Resources

The Business of Acting Resource Pages

The following books, courses, audio and video resources are items we use in our own lives and business to build healthy acting careers for our clients and healthy lives and business for ourselves.

We know they will be useful in yours.

Set the Stage to Creating a Successful Acting Career:

Part of what brought Gabriella and me together to build a Talent Agency and for a good working relationship was our shared belief that success isn’t just about the hard work. It is also about the internal work we do that supports our physical efforts in so many positive ways.

There are so many situations that can be frustrating and difficult. Getting into the right frame of mind is vital in the business of acting and to be the parents of acting kids. These tools work with your mindset from the subconscious out to create and attract a healthy, successful life and more specifically a healthy and successful acting career.

Just like we believe there is no “one” way to build a successful acting career. There is no “one” program, book, audio class or method that is “the” answer for everyone. We love learning and working with people and programs that offer paths to success. We buy books and attend seminars and workshops and work with private coaches.

Not everything is for everyone. Some are great and some are outright awful. We won’t waste your time with programs we don’t like (unless we think they are just bad and wrong in which case we might write a “don’t use this” page.) We think there is something to be learned from every situation. These just happen to be the ones we use and benefit from in our own lives.

Holosync©

My kids and I listen to these meditation soundtracks daily. I really notice the difference in their stress levels if they don’t.

Meditation has been scientifically proven to improve many states through mind wave technology. But not everyone can sit still long enough to reap the benefits. I always wanted to be the type of person who could meditate, but my mind would never shut up long enough to let me relax. And if I managed to relax, I would just fall asleep, then wake up feeling guilty.

This is the first meditation program that didn’t ask me to blank out my mind. Plus the program comes with so much information and scientific documentation, even my engineer father would approve.

Self-Hypnosis

I always wanted to be one of those relaxed, go-with-the-flow types who floats calmly through my day and can put myself in the right frame of mind for any situation. (A person can dream.) But like with meditation, I found self-hypnosis to be a practice in frustration. I’d finally be relaxing into the proper state when the tape would tell me it’s time to be “wide awake”.

Steve G. Jones has more types of hypnosis tapes to help you work on just about ANYTHING ailing you. On the same playlist with the Holosync tracks, my kids go to sleep with age appropriate tracks for self-esteem and I have a whole list I listen to every night. He also has special daytime tracks that I listen to as I go through my day.

The night before auditions, we include the Perfect Audition track, which is good for actors of any age.

Affirmations

I always love running across tools made specifically for people in the industry. It’s just so much easier than trying to adapt other types of programs to fit. I saw a little sign about affirmations outside a Casting Director’s Office when we went for an audition. The office was closed and the audition was so hectic, I didn’t ask the Casting Assistant about it.

As luck would have it, we had an audition at the same location 4 days later. This time, I wrote down the web address and ordered the CD that night.

Since receiving it, we play Renita Casting’s affirmations on the way to auditions and add it to the nighttime soundtracks. Since those two auditions, I’ve been seeing more references to it, so I’m guessing we’re not the only ones benefiting.

My all-time favorite affirmation Goddess is Louise L. Hay. Since first reading one of her books in 1988, I have used her books and tapes and other tools she’s created to help with everything from back ache and skin break-outs to self-esteem and business building.

I don’t know which tool I’d recommend most so I’ll stick to my first and still favorite “You Can Heal Your Life”.

My kids use Louise Hay Affirmations as well. I Think, I Am!: Teaching Kids the Power of Affirmations is a great tool for working with your kids whether you are helping them prepare for an audition, a math test or just life in general.

Law of Attraction

My father was a firm believer in the Law of Attraction. Whenever someone would cut him off on the road or two major things were scheduled at the same time causing difficulty or frustration my dad would mutter “Yep, it’s a ‘tractive world!”

Like my dad, I have been amazingly successful at attracting what I don’t want. Two weeks before his death, I was introduced to the DVD (now book) “The Secret”.

While the theory it is based on clicked with me immediately, it has taken several years and a lot of personal study and research to make the Law of Attraction (LOA) work in my favor and not against me. With the help of the tools listed, I’m finally working with LOA to get what I want in my life instead of ‘tracting what I don’t want.

The experts interviewed for “The Secret” all got in there because they are masters of the Law of Attraction. In the short space available to each, you get the highlights of how they use LOA.

To really master the techniques, it helps to delve into each technique, then choose what works for you in working the Law of Attraction. I have whole libraries of self-help books and these are the ones that have helped me the most, especially in relation to the talent agency and my kids’ acting careers.

I already mentioned Holosync by Bill Harris, one of the experts from “The Secret”. His tools come with some of the most extensive scientific and practical support I’ve ever gotten for how and why his program works. The science behind the work is great for even the most skeptical “prove it to me” types.

Holographic Universe

This book isn’t about the Law of Attraction so much as the science behind why tools like meditation, self-hypnosis and affirmations work – for those who need more information. It is great for the scientifically skeptical as well as those of us who like new age stuff, but still like to know how and why something works.

I add this book as an homage to my father who while he taught me the negative side of the Law of Attraction, still taught me that it was a scientific law. I never got him to read this book, but I know he would have appreciated the science behind the secret.

Abraham Hicks

I LOVE just about everything I’ve read and listened to about the Law of Attraction from Abraham Hicks. I was fascinated by Esther Hicks’ accent when I saw her on “The Secret”. I couldn’t figure out where she was from.

I looked them up and ordered some of the Abraham Hicks books right away. I love Esther and Jerry Hicks’ story and their interaction with Abraham. (I can’t do it justice in a short description, but maybe I’ll write an article about it later.)

The story and background are very interesting, but more important, the LOA tools and why and how they work make real sense to me. I try to pull out “Ask and It is Given” and “The Law of Attraction” on a regular basis. The books are easy to carry with me and the audio programs are great.

The Law of Attraction for Acting Kids

Since this website is designed for parents with acting kids, here is a resource for parents to help teach the Law of Attraction to your kids. The lessons are easy to follow especially for your precocious aspiring young actor.