, like how you're going to act and Episode 61 beautifully explains story and there's just so many episodes about story and how to really dig deep and start to understand it. Her husband Jesse Lumen is a huge part of the podcast not only because he helps behind the scenes but also he is a filmmaker, a writer, director and he has a ton of information that he shares with us. I recommend Episode 60 about self-tapes, lighting, sound, all of that. There are a bunch of episodes in 2020 that are very specific to what we were going through at that time. Still recommend listening to those and you'll see that the podcast definitely reflects how the industry is always changing because she starts off the podcast in earlier episodes talking about pilot season right and then later on there's like okay there's no such thing as pilot season now like will it come back who knows but um you'll see the evolution of the industry through her podcast. A ton of great episodes on acting markets because if you're an actor of course you're going to want to move to somewhere where you can get more jobs so she definitely talks about what kind of actor she'd move to LA, New York or a smaller market and she definitely has guests that have moved to smaller markets out of smaller markets and she has market research march and she'll have guests that will help you understand each thing that she wants to share with you and also give you steps to achieve those things. Of course there's a bunch of episodes on commercials like episode 28, commercial agents which is episode 71 and then how to book more commercials episode 72. Sag Aftra the union of course and she has a series called shit you didn't know about your union that's in a ton of the episodes and she also has whole episodes dedicated to learning more about Sag Aftra. She talks about scams and colds and there's a recurring little series called listener questions that is in almost every single episode so you can call leave her a voicemail and then she'll answer your question on the show and she also often will share different shows like new shows that are filming in like New Mexico and who might be good to look into it and audition for it. I of course don't agree with everything she has to say but in general she has amazing information. I think if I did agree with everything it would be a little bit culty which she does have an episode on is it an acting class or a cult go listen to it be aware of your surroundings be careful. She doesn't like the Meissner technique which if you've seen my videos you might know I love the Meissner technique I live for it like not in a culty way but a little bit in a culty way and then another thing that she said a few times is that if you are a non-union actor you get paid an average of six months after completing the job if you ever get paid and as a pre-union actor that's what she calls non-union actors. I can tell you that I've always gotten paid within nine weeks if not sooner because now they do pay us electronically usually rather than sending a check in the mail. If you never listen to anything I say on my channel listen to this listen to this podcast because I think that's the biggest mistake I've made in my career is having this opportunity to learn so much from this podcast and then being influenced by the theme song and being like okay I just can't get past it I don't want to listen to it because I could have been working so much smarter these last few years since 2017 she's been posting podcasts and that's actually when I started my YouTube channel too so I so wish I would have listened to all these episodes. All right so go listen to her podcast and once you listen to it and you love it you can head over to Apple Podcasts and leave her review because she loves her some reviews and while you're there I would so appreciate it if you also mentioned that I sent you there and at the end of every video I feature another channel and guess who it is take a wild guess it's Audrey go check out her channel and you can listen to her podcast there.