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To my sister, Melodie, without whom the text would have been a pile of scrambled sentences and jumbled thoughts. You are a champion. Bless you. I love you.

This text is a collection of stories and experiences from colleagues, along with thousands of anecdotes and lessons from peers who came to Hollywood to pursue acting. I extend my humble gratitude to all of the industry professionals, who either represented me or were willing to audition me over the past 30 years. Sincere appreciation goes out to all of the guest speakers at The Actors’ Network and to every one of our nearly 5,000 members over almost 24 years. To my family and friends from Nashville, Atlanta, Phoenix, Hollywood and outside the United States who have consistently supported me: Thank you. Still, the journey of my career was not a solo act, and I would be remiss if I failed to mention some notable people since its inception: Helen Glaser, George Watkins, Kathy Hardegree, Sandra Dorsey, David LeGrant, Judy Kerr, Marc Abrams, Roger Wolfson and Carolyne Barry.

This publication would not have been possible without my wonderful friends: Adam Donshik, Alex Klepov, Denise Carole, Mike Olson, Clark Coffey, Chet Nelson, Mark Hutchison, Efraim Wyeth, Ron Hanks, Paul Bond, Suzan Wexler, Anja Lill, Anthony Desantis, Cindy Abrams, Christian Magdu, Alison Robertson and Billy DaMota.

From the age of seven, all I can remember wanting to do was to be a professional athlete. Initially, my choice was baseball, then football, briefly tennis. Because I was only 5'1" tall at age 15, I chose golf. After a year at the University of Kentucky, I transferred to Middle Tennessee State University. By the time I reached age 20, life informed me that I needed to set my dream aside. I was good enough to know how good I wasn’t.

I took my love of sports, and my extroverted personality, and turned my focus to broadcast journalism. Along the way, I discovered an interest in psychology, even briefly considering a possible double major. I never graduated from college, but the two years of psychology changed my life. I just didn’t know yet I was going to become an actor.

Shortly thereafter, while sitting in a tiny theatre, watching a silly film called The Last Starfighter, I made the decision to pursue acting as a career. First, I attended a huge talent event at the Waldorf Astoria in New York City, where I won the commercial category competition. I wrote and created my first commercial.

Then I moved to Atlanta to train as a professional actor with a two-year game plan to save money and earn my union affiliations. Having achieved all of those goals almost two years to the day, I left Atlanta and drove across the country to Hollywood. I am not saying I had it all figured out—because I didn’t—but I did feel prepared having my SAG/AFTRA union cards, a studio feature film credit and $6,000.00 in my pocket.

Still, no one had really mentored me about the pursuit of acting full-time for money. The only advice I ever got was from my original agent in Atlanta, Kathy Hardegree, who once leaned across her desk, pushed her glasses back on her head and said in a firm voice, “Son, you best learn how to keep your business straight.” I heeded her words and went to Hollywood.

You just never know how your psyche will respond to the reality of show business. I wish there had been a legitimate class on the psychology of pursuing the business of acting. But there were no classes. There wasn’t a legal bar to pass or any other requirement to be called an actor. Heck, you don’t need a license to purchase paints, canvas and an easel to call yourself a painter—so fair is fair, I guess. But, as a sensitive Pisces in Hollywood, I soon learned that I would need to draw a line between the art and the business.

During my first 24 months in Hollywood, I came to the realization that the study of psychology had provided me with two very important tools: one—the ability to survive the emotional and mental trauma of Hollywood; two—the proper intellect to handle the intricacies of the business of show business.

Three years after my arrival, I booked my first paid job on General Hospital followed by Matlock in the spring. I became more proactive and developed my actor game in terms of approaching professionals regularly. My success led to the first organized meeting of The Actors’ Network on May 1, 1991. Over the next nearly 24 years, I spent thousands of hours speaking and consulting with fellow actors on how to promote and enhance their actor business acumen. Throughout my career as a television actor, I also had my decisions, patience, determination, character, confidence, resolve and integrity tested countless times. Over a few decades, I came to understand how enmeshed the seven deadly sins are in the journey of acting because we are humans first and actors second.

The decision to pursue acting as a career was obvious to me, but it should be a carefully evaluated decision. Acting is a multi-billion dollar business that can tear down your psyche and destroy your self-esteem.

This work spans nearly 30 years of my life. For what it’s worth, Hollywood never lied to me. I was told it is Show Business, not Show Art, and indeed it is. I have failed, survived and ultimately succeeded in Hollywood because I never lost sight of my true identity. I wish the same for you.

My professional best,

7 Deadly Sins The Actor Overcomes provides a unique approach to the profession of acting. The profession of acting is a vastly different conversation than the artistic desire to perform. One could argue the business of performance art may be the most difficult relationship you ever have with yourself. The desire to perform on stage is innate. The credibility afforded the actor who performs regularly on stage is well earned. However, your belief system about the art, when challenged by the desire to make money acting on camera, can be an emotional and psychological conundrum.

7 Deadly Sins The Actor Overcomes provides a fundamental toolkit to increase the likelihood of success in your on-camera acting career, while protecting the delicate balancing act of offering your psyche and soul as a product for sale. This work will also guide you through many of the emotional and philosophical traps that snare actors almost every day.

7 Deadly Sins The Actor Overcomes has no interest in, nor does it attempt to marginalize, the importance of theatre or stage work. Live theatre is the cradle of scripted performance. This work both acknowledges and applauds those who make a living at it. Many actors are able to use theatre work to make a living and increase their credibility, based on the specifics of their regional marketplace. Even so, theatre work may not lead to or assist in the development of an on-camera career, leaving some actors in a sea of self-doubt.

Yes, there are actors all over the world who make money performing on stage. However, the strategies, concepts and techniques introduced in this work do not often relate to the business protocol of stage acting. If you predominately have only worked on stage, the process of evolving from one medium to the other can be a grueling transition commonly avoided by actors.

Scripted film and television is referred to as theatrical work in the United States of America. To say you want to be a working actor is easy. To actually accomplish this is anything but. 7 Deadly Sins The Actor Overcomes addresses the specific business efforts associated with on-camera scripted acting as the pursuit of a theatrical career for money presents many unique challenges not associated with stage work.

Our daily lives are complicated enough. To also attempt transmuting a life of passion for performing into a paid career is exponentially more complicated. The seven deadly sins to which an actor may succumb (as defined in this book) can wreak havoc on your professional goals and dreams, as well as on your personal life. The psychological and internal conflicts between the Show and the Business of acting can damage one’s human operating system.

Establishing a stable organization as a keystone for any career is intrinsic to its success. But the pursuit of an on-camera acting career can feel diametrically opposed to the art of being an actor. A skilled on-camera actor is required to combine/blend/fuse/unite the art of acting with the business pursuit and mentality of being a commercial product; this requisite presents a paradox. Managing the state of your psyche while balancing the needs of the performer within and the industry’s demands on and expectations of you as human product—day after day—is critical. The choice to pursue acting for money cannot be taken lightly.

Can you remember, as a child, trying to pat your head and rub your tummy simultaneously and then reversing the motion quickly? Regardless of one’s age, the mixture of right-brain emotion and left-brain business can create a lethal combo of apathy, frustration and depression. Also, the principles of 7 Deadly Sins The Actor Overcomes effectively prepare parents of child actors to manage the many frustrating challenges their children may face in the acting industry.

The general public became aware of Glenn Close (Fatal Attraction) and Hugh Jackman (X-Men) after the success of those movies despite their brilliant theatre careers—annoying but true. Watch these movies in this order: The Big Picture, The Player and Swimming with Sharks. Then decide if you still want to pursue a scripted on-camera acting career for money. The 7 Deadly Sins The Actor Overcomes philosophy will guide you through the mental pitfalls, emotional dangers and professional apathy inherent in the pursuit of an on-screen acting career: beware of Lust, Greed, Gluttony, Sloth, Wrath, Envy and Pride.

Please allow me to explain an important point about the structure of 7 Deadly Sins The Actor Overcomes. Every sin is driven by an emotion on some level. By definition, only seven chapters exist in this book. Each chapter (sin) contains five sub-chapter traps and five sub-chapter solutions. A trap is presented first, followed by a solution. This format is repeated five times within each chapter. Each solution is chronologically paired with a preceding trap. While each solution is somewhat related to the preceding trap, the solution on its own should not be viewed as a sole and direct solution for the preceding trap. The solution corresponds to the preceding trap, but each and every trap and solution are mutually exclusive.

The sins are all related, when applied to acting. Although there is unavoidable repetition and crossover, each trap and solution can still stand alone. The traps are presented as a warning, a challenge, something that can derail a career or severely slow its progress. The solutions are tangible techniques and philosophical resolutions. Human emotion is individually owned, as is the evolution of your acting career. So for you personally, a trap may feel more like Greed than Gluttony, even though it falls in the chapter about Gluttony. One of the solutions may feel like it resolves your Envy more so than it resolves your Wrath. Use each sub-chapter as it best applies to you. When you reference this work in the future, view each trap and solution as a mutually exclusive lesson. This approach allows 7 Deadly Sins The Actor Overcomes to be a lifelong career tool.

Cheers to you.

I had this Fantasy, a dream, walking on red carpet shrouded with Applause. It happened only a few months after Getting Discovered sitting in a casual coffee Location. The next thing I knew, here I am, living a Lifestyle that could be described as utopia.

When you’re from a smaller city anywhere in the world and you move to a big city to pursue an acting career, you will naturally meet a lot of people really quickly. I joined an acting class in Hollywood immediately upon arrival and within just six months, I’d already met nearly a hundred actors through parties and friends of friends.

Over the course of 18 months in Hollywood, I consorted with such a crossover mix of people I needed a Venn diagram! I’d go to a party, picnic, barbeque or some other gathering and about 75% of the same people were in all those places with only about 25% of them being someone different or new to me. I was naturally curious and observant because of my interest in psychology, and I noticed I kept seeing this one guy who was a bit much for me, but everyone seemed to like him.

At some point, we met and while there was nothing bad about him, he just was not my kind of guy. I was from the rural south, so a lot of the Hollywood or wannabe types didn’t really mesh with my sensibility. So about eight months later, I get to know this guy a bit and, as usual, I start asking questions. By chatting with him, I actually figured out his whole deal and Hollywood plan. His entire angle was to just have people like him. He had set out to meet as many people in casting or directing or producing that he could and concluded that by having them like him, he’d get plenty of acting opportunities and have an instantaneous career. Boom. I was new enough to Los Angeles (L.A.), so I didn’t question his plan or discuss it further. It seemed plausible to me. I knew that not all of Hollywood was based on talent, but I just felt that this particular approach wasn’t for me.

Before too long, I began to hear some of the industry folks say pretty demeaning things about the guy. I just listened to try to understand their position. Pretty soon, it all became clear; this guy claimed he could make you feel good. Yep, that was his play. He didn’t work on his craft or work on his business. He just figured he’d be given jobs because he was the cool party fun guy. As you can imagine, he never worked, and he never had a career. He had a fantasy about how to work in Hollywood, and he got used.

Lust: an intense and uncontrolled desire. Usually thought of as uncontrolled sexual wants, LUST was originally a general term for desire. So, LUST can include the uncontrolled desire for money, food, fame or power. LUST synonyms: quick and short-term. Not really career words.

The sensation of LUST tends to start visually, and then a strong internal magnetism grows. LUST is easy to feel, but when you apply it to the pursuit of acting, it can be gross. LUST usually promotes the desire for quick career advancement without any effort. Let’s associate LUST with words, such as like, desire, longing, passion or urge. Now consider the biblical phrase: the love of money is the root of all evil. Far too often, people simply state that money is the root… when quoting this verse, inadvertently omitting the word love. Without the word love included, the value of the statement is minimized, just as LUST is often only associated with sex or desire. Now replace the word love with lust and apply it to acting.

Actor LUST is limitless because succeeding in the movies or on television is sexy. The LUST of becoming a star is a root of all pain, failure, internal discord and depression. Insert the sin into a sentence about the business of being an actor and it makes even more sense. The LUST of being a star is a root of all actor evil. Actor LUST tends to be all talk and no action. LUST is not a goal or even a dream.

LUST intrinsically diminishes consistent effort, dilutes reality and can affect how you handle professional encounters. Since 1991, I have used dating as a perfect metaphor for the pursuit of show business. Understand that this dating metaphor is only meant to apply to your mental state, not your craft. Think of it in terms of the principled difference between casual sex and a long-term relationship.

If LUST does minimize your core career business principles, you might turn into this actor: yeah, I’m doing the acting thing. I’m sorry, what? Can you imagine within the arts someone saying: yeah, I’m doing the ballet/violin/opera thing? If you’ve ever said the acting thing, you may wish to review your career decision. LUST isn’t limited to fame, money, applause, approval or the spotlight. Actors can even LUST for the chance to feel entitled, immortal and no longer in need of consorting with the little people. Actor LUST will attempt to fill some empty space in your soul, but eventually you need to acknowledge that those things are temporary. An acting career for money driven only by LUST will likely run out of gas quickly.

I love lofty goals, but they need to include visions with a plan to arrive at your destination. Sadly, far too many actors justify their disposition on LUST because they know so many actors who live in this same dream state. Learn this phrase: A goal is a dream with a deadline. To achieve a goal originating from a dream, you need to apply consistent professional effort. Unbridled LUST will likely kill any intended actions.

Consider one final note on actor LUST—the word treatment. Stay aware of how actor LUST affects your treatment of others. Many years ago, I coined this phrase: If you knew you’d run into them on Sunday at a hip coffee shop, would you treat them like that? How you treat others says a lot about the treatment you’re willing to accept as an actor. Familiarity can really breed a lot of contempt among your acting peers when LUST is your driving force.

If you LUST for professional results without sustained effort, then you’re lessening the value of the professionals on the set with you. If you want a cinematographer to care about the craft instead of just LUSTing for an Oscar, then you have to respect your end too. My ultimate goal is for you to overcome actor LUST, which will require a very principled business game plan, a solid time management system and a consistent pattern of weekly execution.

The absence of requirements and/or barriers creates a free-for-all atmosphere. Calling oneself an actor lacks any form of entry barrier. Therefore, the first actor LUST trap is fantasy. The line between a dream and a fantasy is minuscule and varies individually. Professional dreams tend to include a plan or logical effort that can someday be accomplished. Pure fantasy lives in our minds growing more improbable each day.

Large cities like Hollywood, Sydney, London, Paris, Chicago or New York can fill an actor’s mind with the fantasy of walking on the red carpet. Fantasy-filled actors can be fairly inactive in terms of pursuing their dream. Growing up in rural Tennessee didn’t affect my approach or psyche before moving to Hollywood, but the omnipresent fantasy of an Oscar is a strong force. Pure fantasy and professional dreams have a clear distinction—I’m not trying to trample on your dream.

A dream and a fantasy are separated by plans and effort. To accomplish a dream, you need to establish long-range goals. When actors are snared by pure fantasy, they won’t have much of a plan for achieving success. Hollywood or any other formidable large city can create a sense of fantasy. Believe it or not, thousands of actors move to Hollywood annually without doing any real professional planning or research beforehand, which boggles the mind. (Note: In this work, allow references to Hollywood to also include any large city with a theatrical industry and community of actors.)

Yes, the process of acting is make-believe, but the actual progression of working as an actor is exactly that—work, not fantasy. If you make the professional pursuit of acting a mental fantasy, then your chance of success is very slight. In the U.S., a very small percentage of actors’ union members (SAG-AFTRA) earn more than $50,000.00 annually. For some people, $50,000.00 a year may seem like a lot of money, but if you’re over 30 years old and have a child or two, you know it isn’t much income—consider this an example of professional reality instead of wishful fantasy.

No matter where you are right now, take a moment and visualize being in that big city. See it: The Hollywood lights, Beverly Hills, Rodeo drive, the Big Apple or the London Bridge. If you live daily in the pure fantasy of actor success, it might be difficult to travel the very long road necessary to make a living as an actor.

In 1991, I founded a business organization for actors called The Actors’ Network from an idea born by a dream. Dreams are great, but the next thing I knew, nearly 24 prime years of my life had passed by. I never intended to become a small business owner. But I did. During the early years, I found myself entertaining a small fantasy. If someone as focused as I am can fall victim to the fantasy trap, then any of you can be snared as well. Fantasy in small doses is fine, but when the dream state of mind becomes the only option, a severe trap takes hold.

Fantasy pulls you away and keeps you apart from basic success principles. Grounded dreams allow for an intelligent pursuit to grow those dreams into a career. Fantasy is just dreaming about the results.

Any actor trap has the ability to kill potential professional progress weekly. If you’re locked into pure fantasy and have no tangible plan, then you can find yourself saying I’m here. Fantasy can then be solidified by knowing lots of movie trivia or watching the Oscars while fantasizing. I want to win an award, too, but there is work to be done. Additionally, actors who live near the Oscar ceremony location feel closer to their fantasy. The illusion of proximity is a strong one and makes the fantasy trap feel more possible and more difficult simultaneously.

Too often, actors seem to fantasize about their 15 minutes of fame as if the status is a career. Fantasy is fed by ego, a little poor self-esteem and is equivalent to an actor quickie. The fantasy trap can consume your daily life. Be careful, or before you know it, decades will have passed by without any real career movement.

The fantasy of going to work on a TV series every day is a wonderful image. However, please note I said go to work every day. Professional actors have to memorize lines and add the craft into their work, every day! Your career pursuit must live outside the bubble of your mind. The professional multi-layered effort required to sustain a working actor’s career isn’t a fantasy. The LUST of effortless success exists in most of us so you’re not alone, but those folks who can turn their dreams or even a fantasy into measurable reality are the actors who break free of the mental snow globe.

The first solution presented here is both a strategic catalyst for this entire work and incredibly important as it applies to LUST. I encourage you to take a break from reading this work and go sit quietly after the first time you finish this chapter. View this solution as a new beginning to your career, regardless of any time or efforts invested to date. Ask yourself the why question. Did you ever purposefully determine that you needed to make a decision, or was the decision just a natural evolution of performing?

Have a conversation with yourself right now about the decision to pursue acting for money. Did you really psychologically process the decision to turn your performer passion into a business? The choice to get headshots and attend auditions for paying jobs seems like a professional decision, but that aspect is part of your career progression. To enjoy acting or choose to be a performing artist is one thing. The decision to be a professional acting product for sale is an entirely separate subject. The decision is the most important solution to LUST. I recommend you reconfirm it now.

The challenge to overcome LUST can be extremely daunting. If you feel that LUST may be affecting your career, then overcoming it needs to be priority one. LUST is not concerned with your age or academic prowess or other career successes. LUST can erode any little gap of doubt or insecurity you may have.

As in any journey, the strength of the launch will forever direct your successful passage. Contrarily, a ship that isn’t seaworthy facing rough seas will eventually be exposed for its weaknesses and go down. Scripted actors are human instruments. They’re not musicians playing an instrument, dancers following choreography or an artist using paints and brushes.

The emotional and psychological gap between being an artistic product for sale and being an actor who loves performing is about the size of the Grand Canyon. The business of show sees you differently, which requires you to see yourself differently. So, the decision is actually a beautiful and liberating process when handled properly.

Just because you make the decision doesn’t mean that all of your emotions immediately disappear, but the action does help minimize them. The decision clarifies a particular consciousness, which opens the gateway to a new form of self-identity, similar to going through puberty. Puberty is a period of time in which you begin to see and understand yourself in a whole new light.

Puberty can also be a very emotional time for both genders. Products don’t have emotions, so when you make the decision, it helps to separate the personal self from the actor product who is for sale every day. The decision will create a new mission-critical attitude about the separation between the show and the business of acting.

Keeping these components separate in your mind and heart is the first step to overcoming actor traps. I can appreciate the desire to be consumed only by the art of acting, but that singularity leaves you vulnerable. Once you’ve processed through the decision, you can enjoy the time you spend with your art and engage in the business with less emotion. Everyone has chores, errands and tasks in life. The business aspect of your art contains a new list of tasks. The less emotion you allow while accomplishing them, the easier they are.

A Kevin’ism: It is almost more important to know what you’re not interested in pursuing as it is to know that which you do wish to pursue. I stand by this mantra 100% because the word pursue denotes action. The decision will professionally and emotionally assist you in what you do not wish to pursue. Please identify which aspects of on-camera scripted acting you prefer. The topic entitled Areas of Industry appearing later in this work is critical to consider.

This cliché is correct: You never get a second chance to make a first impression. However, in show business, you can restart better than ever. Resolving the decision first can mean that subsequent traps may never come into play. Please watch the video entitled The Decision on the main page of The Actors’ Network (www.actors-network.com) website. Say out loud: I am a human product for sale—I am a very good and valid product—and at various times my product will be bought and sold. The first of 35 solutions within this work, the decision is by no means on any level an accident, I assure you.

Who doesn’t love to hear the roar of a crowd? As an actor or a stand-up comic, sometimes even I couldn’t say that it mattered if I was in front of a paying crowd. I was a stand-up comic for a couple of years, as well as a live improvisation (improv) artist. At present, I am a national and international speaker. Trust me when I tell you that I do love applause. But beware if you have a raw LUST for applause itself, as therein lies the trap.

The potential trap for actors isn’t that applause in any way is bad. Of course, applause on its own merit isn’t bad for an actor. But applause as a LUST trap is quite dangerous. Why? When you pursue scripted on-camera acting work, realize that Elvis has left the stage. Bryan Cranston had this line in Argo: “If we wanted applause, we would have joined the circus.” Remember, the entire focus of this work is the pursuit of on-camera scripted acting, not theatre work.

Applause is a form of appreciation, approval and a great emotional performance benefit! I love the laughter, the validation rush and the audible gratification of applause. However, the daily life of the on-camera process does not include applause.

The lack of applause can be very hard on many actors if their need for validation borders on LUST. Applause is an actor trap because it is missing from the process of on-camera auditions and on-camera work. Actors really only receive applause in theatre, other live performances or when receiving an award.

The lack of applause can create a psychological or emotional vacuum during the normal on-camera process. Think about the last time you went to a theatrical film and television (TV) or commercial audition. Perhaps you just finished shooting a film where the crew was not populated by all of your best friends. Work in the mediums of film and television lacks applause. No awards are presented during the shooting process of a commercial. A few scripted shows may still shoot in front of a live audience, but 21^st century production is minimal. If you need some applause, perform in the theatre. Just recognize the difference between a need and a LUST for applause.

Applause feeds our ego and psyche and can energize the performance during the show as well. Therein lies the potential rub and applause trap. Do you need applause or to know that applause is eminent to energize your acting work? You can do a brilliant job in an on-camera audition, yet hear the sound of crickets or only a nice professional comment like that was great, thanks for coming in.

The lack of response from your audition audience is why applause can be an actor trap. The total silence can be unsettling psychologically. I have experienced applause while on a TV set and I know many others who have as well. But the experience is very rare due to time constraints. Perhaps you do not have an applause issue. If that is the case for you, then this trap may not really ever apply to you or your career. But check in with yourself and be certain you do not mind before passing over the applause trap.

Typically, the real trap is that our natural actor desire for live stage applause can pull us away from the focus of our weekly on-camera pursuit. When the applause trap wins, your business pursuit energy becomes fragmented. Start to prepare now to find your emotional gratitude in other ways. The ability to excel artistically without the need for immediate applause can be a tremendous tool.

Much like Pavlov’s dogs, when you are conditioned early on to absorb applause