Believe in yourself!

So being in the film industry, I have had a really wonderful time. I’ve not only had the opportunity to work on many, many productions and meet wonderful people, but I have also had the opportunity to work on films and TV shows in different capacities as well, you know, just experiencing every department, and it’s truly been a pleasure.

For a while I was even head of production for a small TV network, but that’s a whole different story. However, during that time I had the opportunity to meet artists on all different levels of success and this is what I’d like to say about that… to me, if you’re an artist, you’re an artist. You don’t have to have achieved mega success to make that true and the courage that it takes to be an artist is almost indescribable

Let me use myself as an example. Even if I’m just doing regular modeling, not even nudes or anything scary, I’m still putting my face and body in front of the camera to be critiqued, and that raises all sorts of feelings. And when you are acting, it’s the same. You’re putting yourself out there and it’s a lot. No matter whether you are acting, modeling, painting, really anything, it puts a lot of strain on you. And honestly, you can feel it when you’re working with people who are sceptical, but the good artists are the ones that really put themselves out there the most.

For example, in terms of my experience with photographers, I can always tell the professional photographers from the newbies because they’re more willing. The professional ones do not care. You can have other people edit their pictures, they don’t care whether you tag them or don’t tag them on social media, basically they’re ok with whatever. While some of them are still quite picky about what images are seen, only wanting the finished products to be shared, many will just give you your pictures and don’t care if you look at all of them and are happy to hand over the RAW files.

As a producer, I have had the privilege to see raw footage and that is not something that the public gets to see. Normally the public only gets to see the finished product, so it’s given me opportunities to see the unpolished product of other artists, flaws and all. Every time, it has really enforced for me just how much courage it takes to be an artist and also how hard we can be on ourselves. I remember talking to an artist while I was head of production and I was asking her to participate in a show, which I can’t name for legal reasons, but it was a comedy show, so no nudity or anything risqué. I remember talking to her about it and she asked me, “Do you believe in me, that I can do this? I need you to believe in me.” It was at that moment that I realised something important, something I had to share with her. I told her straight, “The only person who needs to believe in you, is you!”

This is something that I really, really want to emphasize and I hope that this hits home to all other artists.

It doesn’t matter.

It doesn’t matter if your friends or family support you or not. What matters most is if you believe in yourself. And the more you believe in yourself, the more you will keep working. And the more you keep working, the more comfortable you’ll get and the more you’ll believe in yourself. So it’s very important that you have the faith in yourself, that you want others to have in you and the more faith you show in yourself, the more others will see that and they’ll either get on board or they won’t. But you have to take that risk, stand up and say “this is me and this is what I’m doing” and if other people aren’t 100% fully onboard with you, feel free to distance yourself from the negativity. Have a conversation or write a letter. Say thank you, I love you as a mother, father, brother, sister, mother, uncle, teacher, friend, boss, co-worker, whatever, but this is my choice and it’s what I’m doing. You don’t have to support me and you don’t have to tell me that my work is great, in fact, I’m not going to show you my work anymore and we don’t have to talk about it, but I’m not going to stop doing what I love.

It can be lonely and heartbreaking, but if this is your passion, then you have to stick to your guns and focus on your faith and your belief in you and your abilities, even if you have to do it alone. This is important because like I’ve said before, I truly believe that artists change the world and they can make it so much better. I cannot tell you how passionate I am about artists really protecting themselves and standing up for themselves, because when you do that and you share your art with the world, it doesn’t matter if you’re famous or successful or not, it matters that you’re doing it.

You’re out there creating, out there in the public eye and that matters because you don’t know who you’re going to inspire. It may be the next Steven Spielberg or the next Meryl Streep if you’re an actor or perhaps the next Picasso or Monet if you’re a painter for example, you see what I mean, and in turn, that person can change the world.

So every little thing that you do, it matters. And it means something. Art is beautiful and we need more people that are willing to risk it, to risk embarrassment and hurt and do it anyway. To go out on a limb and to protect themselves and to work to support and protect other artists, because I think it is something that truly can make the planet better.

So just remember, the only person who has to believe in you, is you. You have to be the one where it starts.