I hope these words bring you clarity and encouragement today.

There is a select group of people who are going to naturally vibe with who you effortlessly are. This is great news.

If you are operating a small business, (and if you want to make your life as a storyteller, you are operating a small business), you only need a small, loyal customer base to have a successful go at it.

Example: when I ran my teaching studio in Los Angeles, I worked out that I needed 120 regular clients in order to teach 20 hours a week. I had about 500 on my mailing list. With that lil number, I was busy and able to pay my bills.

120 musical theatre nuts out of how many in LA County—not a big percentage. But if I had more than that, I’d have to start hiring.

Think about the life of an actor now. Let’s pretend there are 100 casting directors in your market. How many do you need to believe in your skills in order to start getting in doors? A much smaller number than 100.

If five casting directors are wild about you and keep calling you in, one day that’s going to turn into a job and another. (PS that’s about the number of offices that consistently called me in when I was a working actor in NY.)

And how many agents’ offices do you need? That’s right: one. You need one, if even that. I knew many consistently working actors in NYC who were agent-free.

Please inquire into this thought distortion we pick up–that everybody needs to love and understand us and validate our talent. You don’t even need to validate your talent. You just need to bring your best work into the room and communicate it better every day.

A couple days ago I told Melissa that I was feeling really confused. She said, “The world is objectively confusing right now!” Oh, right.

Please remember that, you all. There are less things that seem readily graspable right now, so let’s focus on what we have agency over—making art and sharing art in the ways we can.

And remember. You just need a lil itty bitty tribe that gets you and your work to have a career that’ll make you complain about how you need to find some balance.

Bless all y’all. Be kind to yourselves. Do your work. Your people will recognize you.

***Please do yourself a favor and get to know Seth Godin’s work. I believe he’s an important voice for art makers of all kinds.***