Back To Square One

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Jen Levin.jpgLately, I’ve had a couple of setbacks in both my personal and professional life. In my personal life, I recently lost 2 dogs (one which we had for 13 years and a young puppy that we had just gotten who died after 3 days). I’ve been trying to stay upbeat and not let my personal life affect my professional one, but then my professional life took a hit too.

Before I complain, I will say that I’m extremely grateful that I still have my agents and they still believe in me. But besides that one positive, I haven’t had an audition since October for anything (I just looked back at my calendar to check because that seems like a shockingly long time). It’s tough not to get frustrated at that. I know that my agents are working hard for me, but I can’t rely on them to do all the work. And while I know that there aren’t always a ton of auditions for my type, other ladies that I audition against have gone out since October so there have been chances for me in the past.

Another setback that I had was losing my day job. The performing arts venue that I used to do telesales at has decided to get rid of their entire telesales department. There was nothing I could do to save my job. So right now, I’m on unemployment but desperately looking for a new day job. It’s not easy to find a job that pays enough and still has flexibility, but I’m trying.

While I’m out of work, I’m trying to take advantage of this new free time and making sure that the acting setbacks don’t become permanent. The first step I’m taking is getting new headshots. It’s been a while since I’ve had new pictures (and I’m sure some casting directors are sick of seeing the same photos when I’m submitted). Since my last photos, I’ve changed my hair a bit and have lost about 30 pounds. So I’m scheduled for new pictures at the end of the month (the soonest my photographer had time). I’ll write about my headshot session prep work soon.

I’m also looking into getting back into classes. Not just to brush up on my skills but for the networking opportunities. I haven’t been in class in a while. I used to study in a group class once a week as well as have private sessions with an amazing acting coach, Kip King. He was a founding member of The Groundlings so his classes had a lot of improv in them. Kip passed away a few years ago and I’ve been having trouble moving on. But it’s time to find another great acting coach to push me.

And finally, I’m just working on staying positive even when it seems like things might never get better. There’s a daily affirmation app that I love (you can read more about that here), and having that as part of my morning routine is helping me try to start every day on a positive note.

That’s my update on my life for right now! Hopefully soon I’ll have some great news to share with you all. And I’d love to hear your tips for when you are in a personal or professional slump and how you get out of it. Please share your stories in the comments!