Category: My Life as Michelle Calkins

“Life is short, take more chances on the things that shake your comfort zone.”

Have you ever heard of the show Love It or List It?  Did you know that it is a Canadian run network and show?  Yah me neither until I auditioned for the Realtor part of a new spin off.  “Love It or List It Vacation Homes.”

I want to thank my best friend Kristil for encouraging me to shake my nerves and submit a video submission back in March to the Milo Casting company.  My first reaction was NO of course.  Then I called her up and said, lets do this, now, without thinking to much about it.  So we grabbed the camera, used 2 houses and filmed the whole video in like one hour!  I did not want to overthink anything, just went with the flow and tried as best I could to make sure my personality was shown.  Kristil edited the video in lightning speed and before I knew it I had submitted the video for review.  Gulp, that was easy.

Within less than 12 hours I had already heard from one of the producers, they wanted my video to be in YouTube format.  That was promising, at least I knew they got it.  Eleven days went by when I received my second email; They said, “congrats you are moving on to the second round” and they wanted to have a 45 minute Skype interview with me the next day.  Whoa, wait, what just happen, they liked it, they want to interview me live via Skype… Okay, yes, of course!

On the day of the interview all I could think is, “you have one chance, don’t f**k this up.”  I dressed in my normal office casual attire, slapped my self in the face and had a blast with the producers doing the interview.  They got me to sing, dance and show off my tattoos!  After the hour was up I took a sigh of relief and had a huge lunch! HA!  You don’t eat much when your nerves are shot.  I felt really good about the interview and was told I would hear from them either way.

After 3 long months and finally giving up on hearing anything, I received an email… “Hi Michelle – I’m one of the producer on the new show.  I’m following up on the audition tape you sent through.  We’d like to send it to network as part of the group of hopefuls we’d like them to consider.  I wanted to make sure you were still interested& able to re-locate to Ontario for shooting from July to Nov. of this year.”

I froze in my chair at work. They picked me as a hopeful (insert wide eyes and dropped jaw face).  First thing I did was call my husband to tell him about re-locating, he said, “uh yah, duh, I love to travel!” So within 5 minutes I responded with, “yes, 110% I am in!”  After all what could 4 months in Canada hurt?!  It’s no secret that my dream job would be to travel and get paid and sell Real Estate while doing it!

I will make this last part short.  3 weeks went by when I found out that the “Network” had not chosen me to go to the final round.  Dang it, so close to a in person interview.  I had known from the beginning that no matter what, at the end of the day the Network makes the final decision.  I sent my thank you’s to those I had talked to, and found out that I was in the top 12 chosen to be sent to the network.  When I heard that information all I could think is how pleased with my self I was that I tried.  I was SUPER STOKED about being in the top 12.  I’m bummed I wont be able to brag about the best small town in the world, Lake Arrowhead but hey we all know that it is already! 😉

I want to thank everyone who believed in me, encouraged me and supported me.  There were only a handful of people that knew, I figured I did not want to make a big deal over something that might not even happen.  So here I am in all my Michelle Calkins glory.  The video has been private since March, but I figured why not let you all see it now.  So have fun, laugh a little and don’t be scared to try something that scares the crap out of you.

I think what I want most people to get out of this blog is that life is short but worth every breath.  I challenge you to step out of your comfort zone today and take a chance on something you never thought possible!

See you around town! – Michelle