The Acting Business Boot Camp Podcast

Listen to Episode 161: What Do You Want and How Do You Get it?

What you think, what you want, and what you do.

You need to train your brain to be more acute, more aware.

You want to handle your level 10 problems at level 10 energy.

How your Mindset works:

• What is the function of your thoughts?
• What is the function of your emotions?
• Of your actions?

“Here is a breakdown of how your mindset works.”

We want a mindset that works 100% FOR us, not against us.

Excerpt from You Are a Badass at Making Money:

”Your beliefs are driving the bus. They take you where you’re going whether you’re paying attention or not. 

Your thoughts are the tour guide, the person upfront with the microphone and the clipboard—she can lean over and yank the wheel, slam on the brakes, step on the gas, flip the bus—she can do whatever, whenever she wants. She usually works in harmony with your beliefs, but she has all the veto power.

Your words are the assistant to your thoughts and beliefs. Your wo...

Exercise:

On a piece of paper make three columns:

1. What you Want
2. What you Think
3. Action

Write it out as it is right now. 

Ex in the first column: I want to be a working actor 

In the second column: What is the first thing you think?

• Be rigorously honest here
• Are you thinking I’m not good enough?
• Are you thinking I’m going to kill it?
• Use your mind to govern your brain

THIS IS JUST WHERE YOU ARE AT RIGHT NOW

THE GOOD NEWS IS THAT WHERE YOU ARE DOES NOT MATTER, WHAT MATTERS IS THAT YOU ARE REALLY HONEST IN THIS STEP.

Now move to the third column

What you do:

• Do you only do actions for your acting career when you feel like it?
• Do you fantasize more than doing something about it?
• Do you stay or do you pivot when things aren’t working?

What you do to support it MATTERS. WE ARE JUST TAKING STOCK.

This is not a time to beat up on yourself.

Just taking note of the current situation.

Now we shift to where we want to be:

Talk about again what it is we want. As...

Sign up for David Cady’s Commercial Class

Sign up for Katie Flahive’s Script Analysis Class

When crazy times come up, I use these:

• This too shall pass
• Exercise
• Nice cups of tea or coffee
• Eat regularly
• Nice blanket
• Keeping close with the energy that knows best
• Inviting that energy into my day
• Keeping as physically, mentally, spiritually fit as I can

It’s not about doing it perfectly.

"Do not treat someone like a priority to treat you like an option."

"Anyone can eat an elephant one bite at a time."

"Whatever I put before taking care of myself I am going to lose."

"If you’re hysterical, it’s historical."

Trace it, face it, erase it.

Check out classes for January!

December can feel like a sprint.

Take care of yourself first.

Understanding no is a complete sentence.

Sometimes being with certain people requires your number 10 energy. When you’re with them, you need to have number 10 energy to deal with the number 10 challenge.

It may be best to limit your time and exposure to them.

1. Dealing with your feelings but try not to dwell unduly on them
2. Allow yourself to just be in the day
3. There may be some holiday backlash
4. It’s ok because we're all doing the best we can at the moment
5. Allow yourself to embrace and be with the love that IS available

Send your picture and resume to [email protected]

What to get your reps for the holidays:

$25 gift is fine

Avoid food and alcohol

Who to give to:

• Casting Director who you’ve booked a few jobs through over the years
• Agent and/or Manager
• Casting Director Agent or Manager who you’ve gotten a lot of stuff through get something a little more expensive

What to get:

• Movie Tickets
• Amazon Gift Card
• Find out if they like something
• Favorite restaurant
• Donate to a charity
• Flowers

Holiday Triggers:

From The Language of Letting Go by Melody Beattie:

"There are many positive triggers that remind us of Christmas (or Hannukah): snow, decorations, songs, wrapped packages, a nativity scene, or a star, stockings hung on a fireplace. And these "triggers" can evoke in us the warm, nostalgic feelings of the holiday celebration.

There are other kinds of triggers, though, that may be less apparent and evoke different feelings and memories.

Our mind is like a powe...

What is the fear of failure?

Just like the fear of success, the fear of failure is about taking responsibility, but it’s a little bit different.

The fear of success is about will I be able to handle that success and all that responsibilities when it happens.

With the fear of failure is will I be able to handle the responsibility that is in front of me now?

Will I be able to handle the success and the responsibility of what is in front of me now?

Remember you will never be given more than you can handle but you will be given more than you can control.

The fear is survivable.

You are not responsible for your first thought but you are responsible for your second.

When all the negative thoughts come like a freaking freight train, stop scaring yourself.

You can handle this.

Use your mind to govern your brain.

You are scaring yourself, and you need to understand why.

There is a part of you that is trying to keep you “safe” and comfortable.

No one ever ever EVER got successful...

SAG AFTRA Panel on Performance Anxiety

When things are going well, feelings of unease can come up.

“You are not responsible for your first thought but you are responsible for your next thought.”

The fear of success is really more about the fear of responsibility that comes with being more successful.

Remember you will never be given than you can handle but you will be given more than you can control.

Whatever level you are at in your career now, it is essential for you to take responsibility and show up and do the things that make you scared.

Go just a bit beyond your comfort zone every day.

Go back to feeling good.

It’s ok to feel good.

“I want to feel good.”

“Give me the strength to feel good.”

I am willing to show up and take the responsibilities that are required for me to feel that success.

Do you scare yourself out of good feelings?

Do you find stuff to worry about?

Do you sabotage yourself out of feeling good?

We do this because the other feelings (anger, sadne...

The problem is perfectionism is a good thing up to a point.

When it crosses that line of paralysis, the excitement burns off, or it becomes too late.

A story about learning imperfectly.

If I was trying to do it perfectly, this podcast wouldn’t exist.

When it's imperfect, it’s exactly the way it is meant to be.

Perfectionism is what stops me from getting the really important things done.

Full Focus Planner

Every day you do three things that are towards your goal.

Allow yourself to be an imperfect person, and allowing yourself to show your imperfections to the world.

Allow yourself to be brave.

The process of being comfortable with yourself while you’re not doing it perfectly.

Learning to soothe yourself, when you get scared or uncomfortable.

• Having the presence to feel those feelings, and feel safe and good to feel those feelings inside that.
• Feelings aren’t facts.
• “What other people think of me is none of my business.”
• Seeking balance.

98.6 is our body temperatur...

Melody Beattie: The Language of Letting Go

"Many of us have someone in our life who challenges our ability to trust and care for ourselves.

When we hear that person’s voice or are in his or her presence, we may forget all we know about what is real, about how to own our power, about how to be direct, about what we know and believe to be true, about how important we are.

We give up our power to that person. The child in us gets hooked with a mixture of powerful feelings—love, fear, or anger. We may feel trapped, helpless, or so attracted that we can’t think straight. There may be a powerful tug-of-war going between feelings of anger and our need to be loved and accepted, or between our head and our heart.

We may be so enamored or intimidated that we revert to our belief that we can’t react or respond to this person any differently.

We get hooked.

We don’t have to stay under a spell.

We start by becoming aware of the people who hook us, and then accepting that.

We can force ou...

Business Insider Article by Drake Baer

In Outliers, Gladwell wrote, “10,000 hours is the magic number of greatness.”

Gladwell also said, “The point is simply that natural ability requires a huge investment of time in order to be made manifest.”

So Good They So Can’t Ignore You by Cal Newport

“What makes ridiculously successful people so successful is that they are experts at practicing.”

Deliberate Practice:

• Goal/ Want
• Thought
• Action

Your goal needs to be supported by your wants and actions.

What are the things you are doing for your Acting Training, your Business Steps, and your Core Work?

Rigorously honest with yourself whether you can do more, or you need to stop?

Are you deliberately practicing your acting in your rehearsals?

Kevin Durant, “Hard work beats talent when talent fails to work hard.”

“It’s hard to play well, but it’s easy to work hard.”

Consistence, persistence, and determination.

Do what you feel is going to overwhelm you.

You baby step them.

R...