Announcer:

Are you ready for an open discussion with the best of the best and the best of what's next? Welcome to the Tony DUrso Show. Join in on a great conversation today with some of the world's great influencers as they showcase great advice and techniques that made them the game changers they are today. Now here's Tony DUrso.

Tony:

Welcome. I'm your host, Tony DUrso. I interview some of the most successful people in the world, and I thank you for joining us. This show is dedicated to helping you turn your vision into reality, and here's an elite entrepreneur who provides insights and guidance you can use to move along your vision path. Catch all of my shows at www.voiceamerica.com or Tony D-U-R-S-O.com and you can also go to your favorite podcast platform, such as Apple podcasts and search for Tony D-U-R-S-O. Get 20% off Grammarly® Premium when you sign up at grammarly.com/D-U-R-S-O. More details just ahead so please stay tuned. Today's show is about the art of acting with Michelle Danner. Let's see what we can learn today. At the end of this interview, I'm going to do a summary recap of what we went over so stay tuned for that. Michelle Danner is an international film director & acting coach. Her student list includes the likes of - I hope I don't butcher any of the names - some of them are James Franco, Seth MacFarlane, Salma Hayek, Henry Cavill, Zooey Deschanel, Gerard Butler, Chris Rock, Chris Martin, Penelope Cruz, Michael Pena, Michelle Rodriguez, Kate Del Castillo and many, many others. Here we go. Hi, Michelle. Welcome to the Tony DUrso Show. So glad to have you on with us today.

Michelle:

Well, I'm very happy to speak with you today.

Tony:

Thank you, and I'm looking forward to finding out more about the art of acting. It's very cool. You come from a very distinguished... you come from the top agency in the world, the top acting agency, which is extremely prestigious.

Michelle:

My dad opened the William Morris Agency. It was the agency that he opened. He was the president in Europe, in Paris actually. He opened the very first offices in the '60s, and then the William Morris went on to flourish. Now, I don't know if they're still there today, but obviously we know William Morris Endeavor is one of the biggest agencies. So my dad, he started out as an agent. He did not start out in the mail room though of the William Morris. He started out as a producer and he was very well respected. He spoke lots of languages. And so when he came to open the very first building, the offices off the Champs-Élysées in Paris, it was him that they asked.

Tony:

How cool is that! I have some questions about this, but before we do Michelle, and I appreciate you letting us know a little bit, but we want to actually follow your journey to success. So how did it all start for you? Were you with your dad a lot? Did you pick up the business? Were you trained? Kind of walk us through that a little bit.

Michelle:

I would hide under my dad's desk at the William Morris agency, and some really great artists would come from Édith Piaf to Maurice Chevalier, some older European actors. He worked with Marlene Dietrich, Sammy Davis Jr., Julio Iglesias, Liza Minnelli and a lot of French actors, and I was hiding under the desk and I was listening in and at the same time simultaneously, I was writing. I fell in love with literature - French authors, Italian authors, and Spanish authors. I would read plays; I would read novels. I would just read a book a day. So I was always passionate about the arts in that way and writing.

Tony:

Michelle, when these notable stars came into your dad's office and you're hiding, did you know who they were? Did you have any idea? Seen some of their movies or anything?

Michelle:

No, no idea at all. But now I have in my home a gallery of pictures - my dad and Édith Piaf, my dad and the Comets. You know, the famous song, One Two Three o clock four o clock Rock. Actually, there's a whole story there with my dad. He fell in love with my mom before I was born and so potentially, I could have not been born if my parents didn't get back together. So no, of course at that time I was super young. I was three years old, four, five, and I was just soaking it all in, but I think that obviously somewhere along the line, it had some impressions on me.

Tony:

And how did you come about the vision for your current success? Because you teach acting to some amazing household names out there, people in the movies today, people that we all recognize. How did that vision come about?

Michelle:

Well, I don't know how it came about. I think the vision found me at an early age. I was definitely very, very passionate, curious about literature, words, acting, stage, theater, movies, television shows. All of it engulfed me and I just wanted to create. I wanted to tell stories. I always love to hear a good story.

Tony:

Michelle, what's the purpose for what you do? Why do you teach acting?

Michelle:

I teach it because it feels almost like I have to pass it down. I have a tremendous amount of knowledge and many things that I don't know, but the knowledge that I have, I've acquired throughout the years. I was fortunate enough to study with some great iconic teachers, such as Stella Adler and such as Herbert Berghof and Uta Hagen and some other amazing teachers in New York. And it almost felt I've studied at a very young age. If somebody would have followed me in all the classes that I took and I took many, they would have seen me just riveted to the teacher and into the craft of acting. So at some point it became just obvious to me that it was important to share this with the younger generation, other artists and people kept calling me. There was a turning point moment when I remember I was in my guest house in Santa Monica. I was supposed to go on an audition, two auditions actually and that was going to take away like six hours of my time and I would have had to cancel eight actors that wanted to work with me that day. So I weighed it. I made a conscious decision and I went - work with the eight actors or go on to auditions that you might or might not get? And then I decided I would work with the actors and from then on, the decision became very clear.

Tony:

That's a very interesting story. Good, wise decision. Look at where you are now.

Michelle:

Yeah, I know. I'm very happy with what I do. I'm happy with my profession. I just finished a marathon of classes just now. I taught four in a row and ran into that whole group of students in the lobby yesterday and they were waiting for a movement class to start and they looked at me and said, are you going to teach it? And I say, well, no, I don't teach movement, but we have a great teacher. And they all in unison went, Oh! That is so nice that they enjoyed spending time with me because I've been shooting a movie on a set. And so when I shoot, obviously I have a great faculty of other teachers that teach and I basically get to direct, so I just came back to do these four classes and really went inside of myself and I didn't have to remind myself. I just know how much I love teaching and it's important to pass it down. And that's a long answer to your question to pass it down.

Tony:

Long answers are fine. This is the art of acting with Michelle Danner and you can find her at www.michelledanner.com. I'm going to spell that. It's M-I-C-H-E-L-L-E-D-A-N-N-E-R. www.michelledanner.com. Michelle, let's get into your vision path. Let's talk a little bit about the art of acting. First of all, what's so difficult about acting?

Michelle:

It's an art form that's elusive. It's not something that you can ever master, and you can never say I got this thing. I know how to do it. It's not like a program that you're going to learn for a computer or for another profession. This profession is infinite. So you always can learn. You can always go deeper. You always investigate, explore different concepts that will make you the best storyteller that you can be, but you have to be like the wonder child and you have to I think acknowledge and accept that you will never ever think that you know it all, because you don't. And also because the moment you think that you do, you'll become cocky and arrogant, then that will not make you an interesting actor.

Tony:

This is the Tony DUrso Show where you can learn from the wisdom and success of others to help you move on your vision path. Just ahead the chat continues about the art of acting with Michelle Danner, but first it's time for us to take a short break. See you back here in just a moment.

Tony:

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Tony:

All right. We're back on the Tony DUrso Show where you can learn from the wisdom and success of others to help you move on your vision path. Let's see what we can learn today. Today's show is about the art of acting with Michelle Danner. At the end of this interview, I'll give you a summary of what I got out of this, and I'll share some pointers with you. Stay tuned for that. A dedicated mom with one son who is an aspiring filmmaker, Michelle still has her day job overseeing the faculty of the Los Angeles Acting Conservatory and conducting her weekly acting class. Michelle's list of students has included Christian Slater, Salma Hayek, Gerard Butler, Seth MacFarlane, Penelope Cruz, Chris Rock, Gabrielle Union, and Zooey Deschanel. A longtime student of legendary acting teachers like Stella Adler and Uta Hagen, Michelle's eclectic approach which she calls the "golden box", allows actors the freedom to employ a wide variety of techniques. All right. And now back to the chat with Michelle. Now on the flip side, is there an easy part of acting?

Michelle:

Yes. I think that when you know how to do the work and you have skills, yes, that easy part of acting is quite joyful because it doesn't feel like you're acting at all. You know, there's that story where the first A.D. on a movie with Gregory Peck found his script and found a lot of NARs written in the script and he asked Mr. Peck what does NAR mean? And he said, no acting required, and I love that. Sometimes it's there for you to grasp and sometimes you have to work for it. You have to penetrate the character, you have to inhabit the skin, but ultimately when you know how to do the work, when you have craft, it's a very joyful experience.

Tony:

Michelle, once upon a time, I typed a number of screenplays. I was a speed typist and for a little pocket money, I would type up screenplays that people were doing in universities and so forth. Very interesting material. And somehow in that I learned perhaps erroneously that there were two main schools of acting at the time. One was just always be yourself. No matter what the script is, you're always yourself and I could be totally wrong and I could be making the biggest faux pas ever, but actors like Kevin Costner, I think he's just always himself as he's always the same person in all the movies and I could be wrong. But then the other school of acting, I was taught perhaps incorrectly that every script you're somebody different and you have to be totally different and totally unique like nobody you've ever been before. Perhaps you could make some sense out of that for us?

Michelle:

Well, some actors are known as character actors and some actors are known as personality actors. Clint Eastwood for instance, is a personality actor. He plays that character. Barbara Streisand. Sometimes personality actors have such a strong personality that it seeps in in everything that they do. And then you have character actors. You have actors like Daniel Day Lewis, like Meryl Streep that are able to disappear inside of the character. They morph into it to such degree that you don't see them. I mean, for the longest time, I could not recognize Daniel Day Lewis, Michael Fassbender. There's some actors that under really just transform themselves and embrace a certain transformation, but it doesn't mean that there aren't some wonderful character actors. The Rock, he plays, you know, it's his personality, personality actors. I mean, that's what I meant, sorry. It's not to be said that there aren't some great personality actors.

Tony:

Okay. I'm beginning to get it. And now before we go a little bit more into acting, our audience is comprised heavily of entrepreneurs, small business owners. We have those in the corporate world as well. And we're always looking for how to help us on our journey to success. It's not just one thing that helps any business grow. It's many things and we want to learn from the success of others. So while we go into this and talk about you and your success, what do you believe that we could learn from acting to help us on our journey to success?

Michelle:

Well, I've observed because of all the very well-known actors that I work with, that everybody has a common denominator, which is an incredible work ethic. They're just very, very focused, very concentrated on the task at hand, and they really understand what needs to get done. They're able to immerse themselves and be completely in the moment, lose themselves in the moment, either of rehearsal or of actual creation. So they really show up in a big way. And I think that that's a lot of what life is about anyway, is to show up, but certainly very true when you're in front of the camera, or when you're on stage.

Tony:

And what I understand from acting, especially film acting, those are some long hours that they put in.

Michelle:

Oh yeah. I was just on a movie set just now. And I mean, literally it's a 12-hour, day, 12 and a half hours, but I mean, if you're directing, you're obviously there more like 16 hours and if you're acting, if you're the lead. I had this kid that was in every single scene and he was there every single day, the whole day and it's an enormous amount of hours. The theme that goes around is you don't get paid to act, you get paid to wait a that is probably very, very true. There's a lot of waiting around and all of a sudden you're tired and you've waited for six hours, for seven hours, and then you put the makeup on and you have to open it up and get there and go to that place emotionally. So it requires a lot of discipline and I think discipline is an important word.

Tony:

You brought up a great point because you have to be there in that moment when the time comes while you're waiting, waiting, waiting and that's a very interesting parallel in the business world. Sometimes we don't know, but all of a sudden we wind up walking into a sales opportunity or some important moment with a client or a customer that we didn't expect and we have to be on scene. We have to be on point, even though we have other things or even catastrophes running around in our lives right at that moment.

Michelle:

Absolutely.

Tony:

Michelle, I'd like to talk about some of the movies you've worked on. This is a really interesting world. I've interviewed actors, actresses directors, producers, and so forth. It's a very interesting world and I would like to see if we can get some takeaways for the entrepreneurs and businessmen in our audience. One of the things I wanted to ask about, it's kind of an interesting title here, your latest film called Bad Impulse.

Michelle:

Yes. Very excited about that movie. It's a psychological thriller with some horror and supernatural, inspired a little bit by The Shining. A wonderful writer, Jason Chase Tyrell wrote it and he asked me to direct it and I was lucky enough to just put together a great cast of actors from Paul Sorvino to an Australian actor called Grant Buller and an English actress called Sonya Walger and then a slew of up-and-coming young actors. We had a great crew, including a cameo from Rebecca Black. A lot of people know her from the Friday song. She's quite lovely. And we've been doing the festival circuit. We've won many awards at this point, actually for best movie, best director and people, but more importantly, the audiences seemed to love it. They say it's scary; it scares them. It's like almost a Black Mirror episode if you watch that, but maybe even scarier, but not a slasher. It's not a slasher movie. It's a psychological thriller that people have told me keeps them on the edge of their seat.

Tony:

Michelle, congratulations on the awards that you've won. This movie Bad Impulse, can we find it on Netflix, or where could the audience check it out?

Michelle:

Hopefully soon, audiences will be able to see Bad Impulse everywhere, including Netflix, and then we'll see where everybody can. I'm sure it will be on demand, then it'll be everywhere else.

Tony:

It's out there, guys. Go check it out. Bad Impulse by Michelle Danner and we'll say no more so we don't spoil it for you. Another movie that I wanted to chat a little bit about. You started production, I think that's where you were just before this interview. You started production on a movie called The Runner.

Michelle:

Yes. Very, very excited about this project. It came to me one night when I was watching a news report and I started to sob and I wrote a treatment based on what happens to kids when they're forced to wire up and bring down the drug kingpin. Sometimes car crashes and horrible tragedies happen. And so I gave it to my favorite writer, Jason, who wrote Bad Impulse and he wrote a screenplay. It took him a little bit. He had a baby in between, but he wrote a screenplay and then we started to work on the screenplay and different drafts of it. But we got to a shooting script and I sent it to Cameron Douglas, who is the son of Michael Douglas. Just a lovely, lovely actor, just so talented and he really responded to one of the leads, the part of the detective who busts this kid who's on drugs. And if anybody knows a little bit of Cameron's background, he's been doing a book tour with his dad - he wrote a memoir - then you know that he actually understands that story, but he plays the detective in this one. Again, we were able to assemble in The Runner a fantastic group of actors from Elizabeth Rohm to Eric Balfour to Jessica Amlee, a whole slew of young actors, Kerri Medders, Nadji Jeter who was the original voice of the animated Spiderman. Just a great, great group of people who made the story come to life.

Tony:

This is the Tony DUrso Show where you can learn from the wisdom and success of others to help you move on your vision path. Just ahead the chat continues about the art of acting with Michelle Danner, but first it's time for us to take a short break. See you back here in just a moment.

Tony:

Hey guys, you want to curl up with a good book? Here's a good book recommendation for you. I'm announcing a book that I've worked on for years with SKR and the title is Imen of Atlantis. The Pursuit is the first book; volume one. It's a trilogy. We've spent years on this. It's been a labor of love. The first book is now available at Tony D-U-R-S-O.com, and the second book is following in another week or so. It's a fiction story of what happened in Atlantis once upon a time, and there are multiple storylines that merge and converge together. Some of the key players are Bomo, Roni, Eyvind, Raidon, Korin, and it involves the main kingdoms of Carron, Carthinia and a plot against Bodon. You would think this has to do with contemporary times, but it was never written for that purpose. This first book is about the love of money, especially gold, and what people and rulers will do to get as much as they can. What is the Imen? Who are they? Well, once a powerful race, the Imen captured and dominated every nation and territory on the four land messes of Atlantis until none were left. War was a form of sport and no one presented a challenge great enough for them. It wasn't until they had reached the final conquest with a divine intervention personified as a messenger who was sent by the creator to offer an ultimatum. The Imen were given a choice to set down their weapons forever in exchange for the gifts of healing and regain their spiritual powers. Most accepted this ultimatum, and those who refused perished as predicted. The abilities of the Imen ...well, you'll have to read the books and see what they can do. They can do some things that are beyond amazing and beyond our reality. Go to Tony D-U-R-S-O.com and get The Pursuit. I think it's going to leave you breathless. Thanks, and happy reading. Announcer: Do you feel you have a bigger life's purpose than you're currently living? Of course, you do. Activate your passion as you tune into Sovereign Self with host Sophia Renee Miralis. Become the conscious creator of your own life. Connect with your most powerful and purposeful self in order to make big things happen for you now. Sophia and her guests are doing this every day and are sharing how you can step into this power too. Listen to Sovereign Self every Monday at 4:00 PM, Pacific time, 7:00 PM, Eastern on the Voice America Influencers channel. Announcer: Have you friended us on Facebook yet? Why not? Just go to facebook.com/Voice America or search for the keywords Voice America. Once you are part of our Facebook network, you'll receive daily messages about what's happening with our shows, this week's featured guests and new happenings at the Voice America Talk Radio Network and you can add your voice to the always active discussions on our timeline. Just go to facebook.com/ Voice America or search for Voice America. Announcer: We're with you wherever Alexa and Google are - at home, in the car, on your smart TV and your connected devices. Hey Alexa! Hey Google! Play my favorite Voice America podcast on Tune In. It's just that easy, but don't forget to make sure you actually mentioned the name of the podcast show to make it work. Announcer: It's time to unlock some of the best kept secrets in health, wealth, and happiness. Are you ready to live your life to the fullest and hear insider tips from today's experts? Then tuning into the Forbes Factor with celebrity TV host and inspirational icon Forbes Riley. She's a bestselling author and TV fitness expert, and you know her from QVC and HSN. Now she brings her expert advice and guests to the Voice America Influencers channel. Tune in live every Wednesday at 11:00 AM Pacific time and 2:00 PM Eastern time for the Forbes Factor. We guarantee it will be the best hour. Announcer: Find out what's happening on the Voice America Talk Radio Network by keeping up with us on Twitter. You can find us at Voice America TRN. Announcer: You're listening to the Tony DUrso Show with special VIP guests. Now back to Tony and his guest.

Tony:

All right, we're back on the Tony DUrso Show where you could learn from the wisdom and success of others to help you move on your vision path. Let's see what we can learn today. Today's show is about the art of acting with Michelle Danner. At the end of this interview, I'll give you a summary of what I got out of this, and I'll share some pointers with you. Stay tuned for that. Raised in a showbiz family and with a deep appreciation for all of the performing arts, Michelle also continues to run the boutique Cinema at the Edge Film Festival. It's an annual festival and is currently preparing to direct a new one-person play, Bonnie Culver's Norris starring Anne Archer based on the memoirs of the widow of writer Norman Mailer. And now back to the chat with Michelle.

Michelle:

I had a wonderful cinematographer and everybody was very excited. You know, I think it was rare. I've done several feature films. This is my fifth one and it's rare when a group of people come together that really like each other and makes jokes and works really well together, and I think we really achieve this in in this movie. We had a wrap party and people spoke and we just had a great time shooting this, even though it was not a comedy. This is a suspense thriller, suspense action thriller, but people really enjoyed I think being on set and being part of this family.

Tony:

Michelle, at the rate you're going on this now, do you foresee this being available in 2021 for the audience?

Michelle:

Oh yeah, absolutely. Even in the fall of 2020.

Tony:

Michelle, you're the artistic director at Edgemar Center for the Arts in Santa Monica, if I understand correctly. Anything interesting coming up there?

Michelle:

Well, I'm rehearsing as a matter of fact. After we speak, I'm on my way to rehearsal with a wonderful actress that I love, that I've worked with before - Anne Archer, and one of the movies that I directed before ...three movies ago, I directed a movie called Hello Herman with Norman Reedus. Screenplay written by the youngest son of Norman Mailer, John Buffalo Mailer. And he said to me, you know, a friend of my mom, Bonnie Culver, wonderful writer adapted the memoir of my mother called A Ticket to the Circus. Norris Church Mailer, a wonderful lady that I was lucky enough to meet several times. She's passed, but she has a beautiful memoir about her life and her life with Norman Mailer. She was married to him. She was his sixth wife. She was married to him for 33 years, and we have a wonderful show that chronicles and talks about that time in our history, a slice of American history, literature, politics. I mean, we know how Norman Mailer was highly polarizing. Very, very interesting content and whenever you read about someone's life, it makes you go down memory lane of your life and really gets you in touch with a sense of passage of time. And when people have contributed something to this world and provided a certain legacy that is strong and a powerful legacy, it's just really fascinating to read and to make this show come to life, so I'm very excited to direct this. Very excited.

Tony:

I wish you much success on that, and we look forward to hearing more about that. Another thing, I believe you do this every year. You run the Cinema at the Edge Film Festival I think every February. Is that right?

Michelle:

Yes, and it switches the dates. Now it's going to be February 21st. We're going to kick it off. We have 50 movies, narratives, short documentaries, and we've had some wonderful submissions this year from all over the world. Our committee and myself have picked some really extraordinary movies. I love grassroots film-making, and I love to go to film festivals and see movies that I otherwise would have never seen. There was a lot of power when someone tells a story, even if they don't have a zillion dollars to do it. I think Orson Welles was the one that said that art is really real art when you don't have the money to throw at it, and you're very surprised by this independent world. I have been privy throughout the years because this is, I believe our eighth year where I get to watch movies that are made and there's just so much great stuff. So we put together a program that I think our audiences here will enjoy, and it's going to kick off with parties and panels and Q&As and screenings, and then an award ceremony and it's always a fun time.

Tony:

How does somebody submit a film? Do you accept films from the audience?

Michelle:

Yes. They used to be able to submit films through Without a Box Freeway. Without a Box discontinued their services, so now it's through Film Freeway. It's an easy platform to submit. You know, I'm always happy when I get to sit down and watch all of these absolutely great movies. They're always personal, if not autobiographical, whether they're the documentaries or the shorts or the long form, and they really get you. I mean, they really, really get you. You don't have to have a zillion dollars to make a great movie.

Tony:

Michelle, is there any chance you can share an interesting story perhaps with a well-known star that you helped teach and is now out there in the movies?

Michelle:

I met Salma Hayek when she first moved to LA and she was lovely to work with. Very, very passionate and very driven, and I know that she had been told, because she had a heavy accent at the time. Her accent is, less now, but at the time when she moved here and people were discouraging and she did not let anyone discourage her. She not only worked hard as an actress, but also as a pioneer, a visionary, bringing, content to the US and she created Frida Kahlo and the series Ugly Betty, and really, I enjoyed watching an artist overcome an obstacle and succeed.

Tony:

Michelle, what are you looking to accomplish in the next few years? It seems you have so much on your plate. You're going in so many directions. What's the future hold for you?

Michelle:

Yes. I split my time between teaching and between now the editing room since I completed principal photography. I have two sons, I'm a mom and so that I must say is my most important job. My son is an aspiring filmmaker. Actually, he did a few shorts that have been winning some awards on the festival circuit, and he just got into some big film schools. I actually see myself continuing to mentor him, nurture him, guide him and be there with him to help him. And also, my 10-year-old as well, who is more of an athlete than a filmmaker, and for me, to continue to teach for sure and to continue to tell this. I still have a few stories that are really gnawing at me that I must tell, so I'm developing some new projects for the future. And I think that if that continues to be the life, then that's a pretty good life.

Tony:

Michelle, are there any personal habits that contribute to your vision success? Like any particular routines that you think are very successful?

Michelle:

Well, I try to stay focused. I also try to watch a lot of them, always going to see Broadway shows with my kids. I'm always watching movies; we screen movies here at the screening room here at the house. We watch as much as we can. I read as much as I can. I make lists. I surround myself with great people that help tremendously, but even if you have help, you still have to guide them and tell them what to do so it's not all that it's cracked up to be, but nevertheless, it's pretty fantastic. Lucky enough, I've worked with the same assistant for the last six years and so, I'm grateful. My nannies who've been with me for 20 years, so I'm enormously grateful for it takes a village and I think that I created the village. So, we'll see if we continue to be to do what we're doing, life is pretty good.

Tony:

And lastly, Michelle, are there any particular resources that you would like to see that our audience, I call them the success squad - that should know about or something to tip them off so that perhaps that they could use to help them in their business, their life, their career?

Michelle:

Well, I think it's to observe and to study your trajectory of people that have the same mindset. If you look at the people that have the life, the career that you want, to study how they get there. I'm a great believer in that. I ask my students to study great actors. How did they get there? What did they do? And some of it has to do with observing and reading and asking questions and having conversations and watching interviews. It never stops, I think. We have a huge library of resources at our fingertips. Some of them are of course in the internet, but some of them are in life. It's sitting down with people and having good old-fashioned conversations. Every time I sit down with someone and I have a conversation, I learn a lot.

Tony:

That's beautiful. I think it's so important to just keep learning from everything. I believe we can learn from anything and everything. It's just a matter of looking for the lessons. Again, this is the art of acting with Michelle Danner. You can find her at www.michelledanner.com. Michelle, thank you so much for gracing us with all this information on acting. You've given us some interesting resources. You've given us some great points to think about. I just want to thank you so much.

Michelle:

Thank you so much. Thank you and have a wonderful day. Thank you.

Tony:

This is the Tony DUrso Show where you can learn from the wisdom and success of others to help you move on your vision path. Just ahead the chat continues about the art of acting with Michelle Danner, but first it's time for us to take a short break. See you back here in just a moment. Announcer: Now you don't have to stay linked to your desktop or laptop. Take Voice America on the go and listen anywhere. Get our mobile app for iPhone, Blackberry, or Android at the Apple iTunes App store, Blackberry App world, or Android market.

Tony:

As you just heard in the prior commercial, some of you authors out there, you know what it's like to take a long time to write a book and put it out, and how happy and proud you are to produce such a work of art and you really want other people to experience that joy and that knowledge or that story that you provide. Well, that's how it is with myself and my coauthor SKR about our new book, Imen of Atlantis: Volume One, The Pursuit, and you'll see it at Tony D-U-R-S-O.com. I'm going to read a short little section of it. “They were thought to dwell in the forest but their world remained secretly hidden from everyone. Unbeknownst to the hunters, an ancient civilization existed beneath the forest floor. This was the magical world of Imen- Hera, a subterranean land bustling with life. It was home to the Imen, who were “magical” beings. Still, they were not truly magicians per se. Instead, they possessed great spiritual powers. The Imen were also known to possess the gift of healing and magical potions, and were rarely seen by anyone. They were summoned from Imen- Hera by signals sent below to their world by unique trees. The trees communicated by signals when any injured being (man, animal or bird) was sensed in the forest. It was the duty of the Imen to aid those in need of help. They were bound to this duty as penance for their once evil ways in the past, having long abandoned them in exchange for a chance to redeem themselves and eventually rejoin the Creator.”. What happens next is what happens when the extreme love of gold begins to enter the picture. I hope you check it out. It's a good book. Volume one is The Pursuit. Volume two coming shortly after that is called Dark Horizons. You'll find it at Tony D-U-R-S-O.com. Happy reading. Announcer: Have you friended us on Facebook yet? Why not? Just go to facebook.com/Voice America or search for the keywords Voice America. Once you are part of our Facebook network, you'll receive daily messages about what's happening with our shows, this week's featured guests and new happenings at the Voice America Talk Radio Network and you can add your voice to the always active discussions on our timeline. Just go to facebook.com/ Voice America or search for Voice America. Announcer: Get Unchained. Tune in every Monday for Jane Unchained on the Voice America Influencers channel featuring nationally recognized bestselling author, TV, journalist, and social media influencer, Jane Velez Mitchell. This program takes you inside a trending lifestyle that's the next wave of human evolution. It all starts on your plate. If you want to revolutionize your life, get happier, more energized, then discover the secret. Tune in to Jane Unchained Mondays at 10:00 AM, Pacific time and 1:00 PM Eastern time on the Voice America Influencers channel. Announcer: We're with you wherever Alexa and Google are - at home, in the car, on your smart TV and your connected devices. Hey Alexa! Hey Google! Play my favorite Voice America podcast on Tune In. It's just that easy, but don't forget to make sure you actually mentioned the name of the podcast show to make it work. Announcer: Find out what's happening on the Voice America Talk Radio Network by keeping up with us on Twitter. You can find us at Voice America TRN. Announcer: You're listening to the Tony DUrso Show with special VIP guests. Now back to Tony and his guest.

Tony:

Hey, fellow entrepreneurs. Thanks for hanging out with me while I featured in the lead entrepreneur who took her vision to reality. I hope this was as inspiring for you as it was for me to do this interview. I learned a lot, not just about acting, but how to apply it to the world of business and become very, very successful. For the record, we only covered a snippet of Michelle's accomplishments. To find out more about Michelle, you can also search her name, Michelle Danner, D-A-N-N-E-R, and go to her IMDB page which lists more of her amazing accomplishments. The insights here are so valuable. So how did you like it? The art of acting with Michelle Danner. Her dad opened the world famous William Morris agency in Paris in the '60s, and she started her career under her dad's desk as he met with some of the world's most famous entertainment figures, such as Maurice Chevalier, Marlene Dietrich, Julio Iglesias, Liza Minnelli, Bill Haley and his Comets, and many others. Falling in love with the arts, she began reading a book a day, always loving to hear a good story. It looks like the vision found her at an early age and she ran with it. She now teaches acting to world famous figures, as she wants to pass it down. She made conscious decisions of whether to further her career or further the career of others and would choose to help others improve their career. Such as in the case where she had two auditions to go for herself or train eight actors in her studio, she chose to train the eight actors instead. This helped set the stage - no pun intended - as she is a well-known, respected name in the acting circles as you can imagine. I hope you can learn from that when you come to a crossroads where you have to make an important decision. Michelle stayed focused on her passion and her love - acting - and chose to help eight more actors improve their career. That was a very wise decision that shows her high quality and high standards to further the art. She loves teaching and wants to pass it down. To learn from this, what is your love? What are you good at, or what do others consider you're good at? And have you thought about teaching that? I know it's work to create a class, but I do want you to learn from Michelle Danner and get inspired by her great story. Another takeaway I get from this is to connect with some of the more well-known people in your industry. With today's changing world, we find more and more people with large masterminds or virtual conferences where like minds are connecting and learning on an accelerated rate. As an aside, I'm involved in one of these masterminds, and I'll tell you more about that in the next episode after this. The point I'm making is that it's never been easier to connect with the key players in the industry that you work in right now. They're out there doing virtual meetings and you should search them out and connect up with them. It's that easy. The big players are prominent on social media. They are easier to reach than ever before in history. Think about that and listen to this interview again. There is so much to learn from it. I was very surprised at her answer to what is so difficult about acting. Did you expect that response? Acting seems to be something that is never perfect. It seems to be something that you continuously have to work at to make it better and better. I love her answer about helping entrepreneurs move up on their road to success, where she talks about the common denominator being work ethic. What's your work ethic like? I mean, really? You should take a pause after listening to this interview and put some attention on your own work ethic. How focused are you? How concentrated are you on the tasks that have to get done? Now let's put that into perspective. Is your business shooting up to the sky in production and income? Are you rapidly moving to the next level, whether it's from six to seven figures or seven to eight figures and so forth? Really? Are you moving down that road to attain the next level within this year? Really? Within this year? I invite you to ponder your own work ethic and those who help you in your business, whether they're employees, contractors hired up or whatever? Does your work ethic mirror the progress you want to make in your business this year? There's so much more I got out of this interview. What did you get? I'd love to know how you use this information to help you in your business or career. Now grab hold of your vision, decide you're either going to start something great or take it to the next level. You have to decide first. It always starts with the decision and you can get my Vision Map to help you along the process. The free eBook is at tony D-U-R-S-O.com. You can pick up the audio version and the training class too. Highly recommended. I created my empire in just a few years. That's all it took. I had the Vision Map as my guide. You can do it too. Let's help you move on your journey to success. And if you have any Apple device or access to Apple podcasts, please look up my name, Tony D-U-R-S-O and subscribe to my show. A kind review there will get you tremendous appreciation back in return. Thanks, and remember: just take action. Success awaits those who persevere and remain steadfast despite the odds. Sow good seeds, do good deeds and join me on the next episode of the Tony DUrso Show. Announcer: We hope you've enjoyed this week's edition of the Tony DUrso Show with his key influencers. Be sure to tune in again next Friday at 5:00 PM Eastern time, 2:00 PM. Pacific time on the Voice America influencers channel.