Today we’d like to introduce you to Rich Henkels.
Rich, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
My friends and family look at me as Rich Henkels 3.0. Now a full-time actor, producer, voice-over artist and entrepreneur, I’ve spent the last 39 years “in development”. One of a dozen kids, I’ve been blessed with an unbelievable amount of support my entire life. My father and mother, married for 69 years before my mother passed away, were relentless in their faith, belief in family and support of their children pursuing their dreams and coming head-to-head with their potential. As a result, their children serve this world as lawyers, educators, artists, contractors, engineers and healthcare workers. For my part, I spent 15 years in TV news before becoming a father and stepping away from pursuit of one ambition for that of another, being a Dad. The father of two sons, I spent almost 20 years in a family business that helped me meet some financial objectives and allowed me the freedom to be fully engaged in the raising of my boys. Recognizing a fundamental gap in the joy I was getting from my professional life, I spent some time investigating “what’s next”. The last thing I wanted my kids to see and emulate was a disgruntled father, modeling what it is like to be mired in a job/career that, while providing a decent living, wasn’t satisfying the more primal needs for happiness, challenge and emotional reward. In 2016, I left the corporate world to chase some other dreams, which reshape themselves each and every day. While success in the film and TV world are overriding objectives, immense joy comes from work done in the voice-over, corporate marketing, print and spokesperson worlds. In addition, a new passion for connecting people and opening doors for others has taken flight with the creation of Actors’ Think Tank, a nationwide collaborative of actors that gets together once a week via Zoom to explore ways to improve grow and give back to our industry. While the pandemic put the breaks on some elements of my life, it gave wings to others! As a result of Actors’ Think Tank, I am now producing and playing the lead role in a TV pilot we will seek to market to networks or streaming services in the next six to twelve months.
I continue to believe in and live out the advice my father gave me in our final face-to-face conversation less than a year ago; “…. if you are going to invest in anything, invest in yourself!”
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
Smooth is a very relative term. By most measures, yes, my ride through life has been smooth. I come from a solid, supportive family. Taught the values of prudence, patience and optimism, I live them out and, as a result, have been able to maximize the opportunities afforded me for the most part, i.e. getting a college education, chasing professional dreams, traveling as I want, idealizing my future. That said, we all have challenges in this life. A short-lived marriage certainly affected my outward perspective for many years, but it also caused me to double-down on my role as a father, which is definitely the vocation I’ve treasured most in my life. Some career setbacks forced me to rethink my ambition while recognizing the realities of the complex world we live in. Getting fired twice, and not for “performance issues”, opened my eyes to the fact that, while the world isn’t always “fair”, it is what it is and accepting fate should quickly be followed by the next steps, setting new goals and moving on. My last career change was brought on by personal disenchantment that prompted a deep and internal debate about what is most important in life. The need for more daily joy and the value of setting a good example for my sons by being true to myself and those who care about me took precedence over financial objectives and greater long-term wealth. As a result, I sleep better at night and a door opened that ignited a personal relationship I never could have seen coming. Life is a roller coaster, but I’ve been blessed to be in a car on a well-oiled track that, while sounding a little creaky from time to time, leads to new and more interesting adventures each and every day…
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
When I left Boston College with a double-major in Broadcast Journalism and Economics back in 1983, I was hell-bent to be the best sports journalist the world could offer. It was that single-mindedness that got me started with my first job in Pocatello, Idaho. Over the next fifteen years, I made my way from market to market, like a minor league baseball player, from El Paso to Oklahoma City to Spokane, Washington to Moline, Illinois, focused, open to adventure and never preoccupied with the metrics most people associated with success, i.e., money, wealth, property, titles. I had fun, met some wonderful people and lived life, learning some new each and every day. Fast forward, I changed careers for rational reasons, i.e., as a young father, I needed to make a better living AND be around for my kids. It was during an almost 20 years corporate career that my “right brain” came alive and the need to reinvent myself as the creative, people-oriented, out-of-the-box person I once was, became apparent. Hello Rich Henkels 3.0! In 2016, at the urging of my parents and those who know me best, I left a well-paying corporate job to open my own business, Jvdad Talent Voice and Media LLC and pursue acting, modeling, spokesperson and voice-over work full-time. The “Jvdad” part represents my sons and our relationship (Jack, Van, Dad), the rest represents the world I toil in now on an everyday basis. Success was immediate, if there really is a thing, as I booked a cover spread for Field and Stream Magazine in March of 2017. Since then, I’ve been involved in national commercial campaigns, countless corporate training videos, independent films as well as a couple of cameos on live and reality TV shows. No two days are alike. My TV news experience has proven invaluable as being quick on your feet AND a master at reading teleprompter enables me to represent products in the insurance, manufacturing, pharmaceutical, healthcare, financial and education sectors.
Professional, first and foremost, I support my various agents by responding quickly to audition requests for film, TV, commercial and voice-over work while pursuing spokesperson gigs largely on my own.
What sets me apart from others is my ability to “bring people along for the ride” whenever the opportunity arises. While many people might do this, I don’t see myself as successful if I don’t! Through teaching spokesperson skills and running Actors’ Think Tank, I’ve helped fellow professionals in myriad ways, connecting them with agents, casting directors, producers, writers and acting coaches.
Most recently, I jumped on the chance to be Executive Producer of a TV pilot called “Workforce”, the script of which came my way as a result of Actors’ Think Tank. As EP, I cast people I knew, respected and liked for lead and extra roles and engaged a director that embraced that same ideology to hire his crew. Believing in others, as well as yourself, is as essential to success as anything else in life. We don’t live on an island, after all. I take pride in my sense of inclusion and plan to see this latest project through to a resounding conclusion.
The crisis has affected us all in different ways. How has it affected you and any important lessons or epiphanies you can share with us?
Covid-19 opened doors I never could have imagined. It initiated the advent of the Zoom era, which led to two fundamental changes in my life:
1. The beginning of regular monthly Zoom calls with my family. Stretched from coast-to-coast, my siblings and I are close but not close enough and certainly lacked a routine sense of togetherness. I instigated these bi-weekly calls and they soon became a staple of my family’s life.
2. Recognizing that most of the people I’ve worked within my Spokesperson classes wouldn’t have a clue about how to stay engaged in the acting worlds, given the halt to live in-person classes and auditions, I started Actors’ Think Tank, www.actorsthinktank.org, which thrives today, with 31 members from across the country sharing expertise, perspective and their own networks on a weekly basis.
While the pandemic put the halt on so many things, it also forced us all to listen a little more and recognize how we actually ALL have to work together to overcome life’s biggest communal challenges. In the strangest twist of fate, it opened doors for me for which I can never be grateful enough!
Contact Info:
- Email: rkhenkels@gmail.com
- Website: www.richhenkels.actor
- Instagram: @richhenkels
- Facebook: @richhenkels
- Other: www.actorsthinktank.org
