JUSTIN ROGERS

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Think Big

20 years to be an actor

October 28, 2025

One of my tutors at drama school said something that shocked me.

Here we were, 20 young actors in our first year of training and he said “It takes 20 years to be an actor”

What!? But this is a three year course!

I didn’t get what he meant at the time, but 10 years into that journey I’m starting to understand.

Of course we were actors then and we still are. But I think what he was actually saying was much less controversial:

There is always more. Always.

The simplest acting exercises yield infinite and new learning across the years.

You re-meet the old with the new that you have now and the old becomes new.

And it keeps going like that.

I’m glad it takes 20 years, it’s the ride of a life time. I’d like to sign up for another 20 after that too.

There is always more- how good.

Words are gifts.

October 21, 2025

Yes they’re free to give but that have oceans of value.

At high school I wanted more than anything to be an actor. At that point it felt unknown and unreachable. One day my drama teacher gave me a gift in a few words.

She said, “It’s not a matter of IF you’ll be an actor- but are you ready to be an actor?”.

With her language she created possibility. Using the words “are you ready” assumed that me being an actor was a given. The unknown was my readiness at this point- something I have within my power.

What a gift.

Another memory I have was feeling like my work was going nowhere and I felt like giving up. To me it felt like the end.

My mum said to me “You’re on the cusp”.

Being on the “cusp” is a world away from being at the “end”.

What a gift.

I have a friend who has the habit of using the word “and” where most would say “but”.

It seems insignificant, right? Well playwrights and actors will tell you that “and” and “but” are different planets.

“You’re doing great but you could work on this.”

Vs.

“You’re doing great and you could work on this.”

Words are gifts we can give people anytime we choose.

Gifting beliefs

October 12, 2025

What is the greatest gift you can give your students?

Or anyone you lead or love.

Candy, obviously.

No, that’s a joke.

It’s belief. And before you switch off at the over used buzz word- I’m not going to tell you you need to believe in them- just hear me out.

It’s gifting them a belief about themselves or about the world.

I’m not talking about the generic ‘believe in yourself’ type, I’m talking functional beliefs.

Let me give you an example.

I had a friend who gifted me a belief.

She didn’t do it by sitting me down one day and saying “Hey, you should believe this”, but she modeled it- lived it and I saw how her world was different to mine.

And the belief was this: Strangers are nice.

That’s it. I didn’t know it, but I actually believed the opposite. I thought strangers were just that- strange. People I don’t know and so I shouldn’t care about and that I can’t expect anything from.

She gifted me a new belief about the world and so a whole new way of operating. The trickle down of a simple shift like this can’t be overstated- I’m a different guy for this new mind set.

So, the question is- what is a beautiful belief about life, the world or themselves you would want to gift to your students or loved ones?

Model that and give that gift to them each day until it’s part of them.

And give them some candy too.

You get what you practice for.

October 11, 2025

In the past I have fallen into the trap of thinking I’ll perform at my best when the ‘amazing’ opportunity comes along.

When I have to sing in front of 500 people, I can warm up a few times in the lead up and be fine.

Or when I unexpectedly have to teach for an hour straight I’ll magically know all the things and a perfect lesson will tumble out of me.

The reality is, we get what we practice for.

If I’m not constantly working on my voice, there’s no guarantee it’ll show up for me when I need it.

If I’m not honing my lessons, I can’t call upon that body of knowledge when the unexpected opportunity arises.

You get what you practice for.

The question then becomes how do you set yourself up for the ‘amazing’ opportunity today.

I have an actor friend who treats each and every audition like the dream job.

It’s not just about taking it seriously- because it should also be fun- but it’s about having your system and matching your system to the very serious goal you have.

I have no doubt that when he get’s a big feature film gig, the sequence he goes through will look identical to his prep for the no budget short film.

He’s practicing.

Not just that but he’s drilling, learning and stretching as an actor when he’s not working on a particular project.

He’s practicing.

It’s utterly inspiring and a strong reminder to just do what we ‘would’ do then, now.

Don’t wait, practice now and thank yourself later.

Micro overcommitments

September 29, 2025

Forcing more out of yourself (in a fun way…)

I have a daily commitment to make a little movie every day and share it. It’s my way of connecting to acting and producing something relating to my craft each day.

There are days when I have zero ideas, or interest in doing it… so one day I thought I’d play a game with my future self.

I created a little skit, and in the title card called it ‘episode 1’.

Did I have an episode 2 or any other storyline in my head?

Absolutely not! BUT, I knew my pedantic brain couldn’t let a an ‘episode 1’ live on it’s own. There HAS to be at least ONE more episode.

I ended up making 20!

It got me thinking; how can we box ourselves into producing results that we want?

What constraints can we apply to ourselves creatively to free us.

One way this has manifested is when I’m teaching.

I’ll sometimes force myself to have more thoughts on something a student says than I immediately have top of mind. The simple way I do that is say out loud:

“Great idea! That makes me think of three things…”

I’m committing to greater outputs in advance of them existing. I don’t even have one thing most of the time.

It’s a fun little game to get more out of myself.

Greatest hits of the generative classroom

September 28, 2025

“What’s funny about this?” The greatest hits of a generative classroom.

The questions we consistently ask ourselves direct our focus.

If we know that to be true – do we really have an excuse to not consciously direct the atmosphere of the environments we lead?

When I’m feeling the least creative, the least generous and the least accommodating of others, the questions in my head all rhyme with each other:

Why is this so hard?

How much longer?

Will they ever get this?

Why am I so bad at this?

You can pretty much guess the limited types of answers these get.

A new question is: “What is the environment I want to create and what are the recurring questions I can ask of myself that will create it?”

Here’s the greatest hits:

“How many smiles can I give? … Or get?!”

“What’s funny or surprising about this?”

“How many ‘a ha’ moments will I create?”

“What will I learn?”

“What breakthroughs will we create together?”

These all presuppose the presence of newness, of joy and learning. They open the door to possibility.

How many generative questions will you create today?

We don’t need your nerves

September 17, 2025

I’m really just reminding myself.

Despite over a decade of performing for audiences around the world and teaching hundreds of kids at a time, I still get that wobbly feeling in my stomach in the lead up to being in front of people.

They say the adrenaline is good but sometimes the feeling can take over a bit and make you hyper focussed on yourself.

This is exactly the wrong direction for your focus.

When this happens to me, I remind myself: they don’t need your nerves.

Instead I realign with what I’m there to do.

How can I give more?

How can I get out of my own way to serve these people I’m about to be in front of?

It’s easier said than done, but focus shift does a lot for me.

Call it something funny

September 16, 2025

We can transform our students’ experience of something just by naming it something else.

Would you rather do a ‘quiz’ or a ‘super expert field experiment?’

Would you rather ‘practice a waiata’ a song or be ‘a Kapa Haka hero’

What we call it matters. And it’s an easy adjustment. I like to think about ways I can make things sound more fun and interesting for my students.

Better yet, you can let the activity live up to the name! You don’t have to jsut call it somehting fun then deliver the same old same old.

Let the name you’ve chosen dictate the way in which you conduct that piece of learning or activity.

A waiata practice might look different to facilitating a room full of kapa haka heroes.

Don’t go for listening, go for emotion.

September 12, 2025

For a long time I thought that a class full of kids who were paying attention was the goal. As long as they aren’t talking over me then I’m happy…!

But wanting kids to pay attention is kind of a weak goal. I don’t want students who merely listen to what I’m saying. What I’m saying probably isn’t all that interesting. What I really want is to stir them up to feel something.

Emotion is what leads us, so if I set my target to an emotion rather than “please let them listen to me” I’m already ahead of the game.

The emotion I’m most often going for is excitement.

Excitement is like a flint, and from that place wild fires of learning and inspiration are possible.

The same can’t be said of listening. It’s too passive.

I’m interested in students who are leaning forward, who are interested, who are making connections to their own life and most of all connecting to possibility.

Connect the then to the now

September 6, 2025

Focussing on the big goal can immobilise me or make me confused and overwhelmed.

Instead, I’m trying to connect it to the action; figure out what the actions are toward a goal.

And every time I feel the looming overwhelm of the goal- I convert it into the action and put all that energy into the laser of focus that comes when you have a specific task.

Reroute the vision of the end to the task at hand and keep doing that over and over again.

Useful, inspiring and cool things

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