RECOVER WHAT WAS STOLEN

Has Hollywood convinced you that your best years as an actor are behind you?

That is a lie—and it is time to recover your confidence, your purpose, and your place in this industry.

In this episode of Acting Smarter Now, Lydia Nicole speaks directly to experienced actors who feel overlooked, discouraged, or left behind. Using the biblical story of David at Ziklag, she reveals how to move out of desperation, reclaim your power, and develop a modern strategy for your acting career.

You will learn how to:

• Recover confidence lost in toxic environments
• Stop seeking permission and start offering your gifts as a service
• Update your headshots, profiles, relationships, and career strategy
• Create opportunities through original content and film-school partnerships
• Turn years of experience into a competitive advantage
• Pursue, overtake, and recover what you thought was lost

Your experience has not expired. Your talent is still needed. But recovery requires more than hope—it requires faith, strategy, and action.

CHAPTERS

00:00 Has Hollywood Made You Bury Your Calling?
03:10 Stop Operating from Desperation
06:20 What Has Your Acting Career Lost?
09:45 David’s Recovery Strategy: Pursue, Overtake, Recover
13:15 Reclaiming Confidence After Toxic Experiences
17:40 Visualizing Your Comeback and Taking Back Your Power
20:15 What Do You Need to Recover Right Now?
23:30 Modernizing Your Acting Career for 2026–2027
26:45 Creating Opportunities and Partnering with Filmmakers
28:15 God Can Restore What You Thought Was Lost

If you are ready to reclaim your place in the business, type “RECOVER ALL” in the comments.

Join the Acting Smarter Circle for community, accountability, and practical career strategy:
https://actingsmartercircle.com

For private acting-career coaching with Lydia Nicole, visit:
https://actingsmarternow.com

Subscribe for honest, practical guidance that helps actors build stronger careers, create their own opportunities, and stay grounded in faith.

#ActingCareer #VeteranActors #ActingTips #CareerComeback #FaithAndActing

If you are looking for an acting community to support you, help you with career strategies and accountability, come join us at www.actingsmartercircle.com, where we meet weekly on Zoom.

Transcript

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SPEAKER_00 1:18

How you doing out there? I want to talk to you because first of all, this morning I had an incredible Bible study with myself. And also the last month, I have been um talking to older, experienced actors and just seeing that they're feeling stuck, they're feeling lost, they're feeling like their careers are over. And that is a lie, and I want to help you uh to dismantle that lie because some of you may be getting ready to bury your calling that is not over yet. You're not necessarily finished with your acting, you may simply be tired of carrying your dream with an outdated strategy, or your confidence has been wounded and you don't have any support to get that confidence back. You've spent many years, maybe even decades, training, auditioning, building relationships, spending your hard-earned dollar, hearing almost not this time, oh, we went in another direction. And now you're wondering whether it is time to just walk away, cut your losses, and be done with it. Well, I'm telling you, before you do that, let's have a talk. Don't quit yet. I want you to ask yourself a serious question. Are you truly finished with acting or are you or are you just exhausted from trying to win today's game, trying to figure out what is it that they want? How can I give them what they want? I need you to think about that because that is where we are sometimes. We are so focused on what the industry wants, and we don't know how to show up with our gifts, our talents, and say, hey, I'm here to be of service. How can I service your project? Which is different than coming in going, what do you want? How can I, what, what, what do you need? Um it is one comes from a place of power, knowing that you're bringing good medicine to them, and the other one comes from a place of like me, um, uh, can I get can I be in the room with you? They're two different energies. And we want to get to the energy where you're walking in confident, bringing in your experience, your talent, your gifts, everything that you have to the table, and saying, I got the goods. Are you interested? That's a different conversation. That's a conversation of a winner. So I want you to start thinking about that. I want you to look at things in a different way. You know, sometimes it's about reframing something. I was reading my uh my Bible this morning and just studying on recovery, remembering certain things. God has promised us recovery to recover what was stolen, to recover our health, to recover our position. And that word recover is ginormous. And a lot of times we don't even think about recovering something that was lost. We just give up. We don't think of recovering something that was stolen. We just go, ah, it's gone, and and we just let it go. I'm telling you, it is time for you to recover everything that was stolen from you. It is time to recover the um the truth from the lies. You may not have lost your calling, you may have just lost your confidence, you may not have lost your talent. I don't believe you have, I believe you've lost your direction. Maybe you need to um get sharpened in your in your talent, you know, in what it is that you do, because we are in new technology territory, and maybe it's just getting some more information so that you can come back with fire in your spirit and your belly. You may not need to leave the business. What you may need is a smarter, fresher, and more intentional way to re-enter it. So let's talk about it. In uh 1 Samuel 1 uh 30. David almost lost everything. So if you know about David, you know David, the one that was up against Goliath, he um had his army and they had gone out, his people, and another tribe came in and took everything. It took the families, took the animals, took their goods, just took everything. And when they came back and they found that their camp was devastated and everything was taken, the men started wailing and crying and screaming. And David, with all this pressure on him, went to God and said, and he was devastated too. So let's look at the reality. He was feeling devastated. Here he is, the leader of all these uh soldiers. And what does he do? So what he did was, after he cried, and and it says he had no more strength, he didn't make a permanent decision from a place of temporary devastation. No, he did not. What he did was strengthen himself in God, he sought God's direction. And then by him praying to God and seeking God, he asked, God, shall I pursue? Shall I overtake, and shall I recover? And God said to him, Pursue, for thou shalt surely overtake them, and without fail, I love this, without fail, recover all. Do you need to be in pursuit today? Do you need to overtake um what was stolen from you? Overtake that thief, overtake it, and then take it back. So I'm gonna tell you a story that happened to me. I had done a film. I was so excited about doing this film and working with these people. And during the course of the film, my confidence was stolen. My they questioned whether I was good or not. I mean, it was just a very toxic situation. And I walked away from that totally uh beaten up and and feeling like I had no place in the business. Like maybe I wasn't an actor, maybe I wasn't supposed to do this, and and questioning my gifts and my call because of a toxic environment. And years went on and I struggled. I mean, I I was doing stuff, I was I was still working, but that situation left me um paralyzed in a lot of ways. And so I like to do fasts. Usually I will do a 40-day fast uh for purpose. And so I decided I was going to do a fast based on recovering what was stolen. There's a scripture in the Bible that's in the Bible that says God will restore to you what the locust, God, let me take that back. God will restore to you the years that the locust has eaten. So for 40 days I did a fast and I just started praying. I said, Lord, I want everything back that was stolen from me during that production. Things were stolen from me, from my spirit, from my um confidence. It was stolen. It was, they jacked me, God. They jacked me from my goods. And I prayed and I prayed and I prayed. And then I had an opportunity to be back in the room with those criminals that took my stuff. And so as I prayed, God reminded me of all my angels. I have all these angels. And so let me let me just um give you a little context. Um, I was an artist in residence at a youth authority um facility. Uh for years. I was going in and working with young people that were incarcerated, giving them back their hope, stuff that was stolen from them. And as I was doing my fast, uh the Holy Spirit reminded me of the all the guards, all the officers that they have in these institutions, and that when they do a lockdown, they all are assembled. They all come running and racing. And I've been in the I've been in the facility when that has happened. I mean, they come with their um weapons. It is no joke. They shut everything down. And so as I was praying, as I was fasting, I was like, yes, my angels are coming with me, and I'm walking like I got a thousand um sheriffs and um just officers coming with me to take back everything that was stolen from me. And that is what I did. I went in there. Boy, I was on fire. I went in there and said, you guys took, took, took, I'm taking it back. That's mine, that's mine, and that's mine. And I took it back. And a lot of it is, you know, mentally seeing yourself taking stuff back. You know, if you've ever had something physically taken from you and you have the opportunity to go back and take it and know that you got the popo behind you, and that you can just go back to that place and just grab it, and there's nothing that they can do about it. Well, that is what I did. And so, in this passage where uh we we read about uh David in 1 Samuel 30, where David comes back to the camp and he sees everything's been taken and he is just grieving and crying. You know that thing when you've been crying so much that you have no strength, you just fall out because he cried so much. Well, that is what David was going through. That's what he went through, but he had the mind to go, wait a minute, I'm not in this alone. I got God. So let me go to God and ask him what I am to do in this. And his his uh question to God was should I pursue these bandits? And if I pursue them, can I overtake them? And if I overtake them, can I take back everything that they took from me? And God's answer to him was yes, pursue them because I've given you the authority to overtake them and take everything back that they took from you. Everything. And I'm saying to you, OG actor, go pursue, overtake, and recover everything that you feel was taken from you in this business. Um bring your spirit, your energy, and say, no, I'm I'm supposed to be here. I'm supposed to be doing my acting, I'm supposed to be in the room. I have stuff to offer. I want you to know how powerful you are. Don't let them convince you otherwise. So I want you to identify what you need to recover. Is it you need to reinvent yourself? Do you need your confidence back? Do you need your mojo back? What is it that you need to get back so that you can get in the game? Maybe you need to go back in an acting class and be reminded of what a badass you are, how amazing you are, because your your experience never expires. Your skill um never uh you never lose it. You may get a little rusty, you know, because sometimes we get rusty with our work. Remember, acting is a a daily practice. We gotta be in the gym, we gotta be working out. It's like if, you know, if you want to look a certain way, you want to have that trim body, you gotta work out, you gotta watch what you eat, you gotta, you know, you gotta be in the gym regularly. You can't just, oh, I think I'm gonna look good. And you're not putting effort into it. You gotta put effort into it. So do you need to put effort back into your game? Do you need to go find a hot acting class where where the acting teacher is no joke and they're not gonna let you get away with just sliding by, but they want you to be of excellence? Is that what you need? You gotta come back strong, you gotta get your stuff, you gotta be ready, you gotta be prepared, you gotta say, you know what? I'm done with feeling sorry for myself, I'm done with with uh grieving. This is my season. I want you to know this is your season. Take it back because I don't believe your career is over. First of all, uh this business needs people at every age, every single age. You may just need a new strategy. So, and maybe the way you've been approaching it has to change. Maybe you you are seeing it with with old eyes, with the old sense of, you know, 1980. No, we're in 2026, getting ready to hit 27. So, how are you gonna see it? If you're ready to recover your confidence, your creativity, and your place in this business, type recover all in the comments. I want to know if that's you. And I want you to hear me clearly because inspiration is not enough. I'm not trying to inspire you. I'm I'm here to give you a kick in your pants and tell you, get back what was stolen from you. Because you can leave uh this talk feeling hopeful, but then tomorrow return back to your confusion or you're feeling like, oh, yeah, I felt good for a minute, but now I'm back in that. Ugh, I love it. Thank you, JP Smooth. You you are thank you. I hope this is speaking to you, my brother. So I want you to start thinking of a plan for your recovery. You need to understand how it is that you want the industry to see you today. Do you know how it is you want them to see you today? What roles are you best positioned to play? Do you know that? Have you really uh sat uh sit with have you sat with that and really figured out, okay, this is this is what I want. I want to be seen this way. So I'm gonna work on my headshots, I'm gonna clean up my resume, I'm gonna create a new reel to show them this is what I play. And I'm changing my online profiles to support that position. I'm also starting to work on my social media uh page so they could start seeing, hey, I I may I may be an OG, but I'm coming in fresh, ready. And then I want you to ask yourself, what relationships do you need to rebuild in the business? Who's still in the business that that was your big fan? And how do you um reconnect with them? Are they on social media? Do you know if they're still casting, if they're still in the game? Maybe you need to get um a subscription of casting about and start typing in those uh casting directors to see what they're working on, or get yourself a subscription if you don't already have to IMDB Pro or go on perplexity.ai, my favorite, and just type in the name of that person and find out where they are now, what are they doing, what projects are they working on? Start to rebuild your relationships and start looking at where new opportunities may exist for you, whether you should be creating your own project. Maybe, maybe you need to do your own thing instead of you know, instead of relying on the business to give you opportunity, maybe it's time, OG, to say, you know what, I'm gonna do my own project. I'm gonna get a writer, I'm gonna get a director, I'm gonna find a producer who can help me put it together. Sometimes it's you know, we start small. Um acting um um film schools have young people who want to um grow in this business, and maybe it's you pairing with a young filmmaker, a young, you know, a young whippersnapper and saying, Hey, I have an idea, I want to do this, and bring a young team together to help you get where you want to go. There's many ways to create opportunities. You just have to sit and go, this is what I want. And then once you know what you want, then start writing down who it is that you need to help you. There's all kinds of ways. We always think it's just about money, but it really is about being resourceful, not resources necessarily, but resourceful. Um, young students in in a film school have resources available. They got the cameras, they got the lights, they they got stuff, they need to work on projects, they need a thesis. Why can't it be you that they help and in turn they get to show they've done this stuff? So I want to challenge you. What are you willing to do in the next 30 days, the next 60 days, the next 90 days to start positioning you where you want to be and think about your strategies. Maybe um your strategies that you've been relying on are old that they don't work anymore. It and and be very mindful. It's not for you to start from scratch because you've been doing this a long time. It's just for you to think differently, think outside the box. What can you do uh to get where you want to go? Because you're not starting from a novice point of view, you're starting from experience. You got all this experience, so I want you to start thinking about how you do what it is you want and create a strategy for it. You know, uh you could be experienced without a curtain strategy, and that'll leave you standing still. We don't want that. We want you to start uh coming up with a strategy that can help you break through to get where you want to go. You know, uh believe, believe in your gifts and your abilities to get you to the other place and stop relying on the industry to rediscover you when you're not doing anything. They they rediscover you when you are in movement and you're doing stuff and you're not waiting for permission, but you are moving your ball in a whole different way. If you're ready to re-enter the acting biz in the a new, fresh, and intentional way, but you're not sure of what your next move should be. I want you to seek out my coaching and my strategy services because I can help you. I can help you get your stuff um back on track to to give you honest, um honest uh assessment of where you've been and what it is you need to do to get you to where you want to go, to help you identify what isn't working for you and to help you create a personalized game plan for you to re-enter the business. And if you're new and you're trying, you know, you don't know what works, you need to come join my community, the acting smartercircle.com. Come, we meet every Monday, 6 30 p.m. Pacific Standard Time. So you can go to Acting Smarter Circle and sign up. And we got a lot going on in there. But if you are an OG and you need some, you know, you need some tweaking, you need some guidance, you need some help, go to actingsmarternow.com and sign up so I can help you. You don't have to do this by yourself. You you you just need someone who can walk alongside of you and give you uh tips and strategy that you didn't think about. You know, a lot of times we There's things we don't we we can't see, but somebody who's not in it with us can see. They can go, oh my God, if you if you do this and you do that. Oh, I didn't think of that. You know, somebody you could spitball with, somebody who can help you think in a different way. I'm a big believer in in having people help me get where I need to go, do what I need to go. I'm not smart enough to do it by myself, but when I'm with people, it opens me up to other things. So I know that if you uh need guidance, I'm that person. I'm that person to help you, especially because I've been doing this for almost 50 years. I have, I know I look 12, but but I've been in this business 47 years. I've been in show business 53 years, because I started at 13 at a place called WBLSFM in New York. And I was there for five years and came to Los Angeles and came ready to kick butt and have been doing so all along. So if you're an actor who needs help, you've been in the game, you're feeling um, you're feeling beaten up, you're feeling like somebody stole your goods and and you want it back, I'm that person. So go to actingsmarternow.com and sign up for private coaching. Sign up if you're young or not even young, but if you want to be in a community of actors who are moving forward and we we are about being uh accountable and and moving our ball, then come on to the actoring acting smartercircle.com. Come and join us. We always have room for one more. So I I want to leave you with this. God has told us that we can recover what was stolen, we can recover what was stolen. So it is up to you. I want to give you a couple of scriptures um because I do I do believe in the word of God. I do believe that if you apply it, it will work for you. Um, so in the Old Testament, in the book of Joel, chapter 2, 25 and 26, God says, I will restore to you the years that the swarming locusts has eaten. I will restore to you the years that the swarming locusts has eaten. And scientifically, when locusts devastate the land, they leave a film. They, you know, they ruin the crop, they eat all the crops, they just take everything. But the next year there is a bumper crop because when they devastate the land, they leave a film that think of uh um uh uh the m what is it, the growth. There's a uh a food that you put in the plants and it makes them bloom twice as much. Well, that's kind of what the locusts leave. They leave this this film on the on the vegetation that causes it to double. Whatever it was, now it's double. So even though it it got eaten, it got devastated for for that season, the following season, it's gonna come back in full bloom in a bigger way. Um, so he also talks about in Psalm 23:3, he restores your soul, he leads you, he for his name's sake. Um, it you know, so God, there's a lot of scriptures in the Bible that talks about God restoring us, he restores our health, he restores um um in Jeremiah 30, 17, he says, but I will restore to you health and heal your wounds, declares the Lord. So not only will he restore your health, but he's also gonna heal your wounds. And and that and healing your wounds is not just physical, it's mental, it's emotional, it's spiritual. He heals us, he restores our health, he heals us. You gotta own that, take it. You know, um, I know a lot of Christians who go to church, but they never receive the word. They don't believe it's for them. And as Christian artists, as Christian actors, if if we're walking in that, we gotta walk in the fullness of that. God's restoring to me everything that was stolen. He's restoring to me. He told me to go ahead and pursue, overtake, for I will recover without fail. So we want to be able to take it all back. We want it all. I want it all. I want everything that was stolen from me. I don't want to, when I get to heaven and I said, but God, why didn't it happen? And he goes, but I gave it to you. I told you to go pursue, I told you to overtake, and that when you did that, you would recover. And what is pursuing mean to you? What does overtaking mean to you? To me, pursuing means not letting go of my focus in that God created me to be an artist. So my job is to do my work, practice every day, do my stuff and and pursue it. Overtake, you know, and recover everything that was stolen. He did not put me here to get all my stuff jacked and to go, but they took it. Yeah, they might have taken it, but I'm gonna take it back. I want you to take it back. Take it back. That's right. Harlem is in the house. Oh yeah, oh yeah. That's right, because that's where I come from. I come from the border of Harlem and Spanish Harlem, and you are not gonna be able to take my stuff and think you're gonna keep it because I'm coming back for it. Thank you. Thank you for saying that, but yes, we're gonna take it back. So, anyway, I just want to share that with you. I just want to tell you how amazing you are. Don't let anybody tell you otherwise. It is time for you to take your position and go and be unstoppable. And with that said, I cannot wait to hear from you how you are taking back everything that was stolen. You're not letting anybody keep your goods. They might have taken it, but you're taking it back. Now it's time for you to take it back. So take it back, okay? So I can't wait. Please let me know what's happening with you. I because you know I'm nosy. I just have to tell you that. I'm nosy. I want to know. I want a um, I want you to give me a progress report. Okay. All right. Well, I'll see you the next time.