We recently connected with Nir Guzinski and have shared our conversation below.
Nir, thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?
My resilience comes from my discomfort with failure, my innate sense of hopefuleness, and from seeing my parents journey. It may also be due to my perfectionism. When I fail at something, which has happened on numerous occasions, or if I don’t attain the result I had hoped for, I get hard on myself and ruminate for a while, until it pushes me to get angry and do something about it. My sense of hope keeps creeping into my head and tells me that if I don’t give up and try again, there’s a chance I will achieve my goals, expectations and success! Sometimes there are many voices in my head, but that’s a whole other story 🙂 . Another reason for my resilience is growing up with parents that constantly tried new ventures, new businesses and made bold decisions, like moving to a whole new country without any real plan. And although it didn’t always work out, they didn’t just give up, they adapted and continued to try and make things work. Having a front row seat to that kind of determination and perseverence, really shaped my own resilience and allowed me to accept that failure is an option, but not a finite one. You can always get back up and try again, even if it doesn’t always work out. Getting back up and showing up is the most amazing thing.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
I am an actor, content creator and all around entertainer. As a young kid, I was always making voices and entertaining my family with my odd characters and zany imitations. After a few years of, most likely, getting on their nerves with my shenanigans, my parents decided to bring me to a talent agent, in hopes I could channel my creativity and passion into an acting career or at least as a hobby. Although I always wanted to be an actor as a young kid and teenager, I was extremely shy and self-conscious, which led to a pretty lengthy hiatus from the industry after my agency folded at the age of 15. At 18, after being reminded of my love for the craft and my desire to act by watching Kristin Kreuk on Edgemont/Smallville and Julia Stiles in 10 things I hate about you, I reached out to agencies around the city. Unfortunately, with no real experience on sets, and being away from the industry for a period of time, I was told I needed to get training and get myself some set experience. Then began my journey into studying the craft, reading every book on acting I could find, attending acting classes and workshops, and auditioning for Student films and short films across the city. With my resilience and tenacity, I managed to get myself an agent and began auditioning again. During this long journey, I was working full time in Marketing, while pursuing my dream job and passion. I can happily say, I finally got to be on tv and the big screen on a few projects, and I continue to follow my dream to be a working actor that can live off of his passion.
Over the last decade, I’ve also wrote, edited and acted in over 1500 short form comedy sketches on social media, which has been such a blessing to spread my humor, my talent and my passion. I’ve been so overwhelmed by the incredible community that has supported throughout this journey and I am still shocked by the amount of messages I get from strangers who love my content and who tell me that I’ve helped make them laugh and improve their day or their mood. I’m just so grateful for their support and to be able to make an impact with my acting and content.
What makes acting and this career so special is the a performance or a story can have on others. Storytelling through the visual medium, such as acting, can be so powerful and can really change a person’s day or even life. That is such a gift and being able to be a part of that, in some small way, really excites me and means the world to me.
As I continue through this journey, and all of its ups and downs, I am hopeful and determined to use my platform and voice to make a positive change with my content and my craft. I would love to be able to make a living off of my art and be able to give back to the community by helping other artists in finding their voice, navigating their passion and growing their career. I’d also love to continue to help children in need, because I truly believe that they are the future and deserve a future, so if there is something I can do to help, I’d love to contribute in some way.
That’s my story.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
The most impactful qualities/skills or areas of knowledge throughout my acting/creative journey, have been: Resilience – Not letting rejections, low engagement or lack of motivation some days, get to me and stop me from continuing to pursue my passion. There are days, I just wanted to give up. I had nothing left in the tank, I was discouraged, I felt like a failure. I allowed myself to feel it and go through that, but I would force myself to keep creating, even if it was the smallest gesture, like writing 2 lines of script, or coming up with one sketch idea. By forcing myself to keep moving, even a tiny step, helped me continue down the path and not quit.
Networking is key: although as an actor, hearing the phrase: “it’s not what you know, it’s who you know”, always annoyed me and made me feel like my talent didn’t matter, I learned that by connecting with others and people in the industry is vital to a career and to simply getting through the door. Building relationships is key to getting seen and to being able to show your talent and skill. People like to work with people they like and the only way to do that, in any industry, is to meet people and connect and build relationships.
Learn ancillary skills: As an actor, I read acting books, attended workshops and classes to hone my craft, which is very important to building your confidence and your skills. But learning to understand and do other skills that are related to your craft is so important and valuable, especially today. With the technology we have today, knowing how to edit, how to use lighting, how to write scripts, how to use sound, is so vital and can really make a difference in your career. Being able to create content and share it on social media, and learn all these related skills, allows you to not only better understand the process of those you will inevitable work with on set, but also enables you to create on your own, and appreciate the medium in its entirety. I am so thankful to have jumped into the social media creation world, as an actor and creator.
My advice to aspiring actors/creators and also to anyone in the arts, is to utilize the tools we have access to today, as the barrier of entry is not high. Get on social media, show your personality, show your process, display your talent and art. This can be as simple as chronicling your day as an actor or your audition process, or doing monologues and sharing them on your page, or engaging with other actors and creators and making content together. The ability to showcase your talent is at your fingertips. And although it may not lead to a career or success, you will gain new knowledge, new skills, and you will give yourself a chance to be seen and even build a community of supporters who will help motivate you throughout this tough, long journey.
Is there a particular challenge you are currently facing?
Currently, my biggest challenge is being able to continue to make a living off of my passions (acting and creating comedy videos), since I was laid off work last year, after 15 years in Marketing. With the way the economy has been trending, the actor’s strike last year, as well the advent of AI, being able to make a living off of my craft has been difficult. In order to continue to do what I love, without having to go back to a 9-5 job, I’ve been creating different content, trying to reach a larger audience, as well as reach out to more brands to offer my content creation skills. I have also began doing more freelance content strategy and creative direction work, to allow me to continue to do what I love without worrying about not being able to pay rent. There’s always a risk in pursuing creative passions, since there is no cookie cutter approach to success or financial stability, but with my resilience and creativity, I hope and have faith in my ability to continue on this journey.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.nirguzinski.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nir_guzinski/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nirguzinskicomedy
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nirguzinski/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/NirGuzinskiComedy
- Other: Tiktok – https://www.tiktok.com/@nirguzinski
Image Credits
Julian Stamboulieh Oro Marzo
