#108: Want to do more as a Creative? Why Systems Matter with Sierra Naomi

Want to do more as a creative but feel like your brain is at capacity? Today I sit down with actor, singer, director, teaching artist, and digital designer Sierra Naomi to talk about one of the most important things you can do for yourself as a creative: build systems to support you.

Sierra shares how she got started as a performer and digital designer, and her passion for helping creatives offload information from their brains so they feel free to pursue their work and juggle many hats if they're so inclined.

We discuss: 

✨ What a "Second Brain" is 
✨ How to start building systems to support your own creative projects 
✨ Sierra's special hub that helped her succeed as the standby for 4 principal roles on the Come From Away tour 
✨ CastMate, the system Sierra created for actors to track auditions, relationships, and more

Not an actor? There are plenty of tips and tricks here to support you too in managing the complexities of your own career or creative business.

Tune in for new insights into how technology can support you in feeling more organized and less stressed.

About Sierra

Sierra Naomi’s work lives at the intersection of artistry, education, and sustainable creativity. An actor, singer, director, and teaching artist, she has built a career dedicated not only to performance, but to supporting the humans behind the art. Whether in the rehearsal room, the classroom, or through her work designing digital systems for creatives, she is passionate about cultivating deeper human connection and helping artists build lives that allow their creative gifts to meaningfully serve their communities.

As an actor, Sierra has performed across North America and Canada, most recently in the North American Broadway tour of Come From Away. Regional credits include The Fulton Theatre, Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, Sierra Repertory Theatre, and Porchlight Music Theatre. Select favorites include Sweeney Todd (Mrs. Lovett), Joseph…Dreamcoat (Narrator), Ragtime (Emma Goldman), Les Misérables (Fantine), Titanic (Marion Thayer) and Into the Woods (Witch), as well as Queen Sigrid in the television series King's Blade.

Alongside her performance career, Sierra is passionate about supporting the next generation of artists. She works with students on both craft and navigating the industry, while prioritizing the growth of the human behind the artist. She has served on staff at Lancaster Bible College and works extensively with the Youth Theatre program at Servant Stage.

Outside of the theatre, Sierra helps creative professionals build personalized digital systems that support both their lives and creative practices. From personalized data management systems to website design she helps creatives reduce mental clutter, organize ideas, and create space for creative work. She has worked with actors, directors, producers, podcast hosts, and business owners to support efficient creative momentum.

Resources from Today’s Episode

Building a Second Brain book: https://www.buildingasecondbrain.com/book

CODA: https://coda.io/

Castmate (Actor Template): https://coda.io/@sierra-provencal/castmate

Contact Sierra

Lagom Kreativ Website: www.lagomkreativ.com

IG: @sierra.naomi.actor

Resources from The Embodied Way

Get Your Embodiment Starter Kit here: https://theembodiedwaycoach.com/embodimentstarterkit/ 

Join the conversation:

On Substack:  https://theembodiedway.substack.com 

On the Podcast Blog: https://theembodiedwaycoach.com/2026/06/12/want-to-do-more-as-a-creative-why-systems-matter/

For show notes and helpful resources, visit https://theembodiedwaycoach.com/podcast.

Did you like this Podcast?
Leave us a review.

Follow Natalie and The Embodied Way
Instagram: https://instagram.com/theembodiedwaycoach
Facebook: https://facebook.com/theembodiedwaycoach
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/theembodiedway/ 

Transcript

Copy

Sierra 0:00

And one of the things that I'm remembering too as I sat here is like I am I'm a very digital girly with my scripts, which I know is either you love it or you hate it. So my scripts were all on my iPad. Part of my systems are having a script specific for each specific character. So that when I'm looking at my script, and this comes back down to organizing and being able to filter in and out what I need, which is I'm not looking at one script that has all four characters highlighted in four different colors with all of the different, okay. Now this person goes here, like it's it's too much. We can't focus on what needs to be focused on. So I had one script for Beulah, had all her blocking and her lines. I had one script for Bonnie, all of her, so that when I was reviewing a role, I was reviewing that role. I was not reviewing that role while also crowded with all of the other roles.

Natalie 0:50

Yes.

Sierra 0:51

And so that was a big part of my system as well, so that I could stay very focused on what mattered in that moment.

Natalie 1:01

This is The Embodied Way Podcast, where creative people come to reconnect with their soul purpose, identify and release their blocks, heal old wounds, and manifest the life they've always dreamed of. Hi, I'm Natalie Neckyfarow and welcome back to The Embodied Way podcast. Today's guest is Sierra Naomi, who is an actor, singer, director, and teaching artist who has built a career dedicated to both performance and supporting the humans behind the art. As an actor, Sierra has performed across North America and Canada, most recently in the North American Broadway Tour of Come From Away. Alongside her performance career, Sierra is passionate about supporting the next generation of artists. She has served on staff at Lancaster Bible College and works extensively with the youth theater program at Servant Stage. Sierra also helps creative professionals build personalized digital systems that support both their lives and creative practices. From personalized data management systems to website design, she helps creatives reduce mental clutter, organize ideas, and create space for creative work. She has worked with actors, directors, producers, podcast hosts, and business owners to support efficient creative momentum. Hi Sierra, how are you doing? I'm good. How are you, Natalie? I'm good, thanks. Yay. It's so wonderful to reconnect with you. It has been so long, and I am really excited to have you on the podcast today because I think you excel at two things that I think are so important to my audience. And one is that you are an amazing performer. And the other is that you really know how to help artists find support and structures so that they can do more of what they love. So I would love for you to start by telling me a little bit about how you got started with your creative life, your career as a performer.

How Sierra got started as a performer and in her work supporting other performers

Natalie 3:06 Sierra 3:06

Yeah, absolutely. Well, first, thanks for having me here. It's um I'm looking forward to this conversation as a whole, things I'm obsessed with. So, as far as how I got started, I grew up in a very artistic family to start. Um, so I was kind of predisposed to um to this life itself. I had a mother who uh was a professional horn player um and a musician her whole life, as well as artistically and creatively inclined. And then my father was a uh theater director and actor and uh the theater educator at my high school. So I grew up in a household that was always playing Broadway soundtracks or classical musical soundtracks. Um we frequently went to the theater. I mean, I started going to rehearsals with my dad at the high school when I was two. So it was kind of not kind of, it was built into my everyday life because of my parents and who they were. And I went with my family when I was three years old to see a production of uh Joseph and the Masic Technical and Dreamcoat, the Donnie Osman tour that was in Chicago at the time, because I grew up in Wisconsin. And the way my mother tells it, I stood up on a chair at the end of it and pointed at the stage and said, Mommy, that's what I'm gonna do. And so I never really knew any other dream than what this life is now. Um praise be the Lord. Uh and that's that's really the I guess origin story for my love or obsession with the theatrical world and the theater as a whole. That's how I got started in performing uh and and that side of my creativity. And then, like I said, my mom was always creativity creatively inclined. And so art was always big in our house, like coloring and crafts and sewing and all sorts of different things. And that brings with it artistic principles. And then as far as how I got started with the principles that I now use to support in the structural way with artists and creative life, as many, all rather performers do at some point. We work a muggle job, and um, my muggle job happened to be in sales and high-volume sales. Uh, and that's where I really started to learn and grow in my knowledge of CRM systems, which for those who might not be familiar that are listening is uh shorthand for customer relationship management. Basically, if you've ever heard of Salesforce or HubSpot has one, I mean, there's a million of them out there now, but um they basically are salespeople's relationship support systems for every client touch point that you have. They record emails, they help you to remember um aspects about their life, uh, they help you to remember to reach out regularly and be in contact regularly. It's similar to, uh, and this is kind of the thinking that led to the work that I do now, which is it's similar to like the show Bible that a stage manager has, right? It contains all the information that one might need to just pick up and replace somebody in the process at the drop of a hat, if heaven forbid, needed. So it's what I call the single source of truth, which I think is a phrase that I can't remember if I originally heard in the theater or in sales now at this point, but is very much part of my philosophy, which is having a single place that holds all elements of truth that you need to work from. And that's what a CRM system, or like the show Bible, is with stage management. And so when I started to to learn the principles of CRMs and systems in order to, because I mean the thing with sales is you only get paid if you sell, especially if you're fully commission-based. So you have to learn these principles and and learn systems that are going to support you uh in navigating your your book of business. And it's that experience that then fed the creative side of me to merge them in terms of having systems that support uh artists as well, because we are, in essence, our own individual businesses.

Natalie 7:40

Yeah, yeah, that's so great.

Memory and Building a Second Brain

Natalie 7:43

And as you were talking, I was thinking about the fact that I am one of those annoying people that has a like really, really good memory. And I think, you know, it serves me a certain degree as an actor, but you know, we all have a limitation, right? Even whether you have a small memory or a big memory, like we all have a limitation as to how much information we can contain. And, you know, we are weirdly like computers in this way. It's like you can take a certain amount of information in, but if you're holding on to it and trying to remember it, then you're actually taking up some of your capacity to actually do the thing because you're busy trying to hold on to and remember something. And so having a place to put this information is helpful because it opens up more memory and space for you to do your creative work. I know that you're hugely obsessed with this book called Building a Second Brain. So I'm gonna invite you to talk about it because I love this book. Um, I think I found it around the same time that you did. And so I'd love for you to talk about it a little bit more and like the principles of it and how it applies to artists.

Sierra 8:53

Yeah, absolutely. First, I will plus one exactly what you just said. As someone who also uh feels like I have a well-endowed memory, for lack of a better word. Uh, it is 100%. Yes, you can choose to hold all that stuff in there, but freeing up space for creative work is 100% what these systems are supposed to do, because we do have natural limitations. Anyway, I just really loved how you said that. But yes, Building a Second Brain is a book that I found through a recommendation from a friend. And I was, as I was reading it, I was like, I don't think I've ever agreed with the philosophy of a book more than this one in my entire life, because it it it is, it's all about that concept of unloading things from your brain that we don't uh need to keep stored in there into systems that allow us to not only store that information, but dissect the information and and pull learnings from the information, uh, as well as uh pull that information back out uh in the way that we need it when we need it. Right. So it's one thing to store information in one place, it's another thing to be able to do something with that information and have that information serve you when you need it and be able to easily find that information again. And so that's with Building a Second Brain, the whole concept is that we are using these technological systems to do exactly what it says build a second brain outside of ourselves that supplements our natural capabilities, our natural brain capabilities to store more info and to be able to utilize that info to serve us later, while then freeing up our own human mind to be able to live more creatively and freely in that creative space because it is no longer encumbered by remembering the to-do list, or remembering so-and-so's birthday, or remembering that one audition that I did, and these are the thoughts that I had after it, or remembering that I have these five auditions on these dates and with these people that require these things that, or even just this article that I read that I really latched on to, and I love the principles they talked about, and I want to maintain that and and keep that in a way that can that I can pull from later. So the book itself talks about uh a few different things. You've got uh, I believe it's code is the acronym I believe that it uses, which is collect, organize, disseminate, and uh what is the other I'm missing, I'm blanking on the last one, but the what the actual word is, but the the concept is that you then use that to create something of your own. So it's it's it's basically this system that uh the author's name is Tiago Forte, and he has a whole business out. He holds seminars called Building a Second Brain, where you come together and learn how to do it. And he's written another book called The Para Method, which is uh a topic he talks about in uh building a second brain. But the the core of the idea is that we collect so much information. I mean, we live in a digital age where information is so readily available in such larger amounts than it used to be. I mean, I remember growing up, and if I needed to know something, I had to go to a book. And more than likely, it was the full encyclopedia set that happened to be sitting on the bookshelf I in the house I grew up with. Like I grew up with encyclopedias that, like, okay, give me the F encyclopedia so I can learn about ferns. Like, you know what I mean? So it information was not this widely accessible in my youth. And now it's just commonplace and every day. So we have so much information at our fingertips. And to your point, we will have a natural capacity that we hit. Like, we are not going to be forever and a day able to just like intake all this information, and we can very easily hit information overload. Um and uh and it and at the end of the day, uh information that we take in uh we should do something with. But if we're so uh consumed with consuming that we never take the consuming and do something with it, then there's no point in consuming. That you're just consuming for consuming sake, and it's just becoming a time waster. And hello, we have doom scrolling. Like, so it the the idea is that you collect the information. Yes, collect the information, consume, keep what's helpful, find the things that stick out to you, and then go to the O step, which is organize, and that's where my brain loves, like goes on a little bit of a high because I love finding a place for everything. I'm very, I think it's Mary Poppins who says, a place for everything, and to everything it's place or something like that.

Natalie 14:32

Yes. Um I know I know exactly what you're talking about.

Sierra 14:35

Yeah. And so you organize it so that it has a home. It it lives with like-minded things, it lives in a place that makes sense for your brain. And then I think the word is disseminate, dis dissecting or disseminating. Um, I can't remember exactly the word he uses for D, but basically the idea is to then pull information from this organized information. What are the principles that you're pulling out? What is the what are the takeaways you're leaving with? You know, a lot of people may sit and journal to find what digest. Yes, thank you. I'm like spacing, I'm like, I know it's a D and I know the concept. Thank you. So you're pulling out the pieces of information that uh that you want to maintain that that you want to do something with, and and you're pulling out those highlights and and and dissecting the information you have collected and organized, and then you're gonna take it and you're going to do something with that. You know, for example, if we're coming back to like my origin story here, okay, I collected information about how CRM systems work, collected the information of what that is. And then I pulled out the pieces that stuck out to me. And then what I did was take it to create something in a different industry where those same principles could do other good, is you know, in a very short and sweet way of kind of putting an example to that kind of framework. But that is the basis of the book and this concept of it being a second brain outside of yourself that supports our natural brain.

Natalie 16:15

Yes. Yes. So much juiciness in there. And I have a massive appreciation that you even remembered that it was a four-step process. I do remember when I read the book that I read it much more closely than I've read anything else in my life. Mostly I like take on the idea and energy, like the general gist of things. But with his book, it felt really important, the specificity of it. And so I remember really studying it and like, you know, basically kind of applying the principles that he was talking about while I was reading it, but I did not remember the four things. The fact that you remembered the first three out of four like letters, what they were, I was like, wow, that's pretty impressive.

The Multi-Hyphenate Life

Natalie 17:00

So I know that you have a very specific system that you created that's accessible for actors, but I want to kind of talk about like being a multi-hyphenate for just a second, right? So I know you personally identify as an actor, singer, director, teaching artist, and digital designer. So tell me a little bit about what does being a multi-hyphenate mean to you? And how do you create balance between these things? And then maybe also like how are the systems that you've created for yourself helping you create that balance?

Sierra 17:36

Yeah. So I will speak to what my version of a multi-hyphenate is, because I know there are so many people out there. This is a term that's getting used more and more frequently. One of the things that became very uh clear to me over the pandemic is that my identity had become so wrapped up in my work, is that I was identifying as this is who I am. Like the work that I was doing is who I am. And I don't believe that led to a very healthy place. I think that we have to know who we are outside of what we do. And so I try to very intentionally now say the work I do is this, as opposed to I am a this. Because for me, that distinction between my work being my entire identity has become very important. Um, because I need my identity to be rooted in more than my work, so that the next time we have something that shatters my work, I don't feel shattered. Um and so I say this to say that multi-hyphen it for me simply means that the work I do has more than one hyphen it. I mean, has hyphens in it, you know, it's not as simple as I'm a computer analyst or I my work I do as a computer analyst is in computer analytics, right? There is more than one way that I am working to serve other people, whether that be through performance or through crafting theatrical experiences as a director, or uh through teaching the theatrical uh components and the art of theater or even principles outside of theater to the next generation, or serving to help artists create systems and designing websites or graphics or personal organization systems. For me, it's all rooted, it's more being a multi-hyphenate comes down to multiple styles of working that's rooted in one soul of wanting to help people connect, whether to other people or to themselves or to nature or to whatever that is, but to form some element of connection. I mean, for me, when it came to performance, the big impact it had on my life was helping me connect not only to myself, but to my emotional life. It I often say theater was my education and emotion, just because uh educational uh I mean emotional uh instruction or emotional learning was not a core component of the household I grew up in. Um so theater connected me to myself and to my emotional life. It connected me to other people when I felt very disconnected socially. Um, and so a big part of my why when it comes to performance is being able to help and serve people through providing experiences where they experience that same type of connection. Um, so coming back to the original question of being a multi-hyphenate, it's that there's a through line of wanting to help build connection and hope in the world. And I I do that through multiple types of work, actual work. And it all just happens to be linked in the creative or theatrical space, because that's where my nerd nerds out and what I have, you know. So I mean, that's what being a multi hyphenate means to me. And in terms of like the systems that help me with that, I'm organization is always a big one, right? So, like if things are disorganized, it's always gonna be 10 times. Harder to know which camp you have to be working in. For example, I'm in a particularly busy, busy season right now where I am doing work in multiple arenas, whether that be an actor, singer, a director, a teaching artist, or a designer, I'm doing some form of work in all four of those areas all at the same time right now in this season of my life. And when you look at it on paper, it's very easy to go, this is impossible. So much. And I have had people look at me and go, There, how are you doing all of this? Because it is all layered on top of another. I mean, I was rehearsing a show at the same time I was directing a show, at the same time I'm teaching a course at the same, like it's all just overlapping. And so organization's a big one. If it's not in my calendar, it doesn't exist, right? So everything goes in my calendar and is organized in a way that I can see it in multiple forms, whether that's as a monthly view, color coding is huge so that my eye can very easily filter out what I need to see and what I don't need to see.

Filtering as a Part of Organization

Sierra 23:19

The concept of filtering in and out is a huge one for me with organization. And when it comes to systems in general, it is very easy for us to become very overwhelmed. I mean, they talk about it with to-do lists all the time. If you just look at a very long to-do list, our brains go, whoa, I'm overwhelmed, and all of a sudden we want to do nothing because we just feel like doing something, like there's no way to figure out how to start. Right. And so for my purposes and what I recommend is utilizing, putting the information all in a place and utilizing your ability to filter in and out based on what you need to see. Make it easy for your brain to, I guess, compartmentalize and focus where it needs to focus so that you can make your way through the abundance of information. So after you have collected everything, you organize it all and then pull out what you need to pull out when you need to pull it out, which is a core concept of the CRM system.

Natalie 24:25

Yeah.

Sierra 24:26

All your customer information in.

How to Go About Designing the Right System

Sierra 24:37

I have one client in particular, I say this to all the time because I feel like we have this conversation all the time. It's like, how do I do this? And I'll go, what do you need to get from it? Because there's always a million ways to do something. A million ways to skin a cat, but what do you ultimately need to accomplish, or what does it need to do for you in order for you to take the next step? Right. So, how do we set up the system for you to support what needs to happen for like what is the next step in your process? Not how do I just make this happen? Like, how do I do it? Right. Right. So for me, color coding and organizing, like having very specific folders and the ability to clear away the stuff that doesn't need my focus right now, to clearly see just the few things that do. Um and I mean, I have a whole system inside Coda, which is one of my love languages, um, that that has to-do lists that are associated with specific aspects of my life. So whether that is teaching or a specific project, I can label it so that when I um I also have due dates, so I can filter by timeline what takes priority, what is due most immediately, what needs my attention first. Um, or I can filter and put my brain space in the okay, I need to focus in director mind right now. What are these director tasks that I can stack, right? Because it's a lot easier for my brain to say, okay, I need to put on director hat right now, and I'm going to look at these director tasks and keep my brain in a similar function style to accomplish those, as opposed to going, okay, let me do this director task and then let me do this teaching task and then let me do this actor task because I'm code switching for lack of a better word. But what needs to how my brain needs to think.

Natalie 26:37

Yeah.

Sierra 26:38

So another thing I tell clients is try to find your like tasks that help you two do them quicker or more efficiently because you can stay in that one-track mind for a sec, and then you can switch over. So for me, the systems help me to accomplish that and they give me a place to brain dump when I need to, and then that's part of the collection, and then I can organize it later.

Natalie 27:08

Yeah. So we know that my brain is sort of like organizationally aligned with the way your brain works. But say that I am someone who is very creatively inclined, but has a lot of projects already and really wants to expand and like maybe start writing a script or start producing a show. And so obviously, there's a lot more demand and need of time, but I'm like overwhelmed with the idea of how to start to create systems to support me because I'm so used to like, you know, just doing it with my my actual brain versus a second brain. How do you recommend that people get started in creating some systems for themselves?

Creating Habits to support a new project

Natalie 27:56 Sierra 27:56

Yeah. So in my experience, anytime it comes to adding a new, I'm gonna call it a habit because in order to build things like that, there are usually new habits that have to be put into place in order to do said building, whether that be time to plan things out, etc. And, you know, another very popular book out there is Atomic Habits by James Clear. There are many books on building habits. I will speak from my own experience right now of implementing a new habit, which is you have to find a way to A, just schedule time in your calendar for it to happen, right? Is in my experience the first thing. You have to put it on your calendar and say, on this date at this time, I'm going to spend 10 minutes, 20 minutes, whatever that may be, working on this thing. And so let's say it is that you want to start writing, um, which is one of the examples you gave. First, you have to schedule time for you to sit down and do that writing, right? Because it's going to be a new habit in your schedule. So one of the first systems is finding a way to put it in your whatever your form of calendar is and schedule for yourself. Whether you are a digital person and you're like, Google Calendar has me all day long, great, put it in there, put a reminder in. And depending on your personality, find a way to hold yourself accountable to that. If you are someone who can be held accountable to only yourself, that once you've put it in a calendar, like that's all you need to remain accountable, great. If it's that you want to start it with a buddy because you need that outward accountability, find a way to make yourself accountable to the time you're putting on the calendar, right? And then when it comes to the actual task of doing it, I think there is a little bit of variance here based on the needs of the project, right? Like writing is gonna have different needs than starting a podcast, which is gonna have different needs than starting a business, which is gonna have so as far as building the systems around it, finding a software or a technological tool that works for you for the use case is gonna be one of the first steps, right? There are so many different technological tools out there, and there are many that have that serve multiple different purposes. And so that's always gonna feel like one of the biggest lifts is figuring out what tool is gonna support you in that. Like I said, one of my love languages is Coda. So that's uh, and that's a technological tool that is similar to Notion for any listeners who are familiar with that style. It's an all-in-one style software that allows you to write like Word docs, but it also allows you to build tables like Sheets or Google Sheets, like Excel. It also allows you to do so many different types of formatting, Gantt charts and word clouds and all sorts of different things. But it's the point is that you can work in multiple different ways with the same information. And so that's always my go-to, and it's one that I recommend to people because I believe so fiercely in its flexibility um and its multi-use cases. But there may be another piece of software that serves a very specific purpose, like for your particular project for the purposes of continuing with this writing project. There's space in there that when you're setting time for you to sit and do that writing, you can free write in there, right? So it becomes one place where you go and you can do that. You can build to-do lists in there, it can link to Google. So, as far as the things that I would recommend as in terms of getting started, is set time in your schedule to do it, and then find a way to hold yourself accountable to that time, and then identifying ways that technology can support you and what those goals, whatever your unique goals for that project are. It's a little harder to say, do A, B, and C if you're starting a new project, because it's like I said before, there's a million ways to skin a cat. So, like when I sit and work with people to help build out systems, we have a converse, like a deep conversation about what it is they want to accomplish, what they love about and what's working for them currently in their systems process, where they have headaches and what's not working, or what they in their dream list, what they could do. Because the thing is with technology nowadays, you can probably make anything happen inside of systems, like build whatever systems you want. So it's especially, you know, we've got AI in there that can help do so many different things, and and there's so many new platforms out there that have opened up what have traditionally been business software to be malleable to multiple different types of use cases. So it's a little harder to say, do A, B, and C and you're set. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I mean, finding people like myself or a friend who can help you, I find it so much easier to figure these things out when you are bouncing ideas around with another brain than just sitting in your own head.

Natalie 33:44

Yes.

Sierra 33:44

Right. Or find a way, if it is just you and you're like, I don't have anyone who could help me, or I can't afford to invest in somebody to help me right now. Find a way to give movement to the ideas in your head and just start playing with software. I mean, that's that's really how I started too is you just have to start playing with it. You just have to start testing. Anytime you're working with a new software, give yourself time to learn it and to test it out. Like, don't think that you have to be like looking at all your options and be like, okay, no, this looks like my answer. No, give yourself time to try a few. Almost every piece of technology will have some form of free trial, if it's paid or it will just be free, you know? And so give yourself adequate time to learn it and to poke around and to get a feel for its capabilities and to get a feel for how it works and if it fits the way you like to work and if it makes sense to your brain. Because a piece of technology that makes sense to my brain or your brain may not make sense to somebody else's. And it the way that it operates could be completely unintuitive to somebody else, whereas it might be completely intuitive to me. So it's allowing yourself that time to don't feel the pressure to make a snap decision about what's the right answer for your needs.

How systems supported Sierra on the Come from Away Tour

Sierra 35:09 Natalie 35:09

Yeah. Great. I want to talk a little bit about your life as a performer. I know that you were on tour last year for Come From Away. So talk a little bit about how systems support you as an actor. And I'm also curious about how your workflow changed or if it changed when you were on tour versus when you're, you know, mostly at home and you know, pursuing pursuing things that are like maybe more, I guess, seasonal gigs versus something that's longer term like that.

Sierra 35:43

Yeah. So uh to answer that question right away, yeah, my my workflow definitely was very different on tour than when I'm just at home. Yes. Um, because life on the road is not real life, it's very different. And when I was on tour, I allowed myself to be on tour and to not feel the need to do so many other types of work. So uh like my the clients that I had been working with, um, we I had to uh stop working with a number of them while I was away on tour, a because I didn't have the bandwidth to do the same amount of work for them when I was on the road that I was doing when I was not on the road. And and I wanted to allow myself to be in that season of life. Now, what that meant in terms of my systems is that they just looked different. For tour, one of my prized possessions was actually I had built my own personal tour hub that managed my entire life while I was on tour, essentially. Um it had and and I had it like on my phone as an app. And I ended up giving it to a few others to use as well because one of the big things it did was help with the the financial organization of everything. So on tour, you have the ability to stay in company-provided housing and travel or to buy out and to do your own. And I am a seasoned traveler who loves traveling, and there are financial benefits to buying out. And so um I had a whole financial system built in there that tracked what the buyout cost was, what I was spending, how much I was maintaining from that, when I received it and what check. So I had all of my paychecks in there broken down and it was all automated, and all I had to do was put in a few details and it would track everything for me and make sure it was all balanced out and that the numbers made sense. And it also allowed me to track all of our travel days and how long we were in cities. So I had a whole I had a whole home page that showed me everything at a glance, and then had pages where I would dive deeper into those components. And so my tour hub controlled every aspect of all the data from tour, whether that be financial or traveling or performances or whatever. So that was a big part of my systems that I had while I was on the road that served me greatly. And then because I was doing less other work, my other systems didn't really come so much into play. Tour was really about the tour hub that I had built out. Um and anytime I build out what I call a hub, it's always in pursuit of taking the mental lift off of my brain to keep track of it all and allow this second brain to hold all the info so that if I needed information or if I needed to make a decision, I could come back to the data that was in this hub and use it to efficiently make a decision or to efficiently like I had I was a standby on the tour, so I was learning and keeping track of four different principal tracks for Come From Away. And I was able to more easily handle that lift because my second brain was handling the lift of all of the other logistics. So, like they will often say that being a standby in Come From Away, because you're essentially covering four principal tracks in a show where nobody leaves the stage, they often call it one of the hardest jobs in theater. And I understand why. And many people would say that it was very hard. And I'm not saying that it was easy, but I'm saying that I never felt the weight of hard because my brain was not dealing with all of the other logistics stuff I was able to focus on the work I needed to do because I had set up my systems to hold everything else for me.

Natalie 40:05

Wow. Yeah. So yeah, I I think that sometimes I know I resist systems. And in fact, I I moved to LA, it's been about 18 months now. And it's like only over the last month or so that I feel like my systems have started to click back in. And I really, when I'm not they're not in place, I really resist them because it always feels like it's so much work to set them up. And it's not that it isn't work to set them up. It's just that when you're in the process of doing that, it feels like there's so many more things that are more important. But then once I actually do set it up, you know, it's like right now, I'm, you know, I started a podcast, I have my business, I'm an actor, I'm still finishing my short film. And it that's a lot of projects to manage at once. And holding all of that in my actual brain isn't super efficient, right? So no wonder I feel tired and overwhelmed and overloaded. And so now I think that those systems that I know how to create, but was resisting doing, now that they're starting to click back in place, I'm like, oh, right, yes, I can hold all of this stuff. And so I think that's it's important to begin with the end in mind because it's especially if you've never done this before, it is gonna feel like a heavy lift to get started. But there is a massive benefit of it. And and to hear that about your journey on tour is just so exciting and so inspiring. Like I've got tingles all over, just thinking about that. Um, I wish I had gotten a chance to see you on tour because yeah, even maintaining one role is a lot of work, right? Let alone four tracks, right? That's wild.

Sierra 41:50

Yeah. And one of the things that I'm remembering too as I sat here is like I am I'm a very digital girly with my scripts, which I know is either you love it or you hate it. So my scripts were all on my iPad. Part of my systems are having a script specific for each specific character. So that when I'm looking at my script, and this comes back down to organizing and being able to filter in and out what I need, which is I'm not looking at one script that has all four characters highlighted in four different colors with all of the different, okay. Now this person goes here, like it's it's too much. We can't focus on what needs to be focused on. So I had one script for Beula, it had all her blocking and her lines. I had one script for Bonnie, all of her, so that when I was reviewing a role, I was reviewing that role. I was not reviewing that role while also crowded with all of the other roles.

Natalie 42:40

Yes.

Sierra 42:41

Um, and so that was a big part of my system as well, so that I could stay very focused on what mattered in that moment and have a very clear, undistracted view of the material I needed. And I think what you said is very true is that systems feel like a lot, it feels like there are so many other things that are more important right now. I can't do systems yet. Like I just can't. I always come back to the analogy of it's of trying, it will take you so much longer to try and cut down a tree with a dull sword than with a sharp sword or saw. I guess you'd cut down trees with saws.

Natalie 43:19

But you know, but with a sword, that sounds

Trying to do things without proper systems is akin to doing things without enough rest

Natalie 43:22

fun.

Sierra 43:23

But um, I mean, it's an analogy a lot of people use when it comes to rest versus keeping going, right? And I see them very similarly, which is if you're trying to do the thing without proper rest or without proper systems, it's going to take you much longer. So you might as well just take a minute to sit and take a nap or to sit and create some form of system to ease that workload a bit more. And in the long run, with that end in mind, it will serve you better. And the other thing there is allowing yourself to be a beginner at something is another part of that process. And not to sound like a cliche tree here, but like trust the process. Trust that trust that you're doing this work for a reason to set up systems that will ultimately serve you in rewards later, and allow yourself to be a beginner and learn it and be like, this is uncomfortable for now, until it's not, until it is now set up to serve you. And you go, wait, my brain feels lighter because I'm not thinking about A, B, and C, right? That's how like our my husband's and my's like life financial situation always feels. You know, finances are always a headache in general. And some people are like, we live by our budget. Some people are like, I don't believe in budgeting. I think that like if you're not collecting and analyzing the data, there's no way for you to know how things are actually being used. And so I have a we have a whole system set up for our budget. And when when we A fall away from that or don't use it, or it falls into disrepair, life is so much more stressful and so much harder because we just don't know the data. And we feel like we're bleeding money. When we are actively using the systems we've set up to manage our budget and go, this is where this money goes, and this is where this money goes. And I have a whole like coda doc, coda system that makes my budgeting easy and reduces the time I have to spend on it in relation to the impact it has on our life by tenfold. It makes it so much easier to work in because I have it set up to be like, can we afford this this week? Let me plug it in. Boom, okay, yes, we can. Or nope, that's not on the docket this month, right? Like, or and and we can look at it and know. And it I'm all about trying to find efficient ways to make work that has to get done less of a weight on our shoulders because we will always have work that has to get done. Our to-do lists are not gonna stop piling up, needs, requests of our time are not going to stop, right? It's all gonna continue coming. But if we can find a way to just give a little support bar to hold the stuff that's getting placed on our shoulders for us to deal with, that's the ultimate goal of

Sierra's free System for Actors

Sierra 46:30

the systems.

Natalie 46:31

I love that so much. All right. I know that you have put together a solution for actors that works with CODA. So love for you to talk a little bit about that. And then if someone has their own like unique special case that they're looking for some support and assistance with, can you talk about how you help people with that as well?

Sierra 46:52

Yeah, absolutely. So the um template that I created has gone by a few names, but I have landed on Castmate. It's been my dream for a while to create a CRM software for creatives, for artists. And this is kind of the first iteration of that that's built inside an existing software. It is a simple template that starts with the basics of CRM principles applied to artists. You could say it's more actor-driven because it tracks auditions, but it has been used by directors and other people. And we just customize it for their needs or like take out the audition table, essentially. But it has a dashboard, it has some basic task management. Um, it has an audition tracker in there that allows you to track all of your auditions and some light data analysis that shows you, you know, how many you've had and the correlation of callback to how many you've had or offer to how many you've had, and um an overall rating of how you've felt generally, because there's each audition gives you the chance to. I felt five stars about this one. I did my job or I bombed that. I felt one stars. And so there's some basic data analytics there for you, but it uh has a template for you to track your auditions, which is always a big thing in actor world. Uh, and then it focuses on because our business is so much about relationships, we do bring in, I do bring in an element of that CRM. So there's a place to track all the contacts that you have and the relationships you make in this industry with the ability to, for the purposes of filtering based off what you need to find later, tags and labels for those people so that you have the ability to search through your contacts database for people. Let's say you are going to cast something and you want to find all of the male actors in New York City. You have the ability to pull those people out of your system, or you want to find all the casting directors you have auditioned for in the last year, and you can pull that list out. So there are ways to add labels and tags to those different contacts and start to build those relationships. There are ways to uh make notes about um projects that casting people might be working on or casting preferences, you know. As actors, we uh go and meet casting directors, and along the way we learn this person hates that song or they really don't like when you sing from the show or this or that. So there's ways to record learnings about people in there and ways to track interactions you've had with them, either through phone or text. They're this template isn't currently built out with it. It's a customization if you want to work with me to do it, but you can connect your email to it to start to automatically log emails you might have with people. But one of the big things is that the data talks to each other. So when you log auditions, you have the ability to select from a drop-down of your contacts database that this person was in the room. So that when you are in that person's contact, you can see all the auditions you've had for that person ever, right? They're all linked to each other. And then there's uh the ability to input companies, whether that's theaters or casting companies or agencies or production companies, whatever that might be, and start to track those relationships and the people who might move. Like, you know, you've got different casting directors who are maybe at one office, and then you can see that they move to another office. You can see that pathway and start to track some of these relationships. And then there's also a digital book so that you have the ability to see all the music you have in your repertoire that's either audition ready or concert ready or performance ready or in the works or what you want to be working on. Maybe somebody recommends a song to you and you put it in there so you don't forget so that you can come back to it later. And then a self-tape vault, which is particularly helpful, I believe, in today's world where you just want to have a list of all the self-tapes that are ready to be sent at a drop of a hat, right? Whether that be a general slate or a slate for a specific agent or a self-tape that's like my hi, nice to meet you first introduction. I submit with every cold submission type of self-tape. So it's a self-tape vault. And again, you can filter through there comedic tag, dramatic tag, whatever it might be. And then I think that's if I'm remembering correctly, everything. And then there's like a double delete system for helping you make sure you don't ever delete info that by accident, etc. And so that's the template that I started with. That's just a basic getting you started. And then there's additional customization because there's so much more that can be done inside of there. I mean, there are so many capabilities. So if I'm happy to work with people to do a more personalized approach, um, I've also done things like tech coaching where people are like, I'm not the greatest with technology, but I think I can handle it if I just have somebody kind of walk me through understanding it a bit more. So I've done some things like that. As far as a more personalized, customized approach, I do work with people. For example, I have one client who uh is an actor and director, producer, and writer and owns her own production company. And we've built out a massive personal hub for her that tracks all of her relationships, that helps her with all of her crowdfunding for movie for projects that she's raising money for. We have a whole birthday alert system in there so that she can properly reach out to people when it's their birthdays. We have um like RSVP systems built into there. She leads her own personal like um uh salon of people that regularly get together to support each other in industry, whether that's working on material things. And so we have a whole hub for that part of her life that she works with. So, I mean, the sky's really the limit in terms of how we can customize your systems to work for you. And we've customized hers extensively to work for her, and she's had wonderful things to say about how it's impacted her. So, in terms of ways that I can help you with that, I can help you if you want to get started with this template. Uh, we can have a chat about how to use it and I can fill you in on ways to maximize that potential. We can talk about more customized options that if you want to add on a package where we build in additional customizations for it, or we could start start from the ground up and build a whole custom portal for you. I mean, another client that I have um who's a voice teacher, we built a whole custom portal for her that manages her whole podcast production as well as her voice studio, as well as free space for her to continue thinking about other projects, et cetera. So if you're in a position where you have a very specific need and you want to find a way to make the creating happen easier and take some load off your brain, we can start from the ground up and and build out a custom system for you and and go from there.

Natalie 54:16

Great. Yeah. So what's the best way for people to reach you?

Sierra 54:21

The best way would be to go to my website, which has my email. Um, it's lagomkreativ.com, which will be in the show notes. That is one you're gonna want to click on and not try to spell from me telling it to you because it is Swedish. Because I am Swedish, and so it is a big part of my work and my brand. Um and then it's sierra@lagomkreativ.com, is the best way to reach out for this type of work.

Quick Fire Questions

Sierra 54:47 Natalie 54:47

Amazing. All right, there are some quick fire questions I like to ask every guest. So let's just go for it. Okay. What does embodiment mean to you?

Sierra 54:58

Embodiment to me means a surging current of foundational principles through your body, living, living out beliefs and and in full form to get this visual of like a a rushing current inside your body that is fueled by your the principles of your heart and soul.

Natalie 55:24

Do you have a daily practice that is supporting you in the this current season of your life?

Sierra 55:30

In this current season, the daily practice that is the top of my focus list is my health and fitness. So right now, um, I'm actually coming up on one year tomorrow of this practice and habit being the main focus in my life right now, which is very exciting. And so regular nutrition learning and and strength training is the habit that is keeping me going, making sure my body is operating as efficiently as possible and and and supported through nutrition and movement is what is driving the busy season of my life, yes.

Natalie 56:13

Great. And what's one thing that's really inspiring you right now?

Sierra 56:17

Right now, it would be my backyard renovation. So I I really love interior design and and home design. And I have worked as an interior designer and such. And so now that we own our own home, I'm always wanting to spend more time in doing my own home. And right now my husband and I and I are in the back uh in the middle of a backyard renovation where we've been slowly but surely transforming our backyard into an outdoor space we can use and not a field of weeds masquerading as grass. And so in this particular moment, like what I'm gonna go do after this is work in the building like garden and landscaping around it. So the possibility of combinations for creating that English garden landscape and what the backyard looks like is what's fueling my imagination and joy at the moment.

Natalie 57:18

That sounds so beautiful. And I'm guessing that you probably have a hub for this. Am I right?

Sierra 57:25

Maybe.

Natalie 57:30

Oh my God. I love it so much. I there's still plenty more that I can learn about systems for myself. This was such a lovely conversation. Thank you so much for coming on the podcast. Do you have any final thoughts that you'd like to share before we wrap up?

Sierra 57:46

I would just say thank you. This was a very lovely conversation and something I will nerd out about anytime. And um, so thank you so much for having me. And it's been great to reconnect. And I would tell everybody to go sharpen their swords for tree tree trapping, I guess. Because that's what we chop down trees with.

Natalie 58:06

Thank you so much for listening to The Embodied Way podcast. I'm just getting started, and early listeners like you really make a difference in helping other creatives find my show. Subscribe now to be the first to know when I share new episodes each Friday. And while you're at it, please leave a review. Until next Friday, have a restful week.