Today’s episode is a solo riff based on two podcasts that I recently listened to: former 10,000 NOs guest, Bedros Keuilian on The Bedros Keuilian Show talking about How to Silence the Negative Voices In Your Head in 2024 and Father Mike Schmitz on The Bible in a Year on Day 25: Job’s Questioning.  I delve into the merits of hard work and daily tasks, while also discussing the need for faith and belief in something larger than what is right in front of you (the spiritual realm). I also get...

Today’s episode is the third part from my conversation with my agent from Buchwald Talent in LA. Marion came by and spoke to our virtual 10,000 NOs Insiders Community on one of our monthly VIP Zooms and the reaction to her our first two episodes from this convo (What Talent Agents Are Looking for In An Actor and Help Me Help You) were so well received that we cut this together to glean some more gems from her perspective.  Marion points out that you don't need to be a social media influencer...

Today’s episode is pulled from one of our 10,000 NOs Insiders Community’s monthly VIP Industry Guest Zooms. If you listened to, or watched our New Year’s Episode, you’re familiar with Wendy Braun. I liked her so much that I wanted to bring her back for this one. We focus more on the Q & A portion of our conversation. You may hear a few sentences that were played in that other episode, but that’s only to shed light on the rest of our talk.  Wendy is a great resource, her offerings are not...

Before moving with my family from Southern California back to the East Coast to be closer with family, I sat down with Emmy Award Winner (The Sopranos, Boardwalk Empire), Academy Award Nominee (The Wolf of Wall Street), Terence Winter. Then we moved, and I paused the podcast. And this episode stayed locked on my hard drive for almost three years.  Time has done nothing but age Terry’s stories like a fine wine. You will laugh your ass off, be inspired, and realize that even those on top had...

Today’s episode is pulled from one of the 10,000 NOs Insiders Community’s weekly Zooms and it’s very specific: it was recorded the day after the first Let’s Shoot the Rehearsal Weekend-Intensive On-Camera Retreat we put on in New York City. I was fired up after it’s success. And it led to this conversation with our members about something that I’m asked about all the time from young actors and artists-in-general: they say, “I can’t get any traction.” Or “I can’t get started.” Or… if they’re...

Today’s episode is pulled from one of the 10,000 NOs Insiders Community’s monthly VIP Industry Guest Zooms. Actor and Actor-mentor Wendy Braun talks to our group about the progress that is sometimes made by NOT being such a doer (she is a self-proclaimed recovering Type-A Doer). We discuss the choices we make and how it helps when we consciously choose things out of love versus fear. This led us down a path reminiscent of my conversation a few years ago with Poo-Pourrie Founder/CEO Suzy...

In honor of our Christmas Day release, today’s episode is a meditation on the benefits of putting our own wants, needs and ego desires aside and serving others first.   We all want to do good things for others. But sometimes our knee-jerk reaction of “wanting to get ours” gets in the way. Today’s riff is a reminder that the shortest, quickest path to serenity and happiness is actually through serving others.   10,000 NOs podcast is now in it’s 2.0 phase: after a long pause from late 2021 to...

This one is a must-listen for actors. Talent Agent Marion Campbell of Buchwald Talent in Los Angeles, who joined us as one of our monthly Guest VIP Zoom calls with the 10,000 NOs Insiders Community, advises our actor-members on their approach to handling, and pursuing, representatives. Much of her advice comes down to a few tenets: know yourself, know the business, know your place within the business, and then figure out, and express to your agent, what kinds of material, roles and...

Today’s episode is pulled from one of the 10,000 NOs Insiders Community’s monthly VIP Industry Guest Zooms. Writer and award-winning documentary filmmaker (Sundance Winner for Joshua: Teenager vs Superpower, 2017) Joe Piscatella, a friend and collaborator of mine, has a career that reads like the book of Job: every time he rose to the top of one sector, the industry changed (reality TV squeezing sitcoms, a writer’s strike in 2007 putting an end to his hot streak as a comedy writer). But Joe’s...

Today’s episode is pulled from one of the 10,000 NOs Insiders Community’s monthly VIP Industry Guest Zooms. Actor Pej Vahdat, whom I overlapped with on City on a Hill while he was simultaneously shooting The Old Man with Jeff Bridges as well as Dynasty, has some great stories. He tells us why he went by “Jason Vaughn” early on (it’s a hilarious story that involves him selling airplane parts and creating an agency with his friend just to get themselves auditions).  As with most of our guests...

In this excerpt, from one of our LET’S SHOOT THE REHEARSAL weekend-intensive on-camera retreats in NYC, Industry VIP Yul Vazquez drops in to discuss the power we have as actors. He talks about treating auditions as being your time just as much as anyone else’s, approaching the role in your own way (in case you get the gig and have to do it for 10 years), begging for forgiveness rather than asking permission (when trying something new) and not allowing your creative wings to be clipped by...

John "JC" Capone was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. It disrupted his life, compromised his motor skills and redefined relationships with former friends. It did NOT take his spirit. Or his ability to fight back. One man, who happens to be the director of the hit Netflix film, Reptile, starring Benicio Del Toro and Justin Timberlake, took notice and went to bat for him. After a too-long hiatus from the podcast, Matt was asked to sit down with JC by a mutual friend, just to help him get...

In this excerpt, from one of our monthly VIP Live Zoom calls with the 10,000 NOs Insiders Community, Talent Agent Marion Campbell or Buchwald LA cuts straight to what young actors need to hear: what does it take to not just attract the right agent, but to help them help you? Who you are "has to be reflected on your headshot, and that has to be reflected in your demo tape... whatever it is that you're selling. So I get frustrated when an actor doesn't know what they are... I'm not going to be...

In this excerpt, from one of our weekly Live Zoom calls with the 10,000 NOs Insiders Community, we discuss the fine line between being respectful of others while also asserting one's own will and personality. We talk about it amidst the backdrop of being a guest star on a TV show, but it applies to any situation in life: figure out the dynamics of the room, work together with others to add value, but don't diminish yourself in the process. Monday Morsels are the short-form companion to our...

In this excerpt, from one of our weekly Live Zoom calls with the 10,000 NOs Insiders Community, we discuss the fact that, sometimes, just being is enough. Instead of worrying, and pushing, trying to convince everyone that we are one way or another (both as a character and in life), we can just live with the thought that we are enough. And many times, to our pleasant surprise, that ends up being way more than enough. Monday Morsels are the short-form companion to our Friday Interviews of...

In this excerpt from one of our weekly Live Zoom calls with the 10,000 NOs Insiders Community, our monthly VIP, Xavier Dean, shares some very specific branding and marketing knowledge that he used to go from homeless to owning a 7-figure real estate company, a branding company, and boasting an Instagram platform with 1.3M followers. He has taken what he learned in business and applied it to his newfound acting career which has far exceeded my expectations from when I met him. But underneath...

In this excerpt, from one of our weekly Live Zoom calls with the 10,000 NOs Insiders Community, our monthly VIP, Buchwald Talent Agent Marion Campbell and I, talk about the art of the self-tape. She said some clients have nailed it. And then there are some clients that just can't figure it out. And they don't know how to do it correctly. Rather than describe it, I'll leave you this quote from Marion which sums up the kind of gold this episode is full of, "so many clients have said to me over...

In this excerpt, from one of our weekly Live Zoom calls with the 10,000 NOs Insiders Community, we discuss the fact that, while we all (hopefully) aim to do our best work all the time, sometimes just showing up is your best that day. If we allow ourselves to skip training sessions, or anything in our life that we've prioritized, it can be a slippery slope. Sometimes just the act of not being completely absent is enough to get you in motion to the point where, eventually, inspiration kicks...

In this excerpt from one of our weekly Live Zoom calls with the 10,000 NOs Insiders Community, we discuss those occasional walls that you hit in life where you feel tired and exhausted with everything. Accepting those dips for what they are isn’t necessarily a bad thing. When former 10,000 NOs guest, Navy SEAL Jason Redman, took the time to publicly share about the need for people to ask for help instead of always grinning and bearing it, it was a reminder to the rest of us that we don't have...

In this excerpt from one of our weekly Live Zoom calls with the 10,000 NOs Insiders Community, we discuss the idea of being present and how there is simply nowhere else to be. The past is gone; the future is our imagination; the only thing we have is right now. Many of us enjoy activities like surfing or riding rollercoasters, not realizing that the real thrill is that they force us to be present. So it’s in those moments that we are most fully alive. For many actors, on some subconscious...

In this excerpt from one of our weekly Live Zoom calls with the 10,000 NOs Insiders Community, we discuss the idea of taking matters into your own hands and giving yourself the right energy to build your own career. We realize that it's not about waiting for approval or following the crowd – you can create opportunities of your own and be in control of your destiny. For example, since joining the group, Insider’s member Bryce has created a short film that earned him his SAG card; an amazing...

In this excerpt, from one of our monthly VIP Live Zoom calls with the 10,000 NOs Insiders Community, with Best-selling Author/Speaker/Mountaineer Alison Levine, Alison shares with us that climbing Mount Everest includes a lot of climbing down Mount Everest. In order for climbers to get used to the altitude to which they'll be ascending, they take several trips to camps at various heights on the mountain. But between each night at the higher camps, they have to go back down to basecamp (which...

In this excerpt, from one of our weekly Live Zoom calls with the 10,000 NOs Insiders Community, we discuss the value of speaking your ideas out loud so that others can build upon them with you and help you create something even better. Despite most people's fears that their ideas are going to be stolen and they're going to be cut out of the mix, the truth is that the idea is nothing without great execution. The saddest thing is to speak to someone who has been holding on to a "great idea" for...

In this excerpt, from one of our weekly Live Zoom calls with the 10,000 NOs Insiders Community, we talk about that thing that hangs most people up: procrastination. Rather than talking about doing something, just do it and you'll find that anxiety goes down and, magically, the thing that you're doing becomes more enjoyable. This discussion is ultimately about reminding yourself that activities you think of as obligations are actually gifts that can bring you joy once you get into motion. And...

In this excerpt, from one of our weekly Live Zoom calls with the 10,000 NOs Insiders Community, we continue the eternal debate of how much to expose on social media. Questions arise about how much vulnerability is the right amount and how many of our wins can we appropriately share without alienating our audience as a braggart. What we come to, among other things, is that sharing some of our own weaknesses and inconsistencies (which we all have... yes, even you) helps others to get to know us...