I wanna talk about the "Know, Like, Trust" concept of getting ahead in any business.

Including showbiz.

If this is new to you, check out my spin on it here.

The idea is that you have to be known by the buyers (so, out there in front of folks), liked by your fanbase (even if your brand is "unlikable," you have to be someone we want to tell stories with), and trusted to get the job done (no divas, no latecomers, no inconsistent and unpredictable actors, and definitely no whactors).

Easy enough.

We work toward this allllllllll the time with the Self-Management for Actors principles: brand-building, targeting and building relationships with the right buyers, creating content that showcases your most castable badassery, and of course being a delight to be around because you're so freakin' professional that you inspire everyone to want to work with you. Duh. Of course.

But here's the take on KLT that I'm beginning to realize has greater impact than all of our years of SMFA ninjosity put together: How much time have you spent in a healthy KLT relationship with yourself?

Here we are expecting next-tier buyers in the industry to KLT us… yet we may not spend any kind of time engaged in self-discovery (knowing ourselves), self-love (even liking ourselves a little bit), and believing in ourselves (trusting that we can — and will — make the lives of our dreams happen).

As we're continuing to discover in our 100-day course (which, yes, you can start in on today), every bit of success that comes from doing the work is built on the foundation of doing the self-work.

You can have everything "right" when it comes to understanding your type, having great headshots, building awesome credits, cutting a stellar reel, even landing a fabulous agent who GETS YOU, and if you don't yet know that you are enough, you'll never get farther than that very limiting belief.

Hey… get out your journal and score where you are on the KLT scale.

"I know myself" = 1 for avoiding spending much time really getting to know who you are, what you're about, what's important to you, what drives you, what values keep you focused and inspired, what you hope to leave in this life by the time you're done. "I know myself" = 5 for being so completely aware of who you are, where you idle, how you connect with the goals you hold precious, what makes you tick, and why you're here.

"I like myself" = 1 for basically feeling like poop when you think about yourself, doubting yourself, even hating yourself, wishing you were different, saying really mean things to yourself, etc. "I like myself" = 5 for walking around strutting because you know you're so fabulous that even you are lucky to get to spend so much time with yourself, you think it's great to be you, you know there's always room to improve and you gleefully take on those things that make you better with gusto because you know you'll succeed at those things and get to hang out with the even better version of yourself tomorrow.

"I trust myself" = 1 for believing you'll sell yourself out for a donut if given the chance because you've turned your back on yourself so many times that you now know better than to believe you'll come through no matter how much you want to do so. "I trust myself" = 5 for always showing up for yourself, for walling off self-care because you know how precious that is to your ability to endure so much in this life, for keeping commitments you make no matter how small.

Woof.

If you're feeling emotional even reading this I want you to take a breath. A big one.

Put your hand on your heart and take another deep breath.

(My beloved students of Get in Gear for the Next Tier already know this ritual, so thank you for letting me share it with you as well. It's deep and it's important, this breathing, this journaling, this getting REAL about success and our [perceived] blocks. I understand if you're not ready. That's okay. Put on your calendar a date by which you'll circle back to this — bookmark it — so you can revisit this process to be sure you're developing a level of KLT that helps get you cast! And then show up for yourself on that date. Promise me you'll at least do that if today's not the day you're ready to tackle this.)

Please, if you're having an a-ha moment that maybe you've got some internal KLT work to do before expecting anyone else to invest in you as an important part of his or her storytelling venture, do the work. Put in the time. Give this to yourself.

Because you can't "game the system" and convince someone to take a chance on you in their next film, play, commercial, pilot, or any other creative endeavor if you're over there trying to hide from yourself how you feel about yourself… while lying to those of us on the buying side of things to try and convince us you're worthy of our investment. Hon, if you don't believe you're worthy of YOUR investment, how are you ever gonna book that next-tier role (which requires us — and therefore you — believing you're worthy of OUR investment)?

Okay.

Heavy stuff, but it's important. You are important. In fact, let's do another superfun Facebook Live at 1pm PDT (that's just 12 hours from when I'm writing this and I'm seriously just deciding to do this now, adding it to my events calendar, and texting my team at all hours to see if we can pull this off with no planning). In this Facebook Live event, let's talk mindset goodness so you are ready to identify, reach out to, and land that agent we worked out HOW for you to get during last week's broadcast. Because unless you're ready to leap to the next tier after we do all that good stuff, what good did it really do ya?

Let's get on this! Can't wait to support you in your KLT goals so more buyers at higher tiers will KLT you all the way up to the career of your dreams!

*smooch*

Bonnie Gillespie is living her dreams by helping others figure out how to live theirs. Wanna work with Bon? Start here. Thanks!