(#74) Fearlessly Failing with Lola Berry

10 years ago in Broome, I lived in a house called the Cheeky Tiki with some amazing girls. We formed a sisterhood in our kitchen, cooking up recipes from Lola Berry’s 20/20 Cookbook. My signature dessert? Her Raw Banoffee Pie!

Fast forward to 2024, and something amazing happened. My podcast editor reached out to Lola Berry to see if she’d be interested in coming on the podcast to talk about her career, life in LA, and her latest book, Fearlessly Failing. It was a bit of a shot in the dark, but hey, if you don’t ask, you don’t get, right?

A few emails later, and guess what? Lola was super keen to jump on the ‘pod’.

Lola isn’t just any health and nutrition expert. She’s been a fixture in the Australian media for over a decade, appearing on TV shows like Studio 10, The Today Show, and Mornings. Plus, she’s a best-selling author with 11 health and wellness books under her belt.

Lola also hosts her own podcast, “Fearlessly Failing with Lola Berry,” where she interviews notable personalities about their highs and lows, aiming to inspire others to chase their dreams. With a Bachelor of Health Science majoring in Nutritional Medicine and as a qualified yoga teacher, Lola speaks openly and honestly about her own life experiences, sharing her wisdom with ease and warmth.

In this episode, settle in as Lola shares:

📽 Why she moved from Australia to pursue her acting career
💡 The mindset and work ethic she’s developed to achieve her dreams
🧘🏻‍♀️ The mental health and self-care tools she uses to build resilience and stay strong in the face of rejection
💪 Her take on fearlessly failing
🌱 When to give up and when to keep going
💭 What to do if your dream feels too far away
🙌 Why being an asset is far more powerful than approaching opportunities with desperation

Join us for a heartfelt and inspiring conversation with the incredible Lola Berry!

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I acknowledge & pay my respects to the Traditional owners, the Yawuru People of the land and waters of Rubibi (Broome) where this Podcast is recorded, and all Aboriginal Elders, past, present & emerging.

Podcast Produced by Livvi Music Media

Transcript

0:01

Hello, hello, and welcome to Alchemy Mindset. I'm your host, Anna Hasty, business mindset coach for women and a sound healer. If you are ready to become the most aligned, magnetic, and confident business woman you are worthy and deserving of being, visit Then this show is for you. This is where I share everything from mindset energy and spirituality And how to embody your future self in business and life Sprinkle that with deeply relaxing sound healings and meditations And you have the alchemy mindset podcast Hello, dear listener, and welcome to this episode of Alchemy Mindset. Now before we launch into this amazing episode with the fabulous Lola Berry. I just want to give a little bit of a backstory and context as to how this all came about. So about 10 years ago, I was into my second year of living here in Broome and I was living in an amazing house, a share house with a bunch of beautiful girls I worked with and we nicknamed it the Cheeky Tiki. Anyway, we formed a really powerful sisterhood. In that house and spent a lot of time gathering in the kitchen, cooking, talking, and laughing together. And one of our kitchen Bibles, one of the key recipe books that we had was Lola Berry's 2020 cookbook. And I have to say, I think we made just about every recipe in it. And over time, the raw banoffee pie has become one of my signature desserts. Like I just love making it. So fast forward to 2024. And my podcast editor generously reached out to Lola to see if she would want to come onto my podcast to talk about her career, life in LA, and her recent book, Fearlessly Failing, which she actually had read and also suggested I read too, which I immediately grabbed the audio version and devoured very quickly. I mean, at the end of the day, if you don't, you don't. Ask for something, you don't get it right. So I'm very, very grateful for Olivia for just putting me out there and approaching Lola to see if she'd come on the show. Long and the short of it, a few emails backwards and forwards, and Lola was super keen to jump on the pod. Let's just say, I was a little starstruck after all, I have two of her recipe books and Lola isn't any health and nutrition expert. Lola has been active in the media world in Australia for over a decade, speaking on TV shows such as Studio 10, The Today Show, Mornings, plus she's a best selling author and has written 11 health and wellness books. Lola has a podcast called Fearlessly Failing with Lola Berry, where she interviews notable profiles about their highs and lows, aimed at inspiring others to chase their dreams. With a Bachelor of Health Science majoring in nutritional medicine, and as a qualified yoga teacher, she's open, honest, and speaks with no filter about her own life experiences with ease and warmth. This interview is one of those that gives anybody who's currently facing that question of, do I give up, or do I keep going, or everything is just failing and nothing is just working out for me, Or you feeling like your dream is just too far away and it's just not even achievable or reachable. This is one of those interviews that I've truly hope inspires you to keep going and to not give up. I really do enjoy how Lola shares so much about the acting world and how she has developed this really strong work ethic. That is supporting her and the mental health and self care tools that she has to continue building resilience and to stay strong in the face of rejection. Be comfortable as you hear this interview with Lola Berry and everything around fearlessly failing. Hello. Hello. Welcome. Welcome Lola to Alchemy Mindset. It's such a pleasure to have you on the show today. Welcome. Thank you for having me. I mean, I know you didn't record this, but thank you for doing that little tune in just before we recorded, it was amazing. Oh, you're welcome. For the listeners who don't know when I have a guest come on board, even when I do my own solo episodes, it's always a moment of let's just ground. So let's just connect to this episode. Let's just connect to the flow of energy and whatever's meant to come through. So I like to, when I have a guest and I like to bring us both together, because you know, that's where the magic starts to flow, right? Totally. I love it. I love it. I love it. Thank you. So you're currently based in LA, but you're a true blue Aussie. Yeah. The accent probably gives that one away. I know. Right. Just strong accent. Even when I teach yoga here in LA, I have to demo each pose because my accent's so strong. Yeah, have you ever found that your accent has filtered out a little bit over time from being LA or your world travels or nah, stuck like glue? Nah, I think because I only started coming to LA from like 23 onwards. So I was well and truly an adult. They say that happens, the accent, like you pick up the accent, it's before 17. Yeah. Right. So I've always come as an adult. I also like being an Aussie. And so I don't know, I've, and I've got a few Aussie mates here. So my boyfriend's Aussie, hang around enough Aussies, the accent holds. Yeah, exactly. Look, you know, it's what makes you unique, right? It's your point of differentiation from everybody else that's in LA. Yeah, I don't mind it. I think it's fun. I think it's fun. No, that's, no, it's awesome. So let's just start. Tell us, how have you ended up in LA? You've come from Australia, born somewhere, and yeah, and now here you are in LA. Let's start from the beginning, just in a, you know, in a snapshot, nutshell. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. In a nutshell, yeah, yeah, I can talk quick. Don't worry. So I grew up in Melbourne. I was obsessed with Steve Irwin and I just would watch his shows on Sundays because that's when they used to air and I'd be like, mate, I'm going to be that of fruit and veggies. And I, Loved it. He's been my like North star. Every time like my career gets tough or something, I'll always watch a Steve Irwin YouTube. He's the best thing ever. And I eventually, when I started saying nutrition, I was like, Oh, I'd love to be like the Steve Irwin of fruits and veggies. That'd be cool. And people used to tease me and be like, what are you going to do? Wrestle broccoli. And I was like, no, I want to work in media and inspire people about health and wellness. And that's kind of what started my LA journey. Like I would come over here and Have books that come out and launch them and do telly, you know, TV slots and stuff over here about them. And then in Australia, I started to realize how much I fell in love with TV and I'd pitch myself an audition and be put forward as a TV host, but never get the role. They'd be like, no, you're a health and wellness girl. You're a health and wellness girl. And then here they're like, yeah, you can be a TV host. You can be an actor. You can be a nutritionist. And so I guess I came here because the opportunity. To have many parts to your career. Like I have a podcast as well. I'm an author, you know, you can wear many hats and Americans tend to love that and celebrate that. And so I just found that like from a career perspective, I was getting quite a few no's in Australia. And I love Australia. Like I miss it. Australia is home, but it made me be like, okay, well. If one of your dreams is to be a TV host and you know, they're going to keep hiring the same wonderful Australian TV hosts over and over again. And I'm not Sonia Kruger, you know what I mean? I'm very different. And so that's just one of many, there are so many goodies in Australia. And so I came here just for the opportunity to be honest with you, just to get a chance to do the thing that I love. And I don't want regret when I get older. Yeah, that's so interesting because I recently read your latest book, Fearlessly Failing, which I absolutely loved. And one thing you had said in the book was that you finished high school and you tried to get into acting school or drama schools and it didn't quite work out, but you decided to go into health and nutrition. What was that reason? Why did you decide to do that rather than keep continuing pursuing the whole acting thing at that moment in time? Yeah, so I was doing a Bachelor of Performing Arts, I'd done all the auditions for NIDA and WAPA, which for anyone listening are like the Aussie acting schools that you want to go to, VCA, I'd done them all, and I didn't get in. And I finally got into this Bachelor of Performing Arts at Monash, and I remember semester one, this teacher was like, you're all going to be drama teachers. And I was like, I didn't, I'm not in this course so I can be a teacher. I just wasn't, I didn't want to be a teacher. I knew I'm not a patient person, I'm not mega maternal or anything, so I was like, teaching isn't what I signed up for and I knew I wouldn't be a good one. I mean, I'd love to run workshops or something down the line, but not, I'm, I just don't, I'm not patient. That's my, that's my biggest, my biggest flaw is I'm not patient. And I remember thinking, okay, if this is the course that's going to, you know, help me become a teacher, I thought, well, you've got to. figure out something else. And I remember from school, I was catching a tram from Melbourne city home and I kept passing this, it was called back then Australian College of Natural Medicine. Oh yes. And I'd always see it. Yeah. ACNM. It's now called Endeavor. And I'd always see it and I thought, Oh, That's not a bad backup career if I don't get to be Cate Blanchett. And then I, you know, I enrolled. And the cool thing with that was by the time I graduated my nutritional medicine bachelor degree, I had already started working like, like literally got my quals and then was on Channel 10 morning show. And I was like, Oh my God, my true dreams just morphed together. I loved it. But then being on set out white, like that was my favorite thing of all of it. And so that's like that thing that keeps pulling me back to being in the entertainment industry. I love it. I love people. Yeah. Yeah. It's really what, where your passion and your drive lies into what you're wanting to create within your life. Yeah. It's really interesting how you, how we hear sometimes people's stories. They sort of have that sudden dovetail of like, you know, they started out somewhere. It didn't quite work out, but they, you know, took a detour somewhere else, still found amazing growth and learning and all the things, cause we never not get anything out of what we learned from. Right. And then it's swung around and it's. It's a way of doing something that you really, really enjoy. So you have written like, what is it? 11 books now? Like that's amazing. Yeah, I just wrote, I've just been working on a 12th, but it's not, it's not, it's not out yet. No, no, no. I've just finished writing a 12th, but it's out. It's like, it's not out. It's written is what I'm saying. So it is 11 are out in the world and hopefully a 12th soon enough. Fingers crossed. That's incredible. So the latest one, the one that I've read is Fearlessly Failing, which I really, really enjoyed my podcast editor. Um, that was kind of how she hooked us all up really. And then when I found out about your book, I'm like, I have to read this. I think the opening sentences in the book, I think it was in your introduction where you said, which really sold me on it. I was like, this book's gonna be great. Like I don't need to . If anything, I think I've learned what I need to learn as well. It was the line where you said, only you can go after your goals and dreams and you are the only one that can stop you. And I just went. Lola, amazing message received. Um, with this book, how's, how did it come about? Because it's a bit different from the other ones you've done. You've done lots of like. Health and wellbeing books and recipe books. I've got two of them, by the way. Um, how did this one come about? Like, what was the motivation for Fearlessly Failing? To be blatantly honest with you, a publisher came to me through hearing the pod and they were like, I want a book that is linked to your pod, that has the same title as your pod, potentially the same artwork as your pod. And I was like, that's pretty cool. And it was all happening while like COVID was going on. So I was in a situation where. We were, writing was like the perfect, it was like being in a little incubator, essentially, where you could just get up every morning and, and, and write and work and write and work. So yeah, it was so much fun, but yeah, you're correct. It was a different genre, different publisher. Like it was a huge departure for me from the health and wellness, um, genre. Books, which I still love and love doing, but that market is now flooded as is the personal development genre that feels if failing sits in, but see, I think I've got more of a business brain. And so I'm like, okay, well, if that genre is flooded, how about I give this one a red hot crack? Let's try this one next. Like I just, I'm not attached to seeing, to like staying in the one place. Like I like that feeling of being challenged to adapt. Yeah, I like that too, because, um, like you said, that came back to, you know, you could have stayed in Australia and just being pegged as the health and wellbeing TV presenter or host for any TV show, right? Anything that comes up, but you yourself have gone, that's, I don't want to be pegged into that. That genre, that avenue for the rest of my life. I want to expand. I want to be something more and bigger. And that's, what's come through, as you said, I'm writing this book. It's so interesting how you say, like, like what I was saying was like, yeah, like, I love that feeling of like being in the entertainment industry, being on a set. Oh, it's amazing. Honestly, it's the best feeling. Like I just love, I love the energy of it all. But when I figured out that that was my favorite thing out of all the parts of my career, I also figured out that it was like less than 10 percent of what I did. So like you do a TV segment, right? Like you do a tally segment or you'd make a cool green smoothie on TV. But. But then you'd be going back to clinic and taking consults, or you'd be working on book edits, or you'd be writing articles for newspaper, which was all great stuff. But if I love this passion, I could look at my career kind of like analytically and be like, wow, I'm actually spending 90 percent of my time. Feeding this part of my career and, and only 10 percent of my, because everyone wants to be on tally, like that entertainment bit. And in Australia, there are so many health and wellness, like influencers and specialists that often now when they book you on tally, they'll book somebody different the next month so that the audience doesn't get tired of you. And then they'll sub you in the month after that. So there wasn't much work, like it was so fun, but I was like, Holding out for the next gig. Whereas when I first started in TV, when I was 23, I'd go on once a week, I was the health and wellness girl. And that was perfect because I was filling up that passion void on the reg. And then with the books, my favorite part of the books was always being on set with all the creatives doing the photo shoots. That's two weeks of book that takes. 12 months to write, you know what I mean? And so I was like, well, you've got to find a way to spend more time in the entertainment industry because you're an entertainer and that is what you love and you're a creative. And so, again, that was probably one of the other pushes to come here so I could spend more time. So focused on the passion piece, whereas all that other stuff I can do, but like, let's see if we can get the entertainment bit, like a bigger percentage of my career. Absolutely. Like let's make that the main goal and focus. Do you think, um, Oh yeah. What I was going to say was, yeah. One thing I liked about the book is how you also described it as not being like. A self help book or a manual or a yoga philosophy or a health and wellbeing, something or a memoir. And you said it's all of that and not. And what I really, really liked about it was that you, you so openly shared not only all your, you know, fails and successes, but like so much more about, I guess, like the industry that you are tapping into that you're wanting to, like you said, you want to focus more in TV, hosting, presenting, being more in the acting world. And that's something like, I'll have to say, I have no clue about, you know, for me, I think that actors, they just get, you know, they send an audition, send some photos in, you get hired, you get the script, you read it and you perform. Right. But you've actually outlined in the book how much more there is a work ethic and dedication to making your career a success in the acting world. Can you share some more about that? Yeah, I mean, and to be honest with you, I've learned so I've learned a lot of it from training, but I've learned a lot of it from interviewing actors on the pod, like, and, and real successful older actors, like in their sixties. So they've been around the traps, they've seen the quick fame, they've seen the reality stars like go to the top and they've like, actors have just kind of like, like, they're just, I don't know. There's something, there's something really fascinating about them. But. work ethic. And this is what I always talk about on my pod is like, whatever I learn at acting school, I usually share it on my diary podcast because it's just acting school is essentially you're studying human behavior. That's kind of like baseline what you're doing. And if you get to understand your own human behavior. You're probably going to be better at work, better in meetings, more confident, have a clear understanding of self, have a clear understanding of the people you're communicating with or pitching an offer to. So I always think acting school is like handy for everybody just because you. Become so aware of just the way humans function. And there are so many different human beings and, and the way that like people handle stress and work and stuff. So first of all, that's what acting training usually is. It's usually depending on, there are so many different schools and schools of thought and methodology, like all of that, there's different ones. But at the end of the day. You're generally studying human behavior and the aim of the game is to stay super present and stay curious. Like that's, and obviously you gotta, you gotta learn your lines and be off book and all those things. But that's like, once you've learned your lines, you can essentially, the theory is you do all the work and script analysis and then you throw it away and then you are just present and connected with your scene partner. Sounds simple. Hard. I can imagine. I'm already starting to like, think, wow, wow. Yeah. I'm getting the sweats just thinking of how much work there is to do with it. I don't get sweats. I like the workload. I enjoy a heavy workload, but this, I do get the sweats, like when you know your scene's about to go up, you get the sweaty palms and you're like, I think that's more fear of judgment because unfortunately the acting world, there's not enough jobs for all the actors. So you really feel like whether you're in an acting class in America or an acting class in Australia, you do naturally feel like everyone's sizing you up, you kind of get that feeling. And so that fear of judgment, like I'm a triple Virgo, we are very perfectiony and don't love the feeling being judged because we ourselves are judges. And so I, that feeling gets me like sweaty before I'm like, Oh, I don't, I don't want to effort up. But the workload piece is really, really cool. I interviewed a beautiful Australian actor called Anthony LaPaglia, who's been in loads of stuff. And he says, I see him a little, he's a mate, so I see him a little bit and he says to me, just get used to hearing the word no and just say, okay, keep going. And he's just all about like, When they say no, say, okay, and move forward, like don't hold onto it. You just keep moving forward. So there are so many good little bits like that. I interviewed another actor who was like, stay ready because you do eventually get the opportunity, but a lot of people don't think they're ready. And so, or they're not ready. And they like let the opportunity go or they don't build the momentum off the opportunity. It's a big one. Like once you book a gig, like, and you would know this with all that, like. The energetic side of things, like it slows on, there's a knock on effect, you know? Yeah, absolutely. And I think that's such a relevant thing that can translate into any area of life and particularly like in the entrepreneurial or business world. And you would know this from all your endeavors with the work that you've done, not just in the acting part of your career. But I mean, for example, I'm going to speak openly. I got rejected from an offer the other day and I had my moment. Oh, why me? Why did I get rejected? What am I too costly? Am I too pricey? Am I not good enough? Like all those things. And at the same time, I'm listening to your book and that moment where you said, you know, you've got to build resilience and know that there's going to be plenty of noses just as much as there will be yeses. If you get a no, it's okay. Just keep moving on. Just go. All right. That wasn't for that moment in time. Keep moving on. Keep building yourself better. Keep looking for other opportunities. And I was like, thanks, Lola, for that. Thank you for the message and the reminder. And you know what? I think a lot of people get more no's than we realize. I really do. I think it's more no's than yeses. And a really cool thing when a no happens is like, you can kind of like, take stock really quickly and be like, righto. Because I'm logical and like I said triple Virgo so I have to know like I have to understand on some capacities to what's gone down even though in the acting world you do an audition if you don't get it you don't get the no oh no no you get zero nothing nada you get none Yeah. So I've done four auditions this week. I haven't had one response and I don't expect to cause I'm so used to you just like, and send by like, you just don't, it's like a weird kind of muscle. That is one of the gifts of being in America. You're auditioning so much that that muscle is so finely tuned that you just like, yep. Okay. Onto the next one. Send onto like, it's so cool in Australia because there's less work. You're auditioning like once every two weeks if you're lucky, maybe once a week. And so you don't get that muscle. This is part of the process in a way and yeah, just like your job, but I was just saying the cool thing about rejection and no, is it is also a really cool opportunity to skill up. I've been like, okay. Is there a hole here? Is there something I'm missing? Is there, you know what I mean? Like, it's often a cool opportunity to be like, how could have I, like, I remember I got a note last month in acting school and I did an American dialect. So I went up in my scene with an American dialect, but I was quite sick and I was getting, well, I was kind of got over a cold. And so I was nasal. I was blocked. An Australian accent is nasal. And so like, I. Went in and did an American accent and it just sounded Aussie because we talk kind of through our nose, nose, and the teacher goes, where was the American accent? And I was like, shit, was it that bad? But it was because I had a cold, and I just thought, okay, never again will I go up in an American accent or I'll just dose myself full of whatever. Cold and flu meds I need to be able to breathe before a scene. So, you know what I mean? You kind of can learn from the no's along the way as well. Yeah. I think that was, that's a really good reminder. And that was one thing where I went, okay, you know what, this is just a no, but it doesn't mean all the no's in the world are going to come my way. And it was in that moment where I'm like, well, what can I do? What do I need to shift and change? What do I need to, not necessarily shift and change, but what do I need to be aware of in this moment that. Can help me be a yes next time, or is this a moment and a reminder of maybe I need to put myself out there and a little bit differently, et cetera. So do you think like, because sometimes you get a lot of no's, the no's become embedded and there's that mindset of, Oh, well, I'm going to audition, but I don't expect anything out of it. It's most likely going to be a no and that you're somehow energetically blocking that yes coming through. Do you think that's a thing? Yeah. That's such a great, I love that you brought that up. I've got an amazing breathwork coach and I had a big meeting last week and she was like, I want to do breathwork before your meeting and I was like, sure, no probs. But it was a huge letting go. She was like, why don't you see yourself as this person that they would be hiring you for and wanting to work with you as an, I was like, I don't know, and like the tears were rolling. And so I think. Out of protection, whether we like it or not, we do probably block ourselves accidentally, but there is also power in doing auditions. I mean, like, yeah, sure. If they like it, they like it. Boom. I do think there's also an energy thing with. It's hard as well because acting is a skill and acting is a business. And in LA it is like, I'm learning the business side and I'm like, okay, there is a method to this. I used to think it was a numbers game, like get the auditions off, get the auditions off, whereas now I go through, like, I'm very specific in my choices now, but it's funny because TV hosting. They're my two passions and like TV hosting, I think if I'm being really honest, I think my mindset is I'd be an asset to you guys. I think I'd be an asset. You should give me this with, whereas I think my mindset around acting is like, give me this opportunity. Give me this, like, it's a little bit different, but that would just be also down to confidence because I've worked on so many sets around, even though. In Australia, I've been more of a segment person. I've shot four pilots co hosting in Australia that just never got green lit. No one knows about them, but like I have the lived in experience of doing it. And so I think that that confidence piece is probably something that I should work on to have that across the board. Absolutely. But yeah, I think you're onto something. Yeah. I like, cause I like it how you just said, you know, that moment where you said. Uh, the, that you're, you're an asset if you're as a TV host, but give me the opportunity. I really like that message there because if you come from everything, you know, no matter who my listeners are, whatever opportunities are coming their way, if you come from it as I could be an asset to you in this moment in time. That sounds really powerful, doesn't it? It rather than give me the opportunity, like I'm an asset to you, like I'm an asset to whatever presentation or business or company or, you know, group. I could be an asset to you. That to me sounds really powerful. Yeah. I feel like you and I have just troubleshooted my career, but you know what my, um, and thank you for that. It's going to skyrocket tomorrow, Lola. And when you're at your first movie premiere, can you please invite me? Yeah. I'll be like, get on a flight to LA. I'm happy to have a back row seat. I'm in the nosebleed section, but I'll just invite me. Do you know what's funny though? My acting coach in Australia, he's wonderful. And I always fly down. To see him. And I said to him right before I came to LA this, this year. And I said, I'm not going to prepare a scene for you today. And he goes, okay. Like I told him in advance and I said, I just need you to give it to me straight. And he goes, honestly. And I go, yeah, I go, I've got to go over there. Ready? I said, I've gone over there and pounded the pavement. It's my fourth year over there now for heading over. And he goes, all right. He goes, your work ethic. Is more than all my students put together and he said, but every time you get up to show me a scene, he said, I can see how hard you've worked and I can see that you need me to know how hard you've worked. And he said, so you need, am I allowed to swear on this pod? 100%. Yeah. He said, so you need to let it the fuck go. He said, like, do all that work. He's like, that's who you are. You're never not going to do the work. So don't worry about it. He's like, but work so hard and then let it go. And I said, Oh my God, it's funny. I was doing a book edit, you know, the most recent book I've written, I was doing a book edit and the change was scary. It was just scary because I hadn't written that kind of a book before in genre. And I said, Jim, I had to have a shot of whiskey before I did the edit. And he goes, that's what you need. I go, what do you mean? He goes, you need a metaphorical is, he said, I'm not saying have a shot of whiskey before every audition. He said metaphorical shot of whiskey where it just relaxes you a little bit. And you're like, it's like, and you let like, he's like, you hold on so tight because you work so hard and you care so much. He's like, you've just got to let go. And so I think like, They say this in acting, but I think it applies to a lot of fields, but like they say that desperation stinks and they can smell it on you when you're in an audition room. Like, and I think it's that, you know, give me the opportunity versus, Hey, let's have fun. I could be a great asset for you guys in this project. And I think it's that. Yeah, I agree. I think energy within what we carry, whether it's like, you know, bees can smell fear or, you know, dogs can sense things, whatever, you know, if they can sense that you're like, you know, that you, you're coming in with that desperation, it's all energy, isn't it? It's all intention. It's always all in your frequency and vibration. So whether or not you're actually saying, I'm so desperate for this part to give it to me, you just come in and you're doing the best you can, but they're like, Hmm, not so sure. That speaks, doesn't it? It does speak. Big time. Big time. Yeah. What other mindset techniques or do you do any like spiritual practices, I know you talked about breath work, that you do to sort of help you stay in the zone of this is what I want to do and I'm not giving up until I've got it. Yeah, so I do, I do, I am a yoga teacher, so yoga practice is very important for me. Breath work we touched on, but that's newer for me just because I've met an incredible breath work coach over here. Her name's Daisy. She's wonderful. And then I also have a therapist and he's also a hypnotherapist. So our sessions are very, they can feel like psychotherapy and then very quickly click into a hypno visualization as well. I kind of have a multi kind of like faceted healing thing, but I would say the biggest non negotiable is my therapist. I've had him for eight, nine years. And wow, you can feel, I go every two weeks. I like, I can feel when the wheels start to loose. You can feel when you're due for a session, especially in America, because it is, you know, It's amazing. There's a lot of human sharks as well. You know, like everyone wants something, everyone's like onto the next, everyone's hustling for their dreams at any cost. And so there's a bit of fake to, to be honest. And so it's, you know, having a mental health, like support to keep that resilience. Topped up to keep that like assertiveness. And like my hypnosis, he's like, you've got to stay battle ready. He's like, you're in LA. You gotta stay battle ready. Lola. He's like, if you think you're just there, cause you're in the land of dreams and land of opportunity, he's like, you're in for rude awakening. He's like, you got to stay sharp. You got to stay on it. You sort of say, and for me, it's like a clarity of being like, cause when I'm clear, I can take the rejection. It doesn't bother me. I'm like, cool. Cool. Take that thing's done today, the next audition will come in, in the next 24 hours, let's just run at that. But yeah, otherwise it chips away at you. Like if you don't have that mental health like toolkit, it catches up with you. Yeah. And particularly, like you said, you've been in LA for what, like since like four years or something like that, or quite a while now. So that's a long time to be, as you said, like pounding the pavement and continuing to put yourself out there. I'm sure there's hope in this, like you have had some successful moments and opportunities come your way. It hasn't all been shut closed doors. No, so yeah, so what I've been doing for the last three years is six months on, six months off. So six months in America, pound the pavement and then I come back to Australia, get a bit of success and make some more money to kind of like essentially support me back in America because living in LA is, is tough. Not cheap. And so, yeah, there have been little wins. They have not been acting credits, but they have definitely been career wins and even like in the agent kind of like climb and in representation, but also podcast guests, like the actors are all over here and you're getting access to March, bigger actors, not bigger, but like. And the Aussie actors that would be too big to get in Australia, I can get when I'm here, if that makes sense. So from that perspective, and also like from a training perspective, like I come back to Australia and I've just trained my guts out in voice, in acting, in dialect. And so you're so, and even like in Australia, I do a lot of influencer work and I can just pump it out one take, like it all translates. I've seen really none of it as a failure, although technically I'm. Failing all the time here. It is all. beneficial to moving forward and growing, you know. Do you feel like there's a thing like, it recently came to me as an analogy, like the tipping point. So, you know, I'm a mum, I've got a two year old and we were at the water park here in Broome and there's this special like, Not special, but there is a water feature, which if you stand underneath it and you don't realize you are going to get dumped, but it's a bucket. It fills with water. And then eventually it has that tipping point and it spills over. Right. Quite fun for kids. Not good if you're underneath it. But I'm just wondering, like, do you believe that there is the tipping point? Like when is the tipping point is also the other question that always often comes to my mind. Like how much do we have to do to fill that bucket to get the tipping point? And the tipping point is the thing that you want. Isn't there a whole book that Malcolm Guy wrote a whole book about the tipping point is this it's a whole it's a whole psychology. Yeah. Yeah. There's a whole psychology around the tipping point. I feel like you would love it. I feel like you would love it. I mean, I think everybody is different and everybody's way in is completely different. It also depends on your career as well. Like what your goals are career wise, because. Acting and the entertainment industry, it's a relationship based industry. And so it's not like, okay, as soon as you have 500 auditions in the can, that bucket's full and boom, you're going to book the lead in the next game of throne series. No, it's not. It's not like that. It's more like the cosmos lineup. You're ready. You stay ready. Like you'll often hear actors be like, I'm like, how'd you get that great role? And they'll be like, my friend just talked me up to the director. Didn't go through an agent. Like it just like, you know, you'll hear of those stories. And I think that it's, so that's why it's hard to say, especially in the entertainment industry, because no one trajectory is the same as another, you know, it's a tricky one, but definitely read that book because there's a whole science behind it. I'm sure there's something much more profound. I could be saying right now. Just so I remember it was called what is, do you know what the title is or who it was by? The tipping point. Oh, the tipping point. It's literally called the tipping point. The author is called Malcolm, oh I can tell you right now, The Tipping Point by Malcolm something or other, like I think your listeners might know unless I'm showing my age, The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell, ah, love my brain, um, and it's, it says, How little things can make a big difference. I'll definitely read that one. Yeah. Cause it was the other day I was like, the tipping point, when is this tipping point? You know, you put everything into this bucket. Is there a moment where we get the signal and it's like the tipping point is coming or is it just, it just happens, but we have to know that there is not to give up, not to back down, keep working on ourselves and know that the tipping point is coming. Yeah. Yeah. And I think it's trusting in that, but staying ready as well, like, and, and staying like being adaptable because like, I, my boyfriend is also a creative, he's a music composer and we talk about like, we've got these big dreams for our careers and we both know we're going to succeed in some way, but we're like, we bet it looks different to what our brains have imagined. You know? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Do you think there comes a moment when you have to give up? Like through writing your book, you talk about like, failing and people's fears of failing and building resilience around your dreams and goals. And I can't remember the exact part where it was, where you talked about like, you know, keep persevering and not giving up. What happens like in your perspective and, and having written this book and interviewing other people on your podcast, what happens when you, at that moment of like, do I give up? Because could that moment be you give up, but round the corner was that opportunity? So like giving up versus keep going, like how does that, I don't know really what I'm saying here, but like, I know what you're saying. I know what you're saying. How do we pass the beer through that? Or yeah. I mean, I'm going to say don't give up cause that's how I've lived my whole life. Personally, and even I'm a big believer in like the failures can lead to the gold. Is so long as you stay true to the path, but some people give up, like I've had friends here that have come over the same industry as me. Many friends come over the same industry. One person got held at gunpoint here in LA and went home and never came back. Whoa. Understandable. Scary. I had a scary situation there. Yeah. the petrol station this morning, and I like drove my car up. I was about to put out that teach joke. I was about to put petrol in my car and this person really quickly and kind of aggressively was coming towards me. And I just was like, stuff this. I got straight back in my car and drove off, but I was like scared for like 10 seconds of him getting to me before I could drive off. So LA has that kind of side. I don't want to pretend that that is not there, but that scare that my friend had is. enough to change her trajectory for the rest of her life. Wow. She went back to Australia and was like, F this. I don't want this danger in my life. It is a dangerous city in some ways. Hmm. And, um, I remember when she told me that story, I was like, far out. I can see why you made the choice that you made. And she's got a fantastic career in Australia, but it's in, it's, it's in Australia. And so like, maybe that had to happen for her to go back and realize how much she loved her career in Australia. And it felt safer. And even, I think, you know, I think Guy Sebastian's got a similar story, was over here recording and got held at gunpoint and like, look at his career in Australia, he's like huge, king of Australia, so I just think bad shit happens to everybody, and it doesn't mean makes you give up or it doesn't, but like, I've had some pretty hairy things happen to me in LA that should have been enough to make me get back on the plane, that Qantas nighttime flight and go home. And I've just been like, I'm here to tough it out. I don't know why. I don't think that that everyone should live that way. Absolutely not. There, I will look back and probably go, you, you sacrificed a lot in those years, Lola. You know, like I've made choices. There is a lot of things that, I've given up, like I'm really close to my dad and like, so, you know, I'm trying to get him to come over here, this Chrissy, so we can hang. So I don't know. I don't feel like I have an answer other than my lived experience, which is don't give up. If you don't give up. Yeah. Absolutely. And read Lola's book. Cause it's a good one. But it's the most common question I get asked. Like it was a good question you asked. I have had so many friends, lawyers in meetings, non friends be like, how long are you giving yourself until you go home? How long are you yourself until you give up? How long? Like when, when is enough? And I've had lawyers say, give yourself two years. You'll know by then if you're going to make it or not. I've had active friends say you're too old. You're not going to make it in LA, you're over 35. And you know, usually you pretty quickly go, Oh, that's your shit, not mine. I can't afford to take that on. But I mean, like if I was younger, that would have upset me. So you do you boo, you know, like my way might be too full on for other people. I don't know. But I, I'm here for the long haul. That's all I know. Yeah. I think also like from hearing like about your work ethic and also reading about it in the book, but also what you've just said that, you know, you've been there. For a number of years now, it wasn't like you just gave it a quick bash and went, nah, sorry, it didn't work out. I'm going to go home. You were like, nah, okay. I'm, I'm going to learn. I'm going to learn the ins and outs of this process so that I can be prepared. What I'm hearing is like, so I can be prepared when that moment comes and I'm ready for it. Like, it's not like, oh shit, that moment came and I'm not prepared for it. Like. You're doing the work, you're dedicated. You're also like, you know, upholding your lifestyle and career with other avenues. It's not like you're just solely by the sounds of things like 100 percent driven. It's like you are expanding in other areas. Like you have a coffee brand with, has mushrooms, like the lion's mane mushroom blend in there as well. So that's pretty cool. Everybody loves coffee. Yeah. Yeah. We, we had to stop that. It was too expensive to make. That was a total failure actually. Yeah. Yeah. That was really, That's a good example of a failure. I mean, many failures. I had a smoothie bar we had to sell because it wasn't making money. Um, I do actually, when I read that, I was like, I do remember that smoothie bar because I used to live in Melbourne and Okay, I just have to ask, because I'm sure I've been in there. Was it closest to Elizabeth Street on one of like either Flinders Lane or Little Collins? Was it somewhere in there? No, so it wasn't, it wasn't near Queen Vic Market. It was South Melbourne Market and it was on the outside of South Melbourne Market. Yeah, so it would, but it was on the outside, there was a coffee shop near it and then there was ours. It was, it would fly in the summer and then it would just, you know. Die in the ass in the winter and my business partners were like, this isn't a smart financial move. They're all like proper business guys and I wasn't, and it was the best lesson ever. Like I learned so much. I learned that hospitality is so stinking hard, like so hard and same with the coffee company. Like we were all putting time and effort into it and it wasn't growing at the rate we needed it to. And it was a really expensive product to make. And so we just had to make the call. Like, and so they're failures where I. You know, let go. But also these are also examples where my heart, like the smoothie bar was a hard one to let go of because I'd put my like, literally it was like happy place, Lola Berry. Like I'd put my name on it and written every single recipe. The coffee one kind of slowly wound down. We still got the hinterland hot chocolate. So the company still exists, but it's hard. It's hard. Like when we were talking about like how to know when to give up and when not to, I think I knew deep down. My heart wasn't in, I didn't want a bricks and mortar in Melbourne. Like I didn't want to have to be tied to Melbourne when I knew I wanted to be in LA. Like there were a lot of things that I had to be really honest about where my passion was lying. Like my passion, I was working on the, in the background on my green card. You know, I was, my passion was like, get to. America, get to LA. And so I think that's interesting when you know when to let go of a failure, because your heart also has to be able to stick in there even when all of the chips are down for God knows how long. And in both of those times, I'd have really tough conversations with myself and my therapist and go, Hey, my heart actually wants to be somewhere else. I need to honor that this isn't working right now. That makes sense. Absolutely. And then really, and like you said, just tuning in, going, well, not tuning in, but that focus of this is where I need to go. And I'm sure like in, within those experiences, you've learned quite a lot and it wasn't like people didn't appreciate the smoothies. Yeah, no, I loved it. I had no idea how to read P& L. I had no idea how to manage staff. I learned all of that. It's great. Loved it. Great learning there. I want to ask you one final question here. If someone came to you and they said, Lola, I really want to make this thing happen. I really, I've got this idea. I really want to do this. Whether it's like acting or creating a business or studying something or doing something that they just know that they really, really, really want to do. What kind of advice would you give them? Oh, what a great flippin question. People come to me for this coaching wise. I love it. I love it. So the first thing I'll do if someone brings an idea in a coaching session is I'll just like hear them out. Like, for example, give me your ultimate dream right now. What's my ultimate dream? Yeah. No, no, no. God, put it on the spot. My ultimate dream would be to be on stage and be a speaker, be a speaker, hold sound buds, mindset talks, and. empower people. That would be my dream. Unreal. Two of the world doing that. Yeah. Like let's, let's, let's take it to the, write a book as well, mate. You should always write a book if you can do that kind of stuff. Good, good, good, good. Yeah. So if that was your dream, I'd be like, I'd find out how confident you were with your speaking. If you were like, no, this is something I love. There is nothing that I feel like I need to work on. Cause you can train in all of that. Like it's interesting. Like when you've got a dream. And this is actually one of the reasons why the pod exists and why the book exists. If you've got a dream and it sometimes feels too far away, there's just a couple of skills that need to be brushed up essentially for you to have the right, like talent to meet the passion, essentially talent can be taught. Work ethic, passion, all that can't be as much like work ethic to a certain degree, but your work ethic, like willpower and stuff, it all drops off by 3 PM in the day anyway. And so like, you need the passion to be able to carry you through. So if you've got the passion for it and then there's a few little like kinks in your armor, like for me, a good example was I couldn't speak with an American accent. And so I remember rocking up to a dialect coach and being like, I'm never going to get an American accent. He goes, Standing at the bottom of the mountain, Lola, you've just, we've just got to slowly walk up the mountain together. And he's like, my goal is that when you're on set, you can flick into American and do your scene and then flick sprayed out into Australian to take your notes from the director. And I was like, really? And he's like, yes. He's like, that's it. How good do you want to seamlessly slip between the two things? And so that's all skill. Like I'm not the smartest person. I've never been the best person in an acting class. I've never been the smartest person in nutrition class throughout my entire degree. I've always had the passion and then I've just skilled up. And I think that that's a really good way. If you're afraid of this goal or dream that you got, or it feels too big or too far away or too whatever. And then the other thing for you would be find an all star, like find somebody that's doing something. It doesn't need to be the exact same modality that you're doing, but like find someone that you find as a really engaged speaker is really like authentic and passionate and got all the values and morals that you align with as a human. And And watch them and learn from them. I used to watch countless Jamie Oliver videos, countless Steve Irwin videos. And then I would watch Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Caribbean, because I thought his quirk was the best thing ever. And that was my magic combo, the three, and then I'd watch before I ever would film, and that was like how I would get ready if I was doing to camera stuff. But I used to be terrible on camera and I literally saved up, bought one and would practice talking about my brekkie to camera. Just to get like comfortable with it. So you can skill up, know that, and then have mentors that you can look up to, even if you don't know them, and then like keep the passion alive and then just keep like building the talent. So that the two are like, if you've got the talent and the passion, you're hireable. Yeah. Okay. I love that. I like that reminder of, and that message you've got there that as long as your passion is still high, as long as your passion is still like, you're keeping it high, you're keeping it alive. It's like you said, a bit of a North star in a sense as well, having like skilling up and finding people to support you along the way, then it can make that passion. Yeah. Which is exactly what you're doing, right? It's exactly what you're doing. And you like, it sounds like you're already well and truly on your path, but I always, I had an acting coach say like, In your heart, you've got a little spark for something, and you just got to keep like, blowing on that spark, fanning that spark, and like, keep fanning it, keep fanning it, so it grows to wildfire. And that's what you do in the skill, and the learning, and the You know, you would read about public speaking, you would watch the best Ted Talks, all those kind of things to learn like what's great, because I enjoy public speaking as well, but I have found out which, there's loads of different formats and styles and it's funny, I did a whole tour public speaking Last year. And I said, Oh, can we just do Q and a the whole time? And they were like, what don't you want the stage to yourself? And I was like, F no, I want an honest combo. Can the MC sit with me and we can write the questions together, or I can write them if she doesn't have time, I don't care. And I was like, I just want an honest conversation. I said, it's going to flow. It's going to feel so much more. And I just found that was so much better for me than me being like, eat broccoli at 2 PM, you I was just like, ah, felt a bit wanky for me. I much prefer a conversation. So it's like finding out what suits your value system as well. Hmm. That's so interesting. I like that. Thanks, Lola. That's been really, really inspiring. Very helpful. And this whole conversation, I feel like has been so, like we said, right from the start when we're tuning in, lots of gold wisdom and nuggets coming through to inspire and support people. The listeners in their ambitions and their goals, staying true to themselves, staying true to their vision and what they're wanting to do. Put in the hard work because we have to, work has to happen to make anything happen, doesn't it? Have to put in some work. Yeah. And your heart's got to be fully in it. Like I think knowing when your heart's out of alignment with it, well then it just needs a rejig or a change or, you know, something's not right. Keep your heart in it because that'll guide you nicely. Absolutely. Yeah. I agree. Thank you so much for coming on the show, Lola. I've really enjoyed this conversation. Thank you so much for sharing all your wisdom today. Oh, mate. Anytime. It's been an honor to jump on the potto with you and let me know when it comes out. I'll share it. And to the, your listeners, thank you for listening to me yabber on. I appreciate it. Absolutely. And yeah, just don't forget me when you get that, uh, email. That, that call and that leading role. And it was because you were an asset to the movie and I'll, whatever. And I'll be like, that was me. Thank you. I promise, mate. I'll come on and do another pod with you and I'll be like, it worked. Tell me all about it. Absolutely. Thank you so much for coming on the show. For the listeners, Lola has like, A huge library of books that you could tap into, but Fearlessly Failing is her latest one. And I strongly recommend everybody read it, because it is just such that authentic you that comes through. And actually, if you can, listen to the audio, because Lola actually reads it, and I really enjoyed hearing you read it. Read your book because it just puts me into your, who you are and your experiences. But yeah, read it, listen to it. So, so, so inspiring. And I think it's helpful for anybody who's in those places where you just have those mindset wobbles of like, holy crap, do I want to do this? Do I not want to do this? Is this ever going to work out? Where's my tipping point? All those things. So thank you so much for coming on the show, Lola. It was amazing. Anytime mate, honored to be on it. It means loads. Thank you. You're wonderful. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much for tuning in and listening to today's episode. Please rate and review this podcast so that it can continue to thrive and reach more listeners. I love to know who my listeners are, so please screenshot this episode and tag me on Instagram at Anna F. Hastie, and I look forward to connecting with you in the next episode.