You're listening to Podcasting Made Simple.

Hi, I'm Claire Composoneal. I want you to imagine that you are in a classroom. This is a small

classroom. There's about 15 people here. You're at the front of the room. There's someone

next to you. You've just given a performance and you're anxiously awaiting the

feedback from your teacher. You're sitting there. It's quiet. You're getting a little nervous.

And the teacher tells you to get over yourself. Oh, imagine how you're feeling right now. I would think

it's probably even more nervous, even more

anxious, incredibly self-conscious, wondering why you're there. Why did you think you should be in this

class in the first place? You just want to hide under the covers and get out of that room. Well,

I'm here to tell you that that experience happened to me and it was actually some of the best advice I ever received.

And I think this is some of the best advice that you can remember as a podcast guest.

Get over yourself.

Okay, what do I mean by that?

Well, let me share a little bit of the context.

I heard this when I was enrolled in an acting class.

I was attending a class with Laurel Vuvres.

She was the teacher teaching us the Stanley Meisner acting technique.

The studio was called In the Moment acting studio, and I learned so much from Laurel and so much from the words of Stanley Meisner.

His whole technique is about being present and being

in the moment and how that's so necessary as an actor. But what keeps us from getting there?

Ourselves. Not listening to the other person and being too self-conscious. That really holds us back from having that

authentic connection with the other person, which is so necessary to good acting. And I would argue

...