Meet Satomi Hofmann

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Satomi Hofmann a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Satomi, we’re so appreciative of you taking the time to share your nuggets of wisdom with our community. One of the topics we think is most important for folks looking to level up their lives is building up their self-confidence and self-esteem. Can you share how you developed your confidence?

People often look at me and immediately assume that I am completely self-possessed and confident. But here’s what I’ve learned: no matter what success you may have, the struggle with self-confidence and self-esteem is universal. So start there: you are not crazy or doomed to fail. You are not alone.

The biggest bolster for confidence is, of course, experience—and by allowing yourself to learn something–anything–positive from every success or failure, you’ll also build an understanding that no experience is wasted. This will also help you move on from failure.
Speaking of failure, I have a rule: I give myself a time limit of how long I get to feel bad over a failure. And I mean REALLY feel it. Out loud and in a private space, if at all possible. And then when the time limit is up (usually an hour or even until the end of the day), it is DONE. Time to take the lesson and move on.
Finally, if you don’t have the opportunity to build experience or if it’s your first time, PRACTICE. This is actually where a lot of people go wrong. They only practice the speech or the audition or the interview or whatever. It is vital that you practice the actions leading into and out of the experience as well: from standing in the wings, through the performance, to walking off stage; from sitting at the desk and dialing the number and through the conversation to hanging up. When you do this, your whole system will calm because it recognizes the FULL experience, not just the highest stakes fraction.
I continue to use these practices (there’s that word again!) on a regular basis. They are my tools to help me when I’m not feeling as confident as everyone thinks I am.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

When I was growing up, I was constantly told that there was no way I could be an actor, a singer, and a musician. I was told I had to choose. Well, that certainly proved not to be true and, in fact, a lot of creative do it all these days! But that limiting belief meant that I started my acting and singing career later than many of my peers. I’ve made a lot of mistakes and looked foolish in front of “important people,” but I’ve also learned a hell of a lot— about myself, about my craft, and about getting back on the horse.
I spent over 14 years in the Broadway cast of The Phantom of the Opera (and was part of the closing cast in April 2023) and my new film, Death on the Brandywine– in which I play the starring role of Professor Millicent Park– will be premiering at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. I will also be announcing my next theatrical project in a few weeks. Yup- I’m excited.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

There are qualities in myself that I have cultivated over the years… and that I wish I had started working on earlier.
Here are a few that will help you on your self-confidence journey:
1) Self-kindness. You’re going to mess up. You’re going to fail. Use the time limit rule and be kind to yourself.
2) Resilience. After the time limit is up, do like the song says: pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and start all over again. If you don’t know that song, look it up and take a listen. In fact, add it to your playlist for when you’re done with your time limit!
3) Boredom. What??? Boredom??? Yes. Put down your phone. Put down the computer. Turn off the TV. Let yourself get bored. See what things you do instead. They don’t even have to be productive. Will you cook? Draw? Go for a walk? Look at the sky? Again, you can give yourself a time limit away from all the daily input- an hour, a day, a week….

As we end our chat, is there a book you can leave people with that’s been meaningful to you and your development?

One of my favorite books when I’m feeling stuck is The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron. It’s couched as a book for recovering artists, but the wisdom in it is good for anyone, especially considering that cultivating your creativity will enrich your life, and therefore your work, in more ways than you can possibly imagine.

I also have to give a shout out to my Acting Coach, Mary T Boyer of MTB Studio. The techniques I learned from her over 15 years ago, still sustain me as an actor today.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://satomihofmann.com
• Instagram: SatomiHofmann
• Facebook: SatomiHofmann
• Linkedin: SatomiHofmann
• Youtube: SatomiHofmann
• Other: @deathonthebrandywine

Image Credits

Chris Hirschhäuser
Jessica Osber
Greg Mills