“And that’s a little bit of our conundrum: Acting is our number one thing, but that’s very up and down. So how much do you just wait and put everything into Acting? And how much are you doing things with the down time? And can those be the same thing?” Today’s episode was ripped directly from one of our 10,000 NOs Insiders Acting Community weekly zooms where Matt addresses the challenges that face our members. Today, we get into the common internal battle than many actors face: what is the...

“There’s nothing better: you negotiate the deal and you start thinking and planning your life… and about two weeks before I was meant to go, I get the call: the European studio backed out, they’re scrapping the entire project, it’s over.” Today’s special episode is a sit down with my old friend and colleague (from Wind River and Teen Wolf), Ian Bohen. You may know him as Ryan from Yellowstone, but as you’ll hear, he’s been kicking around for a long, long time (in fact, he played a young Kevin...

Today’s episode was ripped directly from one of our 10,000 NOs Insiders Acting Community weekly zooms where Matt addresses the challenges that face our members. Today, we discuss the stoic philosophy of keeping death in mind so that we live each day to its fullest and avoid being surprised when death comes our way. But we also talk about the fact that good things can come our way too, citing examples of people in Hollywood who had careers that took sharp turns toward success. Matt poses the...

Today’s episode was ripped directly from one of our 10,000 NOs Insiders Acting Community weekly zooms where Matt addresses the challenges that face our members. Today, Matt shares some of the inspiration he received from a podcast that he has become obsessed with: Founders. Drawing from stories of great filmmakers, entrepreneurs and athletes, Matt discusses the parallels between the attributes of those who have achieved greatness in other fields with the attributes required for success as an...

Today’s episode was ripped directly from one of our 10,000 NOs Insiders Acting Community monthly VIP zooms with an industry insider. Casting Director Stephanie Holbrook (Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, John Wick Chapter 3), who has been featured in other episodes of the show, asked Matt about how he wraps his head around playing unlikeable characters, like the one she cast him in Long Bright River. 10,000 NOs is here to inspire you and help you realize you are not alone if you’re battling to...

Today’s episode was ripped directly from one of our 10,000 NOs Insiders Acting Community weekly zooms where Matt addresses the challenges that face our members. Today, we discuss the fact that there is a certain stubbornness required in following our own path, it is also necessary for us to constantly assess what we are doing and get honest about whether those actions are the best way for us to reach our goals. 10,000 NOs is here to inspire you and help you realize you are not alone if you’re...

“I had to sleep on people’s couches for a while, because I had no money. And I remember saying to God or whoever… ‘if I can make a living as a writer, I promise you I will write every day.’ So I made this deal with the universe and now I’m stuck with it.” Today’s episode is a special, old-school 10,000 NOs format longform sit-down conversation with legendary television writer and showrunner, Tom Fontana. His awards and accolades are a mile long, but what you’ll hear is a guy from humble...

Today’s episode was ripped directly from one of our 10,000 NOs Insiders Acting Community weekly zooms where Matt addresses the challenges that face our members. Today, we discuss the discipline required for anyone pursuing a career in the Arts. It’s easy to talk about it in generalities, but tougher to do when surrounded by friends and family members who are not on the same path. This conversation will shed light on the pros and cons that can be looked at when making tough decisions. 10,000...

Today’s episode was ripped directly from one of our 10,000 NOs Insiders Acting Community monthly VIP zooms with industry insider, Casting Director Stephanie Holbrook (Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, John Wick Chapter 3), who cast Matt in the limited series Long Bright River, as well as a few other projects. She offers advice to actors about how far to go in forging relationships with casting directors without alienating them. Tons of gems from someone who has worked on many elite projects...

Today’s episode was ripped directly from one of our 10,000 NOs Insiders Acting Community weekly zooms where Matt addresses the challenges that face our members. Today, we discuss the possibility of not doing those things that everyone tells you “you should be doing”. Is saying No lazy? Or is saying No an extension of figuring out what you really want to do with your life and then doing, or not doing, that regardless of what the people around you think? Saying No to opportunities that don’t...

Today’s episode was ripped directly from one of our 10,000 NOs Insiders Acting Community weekly zooms where Matt addresses the challenges that face our members. Today, he questions whether his constant advice to members to “bet on themselves” is great or dangerous. We discuss the inherent risks in betting on yourself but also how perseverance and refusal to quit almost always pay off over the long haul. 10,000 NOs is here to inspire you and help you realize you are not alone if you’re...

Today’s episode was ripped directly from one of our 10,000 NOs Insiders Acting Community weekly zooms where Matt addresses the challenges that face our members. Today, we discuss the importance of the people we include in our inner circle. Matt’s entire motivation for creating Insiders in the first place was to give others the benefits he had from his tightest friendships within the industry: how those friends pushed him, inspired him and pulled him up after he got knocked down...

Today’s episode was ripped directly from one of our 10,000 NOs Insiders Acting Community monthly VIP zooms. Casting Director Stephanie Holbrook dishes advice on self-tape auditions and more. If you’re an actor, writer, filmmaker or anyone struggling to overcome rejection in your career or life, 10,000 NOs is here inspire you and help you realize you are not alone. So, if you like what you hear in the snippets from our Insiders Acting Community zooms, and want to learn more about it and how...

"I was so beaten down by the system. I remember thinking I need to rethink this whole thing. I'm just gonna be honest, I'm just gonna be real, I have nothing to lose at this point.” - John Magaro TODAY'S EPISODE OF 10,000 NOs Podcast is rife with takeaways for actors, from the craft of acting to the approach to auditions to the ups and downs of a long career, even for someone as well-respected as John Magaro. John was one of the leads of last year's Best Picture Academy Award nominee, Past...

"I really just decided with this one that it was going to happen... if I had to shoot it on my iPhone that's what we were gonna do.” - Shane Atkinson   TODAY'S EPISODE OF 10,000 NOs Podcast is pulled from one of the 10,000 NOs Insiders Community’s monthly VIP Industry Guest Zooms, where we bring industry winners in to help our members navigate their acting careers. Perhaps the biggest inspiration and takeaway came from Shane's message to our members: don’t wait for someone else to come in and...

In TODAY'S EPISODE OF 10,000 NOs Podcast , a solo riff, I talk about the social experiment known as The Metro Experiment, where world class violinist Joshua Bell was observed playing his $3.5 million dollar Stradivarius in disguise on a subway platform, wearing a hoody as commuters waited for their train. The results were astounding. And they shine a light on artists who have been devaluing themselves, or giving up, because gatekeepers (those who have the power to move said artists' careers...

Kellie Roy has racked up over 100 casting credits over the past two decades in Hollywood, from tiny indies to huge blockbusters like the Aquaman franchise and massively successful Box Office champions like the Insidious installments, The Conjuring, Furious 7, XXX and many more.  When she sat down with the members of our 10,000 NOs Insiders Community, she shared helpful hints with our actors about the casting director's desire to help them win the job. Kellie helped yours truly win my part in...

Terry Knickerbocker has coached elite actors like Daniel Craig, Michelle Williams and Sam Rockwell. He's coached actors on performances that have won an Academy Award, Golden Globe Awards and Screen Actors Guild Awards. That's how he became dubbed "New York's Top Acting Coach".  But in Today's Episode of 10,000 NOs Podcast, Terry returns (he was on the pod before the pandemic) to speak to the members of our 10,000 NOs Insiders Community and dispel the myth of the elite. He believes that the...

St. Patrick's Day brings the phrase "The Luck of the Irish" out more than the rest of the year. So today's episode dives into the history of that phrase as an excuse to discuss a central theme of this podcast and a philosophy of almost every guest we've been lucky enough to have on it: Luck is when preparation meets opportunity.  Choosing purpose over comfort, looking forward to goals and then reverse-engineering the path to them, and making sacrifices on a daily basis are all ingredients in...

If we wait around until "the time is perfect" or "the draft is done" or we get "the perfect take", we'll never try out for that team or ask that girl/guy out or make that movie or send in a self-tape audition... or release that podcast episode or write that book. So let this week be a reminder to you that if you are just in the game, you can pat yourself on the back for giving it a whirl. Could you be better? Sure. Do you want to strive to be better? Absolutely. But maybe right now your best...

While many people identify Award Winning Actor Michael Imperioli with his role of Christopher Moltisanti on The Sopranos, or more recently, as Dominic Di Grasso, on The White Lotus, his talent stretches far beyond his thespian roots. He has written screenplays, novels and episodes of television. He has developed Television shows, plays in a band, practices Buddhism and has run his own theater with his wife. He is an artist’s artist. Far from the hot-headed Moltisanti, Michael ponders, jokes...

Today’s episode is pulled from one of the 10,000 NOs Insiders Community’s monthly VIP Industry Guest Zooms. Elite talent manager, and Academy-Award nominated Producer of Belfast, Becca Kovacik, speaks to our members about the nuances between agent representation and manager representation. She gives out gems about the nature of a healthy relationship with your representatives in the entertainment industry and, if you're searching for new representation, offers advice on how to assemble a...

In TODAY'S EPISODE OF 10,000 NOs Podcast triple-threat Mike Doyle talks with me and my 10,000 NOs Insiders Community about his transition from an actor who was just waiting for the phone to ring to an actor who writes and directs his own films (with Academy Award nominees, Emmy Award winners and SAG Award winners) in order to have a bigger piece of the creative pie and tell stories that he's passionate about.  Mike is a living example of the kind of artists I'm constantly pushing members of...

Today’s episode features my longtime friend, Chris Messina, from when he graciously dropped in via Zoom as our Industry VIP to speak to the participants of our first Let's Shoot the Rehearsal Weekend-Intensive On-camera Retreat back in June of 2023 (we are very excited to be hosting our 4th iteration of the Weekend-Intensive next weekend). This is a MUST-LISTEN for the actors amongst you: Chris has made a career of coloring outside the lines, following his impulses and finding a unique way to...