You Know You’re Stuck, So Why Aren’t You Moving? with Albert Bramante

0:00 The important thing is to take action because the biggest

0:02 thing, the biggest addiction and the biggest thing they're going

0:05 to hold us back is being comfortable.

0:06 Being comfortable. In our comfort zone and staying

0:10 within our comfort zone, that can be the biggest thing that's

0:12 going to hold us back because we're so concerned about, again,

0:17 being safe, but unfortunately being safe is not going to move

0:21 us forward. Have you ever found yourself

0:26 knowing exactly what you should do, but something inside just

0:29 stops you? The invisible wall.

0:32 Fear, self doubt, overthinking, we've all hit it.

0:37 My guest today, Albert Vermonte, has spent his career helping

0:42 people like actors and professionals breakthrough those

0:44 walls. Albert is a talent agent,

0:48 psychology professor, certified Hypnotis, blending science and

0:52 art to help people rise about the mental script that holds

0:54 them back. Welcome to Mind Blend.

0:58 I'm your host, Karen Chong. In each episode I talked with

1:01 people who've experienced something real and we breakdown

1:04 what made the difference so you can see yourself and the world.

1:07 Around you more clearly. Spot what you might have been

1:10 missing and move through life with a clearer way forward.

1:13 If you like what? You're hearing.

1:15 Share with those around you and subscribe to Mind Blend.

1:18 You'll help a lot in spreading the insights for anyone who can

1:20 use them. Let's blend.

1:24 Hi, Albert, welcome to Mine Blend.

1:27 Hi, thank you so much Karen for having me on here.

1:30 I have alluded to it in the intro.

1:33 Tell us how your experience manifested and how it let you

1:38 doing what you're doing today. The one thing that I got started

1:42 with is, yeah, I've always been curious about human behavior and

1:46 human nature, even as a child. As a child growing up, I was

1:50 very much interested in human beings and why people did what

1:54 they did. So I always asked a lot of

1:55 questions. And I think this is where being

1:59 yelled at a lot as a kid, sometimes being a nosy child,

2:02 sometimes comes into handy now, because I was always, I was just

2:05 always curious about people. What made people do what they do

2:10 or why do people? What makes people tick?

2:12 And so that's where I kind of got started in, in just, you

2:18 know, studying people and looking at people.

2:20 I'm glad getting yelled at a lot did not stop you from being

2:24 curious. I know, and I did that.

2:27 I, I, I was a stubborn type of person as a child.

2:31 And I think now I look at that as a badge of honor.

2:34 You know, I'm definitely determined to sort of do what I

2:37 do it stand up for what I believe in and in a sense, and

2:40 when I put my mind to something, I'll do it.

2:43 And as we will find out in this episode, the mind is powerful.

2:47 So what do you do now? So what do I do now?

2:50 Well, I I'm a part time college professor and I work in the

2:56 entertainment industry, so I represent actors of Dallon age

2:59 in New York and so I really work with helping people reach their

3:04 fullest potential. When you say actor, immediately

3:09 I just think of additions over addition like what we have seen

3:13 in the media. It's just rejection, like you

3:17 can't really breakthrough and it's just frustrations.

3:21 So I feel like you have nailed in in the one group of people

3:26 that really need help with self-confidence, self sabotaging

3:31 and like imposter syndrome. Of course, and that, and that's,

3:36 that's a big belief in that too. So that's really where I, I work

3:41 in, in, in those areas. How did you get started with

3:44 helping actors? Well, I started off as an actor

3:49 myself. So even when I was going to

3:50 college, so I was in a drama club, I was in took some acting

3:55 classes as electives. And so I was really just

3:58 interested in general about people in a sense and, and just

4:04 and telling stories. So that's sort of like where I

4:07 really thrived in a sense. Like telling stories and teasing

4:13 things out of people or. You know, we're just telling

4:16 stories and bringing things out of people, you know, helping

4:18 people tell their stories or even just bringing out emotions

4:21 out of people because that's really what performances do.

4:26 They elicit emotion, whether it's comedy or drama to make

4:30 people think or reflect so or it's bringing things out of

4:34 people. And I was just very interested

4:36 in that, you know, aspect of thing, but I really didn't

4:39 necessarily identify as an actor myself.

4:43 Yeah, I really it, it was just not for me in a sense.

4:45 But I really enjoyed being around people.

4:48 Yeah, it's not for everyone, I guess.

4:50 Yeah, and that's it's definitely not.

4:51 And but I enjoyed being around actor.

4:53 And so I was like, OK, if I can't be an actor, I want to

4:57 work with that. And so that's really where I

4:59 started. We're going to be generalizing a

5:02 lot here. What are some of the patterns

5:04 that you see in actors who are who are getting the gigs

5:08 compared to the ones who are not really?

5:11 The one thing is a growth mindset is important and really

5:15 having the ability to be coachable, directable and the

5:17 ability to learn. And so that's very important to

5:20 really have that growth mindset is really that the aspect of

5:25 having the growth mindset, the ability to really set foot into

5:31 things and be persistent, tenacious, resiliency, being

5:36 coachable is extremely important, but also having good

5:39 business sense. And we call that trait

5:41 personality great conscientiousness.

5:43 So tell me more about growth mindset.

5:46 I know not everyone probably understands the key of growth

5:50 mindset. What is an example?

5:53 I think the important thing is to really have that ability to

5:56 grow, to be able to adapt, be persistent.

6:00 So I'll give you an example. Let's say you're a student in

6:03 school and maybe you don't get the grade on the assignment that

6:06 you want. OK, take a task.

6:08 You don't do too well on it. A growth mindset would be the

6:12 approach you would take as a student.

6:14 Be well, that was unfortunate. What can I do to do better?

6:18 What can I do? I need to study more.

6:20 Do I need to ask for XRL? Do we need to go to tutoring?

6:23 What do I need to do to get the better grade or what?

6:25 What can I do to be better? Growth mindset are people that

6:28 like challenges. OK?

6:30 Whereas if you have a fixed mindset, which is the opposite,

6:33 you would think I can't do this, that's it.

6:35 I'm a failure, you know, I give up, I quit.

6:38 So growth mindset looks at hardships or as challenges only.

6:43 Hardships as challenges only. So hardships are things that

6:49 help you grow. Help you grow and that they're

6:52 and you can overcome them and then you can work through them

6:55 instead of being like the roadblock, like, that's it.

6:58 Yeah. Because again, sometimes when

7:00 people get hardships, they give up.

7:01 Yeah. They say I quit or they just

7:03 move on. Yeah.

7:05 And that's something I wanted to ask about rejection when it

7:08 comes to actors and actresses. And you probably have seen many

7:12 of them getting frustrated from the rejections.

7:16 So how do you approach them? Well, the important thing, I

7:19 mean the reality of the industry is that you're going to get more

7:22 Nos and more yes. Yeah, that's applies to not just

7:25 acting too. It's like job searching

7:27 nowadays. Well, I job searching, you know,

7:30 putting your anytime you put yourself out there, it sometimes

7:33 may not go the direction you wanted to go in.

7:36 And so that's something that can come up over time and I can

7:40 sometimes affect the actor so much.

7:43 So I think if you look at it and reframe and say, OK, there's no

7:46 such thing as rejection. It's just a simple reminder that

7:50 your services are not needed today because you there's so

7:54 because it's, it's such an over saturated field with actors and

7:59 there's only a limited number of roles.

8:00 So only one person get the role, which means that not everyone's

8:05 you're going to get more Nos than yes.

8:06 And a lot of times you could give a really great performance

8:11 and a great audition or like a great interview, even if in

8:15 other fields. And that doesn't necessarily

8:16 mean you're going to get the job because there could be so many

8:19 other factors there that are outside of your control.

8:22 All you can do is a performer or a business owner or or a young

8:25 professional is give the best interview slash audition that

8:28 you possibly can do and then let it go.

8:31 You know, it's the after that it's outside you control.

8:34 So the one thing that two things that we can do is let it go when

8:39 the audition is over, when the interview is over, as soon as

8:41 you walk out of that, it's over, move on.

8:44 Your focus should be what's the next stop?

8:46 What's the next, you know, interview or audition?

8:48 I'm going to try to, you know, where to get.

8:50 So be focused on that. And then also if you, if you get

8:55 that, no, it's going to be reality.

8:57 Most of the time it's not personal.

9:00 Yeah, that just just brings so true to me.

9:03 It's hard to not take it personal.

9:05 It really is, especially when, you know, as an actor, like when

9:08 actors audition, they're putting themselves out there, they're

9:12 making themselves vulnerable. And that's what's really

9:15 creating such a hard experience because you're putting yourself

9:20 out there and there's not much to see from that, really not

9:23 much you can get out of that, but you're not getting the

9:25 results that you want. Yeah.

9:27 Especially for actors, because of the repeated nose, you can

9:31 start to doubt yourself and that's where self doubt and

9:33 imposter syndrome comes. In yeah, it's chipping away at

9:36 yourself. Confidence each.

9:38 No, it's stripping away at your self-confidence.

9:41 I'm just thinking of, like, how many times have I, like, kept

9:44 rethinking replaying the interview, like rethinking of

9:49 what answer I could have given. And I'd, like, lose sleep on it.

9:53 I really love the way you rephrase it.

9:56 My services are not needed today.

9:58 Yeah. Yeah.

9:59 I love that quote. So you mentioned imposter

10:01 syndrome. There's a whole lot of imposter

10:04 syndrome when it comes to not just acting.

10:06 What is some approach you would suggest people take to tackle

10:10 imposter syndrome? The one thing that can really

10:14 come in is to really take stock of what you've done, OK in the

10:18 past, because a lot of people, you know, undervalue or

10:21 underestimate or kind of delete all of the good things that

10:24 they've done. They downplay it or they don't

10:27 really pay attention to that. So the first thing is to kind of

10:30 like, remember, OK, what have you accomplished?

10:33 Most people downplay that. So it's like, sometimes it's

10:36 doing like an audit of what your past accomplishments are first.

10:40 That's the first thing to do. The next thing to do is to focus

10:43 on working, getting a better peer system.

10:47 Sometimes, like a peer group is important because your your

10:51 crowd, your group is going to sometimes really define you.

10:56 Is it like friends and family? It could be.

10:59 Well, your friends and family, yeah.

11:00 Now, obviously we're kind of stuck with the family.

11:03 What? We're what?

11:04 We have. But they may not always be the

11:09 most supportive or the best people to have around sometimes.

11:14 And, and that that can be tough. That can sometimes be a tough

11:17 thing to to face. So how do you build this group?

11:21 Like how would someone build this group then?

11:23 How do you build this group? Well, go to masterminds

11:27 communities that are in your interest.

11:30 Go to meet up. groupsmeetup.com is a great website.

11:34 Don't look for meet ups that are in your area.

11:36 OK, go to networking events and just start building yourself up.

11:40 That's the important thing, is to work on building yourself.

11:44 Up so surrounding yourself with people who will be sort of like

11:49 sounding board and cheerleaders, would you say?

11:52 Yeah, and accountability partners, that's the main thing

11:55 too. That'll lift you up and elevate

11:57 you because so though that's the second thing, the first thing

12:00 against do the deep dive audit. The second thing is to your peer

12:04 group, your associate group. And the third thing I would

12:07 really recommend is taking small actions towards your goals.

12:11 Yeah. Every day doing something that

12:13 moves a needle a bit and then step outside.

12:16 Another thing would be step outside your comfort zone.

12:19 So go give a presentation, you know, at a organization, go to a

12:25 networking, you know, event and talk, you know, put yourself out

12:28 there, go on live online if you have to and just get out there

12:32 and you know, do something that kind of again steps out of the

12:36 excited comfort zone. Prior to COVID I used to host

12:41 just fun nights with my client acting clients karaoke.

12:44 Nights. Yeah, yeah.

12:45 Yeah, in New York City. And karaoke is a very it's a

12:49 very powerful way to step out. To your comfort zone.

12:52 I actually was interesting because I actually heard one

12:54 time a coach was advising their because when you could do

12:58 karaoke comfortably afterwards, speaking in front of a group is

13:02 going to be easy. Yeah.

13:04 Another one of my trainers that I used to train with used used

13:09 to do a two or three day public speaking group class seminar in

13:13 the in your city and the 1st exercise major exercises to go

13:18 out in public and make a complete fool out of yourself.

13:21 OK. It's unconventional, but his

13:24 knowledge was if he can do that, getting in front of a group of

13:28 people that are there to hear you speak is going to be a walk

13:32 in the park. Yeah.

13:33 And a lot of people that did that, that were really

13:35 uncomfortable in the beginning, by the end of the workshop,

13:38 where most vibrant speakers because they were able to step

13:42 outside your comfort zone. It sounds like confidence is

13:45 definitely something you can train.

13:48 Yes, it certainly is. And it takes practice, it takes

13:52 persistence, but it also sometimes it's just about like

13:56 really ripping off the Band-Aid and doing it.

13:58 Yeah, yeah, ripping up the Band-Aid.

14:00 If I were to think back on the first time I had to speak in

14:03 public, I think that was in high school or something.

14:05 Compared to now, I haven't done much like large group speaking

14:10 for many years though, so not quite sure, but at least talking

14:14 to people I'm meeting for the first time I'm a lot more

14:17 comfortable with that. I'm doing podcasts right now so

14:21 it's definitely something you can train.

14:22 What can people do to train that muscle?

14:26 Like getting over getting yourself out there and pushing

14:29 beyond the comfort zone? Is there anything about

14:31 psychology that you use to help people strengthen that muscle?

14:35 Well, you know, one thing we have to talk about is fear.

14:38 Now, fear is a very common protective mechanism too.

14:42 Yeah. It's what keeps us alive.

14:43 But what's kept those species alive for hundreds of years,

14:46 Thousands of years? So the important thing is just

14:50 to really understand that fear is there to protect us.

14:54 And that's really the design. Yeah.

14:57 So the one thing is, obviously we're not in danger as we were

15:01 years ago, but we're now still, you know, in a sense why we may

15:07 not be in physical danger anymore.

15:08 We still have that fight or flight mode.

15:11 So sometimes it could just be talking to our nervous system

15:16 and just getting us to really understand that, you know, we're

15:20 not in danger anymore. So kind of calming yourself

15:23 down. Yeah, exactly.

15:25 We're calming down and you thank even yourself, you know, you

15:29 would have the self talk where you thank, thank your brain for

15:31 keeping you protected. But you, you know, you'll be

15:33 fine. And I wouldn't recommend someone

15:36 just jump into the deep end automatically and go from zero

15:40 to yeah. But I would say slowly start up.

15:43 It's like, you know, if you're using that pool as a metaphor,

15:45 you start walking close to the deeper end till eventually

15:48 during that deep end, I wouldn't go directly into the deep end

15:51 right away, especially if you, if it's something that you

15:54 really are working to overcome, you do it slowly.

15:57 But the important thing to take action because the biggest

15:59 thing, the biggest addiction and the biggest thing they're going

16:02 to hold us back is being comfortable.

16:03 Being comfortable. In our comfort zone and staying

16:07 within our comfort zone, that can be the biggest thing that's

16:09 going to hold us back because we're so concerned about, again,

16:14 being safe, but unfortunately being safe is not going to move

16:18 us forward. Yeah.

16:19 You're just staying in the same place because you're familiar

16:23 with it, you're comfortable. Yeah, not a way to grow.

16:26 Absolutely. That's certainly not the way to

16:28 grow. Certainly doesn't help you

16:30 prepare for the next rejection. Now I mentioned you are

16:34 certified hypnotist, how do you incorporate that into how you

16:39 help your client? Well.

16:40 Hypnosis and hypnotism is really about working with your

16:45 subconscious mind. It's like the the part of that

16:48 sometimes will get triggered, not the why or, you know, you

16:51 start to experience such rise emotions may not know why.

16:55 Yeah. So a lot of it is just really

16:58 not is just really understanding what's going on in your brain

17:01 and your subconscious mind. And that automatic part of your

17:04 brain, the one that you know will sometimes you get the

17:08 overwhelming sensations of doing something or urge not to do

17:11 something and that maybe do your subconscious mind.

17:13 OK. So it's all about tapping into

17:15 that resource, tapping into your subconscious or your repellent

17:20 brain in the sense we are protective part of the brain,

17:23 and that's so important. When people hear hypnosis, they

17:27 think you know the watch. Yeah, making you cook a chicken

17:32 and all that fun stuff. Yeah, I'm sure that's what they

17:35 think, but what? What is it?

17:38 A lot of people think that it's mind control and I can tell you

17:42 what for certainty that hypnosis is not about mind control.

17:45 It will not make you do anything you're not that you're morally

17:48 opposed to doing. And even when you are seeing

17:52 these, these things happening on stage or a comedy show on TV,

17:57 keep in mind it's meant to entertain you and it's meant to

18:00 be entertaining #1 #2 these people are already volunteering

18:06 to do this, you know, to act in this funny way.

18:10 So they're already consented to. They're in control.

18:12 I cannot, I cannot influence free will.

18:14 So if you don't want to be hypnotized, if you're against

18:17 something, no matter what happened, no matter how talented

18:20 or what techniques are used, you'll never be hypnotized.

18:23 You won't do it. You won't do it, you know, if

18:25 you're morally opposed to doing. But if I can help you with, it's

18:28 like getting over an addiction, getting over a fear, getting

18:32 over a phobia, then that's great.

18:35 If I can help you even get out of your own way.

18:37 In a sense, I've become a better speaker, better actor, so a

18:40 processing. And very often we use hypnosis

18:43 every day. How?

18:44 When you Daydream and when you imagine something, that's

18:47 something your imagination and that's all hypnosis is using

18:50 your imagination, really becoming just relaxed and really

18:53 using your imagination. Yeah, I haven't thought about it

18:56 that way and. Really all it is because what we

19:00 might be doing is, you know, like this is we Daydream, we

19:04 imagine things randomly. I'm do, we're doing this by

19:06 design in a session. So I might get you to visualize

19:10 the future. So visualize yourself doing a

19:14 good presentation, visualize yourself doing a great audition,

19:18 visualize yourself on a great interview and everything is

19:21 going well and have all in your favor.

19:23 Yeah, and you do this over and over again and all we're doing

19:26 is getting you to go flow state. So like a high state of

19:31 concentration, that's what you call like a trance.

19:34 So it's not about being sucked out or sleeping.

19:37 It's about a really just an elevated higher state of

19:40 concentration and focus, being hyper focused on something

19:44 that's a trance. So like when you watch a movie,

19:47 for instance, sometimes you know, a movie, if it's a good

19:51 movie, you don't even realize that two hours went by, that's a

19:54 trance. You went into a trance.

19:56 Or like when you read a good book and you get so caught up in

19:58 the imagination of the what the characters are doing, that's a

20:02 trance. So we're doing that just by

20:04 design. So it's a natural state we go

20:06 into all the time. And we sometimes even like when

20:10 we talk to other people. Yeah.

20:12 Where if you ever notice like when people start yawning, how

20:15 everyone will start yawning with them?

20:17 Yeah, I thought it was biology. Well, it is, but it's also, you

20:20 know, hypnosis process. It's contagious because you see,

20:23 and now you get this urge to yawn or just like you come home

20:26 and your partner or your your family member says to you, you

20:29 look tired. You really need to.

20:31 And all of a sudden you started to feel tired.

20:33 But you were fine 2 minute a minute ago.

20:36 Yeah, yeah. What happened again?

20:38 Hypnosis. Right there, I'm reading a book

20:41 called Drunk Tank Pink. OK, it talks about that.

20:44 If your name is something, it kind of subconsciously affect

20:48 your behavior. So it's very similar.

20:51 People would say that, oh, you're tired, you think you're

20:54 tired. It's a pretty interesting book.

20:56 And even, like, say someone gets, yeah, this will be a bit

21:00 graphic, but let's say if you cut your finger and some people

21:04 may not even notice they cut their finger because they're so

21:06 busy doing something else. Yeah.

21:07 And then when you start to look at maybe the blood coming out

21:09 and all of a sudden it starts to hurt.

21:11 Now it starts to hurt. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you.

21:13 Were fine 2 seconds ago. Your finger was still bleeding,

21:16 you just didn't notice it. Mm, hmm, mm, hmm.

21:19 So that's another example of that.

21:22 Yeah, that's so interesting. Like I have had a few

21:26 conversations on Mind Blend about how do you control your

21:29 mind, how your brain is wired. You know, knowing yourself can

21:34 help. You can be your compass.

21:37 It can be that. Light so you can follow and when

21:41 you're lost yourself. It's probably the best guide.

21:45 Absolutely. What have been the most

21:48 successful case you've had with your clients?

21:52 The most successful case really is just when I see people

21:56 overcoming our own limitations. And one one of the actresses

22:00 that I I still work with now, when I had met her, she was

22:03 already been acting for about 9 or 10 years now, but nothing,

22:07 she wasn't booking anything. Oh wow.

22:09 And and so she was starting to get that.

22:12 Do I quit, which I could understand that could be

22:15 understandable way. You may feel that way can want

22:18 to give up. So the important thing there

22:21 I'm, you know, obviously glad she didn't.

22:24 But I think The thing is once we got her to believe herself,

22:28 because outside of acting, you know, she was a she still is,

22:33 works in AVP of merchandising for a large department store.

22:37 Yeah, nice. Of course, nice job.

22:40 But, and she's very, she has a lot of gravitas when you speak

22:45 to her off camera, but when she was acting, she was very mousy

22:48 and submissive in her technique, which signifies a confidence

22:52 issue. Yeah, yeah.

22:54 And so that's definitely a confidence issue that can

22:57 sometimes come up there. And it's she's still not booking

23:02 anything. No.

23:03 So here's the thing now, after we worked with her to get her to

23:08 kind of build that same confidence that she has outside

23:11 of acting to her acting and adopt the same gravitas to the

23:17 roles that she's reforming. That's when she started

23:21 building. And she's been on shows like

23:23 Orange is the New Black on her SVUFBI, and that was a success

23:28 story because she was built. She was confident.

23:31 People can feel it when you're not confident, especially when

23:34 you're trying to act like they know you're just doing the

23:37 things you're supposed to do. Almost, yeah, but not really

23:40 living the character. Absolutely.

23:44 There's. Something we haven't talked

23:45 about really. I want to go into self

23:47 sabotaging because. One big.

23:50 Reason for lack of confidence. I think it's self sabotage.

23:54 We all do it to some degree. Some people can control it

23:57 better, some just like let it go, can't even stop.

24:02 Like they can't pull themselves back.

24:03 Yeah, well, the important thing with self sabotage #1's a

24:07 protective mechanism because it's, it's pretty it's an

24:11 oftentimes a response to the fear keep us safe.

24:13 And but sometimes, most of the time, keeping us safe means

24:17 preventing us from moving forward.

24:19 And So what self sabotage is when you actually get your own

24:23 way or be like almost a direct cause of you not achieving what

24:27 you are attending to achieve. So it's like putting a wrench

24:31 sometimes in your in your goals that can sometimes be infinite,

24:35 so. Why do you think we do that?

24:38 Well, fear like. How?

24:40 A lot of it is fear and, or if we have our own limiting

24:43 beliefs, like I can't do this. What am I?

24:46 You know, the imposter syndrome too is like, well, who am I to

24:48 do this? But a lot of times it could be

24:51 the fear of failure or fear of success.

24:54 You know, think about self sabotage or fear of success is

24:56 that they're unconscious. It's not like we realize we're

24:59 doing it. It's like we're not going around

25:01 saying Hey, I'm self sabotaging today or have your success.

25:05 Most people don't realize that never one chasing success that

25:09 that's not the issue. The issue often comes up though,

25:14 is that it's the outcome sometimes or the OR what's on

25:18 the other side of that success that can be scary.

25:22 Tell me. A little bit more about this

25:23 fear of success, because I it's that's new to me.

25:27 I think it's the first time I. Yeah.

25:28 Well, it's not so much, again, success.

25:30 I mean, everybody's chasing success.

25:33 But what often happens is the ability sometimes to move

25:38 forward and the ability to, I guess you could say being

25:43 blocked or in a necessary like what is the the consequence

25:47 going to be? So if I'm more successful, that

25:49 means I'm going to be more in spotlight, that means I'm going

25:52 to have more responsibility. That means my identity is going

25:54 to change. Because a lot of time people are

25:55 comfortable in the identity we keep, whether it be the

25:58 struggling actor or the the starving person, you know, in a

26:02 sense. And to change your identity can

26:05 be scary. Sometimes the change your

26:08 ability to do things can be can be scary, just change in

26:12 general. So our brain, again, is designed

26:16 to protect us and keep us alive. So it's going to do everything

26:19 in its power to prevent us from having this fear.

26:23 And therefore, well, let's just play it safe.

26:25 I'm not going to do this. And you start to talk yourself

26:27 out of things that may be really good for you, and you'll start

26:30 to just talk yourself out of it. And that's why I tell people

26:33 it's very easy to talk yourself out of things.

26:35 And it's funny that we do that by shooting ourself.

26:39 Yeah, absolutely. You can talk yourself out of

26:42 things, but a lot of the times we tell ourselves we are not cut

26:46 out for that, We're not good enough, we're not experienced

26:49 enough and things like that just so we can stay in that comfort

26:52 zone. Absolutely.

26:54 I want to ask one question because we talked about success

26:58 and it's there's like claim to fame type thing, but how do we

27:03 do sustainable success like in creative field burnout is?

27:08 Very real so. Yeah.

27:10 The main thing is to have outside interests in addition to

27:14 what you're doing. What do you mean by outside

27:15 interests? So like hobbies, leisure, like

27:19 doing something that's not just your career or your business all

27:23 the time. So traveling, if that's a hobby

27:26 of yours, read it, you know, whatever it is that you find

27:30 enjoyment, make sure to incorporate some of that each

27:33 each week so that you can take a break from doing what you're

27:37 doing. Because a lot of times they're

27:39 burnout. Sometimes we work too hard and

27:41 then and we don't see the results we need.

27:44 So that would become disgruntled.

27:46 And also again, doing something different too will help because

27:52 a lot of times we're doing the same routine over and over again

27:55 can lead to burnout. Yeah.

27:57 And I would say adopt the mindset.

28:00 I'm always learning. So even like I'll have PhD,

28:03 that's considered a terminal degree, but I'm still learning.

28:06 I'm just beginning my learning journey after the PhD, so

28:10 reading keeping yourself really ahead of the game.

28:13 So. That's what I would say.

28:15 We'll always be evolving. Yeah, especially nowadays.

28:19 Well, I, you know, now, now with the Internet with, you know,

28:21 with the Internet and AI, there's so many things at our

28:24 fingertips and there's no need for us to, to not have that

28:30 access. We can get it for sometimes free

28:32 or low cost. I mean, YouTube is very

28:35 underutilized. I think resource for learning.

28:38 There's so much out there. So always be learning, I would

28:42 say is definitely and and be curious and always have that

28:45 that curious mindset too. Yeah, so now I'm curious.

28:50 I'm curious about something about yourself.

28:53 Sure. So let's play rapid fire

28:55 question. OK, so we can learn more about

28:58 yourself. OK, so #1 what's 1 belief or

29:04 mantra you repeat to yourself before a big challenge?

29:08 I can do this. I got this.

29:10 That's a good one. OK, what's a rejection that

29:16 turned out to be a blessing for you?

29:18 The rejection turned out to be a blessing.

29:20 Well, I wouldn't say it's a rejection, but it was we when I

29:24 was let go for my full time teaching position back in 2012,

29:28 2013. And I was devastated at the time

29:30 because I really was so determined to be a full time

29:34 tenure type professor. I was let go and it was hard and

29:38 I went to a deep depression, kind of a dark place for a

29:40 little while and because I was just, you know, was such a wound

29:44 to me, but it turned out to be the best thing that could ever

29:46 happen to me in what way because it now I can do this type of

29:48 work. I wrote my book, finished my

29:51 PhD, built my talent. I didn't really have that when I

29:54 was working full time because my life was devoted really to the

29:58 full time job. It's.

30:00 Good for you next one. If self doubt had a voice, what

30:06 would you tell it right now? First of all, I would thank it

30:10 for keeping me in check, keeping in check.

30:14 You thank it for protecting you because that's again, I always

30:17 use a big thing. It's protection.

30:19 But that you can do this and that you always will appreciate

30:23 it looking out for you, but that you don't need your that help

30:28 anymore. Yeah, thank you for looking up

30:31 for me, but I'm good. Exactly.

30:34 All right, next one, you work with actors, performers every

30:38 day. What's 1 lesson from acting that

30:41 everyone could use in real life? I would say go back to the quote

30:46 I said about, you know, rejecting at rejection is not

30:50 take it personally. Yeah.

30:52 And that just that your services are not needed at the moment.

30:55 And was that a particular job, that particular project, it just

30:59 you're just not needed. Great last one.

31:03 What was a recent AHA moment you've had about your own

31:07 mindset? The most recent aha moment was,

31:14 I guess you could say, is how the persistence of that tenacity

31:20 can really help move the needle. Like because for when I wrote my

31:24 book, it took me many years and I didn't think I could do it.

31:28 It wasn't until I really worked harder that I really believe

31:30 that AI can do this. And so I think just really

31:35 working so hard on things is so important.

31:38 And your book is called Rise about the scripts, right?

31:41 Yeah, confronting self doubt. And that's true self sabotage

31:44 for performing artists. So I'm definitely going to leave

31:47 a link in the show notes. Great.

31:49 Thank you all. Right.

31:50 Thank you, Doctor Albert. Thank you Karen for having me on

31:53 here. Thank you very much.

31:58 Thanks for listening to this episode of Mind One.

32:01 If you enjoyed the conversation, don't forget to follow and share

32:04 it with anyone who needs to hear it.

32:06 And let's keep the conversation going.

32:08 Connect with me on LinkedIn or leave me a comment.

32:11 Until next time, stay curious, keep exploring, and let's

32:15 continue to blend our minds and discover what's possible.