Acting advice. What now?

I’ve gotten some solid encouragement from a theater pro (she teaches and directs locally)/friend-o-mine that I should take some acting classes and that if I wanted to I could enlist an agent and reasonably expect some success pursuing character acting work.

I trust her judgement completely, but my expectations are tempered by the fact that it’s not something I really ever imagined doing, and that I’ve only performed a minor role once and am currently participating in a staged reading.

She mentioned getting inexpensive head shots (since agents/agencies tell you to redo them anyway) and taking some classes—and not falling for the old “pay us and we’ll make you a star” scam. Also, the film and TV biz is still pretty healthy in NM.

So, esteemed actors, what steps do you recommend? What mistakes to avoid? What makes it hard or easy to do? What should be my North Star in this mission, should I choose to accept it?