Alas, another year bites the dust. I am reminded of a new year’s resolution I made this time last year that I’ve since strayed from: brevity! I resolved to keep things brief and get right to the point. 

So, reigniting that resolution, let’s get right into it with a hard question. 

How did 2018 measure up? In other words, how did your career progress compare to your goals? Think about it honestly for a few moments. 

Did you make the kind of progress you wanted to make? Did your progress match your goals, or did you fall insanely short of where you thought you should be at this point in your life? 

One of my mentors constantly reminds me that “next year you will be another year older…” and he usually leaves it open ended like that for my mind to fill in the blanks. This made me realize a long time ago that we can’t approach a new year (or even a new day) with expectations of doing better, without a solid plan in place. 

What I love about ending the year and starting a new one is that I get to measure the progress that our community made through the year and share with you the most powerful strategies of 2018. Check out the one that tops the list here.

If you’ve been with us for the entire year then, you have been exposed to dozens of career changing strategies through the year. Every one of them was carefully vetted and proven to be powerful. 

This special report is the distillation of that, and combined with what I’m going to bribe you with, is about as close to success in pill form as you can get. 

Without further ado, this is The Ultimate Guide to Making 2019 Your Year To Shine!

If you’ve been around Boost My Star for any length of time, you know that I’m a big fan of “compressing time.” Let’s say that, from A to Z, you are starting from A. How do you get to Z as quickly as possible? 

Do that mental exercise real quick…Ready? 

You go to Z! There is no rule stating that you have to go through b, c, d, e, f, etc. That’s what compressing time is all about and one of the ways that you do this in your career is to get in front of people that are already where you want to be (at Z) and have the power to take you there too. 

Fair warning what comes next, is a head slapper. Powerhouse agents, directors, elite CDs, producers, and industry executives are some of the hardest people to reach in the world because everyone is trying to get in touch with them, right? 

Wrong! That’s only the perception. They are in fact some of the easiest to reach people on the planet, if you know how to approach them. By far the easiest way to get in touch with them is to pick up the phone and call them. 

An elite talent agent will field upwards of 200 calls per day. They are accustomed to people calling them! An elite CD will field 100+ calls per day from people looking for talent and from talent looking for projects. They expect to be called too! 

For those that field fewer calls, like A list directors you would do anything to work with, the only people that call them are those that they want to call them. So, if you are calling, the perception is that you are one of those people too. 

It’s a can’t lose scenario, yet not 1 actor in 10,000 will pick up the phone and make a call. My good friend and elite Casting Director, Cheryl, has tested this dozens upon dozens of times. “When actors recognize me while I’m out and about, I give them my number, tell them I want them to read for something, and let them know that I will be expecting their call. They never, ever, call” she says. 

Out of the dozens of times she’s done this over the years, she has received exactly 1 call. There’s a reason why only a fraction of one percent of actors achieve the levels of success they hoped for. To achieve uncommon success, you have to do the uncommon thing: make the call! 

For those actors that are brave enough to make the calls and end up on set, the next part is to deliver a world class performance. I’ve taken every acting class you can imagine, and some weird ones that you probably can’t imagine LOL. 

By far, the most impactful concept I have ever encountered, wasn’t meant for actors at all, yet it’s one of the best tools you can have in your actor’s toolkit. 

It was created by a couple of young, ambitious psychologists at UCLA in 1955. They set out to create a model that would basically explain why people do what they do. 

If you understand why people do what they do, then you can bring your characters to life by understanding why your characters do what they do. This is what “The Johari Window” allows you to do, masterfully. 

Before we get into how to use The Johari Window, I want to be clear on something. This (or any form of acting actually) will only be effective when you understand your character’s place in the world. 

Most of us think in terms of the character arc and how they move through it. In reality, the arc is secondary to the story and your character’s place in the world so to speak is to exist within the story. It is the story that moves your character, not the other way around. Follow me? 

So, when you make use of The Johari Window, you allow the character to be rooted in your subconscious mind and allow the story to move the character, since you are no longer consciously focusing on the actions at hand. 

Stick with me for a sec. 

This is a model of The Johari Window:

Let’s walk through an easy example of a character that is an alcoholic. These character choices are pretty easy to make and one can deliver an OK, one dimensional performance. 

When you run the alcoholic character through The Johari Window, however, you put your performance on steroids and make it Oscar Worthy! 

Before you run it through the model, you have to first do basic character back story, so that you have a platform from which to launch. 

For example, alcohol stimulates blood flow and increases body temperature so your sleeves are likely to be rolled up. You might have balance issues and trip over stuff as you walk across the room. You might even scrunch your eyes from blurred vision. 

You then take those character choices and plot them on the window. Then you can start to add depth to your character. 

For example… 

Is your character’s alcoholism known only to himself? Delivering a performance of an alcoholic that is self aware is very different than delivering a performance for one that is in denial. If your character is in denial (you would plot the alcoholism on the “Not known to self” box) they wouldn’t be worried about monitoring their behavior. 

If the character is self aware, does anyone else know? You will look to the storyline to find that answer. 

Here’s how your performance might be impacted. 

Let’s say your character is self aware but the trait (alcoholism) is not known to others. A one dimensional performance would just have you delivering your lines normally, maybe with a shade of apprehension: like you’re holding a secret. 

Once you run this through the model a whole new world opens up to you. Since your character is aware but no one else is, would you be chewing gum constantly to hide the beer-breath? Would your character be seemingly uncharacteristically able to keep their balance? Wouldn’t your sleeves always be neatly unrolled, so no one would suspect a thing? Would you perhaps powder your neck instead, to absorb moisture from the increased body temperature? 

If your character is actively keeping the secret, would they even drink in front of others, knowing that they couldn’t control themselves and their secret would eventually come out? Would you have some kind of tick, maybe constant finger snapping, from abstaining throughout the day? 

These are the character choices that fill out a performance and cause it to transcend the fourth wall and become real in the mind of the audience. 

You can use this model anytime you feel that your performance is shaky. Dissect your actions within the scene and run it through the model. 

Ask yourself, why does my character feel this way? Is that factor known or unknown to them? Is it known to the others in the scene, is it known to the audience at large. This will immediately layer your performance and make it much more impactful! 

If you’ve been around here for any time at all, you know that I’m a big proponent of getting started before you are ready. So, never leave the site of something without first taking an action on whatever it is that you learned. 

If you have an audition to get ready for, run the character through The Johari Window. 

If you don’t have an audition lined up, take this time to create an opportunity for yourself: make the calls! 

To help with creating opportunities for yourself, I have created something that can put you in front of industry movers and shakers, on auto pilot. You can get the details on that here.

Before you can get booked, you first have to get known. 

The most talented actors on the planet, the ones we all admire, are not 1000X more talented than most of us, but what has made them 1000X more successful is that they understand this concept. 

There’s a reason why they put in 20 hour days on a press junket, take “vacations” only while on set in between work days, and put in massive effort to grow their personal brands and platforms. 

You can do the same, and you have an immense advantage simply by hearing and reading this right now.

You have the ability to compress time and go from A to Z, skipping everything in between, simply be deploying what you have learned in this special report. You have an incredible tool at your disposal now to deliver world class, Oscar worthy performances, without fail. 

All that’s left is what you’re going to do with it. 

Regardless of what you decide to do next, if you want to become a full time actor and reach the success you’ve always dreamed of, you have to ensure that your industry reputation matches your goals.

Most actors don’t even realize this until it’s too late. 

We’ll dive into this and much more in part 2 of The Ultimate Guide to Making 2019 Your Year to Shine! To fully make use of what’s to come in Part 2, you first have to take care of your industry reputation and start putting the pieces together to build your platform by using the tool I mentioned a moment ago. 

Do this first, and then stay tuned because my goal is to… 

See you at the top,
Scott