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If it's not making you happy, don't do it.
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And it doesn't, and even if you are making a million dollars and it's not making you happy, don't do it.
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What is going on, LM family?
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Back again.
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And this time I feel like I have a celebrity or at least a celebrity in my mind.
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I've been following her on LinkedIn.
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She is a fespian, a truth teller.
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And the words that I got to pull off of her profile was construction social media expert.
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But when you see her stuff, it's a whole lot more than just construction social media expert.
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She's got some serious game.
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She's helping construction companies out there market themselves, build their brand, make, and more importantly, make connection with other human beings.
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And that is no small feat.
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Her name is Liberty Kogan.
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We're about to get to know her, and I'm excited because this is the first conversation I've ever had with her.
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So I get to learn all kinds of stuff with you guys.
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And before that, if this is your first time here, you are listening to the Learnings and Missteps podcast, where you get to see amazing make it happeners just like you that are sharing their gifts and talents to leave this world better than they found it.
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I am Jesse, your selfish servant, and we're about to get to know Miss Liberty.
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Miss Liberty, how are you?
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I'm great, Jesse.
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I'm so thrilled to be here.
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First of all, I can't believe this is the first time you and I have ever spoken face to face because I feel like we have like five times.
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I agree.
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I agree totally.
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But I guess we've just been like chatting on LinkedIn for like four or five years or something at this point.
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So it feels like I already know you.
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I want to like I want to comment on that to help the LM family out there kind of get some context.
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I know for me, I have this comfort level with you because of how much you've shared, like your vulnerability, the truth that you've shared about yourself, and not just like yourself, but like your business, the way you think about things, really made it easy for like this person is like, I gotta spend some more time with this human being, even though it was at first just on LinkedIn and then now here, and then who knows what's coming up in the future.
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But there's extreme value.
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I mean, maybe that's a data point in terms of how valuable it is to show up.
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I don't know if the words authentic or whatever, but like to show up the way that you do.
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I'm just gonna say that.
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What do you think?
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Well, first of all, thank you for saying that.
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That really means a lot.
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It feels good to know that the content that I put out there isn't just disappearing into the void.
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People are reading it.
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Hopefully, it's helping people.
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And some people have shared a woman a couple of weeks ago, or maybe it was last week, I can't remember.
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And I can't remember what my post was even about, but she shared this beautiful story in the comments about her sister who had passed away from cancer.
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And she shared about the beautiful moments that she got to spend with her.
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Oh, I remember because I had talked about I went to New York, I came back home, but I got to be close to my family, and a great positives came out of it.
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And she said she went through something similar.
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She went, she moved away from home because she felt like she should and she needed a change, and then realized that she was actually really lonely when she moved away.
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And so when she moved back and got to spend time with her, I don't know if it was her nieces and nephews, but with her sister and got that valuable time with her sister before she passed away.
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Like the fact that people will even write that as a comment on one of my posts, I've already won.
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So experiences like that on LinkedIn really touch me very deeply.
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And it feels good to know that there are other people, like you said, that are experiencing similar things out there, and you never know until you put yourself out there and say it first.
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Yeah.
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So well, and I'm gonna go a little further, Library, because I don't think I I need you to see this in case you don't.
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Your vulnerability is giving other people permission to be vulnerable.
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Right.
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And the fact that they're doing it on the internet is uh I think signals something deeper in that maybe they don't have the conditions in their life, like in their immediate circle, IRL circle, to be that vulnerable.
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Yeah, but because you are demonstrating that behavior, it is emboldening them to come at the same depth.
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Yeah, and that's like your fault and your gift, I think, even more appropriately, it's your gift to inspire that type of interaction.
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So you're amazing.
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Well, thank you.
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You're amazing, you're amazing.
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I have been following you for, like I said, it's gotta be at least like four years now, and I have always been impressed by your ability to first of all constantly put yourself out there.
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I remember for a while on LinkedIn and probably like on Instagram and TikTok too, you would like go on like these morning walks.
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I'm not sure if you're still doing it, but you would just like film yourself, just going on the walk, just like stream of consciousness, just whatever was going on in your mind.
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And I was like, I wish that I had the ability to put myself out there more like that, and not care about what other people think and not care about judgment.
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But you, I'm sure you obviously helped me in that way, but you helped other people in putting yourself out there like that.
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And so, and what I'll say too about the aspect of being vulnerable and I guess talking about yourself on LinkedIn, which that's what we're doing.
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We're talking about ourselves.
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In my personal life, I don't really get the opportunity to talk about my work and what I do.
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My husband and I and my two kids, we live in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
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I mean, it's on my LinkedIn profile, you can't miss it.
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So if you're in Tuscaloosa, give me a shout.
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We moved here in 2018.
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So we don't have a lot of like, we're from Atlanta originally, we don't have a lot of friends here.
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Like, I have a couple mom friends here and there.
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My husband has a couple colleagues that he's kind of surface level friends with.
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And so when I meet like moms on the playground and stuff like that, they never really ask me, or if they might ask me about what I do, and if they do ask me about what I do, they're like, What the heck is she talking about?
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Like, all right, is that a real thing?
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Yeah, exactly.
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I'm like, honestly, I don't know.
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Like, it's a miracle anyone pays me, to be perfectly honest.
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Because, like, what is it?
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I don't know, but I never get the chance to talk about my work and how much I love it and how important it is to me.
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And so I think LinkedIn for me has become that place where I can do that because I'm talking amongst peers in my industry, but also in other industries too.
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And so for me, it's kind of therapeutic in that way to laugh with people and have DMs with people that aren't business related but are that are just like conversations that springboarded for maybe a post I made or a post they made, and we just become like LinkedIn friends.
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So I wish I had those LinkedIn friends here in real life, but to have them virtually and to show up every single day means a lot.
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So that's what LinkedIn has really become for me.
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Yeah, well, I think I love the way you're using it because there's I know you know this because this is your profession, but people use it differently.
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Yeah.
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And I don't think it's wrong, like whatever's working for you, do that.
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Right.
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But I have a deep appreciation for people like yourself for the way that you show up, because it helps me.
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Because I'm like, okay, well, then I'm like, I'm not the only one.
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Right, right.
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Not because I've chosen or kind of decided like people always ask, like, man, you're crazy, like you don't care.
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Like, oh no, I do care.
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Like, my I do have feelings.
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I get my feelings get hurt and all of the things.
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Oh, yes.
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But I do it anyways, because like you said, it can connect with somebody in a certain kind of way.
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It I mean, hell.
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So those month, those walks of where I'm just the Monday morning hug.
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Yeah, those videos you're talking about, I've turned that into a newsletter.
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Right.
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So now it's a the newsletter, right?
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On LinkedIn.
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It's still the Monday morning hug on all the other platforms.
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And just the other day, I was talking with Stephanie Wood, another LinkedIn friend.
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Yeah, and she was like, Jesse, that hug that you put out today was exactly what I needed with the really difficult decision.
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I'm like, oh my God, that happens once maybe every two years, but it's enough.
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I know, yeah, those moments make it all worth it.
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I know that sounds super crazy, but it's really true.
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It totally is.
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Okay.
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Now I know that this social media marketing expertise world that you're in now is not where you started.
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No, you started, well, from what I know, or what's caught my interest enough to yes, you were in my theater.
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You're touring doing legally blonde, which was your dream.
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And so here I got a simple, like kind of simple question.
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Yeah.
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Is that okay?
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Yeah.
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So how do you reconcile living your dream and being miserable?
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Girl, you're gonna make me cry.
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Well, here's the thing.
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So I I moved to New York right after I graduate college.
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Uh at a BFA in musical theater from one of the top musical theater schools in the country, which is amazing.
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Amazing.
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Um I'm gonna do the LM family member shout-out.
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And this one goes to Miss Rocio, my sister, former guest of the Learn Inns and Mystebs podcast.
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And she says, Jesse Hernandez is the man.
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I've had the pleasure of working and being in a couple of his organization class, the best class ever, according to Rocío, not me.
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So he helped my squirrel brain get focused and organized.
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Uh Mr.
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Rocillo, thank you not only for the beautiful, amazing review, but taking the time to be in the things, because I do crazy things and you never know what to expect.
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Uh folks, if you're wondering what she's talking about, it was the self-first Time Mastery workshop that she was in, and she was also an emotional bungee jumpers.
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Anyways, uh Rocil, thank you for taking the time to leave that review.
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And folks, you already know I love attention.
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I need attention.
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So anytime you take your precious time to leave a comment, leave a review, it gives me an excuse to celebrate you in the future and it feeds my ego.
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So please do some of that.
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Moved to New York in, I want to say it was like May of 2009.
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I booked Legally Blonde in January of 2010.
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And yeah, no, I was very lucky.
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I mean, like I said, I came from one of the top schools, so I like I had a showcase in New York where my class got to perform in front of agents.
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We had a step up, we had a privilege that we had this opportunity to get in front of the top people in the city.
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So I gotten an agent from that.
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So I had an agent that was able to get me into rooms I would not have been able to get into myself.
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Um so I booked Legally Blonde in January of 2010, which was incredible.
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I was only 23 at the time.
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So I was like one of the youngest people in the cast.
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I I thought I was a cat's meow.
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Okay, let's just say that.
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Of course.
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I thought I was a Snapdrag.
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I love all my animal references.
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But so I go, I like literally like less than a week after I book the job, I'm on a plane to somewhere in Oklahoma.
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I can't remember.
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I'm on a plane to Oklahoma.
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And so right away I start learning the show.
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I want to say a couple weeks later, I like had my debut in the show because I was replacing someone that was leaving.
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Did that for seven months, had the absolute time of my life, was making a lot of money, way more money than a 20, 23 year old probably should be.
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Um, and I was able to just put it, keep it in my bank account because I really didn't have any expenses.
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I was subletting my apartment in New York, so I wasn't paying rent there.
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So it was great, it was amazing.
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And I remember the day that I got back to New York after the tour ended, because our last city was DC.
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So we had played DC, then we just took a bus up to New York because it was very close.
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And I remember just like having my bags and walking back into my apartment and be like, okay, that was fun.
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What's next?
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Because I was terrified of never booking a job again.
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I just like had in the back of my mind that something like that was never gonna happen again.
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And even while I was on tour with Legally Blonde, I remember we were in, we did we played Toronto for five weeks, and I remember like going to this park by myself alone in Toronto, like during the day before show, and just like sobbing because I was so terrified of going back to New York and having to relive the whole audition experience again.
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And I just had in the back of my mind that like this was gonna be the only job I was ever gonna get.
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So I get back to the city, I'm still with the same agent, they're sending me on auditions, nothing is clicking.
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I change agencies, thinking, okay, well, maybe someone else will, I don't know, change my trajectory.
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Got really close to booking Sister Act on Broadway.
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I had like 11 callbacks or something crazy like that.
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Didn't get it, was totally devastated.
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That one I don't think I'll ever get over.
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I know everyone's like, oh, get over and move on to the next thing, but that was it was very emotional.
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And so basically for a whole nother year after that, I just kept auditioning and nothing ever clicked.
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And so probably every day that year, I would just call my dad sobbing on the phone, being like, I can't do this anymore.
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I'm so unhappy.
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I felt untalented, I felt unworthy.
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It just felt terrible.
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I was extremely depressed.
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Looking back now, I didn't know I was depressed at the time because I was so young.
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Right.
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Looking back now, I'm like, oh no, you were definitely depressed.
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That is impressive behavior.
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So eventually in March of 2012, my agent at the time calls me and he was like, Oh, by the way, we're dropping you.
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And I was like, Oh, geez.
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Another nail, yeah.
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But you know what my first thought was when he said that?
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Okay, I thank goodness leave now.
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Oh I mean, I was no, go ahead, go ahead.
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Okay, and man, if I go too far, just tell me back off because I have a habit of dig in.
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Was it how much of it was like the rejection?
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How much of it was it the like the unknown, like not knowing?
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I guess because I had such a big job so early on and so fast.
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And that it's not that I expected that to happen again, but I just had in the back of my mind, and I I probably defeated myself at the end of the day.
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I'm sure that I went into every audition just thinking like you'll never get that again.
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Like that was a once in a lifetime.
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That was just pure luck.
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Well, where did that idea come from, though?
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Was it just you just decided that or I don't know.
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I because right before I booked Legally Blonde, when I went home for Christmas in like December 20, 2009, like the day before I got back on a plane to go back to New York, I remember saying to my parents, like, I don't want to go back.
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I don't think I can do this.
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But they were like, Liberty, you just got there.
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Give it some more time.
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Like, this is what you've this is what you've wanted your whole life.
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And that's true.
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From age three, I was like, girl, I'm gonna be on Broadway.
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That that that was the only life goal that I had, and that's what I knew I was gonna do.
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So I was like, okay, so then a week later I booked Legally Blonde after I said that to my parents.
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Okay.
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Or do the show for seven months, and then yeah, I don't know, I don't know what changed in me.
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And also when you're when you go to a school like that, like the school that I went to, and you see your classmates succeeding at a very high level consistently, yeah, you can't not compare yourself to that, right?
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You're like, why are they getting all this stuff and I'm sitting like a bump on a log?
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It just makes you feel very less than and very untalented.
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Yes, and that's why that industry, any performing industry, is so tough.
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I mean, you when they say you gotta have a thick skin, that's baseline.
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You need to have skin and nerves of steel.
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And I I guess I just didn't have that.
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But I would but and I just remember thinking while I was there and while I was so depressed, I was like, I'm just like not happy.
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Should I just I'm just gonna like live and not being happy for the next 10 years and still be going to open calls when I'm 33 years old with 23-year-olds that are gonna be shooting me out of the water?
00:17:46.799 --> 00:17:51.039
I would see older women at these auditions that I went to, and I was like, I don't want that to be me.
00:17:51.359 --> 00:17:56.000
Not because I didn't respect them, but I just knew that's not what I wanted for my life.
00:17:56.240 --> 00:17:57.359
Sure, yeah, absolutely.
00:17:57.680 --> 00:18:00.079
So, so yeah, so my agent dropped me.
00:18:00.240 --> 00:18:07.279
I think literally, like my dad, I think called my landlord and was like, dude, you gotta help get me out of it.
00:18:07.519 --> 00:18:08.799
Help us out, help us out.
00:18:09.279 --> 00:18:10.559
Please break this lease.
00:18:10.720 --> 00:18:12.319
I don't know what kind of deal they came to.
00:18:12.480 --> 00:18:16.079
Somehow we got out of the lease, moved back to Atlanta.
00:18:16.240 --> 00:18:20.559
I remember just like arriving back at home, being like, What the heck am I gonna do?
00:18:20.799 --> 00:18:23.440
Like, I feel like you didn't even have a plan.
00:18:23.519 --> 00:18:25.279
You're just like, I'm not gonna do this.
00:18:25.519 --> 00:18:28.400
No, I don't know, like I'm just not gonna do this.
00:18:28.480 --> 00:18:29.119
Oh, that's awesome.
00:18:29.359 --> 00:18:34.319
Because all I had known for my whole life, and what I wanted my whole life was just to perform.
00:18:34.480 --> 00:18:35.359
That's all I wanted.
00:18:35.599 --> 00:18:35.759
Sure.
00:18:36.000 --> 00:18:41.680
So I didn't other professions or careers never entered my mind ever.