Female Disruptors: Kat Moran of Actors Summit On The Three Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry
An Interview With Candice Georgiadis
Believe in yourself — Believing in yourself and what you’re doing is the most important thing you can do for yourself. If you don’t believe in yourself, then who will? You’re in control of your dreams and goals. Surround yourself with positive thoughts and truly believe that you can achieve anything you want in life and with some time and patience it will happen for you.
As a part of our series about women who are shaking things up in their industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Kat Moran, Co-Founder of Acting & Voice Studios and Actors Summit.
Born in Kyiv, Ukraine, Kat Moran is an up and coming singer/songwriter, actress, and businesswoman. After moving to the US as a teenager, Kat co-founded Acting & Voice Studios with her husband to help other up and coming actors and musicians break into the industry. Kat has appeared in an extensive list of commercials and print advertisements, including 5-Hour Energy, Chick-Fil-A, and Walmart. Kat’s music is available to stream on Spotify.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
Thank you so much for having me. I am originally from Kyiv, Ukraine. I’ve loved singing and acting since I was a kid and always dreamed about becoming an actress and singer in America. I started professionally in Ukraine when I was young, and I permanently moved to America at 17 years old to pursue my dream.
After years of working as an actress and singer here, I had learned so much about what to do and what not to do that I felt compelled to share what I had learned with other up-and-comers to help them save the time and hardships of having to learn it all on their own, the way I did. With that goal in mind, 5 years ago, I started Acting & Voice Studios with my husband. We wanted to bring what we do at AVS to actors all around the world. We came up with the idea of creating an event that would give actors access to some of the biggest names in all walks of the industry, no matter where they are in the world.
That’s how Actors Summit came to be.
Can you tell our readers what it is about the work you’re doing that’s disruptive?
I would say it’s really the scale and idea of what we’re doing that makes it disruptive. This is the first year of Actors Summit and it will already be the largest online actors event in the world. We have over 10,000 actors signed up already and expect between 10,000–20,000 by the time of the event. We will have over 150 major industry speakers including Celebrities, Agents, Managers, Filmmakers, and Influencers. The idea of giving “Hollywood Access” to actors everywhere we view as disruptive.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
When I graduated from my performing arts college, I thought I was ready to get an agent and book roles. I didn’t know what to do and where to even get started. Then, after a few years of trial and error, someone recommended I take an agent workshop. I performed my scene and the agent told me that if I want to work in TV/Film, I had to bring my performance down. At that moment, I realized that I was nowhere near ready to audition for TV/Film. It took me years to figure it all out on my own. I realized that it shouldn’t be this hard to at least learn what you need to do to become successful in this industry and that’s where the idea of opening Acting & Voice Studios was first born.
We all need a little help along the journey. Who have been some of your mentors? Can you share a story about how they made an impact?
My number #1 mentor has always been my dad. He runs a successful business in Ukraine and he’s so inspiring with everything that he was able to accomplish, starting from absolutely nothing. He gives the most valuable advice during the times that I need it most.
Additionally, my husband, Kent Moran, who is also my business partner, has been a great mentor for me in many ways. We always bounce ideas off each other and one day came up with an idea for Actors Summit. It was a leap of faith that we took together but I wouldn’t imagine doing it with anyone else but him.
In today’s parlance, being disruptive is usually a positive adjective. But is disrupting always good? When do we say the converse, that a system or structure has ‘withstood the test of time’? Can you articulate to our readers when disrupting an industry is positive, and when disrupting an industry is ‘not so positive’? Can you share some examples of what you mean?
I think disrupting is positive when the industry you’re disrupting needs changing. If it’s not broke, don’t fix it, right? I think what we’re doing is a positive disruption because we’re giving access to major talent and industry pros to actors who may have never had the chance to get that access because of their location or finances. That’s another reason why we’ve made a limited access free ticket available for so long. So many actors will benefit from hearing from and networking with many top industry pros and we didn’t want to restrict that access based on an actor’s budget.
It’s hard for me to think of many negative industry disruptions because usually disruption happens when it’s needed, but if I had to say, Blockbuster video no longer being around is an example of a negative outcome from a mostly positive disruption.
Can you share 3 of the best words of advice you’ve gotten along your journey? Please give a story or example for each.
Believe in yourself — Believing in yourself and what you’re doing is the most important thing you can do for yourself. If you don’t believe in yourself, then who will? You’re in control of your dreams and goals. Surround yourself with positive thoughts and truly believe that you can achieve anything you want in life and with some time and patience it will happen for you.
Surround yourself with people that build you up, not tear you down — It’s very important to surround yourself with supportive people that believe in you. When I met my husband, I realized that together we can conquer mountains because we believe in each other and help each other succeed. My success is his success and vice versa. No one can do it alone and the more you can surround yourselves with positive, supportive influences, the faster and further you will go.
Never give up — It’s easy to give up when things get hard or you face rejection, but the truth is it’s persistence and endurance that will separate you. It’s about consistency. If every actor out there gave up after one “no,” or a hundred “nos” there would be no Hollywood. What matters is that you stay positive, keep moving forward, and pivot when you need to.
We are sure you aren’t done. How are you going to shake things up next?
Haha. Well, I have many ideas, but I can’t reveal those just yet. First, I’m going to make this event as successful as possible and hopefully the rest will come to fruition soon. All I know is the sky’s the limit.
In your opinion, what are the biggest challenges faced by ‘women disruptors’ that aren’t typically faced by their male counterparts?
I find that it’s often hard to be seen in the same way as a man is seen, especially as a business owner. I’m a woman and I’m 28 years old so I often am judged for being too young to know what I’m doing or talking about, and some people don’t take me seriously at first. It can be difficult to take important calls or negotiate deals with men that come into conversations with their biases. That is something that women face a lot and can get intimidated by.
I never let it stop me or change the way I do business. It comes back to believing in myself, who I am, and trusting what I know.
Do you have a book/podcast/talk that’s had a deep impact on your thinking? Can you share a story with us?
My favorite book that has helped me establish my mindset is called “Mind Power” by John Kehoe. It’s a guidebook for your brain, really. It teaches you how to work on the power of your mind and attract only the best things that you want to happen in your life.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
I’m a Ukrainian and my family is currently in Ukraine so the only movement that I would love to start right now is how to help Ukrainian people. Since the beginning of the war, I’ve been working on collecting necessary medical supplies and medicine that Ukrainian people and hospitals are in desperate need of. After such an overwhelming response I was able to ship 75 boxes of aid to Ukraine and I’m sure we can do even more. This mission is very close to my heart, and I want to do everything I can to help my people in Ukraine.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
“Positive thoughts make your dreams come true” — this is something my dad said to me once and I couldn’t believe that just by thinking good thoughts that my dreams would come true. Then, I started researching the power of the mind and decided to try it out for myself. Of course, it takes time, patience, and hard work to go with it, but I have seen first-hand how things in my life started shifting for the better. Positive thinking and manifesting made me a happier person and I’m happily pursuing my dreams every day.
How can our readers follow you online?
Instagram: @katmoranofficial, @actorssum, @actingandvoicestudios
Twitter: @iamkatmoran, @ActorsSum, @ActingAndVoice
Facebook: @KatMoranOfficial, @ActorsSummit, @ActingAndVoiceStudios
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!
Female Disruptors: Kat Moran of Actors Summit On The Three Things You Need To Shake Up Your… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.