What Theater Taught Me About Rejection, Confidence, and Showing Up: An Interview with Jillian Flood

What if some of the best lessons on rejection, confidence, competition and showing up came from a teenager who has spent five years on stage?In this episode, Theresa sits down with her daughter Jillian Flood, a high school freshman and passionate theater kid who has racked up roles from Charlie in Willy Wonka Jr. to Uncle Fester in the Addams Family, and has learned a whole lot about life along the way.Jillian shares what it really feels like to audition for a role you want and not get it, how she learned to love the part she was given instead, and why competition does not have to be the enemy of connection. She talks about what it takes to build real confidence on stage and off, why feedback is something to lean into rather than run from, and the biggest lesson five years of theater has taught her about not letting anyone put you in a box.This conversation is warm, funny and surprisingly deep. Whether you have a kid in theater, you are the adult who is too afraid to audition for the next big thing in your own life, or you just need a reminder to stop playing small, this episode is going to leave you smiling and thinking.Subscribe at theresaflood.com to get new episodes every week.