“Always do what is right. It will gratify half of mankind and astound the other.”

-Mark Twain

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Lately the subject has come up about living your values.  I, as well as many others that I’ve spoken with lately have had to compromise themselves for their professions.

In my past career I had to lie to the buyers for my boss. We were always telling them the goods had been shipped even though they weren’t even off the production line.

A  friend told me how he had to cook the books or look away from the financials of a huge tech company in order to make the numbers look good for the stock holders.

The actors who are expected to play the stereotypical roles that hang heavily on their conscious in order to get work.

Or my sister who works for the VA and has to follow the idiotic policies to care for our vets with fingers in the dike solutions.

Has it always been this way?  Can we possibly tell the truth, get a job that supports our values or do the right thing in the name of human moral obligation?  Have we breed into our DNA that the end justifies the means?

I may be gullible and an innocent in many ways but I know when things don’t feel right, look right and smell right.  It usually means it just ain’t right.

When do we finally make a stand for dignity and moral obligation?  And if we do what is the price we have to pay?

  The Actor’s Image

    The Actor’s 5 Steps To Success

In this Stage 32 Next Level Webinar I will teach you how to gain a clear understanding of who you are and how you are perceived by others, so you can know your brand and stop wasting time and money pursuing the wrong roles or market. By developing proper communication, building solid relationships and having a congruent message with your image, you will connect on a deeper level with casting agents, producers, and ultimately your audience.

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 Your sub-conscious mind

is the seat of your emotions

and creativity.

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Whatever you think habitually with your conscious mind will eventually sink down into your sub-conscious and become accepted.  As soon as your sub-conscious accepts any idea, it proceeds to put it into affect immediately.

The conscious mind is the reasoning mind. You make all of your decisions based on this. Your sub-conscious accepts what you consciously believe.

Your sub-conscious mind does not engage in proving whether your thoughts are good or bad, true or false. When you want to create change, you must look at the sub-conscious beliefs that you hold as truth. You cannot impose a belief or suggestion to the sub-conscious mind if the conscious mind doesn’t believe it to be accurate. It is the gate keeper.

If at a young age you already have chronic suggestions of:

you’re stupid, you’re weak, you’re not good enough, you can’t do it, life isn’t fair, sex is filthy, spirituality is evil, love does not exist, etc. you will have these beliefs in your subconscious.

Whatever thoughts, beliefs, or opinions you engrave in the sub-conscious mind you will most likely experience as a condition, manifestation, or circumstance through out your life.

The power of your words and thoughts can change your life- use them wisely so you are able utilize the power of your sub-conscious mind and live in a deliberate and creative way.

As Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “Man is what he thinks all day long.”

Based on work by Joseph Murphy

 We all want to be happy in life.

We all want to make a difference and know that we matter.

Our mission in life is to learn who we are and follow our unique path.

We are all leaders. Some of us choose to lead from behind, some in front.

But mostly, we are leaders of our own lives. It is easy to hide and not take responsibility for ourselves.

This takes COURAGE.

It takes courage to not run away from the pain, but step directly into it.

It takes courage to stand up for ourselves, and find our voice.

It takes courage to look honestly at our lives, and make the hard choices.

Develop faith in yourself, and you will find the courage you need.

The Zen of Success

Many of us feel overwhelmed by work, family, and the daily trials of life, but I wanted to share what I have found through coaching to be the keys to achieving success.

“All learning has an emotional base”

          -Plato

Emotional Intelligence involves our ability to understand, express, and control our emotions.

The ability to express and control our own emotions is important, but so is our ability to understand, interpret, and respond to the emotions of others. Imagine a world where you can’t understand when a friend was feeling sad or when a co-worker was angry.

Psychologists refer to this ability as emotional intelligence, and some experts even suggest that it can be more important than I.Q.

The 4 Branches of Emotional Intelligence

      1. Perceiving Emotions

The first step in understanding emotions is to accurately perceive them. In many cases, this might involve understanding nonverbal signals such as body language and facial expressions.

      2. Reasoning With Emotions

The next step involves using emotions to promote thinking and cognitive activity. Emotions help prioritize what we pay attention and react to; we respond emotionally to things that garner our attention.

      3. Understanding Emotions

The emotions that we perceive can carry a wide variety of meanings. If someone is expressing angry emotions, the observer must interpret the cause of their anger and what it might mean. For example, if your boss is acting angry, it might mean that he is dissatisfied with your work; or it could be because he got a speeding ticket on his way to work or he’s been fighting with his wife.

     4. Managing Emotions

The ability to manage emotions effectively is a key part of emotional intelligence. Regulating emotions, and responding appropriately are key. According to Salovey and Mayer, the four branches of their model are, “arranged from more basic psychological processes to higher, more psychologically integrated processes. For example, the lowest level branch concerns the (relatively) simple abilities of perceiving and expressing emotion. In contrast, the highest level branch concerns the conscious, reflective regulation of emotion” (1997).

Most people will judge you within the first second of meeting you and their opinion will most likely never change. Making a good first impression is incredibly important, and you only get one shot.

Here are some tips on making a killer first impression:

1. Set an intention.

The most important thing to do in giving a strong first impression is set your intention. Before you attend work meetings, networking events, conferences, or even parties prepare yourself by setting your goal or intention for what kind of people you’d like to meet/ who you’d like to have an interaction with.

2. Think about your ornaments.

Clothing, make-up, shoes, and accessories are all types of ornamentation that people take into account when making first judgements. If you are not knowledgable in this area, ask friends who are and try to put together your best outfit/look for making your best first impression.

3. Be body conscious.

Be very conscious of your body language. It is a crucial part of first impressions. Arms crossed would obviously give off a negative feel, try to be open and practice appropriate body posture and disposition. Be aware of yourself and smile!

4. Avoid bad days.

People who go to events after having a bad day bring their negative energy with them into the room. People cant help but notice this. If you are experiencing a bad day either stay home or get rid of it by doing something to change your mood, before you affect others around you and possibly ruin connections.

5. Be interested and interesting.

When meeting people for the first time, approach them with a genuine interest in who they are. People will notice this immediately. If you approach someone in a way that seems uninterested, they will sense it and possibly have the same amount of interest in you right back. In order to make a good connection with someone, you must always start out by understanding you know nothing about them, and act as if you are willing and wanting to get to know who they are.

Always be YOU- you will gain the most respect by standing for what you believe in and being your own true self- that is always more interesting than a phony!

Here are 45 life lessons from Regina Brett of Cleveland, Ohio…

to keep you humble and happy –

1. Life isn’t fair, but it’s still good.
2. When in doubt, just take the next small step.
3. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.
4. Don’t take yourself so seriously. No one else does.
5. Pay off your credit cards every month.

… read the rest is here:

http://www.awaken.com/2014/10/45-life-lessons-written-by-a-90-year-old-woman/

Halloween – Permission to Transform

With Halloween around the corner I am always reminded of how excited people are to dress up and become a character. It is the one permissible day where you can look like and act out fantasies…without being arrested.

Actors too are also allowed this permission to be someone other than themselves.

After years of image consulting actors I have found that one of the most compelling and appealing reasons to act is the permission to step out of their life to play and transform for a role. They can become freer in self-expression without the fear of humiliation for doing so by dressing the part with clothing, hair, and make-up, actors can more easily embody the role. In turn, this creates a deeper inner connection and outer behavior for the actor.

I sometimes wonder why we can’t take more of the freedom that Halloween allows us into our everyday lives.

If “all the world is a stage” then give yourself permission to bring a bit more of that attitude to into your everyday life. Just no scary masks please 🙂

A great headshot is one that looks like you on a good day and represents what type you will be cast as. Great headshots grab attention.

Actor’s headshots are one of the most important marketing tool.  Think about your type, your strengths, your castability. If you can clearly define the way you want to be perceived, you’ll have essentially a brand identity. You are a business and your customers are the casting people, the agents, managers, directors and producers.

Tips before you shoot:

Research the photographer’s websites and look at their work. Are they a headshot photographer full-time or someone that just picked up a camera? Look at their portfolio and see if they shoot types like you.  Pick at least 5 photographers to compare,  10 is better.

Speak to the photographer to get a sense of who they are and if you get a good vibe over the phone.  I think this is very important since you are spending a lot of money.  Ask questions about where they shoot, how long is the shoot normally, costs, make-up, indoor or outdoor or a combination of both.  They key here is to ask as many questions as you need. Much of the information is on their sites but talking to them will help you get a feeling for the person.

Know your intentions of what you want out of the session before you get to the shoot.  Do not expect the photographer to know what your type is.  This is your job!

Be clear about your brand and castability.  Know thyself intimately.

I help actors and individuals select clothing, hair styles, and do the back ground work to have a clear vision of what is desired.  I have seen people spend $1000 for a photo shoot and not like the finished product because they thought the photographer would have magically know what they wanted.  It doesn’t work that way.  In the long run doing the necessary prep before the shoot is the key to saving time, money, and could mean the difference in booking the job.

Beautiful Kathryn is ready to do the work and has definitely worked on her image

Jonathan Wang, from Florida, with his before and after shots. He was one happy client, with a brand new wardrobe for his unique lifestyle!

One of my new clients, Scott Anderson is an accomplished, well everything!

A veterinary surgeon Scott M. Anderson co-owns the Animal Specialty & Emergency Center (ASEC), the region’s largest veterinary specialty & emergency/intensive care practice.

He is accomplished at mountaineering including Aconcagua, Chimborazo, Cotopaxi, Kilimanjaro, four peaks in the Ruwnzoris in Uganda, various others; Matterhorn/Eiger/Mont Blanc ; expeditions to South Pole and North Pole. He is an art collector of the Old Masters.

In 2005, I wrote/directed/produced/played lead role in a feature film, “Shakespeare’s Richard III” He is Fluent in Spanish and will be conversationally fluent in German soon.

He drove his 1909 Ford Model T in the 2007 Peking to Paris road rally and in the 2010 Fireball Rally, from Las Vegas to Illinois.

And the list goes on and on.  A wonderful man and soul to work with.  I am helping him look the part for his thrill seeking lifestyle.

Men’s clothing options that work for the white collar roles on TV, film, and commercial.