The Glow Up Year

Am I Offically A "Real" Actor?

• Megan Salisbury

Share episode

Six years into her acting career and finally a small but REAL return on investment? This is Megan’s year to shine! She’s making strides, launching her own acting business, and tackling her goals—one updated marketing material at a time. We’re talking fresh headshots, a new demo reel, and some beautiful additions to her modeling portfolio. What’s standing in her way? Nothing, really!

Megan knows firsthand that having marketing materials you’re truly proud of is key to a fulfilling career. When you believe in yourself and your work, others start to take notice.

In her “Wait… Who Even Am I?” moment, Megan opens up about her journey. After attending Musical Theatre School, she graduated a bit nervous and took a behind-the-scenes job to ease her anxiety about being on set. But four years and several roles later, she realized it was time to step into the spotlight. Now, she’s learning, growing, and leveling up every day. Follow along as she navigates the ups and downs of building the career and life she’s always wanted.

Here's more information about the photographer in this episode:
Anthony Grassetti Photography

✨ 2025✨ is about to be huge, and I want you to be part of this journey. Let’s glow up together.

🎭 Follow My Journey: Stay connected and get behind-the-scenes insights!

📸 Instagram: @megsalisburyofficial

🎬 TikTok: @megsalisburyofficial

Subscribe, leave a review, and share this with your fellow dreamers—we’re all in this for the long game!

Let’s glow up together—because your breakthrough moment might be closer than you think.

Speaker 1:

Stingy da da da da da stingy da, da da da da. Stingy da, da da da da. Stingy da, da da da da stingy da, da da da da stingy da, da da da da stingy da, da da da da stingy da, da da da da stingy da, da da da da stingy da da da da da stingy da. What it really takes to make big dreams happen. After six years in the entertainment world on camera, behind the scenes and everything in between I'm declaring this year my glow up year. This podcast is your front row seat to my journey as I hustle, learn and level up in real time, from auditions and photo shoots to script breakdowns and behind the scene chaos. We're diving into the ups, the downs and everything in between. If you're ready to chase your own dreams, fuel your passion or see if you have what it takes to rise to the top, you're in the right place. So grab a coffee, get comfy and let's glow up together. So I have some exciting news y'all. I have been acting for six years professionally and this year is the first year I'm starting my own business. So I'm actually my acting career is now in a business, in an LLC, and just like separate from me, which is so, so, so exciting, because last year was the first year that I made more money than I spent acting, which I am so fucking proud of. You guys have no idea how many years I've just spent like spinning my wheels, but you know, as soon as I really really started taking it seriously and decided I wasn't going to sabotage my progress or get derailed or distracted by just general life distractions, that's when it really started happening for me. So it was so exciting to look back at my taxes from last year and realize that I had made more than I had spent for the first time ever. So I made my first I, so I started my first business January 2025. And I set some goals for the year. I'm a I'm a goal girly. It's just the type of person I am. I like to be constantly on the next thing and the next thing and the next thing, and so I wanted to give you guys some of my goals for the year too, and maybe they'll help you as you are glowing up in your own life.

Speaker 1:

So this year, I really wanted to focus on updating my headshots and my marketing material. I want to love my portfolio. I want to look at my modeling portfolio and my reel and just be in love with them and just proud of them. When you love your marketing materials, that is when you are in the right space. So this year, one of my goals is to really focus on updating everything so that I can look back on my portfolio and be like, wow.

Speaker 1:

I also want to book work. Right, like everybody wants to book work. But booking work is a hard goal to set because it's in somebody else's control. Right, it's based off of other people who audition you know the casting director, what they're looking for, all of those things. So it's not really a goal that I have in my control. So, instead of focusing on booking jobs, I want to focus more on building my skills, getting better, doing active practice, active and consistent practice.

Speaker 1:

And with that I also want to attend this year Coco Rocha's model camp, which is kind of a silly thing for me because I am a 5'4" tiny, petite, little chicky-poo and really if you're going to go do fashion and editorial, you want to be much taller than that, probably like five, eight and up and so. But I've always had this dream of doing like fashion photography and being able to do like this high level fashion, like cool look, and so I'm gonna go for the fun of it, because why not? I'm gonna go and I'm gonna kick butt and I'm going to learn some new skills that might or might not apply to my career, but I'm just going to go and I'm going to do it and I'm going to have fun and I'm going to leave with some digitals that are fantastic and something that I might never, ever get to do again, and so it's something that I want to go do this year. I'm hoping to schedule it around March, but, yeah, it's going to be so fun. And then I also just heard about it's called the Model Workshop and it's by Anthony Grissetti and I.

Speaker 1:

When I first signed with my agency, I'm represented by New England Models Group, which is an agency in New Hampshire. They're based out of New Hampshire but they serve all of New England and I love my agency. And when I first signed up with them, they gave me Antony Grissetti. Well, when I first signed up with them, they gave me a list of photographers to go through, and so I went through. I looked at all the photographers' websites. I really vetted them. I wanted a high quality headshot, just like everybody does, right. Anthony Grissetti's work just really stood out to me and he had this, this like headshot development package or something like that, where you could go in and he would kind of like give you pointers and tips and help you pose and stuff.

Speaker 1:

And since I hadn't done any modeling work, I thought that would be really, really useful and so I went in, I did my photo shoot with Anthony Grissetti. I was, I felt really good, I felt proud, it was, it went, it went well, I thought. And then I got my photos and I was fucking blown away. I looked at these photos and I was like, oh, I'm getting emotional for some weird reason. I looked at these photos and I was like I cannot believe that's me. I was so proud of those photos and that's the first time that I realized that you have to be proud of your marketing materials. For them to be the right marketing materials, you have to look at those marketing materials and be like, holy shit, that's me and I am so proud. That's the type of work you want to put out there, right. And so these photos came back and I was just fucking blown away.

Speaker 1:

And so this year, as I'm doing my vision board because you know I'm froofy and I do a vision board and who cares? I'm not judging myself. But as I was doing my vision board, I was like my goal for this year, right, is to get my updated marking materials, my updated headshots. And I looked, I went on his website because I knew I wanted to go back for another photo shoot. I mean, why wouldn't you? I was so proud of the digitals I received and so I went on his website and I was going to just take a picture of his logo, honestly, and throw it on my vision board for later on in the year.

Speaker 1:

And I was going through all of his work and everything and kind of looking at well, what program do I want to do this time and what do I want to take advantage of this time for my headshot session? Do I want to do this time and what? What do I want to take advantage of this time for my headshot session? Do I want to do a model portfolio, like what do I want to do? And he had a model workshop on there and it was like a limited spots, it was 10 spots and I spent like I really wanted to do it, I really wanted to do it, I really wanted to do it, let me just say that and I knew I wanted to do it, but I didn't really have the cash actively available and so I thought about it for like three days and like every three days probably like two or three times a day I'll go on his website and see how many spots were left, because I was worried I wasn't gonna get a spot.

Speaker 1:

And on like day four I was. I was like I can't do to get a spot. And on like day four I was. I was like I can't do this anymore, I just need to buy it. Like my intuition is telling me this is the right thing to do. I need to go. I like I just need to go to this workshop. I know it's going to be, I know it's gonna be great networking, I know I'm going to get great information, I'm going to meet some people and I'm going to leave with his workshop. You leave with digitals for your digi sheet for modeling, and then you also get three retouched photos. And so I was like I just I know it's the thing, I have to do it. I have to do it, whether I have the money or not, I have to do it. And so I spent the money. I like chewed my nails for a couple of days like I shouldn't, maybe I shouldn't have spent this money, and a couple days like, oh, I shouldn't, maybe I shouldn't have spent this money. And then I was like you know, I'm letting go of that and I'm just going to be super excited and stoked about this model workshop and it hasn't happened yet. So come back for episode two to hear the update of how it went and when I got back for digitals. But I'm'm just so excited and I just feel so blessed to be able to work with people who are passionate about what they do, because it really shows in the work. So, yeah, that that is what I'm working on for this year and that's what's come up so far.

Speaker 1:

And I guess, before we go, I'll give you a little bit more background information on like where I came from when I did. But I went to school for musical theater at AMDA, american Musical and Dramatic Academy, and I went to school in both in New York and in LA and it was a wonderful experience. I knew when I was leaving I didn't want to do musical theater anymore. I was just really more interested in on screen and camera work and I was able to develop some of that into my program. But I was so nervous when I graduated college to go to a professional job that I decided that I would work behind the scenes on a couple shoots. And if I could find some like behind the scenes work, like working as a PA or something like that, I could understand like how sets worked and I might feel more comfortable going to act on a set. And so I spent, honestly, probably like four years working behind the scenes and it was so valuable because I learned so much.

Speaker 1:

I worked as a PA Obviously everybody starts as a PA I moved up to an AD. I was a second AD and as soon as I did this AD role I decided I did not want to be an AD anymore. But I AD'd for a couple of things, which is an assistant director that's where you're going around set and trying to keep everybody on schedule and on time and I decided I didn't want to be somebody who was pushy about time restraints and so I did that a little bit. And then I also got to explore script supervising, which was an incredible experience because I learned a lot about continuity and how to track my own movements within acting, because you know, as you're editing and cutting the different clips together, you know you need to make sure that you picked up the glass with the same hand and all of those fancy fun things so the editors can clip together a movie that looks beautiful and continuous and isn't like jumpy or doesn't have anything that's super jumpy in it. And so I did that for a couple years and I love script supervising, but I always kind of felt this wow, I put myself in a position where I get to like watch actors all day but not get to act, and so I did that for a couple years. And then I also worked as a production coordinator, which is incredible.

Speaker 1:

I do like I do currently still work as a production coordinator as well, and I like it. It's a good like logistic thing for my brain. I am very like organized and I do like to stay on top of things and put out fires in a creative way and do all those types of things. It's just not what my heart is set on, right Like. I want to be in front of the camera, not behind the camera at the end of the day, and I am learning a lot production coordinating and it's a great day job that keeps me like on set and in the field and in film, and learning and just gathering more information, um, which I think is extremely valuable in it in itself, but, um, yeah, uh.

Speaker 1:

This year, though, this year, man, this year's my glow up year and I'm really excited for it, and hopefully we'll get to the point where we can take a little less behind the scenes work and do a little bit more creative projects and book some big jobs. So come back for episode two, obviously, so you can hear what happened at the model workshop. I'll give you all the juicy details. It's going to be such such incredible experience. I already know I'm so stoked for it. Thanks so much for tuning in to the first episode of the glow up year. This is just the beginning of an incredible journey and I am so excited to have you along for the ride. If you loved today's episode, make sure you subscribe, leave a review or share it with anyone chasing big dreams like you. Follow me on social media for even more behind the scenes moments, updates and inspiration, and remember your glow up is just one brave step away. Until next time, keep hustling, keep dreaming and let's make big things happen together.