How do you determine your worth? Does it come from within? Does it exist irrespective of specific conditions? Does it peak when your coach gives you excellent feedback on your work in class? Does it dip when you receive a drop letter from your agent?
Is it something that fluctuates based on outside influences? Do you find yourself wondering, “Why can’t *I* get that lucky break,” when your friend books something? And then when things are great, do you find yourself wondering whether you truly deserve all the riches that come flowing your way all at once (waiting for the other shoe to drop)?
It’s not an accident that others may not know how to value you if you’re not showing them that *you* know your worth. When you consistently teeter between wondering why you don’t get the good stuff you deserve and feeling as if you don’t deserve the good stuff you’ve gotten, you’re sending crazy mixed signals out there!
And a lot of creatives do this.
Do you?
Do you think ridiculously wealthy people are greedy and selfish and even evil and then wonder why you seem to repel money? (Hint: You can’t become what you detest, and if you’ve projected negative qualities on those who have seemingly infinite money, you can bet you’ll find your financial flow finite.)
Do you look at your friends and say things like, “I’d never take a fancy agent like that for granted,” and then notice you never get the chance to find out whether or not you would? Welp, that’s because — instead of celebrating your friends’ successes — you told the universe that your friends (and by extension, you) don’t deserve such riches.
When I work with creative entrepreneurs (especially actors who are working to grow a small business on the side to support their acting pursuits), one of the biggest blocks is usually pricing. “How do I decide what to charge for this thing I offer?” Without exception, I’ve found that artists waaaaaay undervalue their goodies. They focus on how scary it is to declare that something they do well is worth paying for, rather than focusing on the value this “something” provides in someone’s life.
Look, if you ever hope to be an actor who earns millions of dollars for your work in a single feature film or a season of episodes, you’ve *got to* start getting your mind right about the value you add to the world. Because you’ll never earn millions if you wince at charging pennies.
Oh, and just so you know, yes, you will always find someone who tells you that you charge too much. (This is why I asked up top whether your worth comes from within or is influenced by others’ feedback.) At the end of my phenomenal (FREE) year-end training series called “Get in Gear,” I conducted a survey of the 1000+ participants. In addition to hundreds of responses about how rockstar the whole dang thing was, I also got a few responses along the lines of: “It should’ve come with one-on-one sessions with you, to be sure we’re doing it right.”
*thud*
An 11-day super-intense, 100% free email training series for 1000+ people should’ve also included free private coaching? *blink* *blink* *blink* Ooohhhhhhhhkaaaay.
Lucky for me, I’ve developed the muscle for not inviting my self-worth to intersect with public opinion. I know that value is an inside job. It’s not about being cocky; it’s about owning your badassery. There’s no need to brag but there’s no need to be falsely humble saying, “I’ve been so blessed,” when what you’ve BEEN is working your butt off to create the life of your dreams, either.
Know your worth. Accept what you’re worth. Value yourself and teach others to value you by reinvesting in those who do while disassociating from those who do not. The riches will follow. Because prosperity is a feeling first, then a lifestyle, and THEN a buttload of physical evidence supporting those inner-game choices after that.
There’s nothing to prove. You’re worth every one of life’s riches, just by BEING. Awesome.
Bonnie Gillespie is living her dreams by helping others figure out how to live theirs. Wanna work with Bon? Start here. Thanks!
Originally published by Actors Access at http://more.showfax.com/columns/avoice/archives/001935.html. Please support the many wonderful resources provided by the Breakdown Services family. This posting is the author’s personal archive.