INFLUENCE
For some, the good things in life come easy. For others, not so much. It is how you deal with your pain and
failures that will determine your future and potentially impact others.
MOTIVATIONAL TALK
Millennials with Anxiety
“Talking Fear & Millennials”
SPEAKERS
Melissa Massyn – Millennial Inspirational Speaker and Actress – Getroud Met Rugby, Hoofmeisie, Erfsondes.
Mary-Anne Brink- BA in Live Performance graduate, Marketing Manager of local films, Motivational Speaker, Life Coach, YouTube Channel Host, Interviewer, Mother
Both Melissa and Mary-Anne have identified a need to encourage, inspire and assist the youth with social and performance anxiety as well as day-to-day fears that can often be debilitating.
The youth are especially now faced with so many challenges due to the sudden changes thrown at them during the COVID epidemic. Social anxiety and depression have reached frightening levels due to so many factors like uncertainty about the future, lack of self-esteem, limited contact with friends and family, absence from school and delays in covering content, etc. The time is now to offer hope.
Through Melissa’s on-set experiences and daily challenges of rejection faced in the film industry, and Mary-Anne’s years of experience as life coach and film industry professional, they have created an incredible motivational experience that is both enlightening and enriching, and also fun! Whether you are an academic, a creative or somewhere in-between, there are so many life lesson nuggets to glean from this dynamic duo!
Melissa Massyn is a well-known South African actress and motivational speaker. She has been working in the entertainment industry since 2011 and is best-known for her role as Susan in The Film Factory’s film, Hoofmeisie. Since then she also starred in Agent 2000 (2014), the SABC 2 series Erfsondes (2012 and 2017), Rudi Massyn’s short film Tithe (2013), the web series Chasing Joburg (2018), various stage productions such as Greasy and television adverts. This versatile star also does regular voice overs for radio advertisements, has her own YouTube channel, is the editor of Corpus Christi Church and owns her own drama school – Melissa Massyn Drama Academy.
Although Melissa has been passionate about acting all her life, she only made her official film debut at the age of thirteen after her talent was discovered by a director and she was offered the role of Susan in the hit teen comedy, Hoofmeisie. Nine years later, she still credits this experience as one of her career highlights. “‘Hoofmeisie’ has definitely opened a lot of doors for me and without this experience I might have never known what I wanted to do with my life. ‘Erfsondes’ was also a wonderful challenge and I immediately fell in love with my character, Katie”, she shares. She has also been privileged enough to work with the likes of Leon Schuster, which is something that she is very thankful for.
The talented brunet grew up in a small town in KwaZulu-Natal. Currently she is in between homes in Johannesburg and Cape Town and enjoys the freedom of being available when and where she is needed. She comes from a very artistic family and used to force her brothers to act out scenes of the scripts that she created in the garage. It was also her older brother that introduced her to good films when he had to babysit her when their parents had to go out. Furthermore, she is also a talented poet, a girl who enjoys a challenge and someone who has a big heart for animal and human rights.
This gifted actress describes herself as an extrovert when socialising, but an introvert at home, who enjoys scriptwriting and watching trailers on YouTube. She draws inspiration for her work from her own experiences and scenarios that tickles her fancy. A good script or interesting character motivates her to audition for a role and she is passionate about making each character her own. She says: “I enjoy starring in films and television programs, because it has the ability to bring people together and gives me the opportunity to tell a story through my craft. I am passionate about using my talents and believe that I was born to do what I do.” Experience has taught her to fight, hold on and persevere to maintain her place in the spotlight.
Lizz Meiring, Rolanda Marais, Armand Aucamp, Stiaan Smit and Marius Weyers are local stars that she would love to work with one day and Jessica Chastain is credited as her biggest role model as an actress. “I honestly only regard family and friends as role models, because I know what their intentions are. But I do have great admiration for Jessica Chastain. I do not even know what she really looks like, because she literally transforms herself for each role to become the character that she is playing,” she explains.
Currently she is working hard on various projects, which she does not want to reveal about too much. She feels blessed to be able to do what she loves every day and would not have chosen any other career.
Just like any other actress, she had to learn not to be so critical of herself and that self-confidence is essential if you want to make a success of your talent. Nowadays, she feels very comfortable in her respective roles and makes a vital contribution to every project she becomes involved in.
https://www.mmmagency.co.za/portfolio/actors-women/women/1541827/melissa-massyn/videos?bf=1
Mary-Anne is a mother of two boys and has a great passion for people in general. She studied at AFDA filmdramaschool and graduated with her BA Degree in Live Performance. Mary-Anne marketed various South African films and worked with a lot of actors and schools in the process. That is where her passion for young people ignited. She became a life coach and then started speaking at schools in the hope to assist kids and young adults in dealing with challenges more effectively. Life Coaching is an approach of applying a few tricks, tools, and methods to your mindset in order to view challenges differently and therefore not to be completely knocked down by it. Mary-Anne has a Youtube channel called “Beyond the Brink” where she does quite a lot of research in the form of questions and answers to use in her approach to life coaching techniques. If we teach kids from a young age how to handle challenges and take control and responsibility for their own mental state, behaviour, and outcomes they will most certainly embrace better futures with a lot more happiness.
Life Coaching assists in:
• Approaching challenges more effectively
• Taking responsibility for your own life
• Making choices daily of what serves you best
• Staying focused, goal driven and happy
• Tools and techniques of finding solutions and creating better outcomes
• Asking the right questions to get to your true answers
• Narrowing down your desired outcomes and working towards it
• Better mental states, mindsets and attitudes
• Better choices and living fearless lives
• Less excuses, blame and negative beliefs
Click to View Here: Beyond the Brink Interview with Mary-Anne and Melissa Massyn
Please CLICK HERE to contact Deidré for further info.
Our mission is to inspire, to encourage, to potentially help heal, and feel very honoured and privileged to embark on this journey with you and your students.
Sincerely yours,
Melissa, Mary-Anne & The MMM team
