She had the best of times. She had the worst of times. She embodies the age of wisdom. The other sees the age of foolishness. For one it was the epoch of belief, for the other it was the epoch of incredulity. 

For one Mindy it is the season of light, for the other it is the winter of despair. 

This is A Tale of Two Mindys. 

Dear grasshopper, 

In this release you will discover how just a few seemingly small moves will make huge differences in the outcome of your career. 

Think of it this way. 

Picture yourself behind the wheel of your car. Pulling just a millimeter or two to the right won’t seem like a big deal, until you travel a couple hundred feet and end up 3 lanes over from where you started. 

This is why we constantly have to course correct when we drive. Those small deviations have big consequences. 

If you think of your career in this way, it becomes much easier to realize how just a few small deviations from the plan might have drastic consequences down the road. 

Making a simple exception and accepting a role that you weren’t really suited for or passing on a project you never gave the time of day, could make a dramatic difference in the way your career turns out. 

Conversely, making a few simple choices like the ones you’ll discover today will mean the difference between living your dreams like one of our Mindys, or wondering where it all went wrong like the other Mindy. 

Mindy Kaling fascinates me because she has accomplished so much of what we aspire to, as actors. After making just one calculated move, more on this in a second, her career took off like a rocket. 

She’s kind of an accidental actress. Her career began with stand up comedy where she had some success but nothing noteworthy. 

What happened next, is something that is way too uncommon in the industry. She wrote a spec script for what became the hit NBC TV Show, The Office. This led her to be hired as a writer and subsequently cast as Kelly for a show that was largely made up of writers turned actors. 

Had she passed on the role and stuck to just writing, she would never have ended up with the career she enjoys today. It’s an example of one of those choices, akin to a few millimeters of change behind the wheel, that made all the difference. 

Instead of saying “but I’m not an actress” she went all in and accepted the challenge. 

She had the opportunity to write a spec script and rather than focusing on all of the reasons why it might be a waste of time, she took the good with the bad and went all in. 

This is something that Mindy 1 was never able to do. Mindy 1 has a few notable credits and you would immediately recognize her face. Her career took a downturn after being presented with a similar opportunity. 

Mindy 1’s star was on the rise, after a few performances that were very well received in projects that were successful. Mindy 1’s agent approached her with an opportunity to work on an indie film with a shoestring budget. 

With more opportunities coming her way than ever before, Mindy 1 admits that the first question she asked her agent was “are they going to be able to pay my quote?” 

Because they weren’t going to be able to come anywhere near her quote at the time, Mindy 1 passed on the project for which she would have been a 3rd lead. Instead she opted to go with a 3 episode recurring role on a new TV show which paid more than she had ever earned. 

That show didn’t make into a second season nor would she have ever been guaranteed to reprise her role on the series. 

The project she passed on went to Sundance, was bought by a major studio, and it even won a couple of Oscars. 

It also made some of the cast members into household names and even resurrected a former A lister’s career, whose star long since faded. 

Ari Gold put it this way “the industry doesn’t penalize you for doing a bad movie but it does penalize you for passing.” 

Aside from this, you will see that Mindy Kaling has done something that we constantly talk about here at Boost My Star. She specialized in a character type which she has said is “an amped up version” of herself. 

Mindy 1 never took that advice to heart. She went out for any and every role and her credits are quite diverse. Remember that while this sounds good on paper, the reality is that by doing this you are never able to achieve mastery or recognition with any character type. 

Everyone at the top of their industry, from Napoleon Hill to Steve Jobs, has said that having a team of people with whom you collaborate with is instrumental to your success. 

Our business is no different. 

Mindy Kaling has surrounded herself with a number of people with whom she collaborates regularly. They have been instrumental in advancing her career, helping to create The Mindy Project (which she stars in) and her follow up project which is also with a major studio. 

Having partners like this creates a kind of synergy that is truly magical. This is why you see so many comedy troupes that operate almost exclusively as a unit. 

Because she moved from one project to the next, looking only for the next opportunity that came her way instead of utilizing the resources and people around her, Mindy 1 was never able to create this kind of cooperative. Remember that no one is an island. 

Something that Mindy Kaling has also mastered is the ability to create characters for which she has an implicit first right of refusal. This comes as the by product of two of our core concepts at Boost My Star: the category of one concept, and the concept of specializing in a character. 

Several other blockbuster actors used this exact strategy to launch their careers. Sylvester Stallone refused to sell his screenplay, unless he was guaranteed the role of Rocky Balboa. 

Matt Damon and Ben Affleck did the same for Good Will Hunting and would likely be completely unknown to us today if they hadn’t done so. 

This doesn’t mean that you have to go out and write Academy Award winning screenplays. What is important is that you provide some kind of differentiator. 

This could be something simple like the Asian Female Rapper “Awkwafina”. 

Coincidentally, she is costarring in the upcoming film, Ocean’s 8, alongside Mindy Kaling and a star studded cast. In case you don’t know who Awkwafina is, check out her YouTube channel. 

She recently released an album that contains several songs she originally released on YouTube. Because of her social media following, so many doors have opened for her in such a short period of time. From TV hosting, to an album, and now even starring in a major studio picture. 

This brings up yet another one of core concepts: building your social media platform to boost your influence and credibility in the industry. 

There are examples of this all over. At the center of Mindy Kaling’s success is: a popular blog and big social following. 

What brought several opportunities for Awkwafina that most of us will kill for? Social Media. 

Over the last few weeks I’ve been talking quite a bit about this because it’s that important. I’ve also given you several opportunities to build your own social media presence and industry credibility faster than ever before. 

The details on that are here.

So many of our tribe members have seen the light, and because I’ve made it such a no brainer for you to get started, a record number of you have declared that you are taking your career into your own hands and have seized the opportunity. You can read about it here.

This record growth means that, we will soon have to close down the system to new actors. I hate to do this, but it is important that we are able to give each of you everything you need to be successful. Once we reach full capacity, the system will be closed to new actors. 

Honestly, I don’t know when it’ll reopen. So go check it out while you still have a chance.

Remember, you career will be determined by just a few key moves that you make. If you already have all of the gigs you want, then good! Keep doing what you’re doing. If you want more. Then go here now while it’s fresh on your mind. 

See on the other side, 

Scott