April 16, 2025 • 24 mins
Albert Bramante brings a rare combination of talents to his work as a talent agent - over two decades of industry experience plus advanced credentials in psychology, hypnosis, and NLP. This unique perspective has made him an "architect of careers" who understands both the practical and psychological challenges performers face.
Albert's journey began unexpectedly. Though originally destined for academic psychology, a brief acting stint revealed his true passion lay behind the scenes. Working at film festivals and in casting eventually led him to talent representation, where he discovered his gift for guiding artists through the psychological minefields of creative careers.
His book "Rise Above the Script: Confronting Self-Doubt, Mastering Self-Sabotage for Performing Artists" distills this wisdom into actionable strategies. Albert shares several powerful techniques during our conversation, including creating a physical "happy file" to document wins and positive feedback - a tangible resource for combating self-doubt when it inevitably strikes. He emphasizes surrounding yourself with driven peers who elevate your performance rather than those who drain your energy.
Perhaps most transformative is Albert's reframing of failure. Drawing from NLP principles, he teaches that "there's no such thing as failure, only feedback." For artists facing constant rejection, this perspective shift from "no" to "not today" or "not yet" fosters resilience and continuous improvement. He explores how understanding your personality traits - particularly conscientiousness - can predict and enhance your likelihood of success.
Whether you're a performer battling imposter syndrome, a creative struggling with self-sabotage, or anyone seeking to build healthier self-esteem, Albert's insights offer a roadmap to psychological freedom. His daily affirmations - "I deserve to be here" and "Every day and every way, I am getting better and better" - provide a simple but powerful foundation for transforming your mindset.
Ready to rise above your limiting scripts? Visit albertbramante.com to explore Albert's hypnosis recordings, follow him on social media for updates on his upcoming group coaching program, and discover how psychology can become your secret weapon for creative success.
Want to be a guest on Living the Dream with Curveball? Send Curtis Jackson a message on PodMatch, here: https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/1628631536976x919760049303001600
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Living the Dream Podcast with
Curveball, if you believe youcan achieve.
Welcome to the Living the Dreamwith Curveball Podcast, a show
where I interview guests thatteach, motivate and inspire.
(00:24):
Today, I am joined by AlbertBermonte.
Albert has over two decades ofexperience as a talent agent.
He brings a uniquepsychological and practical
insight to his work because heis a certified hypnotist and NLP
(00:45):
practitioner, has a PhD inpsychology, so we're going to be
talking to him about everythingthat he's up to in his work and
how his work is unique.
So, albert, thank you so muchfor joining me.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
Well, thank you, Curtis, for the wonderful
introduction and again forinviting me.
I'm really happy to be heretoday.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Well, why don't you start off by telling everybody a
little bit about yourself?
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Well, thank you.
Yeah, sure, my name is AlbertBramante.
As you know, I am an agent.
My company is Bramante Artists.
I've been in the business since2003.
I started off in casting andyou know so.
I've worked all throughout manyyears representing various
(01:31):
artists for film, TV and theater.
I consider myself an architectof their careers.
You know we work together, wework as a partnership into the
team, and I also have a strongbackground in psychology.
I have a PhD and been apsychology professor, and also I
wrote a published book lastyear, Rise Above the Script,
(01:53):
Confronting Self-Doubt,Mastering Self-Sabotage for
Performing Artists.
And you know it's been a greatjourney.
Actually, I'm really honored todo what I love to do, and
that's working with actors, andjust even being a service to
(02:14):
others is what really excites me.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
Well, tell the listeners how you got into being
a talent agent.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
Sure.
Well, I started dabbling offinto acting myself because I was
always interested, even as ayoung child, in performing arts.
I was in drama club in highschool, I took some theater
classes as electives in collegeand I really enjoyed the process
of performing.
However, the performinglifestyle was more.
(02:47):
I was more suitable for behindthe scenes.
I really enjoyed working withactors, not necessarily being
one.
So, you know, after a coupleyears of acting, you know I've
made a lot of friends withactors and I started getting
involved behind the scenes, youknow, working at film festivals,
volunteering at film festivals,working in casting, casting
(03:07):
short films, casting featurefilms and eventually I came to,
you know, know some of theactors that I wanted to start
representing them and managingthem.
And you know it was 2004,.
It was when I made thetransition from, like you know,
transition from whatever littlefreelance audience to becoming a
full-time talent representative, and it's been 21 years going
(03:33):
strong.
So that's how I got started ina sense, and it happened by
accident too.
I was always on track to beingI was intending to be when I was
growing up, to be an academicpsychologist, a research
psychologist, and it wasn'tuntil my little foray into
(03:57):
acting that really changed a lotof the course of my life.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
Well, what's one piece of advice you would give
somebody Because I know you talkabout your book but what's one
piece of advice you would givesomebody that's overwhelmed by
self-doubt?
Speaker 2 (04:18):
The main reason is always connect to the source.
Why are you doing what you'redoing?
What is driving you to do?
Whatever it is you do, whetheryou're an actor, whether you're
a performer, or whether you're aprofessional, a teacher, a
practitioner what is the sourcethat is driving you, what makes
(04:45):
you passionate and remainconnected to that every day by
always remembering that, whatreally gets you out of bed every
day, and really stay committedto that so that you always
remember what it is you've doneand what you know, where you
(05:06):
came from and why.
What direction are you going?
Speaker 1 (05:11):
Well, tell listeners about your book, that that you
just published, you know.
Tell us what we can expect whenwe read it and where we can get
it from.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
Well, sure, it's available on Amazon as well as
Kindle, as a paperback or asKindle as well as an audio book.
So I have it on Audible,spotify, apple, and the book is
a combination of personalinsights as well as research.
(05:40):
I did a lot of research for thebook, so there's some sound
psychological research there,and I start off talking about
self-esteem, and then I go intothe concept of self-efficacy,
which is what that reallyself-efficacy means is that you
have the belief in your abilityto do what it is you set out to
(06:03):
do, that you're capable.
And then I talk aboutpersonality a bit, and then I go
into fear of success, as wellas imposter syndrome and even
fear of money, and allthroughout in these chapters are
actionable steps that you canwork to improve yourself, steps
(06:23):
that you can work to improveyourself, and I peppered that
all throughout the book alldifferent techniques, and I'll
kind of tell you one here, andthat is something that was
taught to me that I really foundimmensely valuable, and that's
creating what you call a happyfile.
(06:46):
And what do I mean by happy file?
So this is actually somethingphysical.
I don't recommend doing thislike in an online or you know,
or an email.
This is an actual journal, youknow, an old-fashioned journal,
paperback, notebook, whatever itis and every time you get a
positive experience whether it'sa note on a performance,
(07:09):
feedback on a job, good pressthat you receive document it in
your journal, and every timewhen you're having that moment
of self-doubt or that impostersyndrome is coming in, kick out
that happy file and remainconnected and it'll remind you
(07:34):
of why you're You're doing whatyou're doing, and it'll kind of
be like that little bit of akickstart that you need
sometimes when days are hard.
Another technique that I canrecommend is hang out with the
crowd.
That you hang out with isimportant, so always associate
(07:56):
yourself with people that areeither your level or even more
advanced than you are.
You're more successful than youare at the moment because we're
the sum of our peers in a sense.
So if you hang out with peoplethat are good, that are already
elevating themselves, there's agood chance of probability
they're going to elevate you aswell, and so I cover like that
(08:21):
and other stuff in the book tooyeah, speaking of other stuff,
in your book you talk aboutfailure extensively.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
So how can artists use our honest, honest failure?
And instead of looking at it asa setback, you know that they
can look at it as a steppingstone exactly that's exactly
what it is.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
Uh, in my background in neurolinguistic program, nlp,
one of the statements, corestatements, is that there's no
such thing as failure, onlyfeedback.
So let each opportunity thatyou know didn't go your way or
didn't go in your directionbecause that's really all it is
is it just didn't go in yourfavor or go in your way, and so
(09:04):
what you can do then is takethat failure and take it as an
opportunity.
Look at it as an opportunity tolearn, to improve yourself.
So, again, no such thing asfailure, only feedback.
So what can you learn from thisexperience?
And what did you get out ofthis?
(09:25):
Because you might have made newconnections, even though the
opportunity didn't work out inyour favor, you might have made
some new connections, or evenjust some new knowledge.
Celebrate that new knowledge,celebrate that.
And also, in a business that Iwork with actors constantly,
(09:49):
there's a lot more no's thanthere are yes's and any
performer, the one thing that,again, I always say is thing
that again I always say is youknow, with that, you know, learn
from that and look at it asthat no, and frame it as not
today, not yet.
(10:10):
So it's having a growth mindsetis really important and I
recommend to all your listenersto read a book by Carol Dweck
called Mindset, which isabsolutely one of my, you know,
go-to books and you know inthere it talks about the growth
mindset, and I mention that inmy book.
So what can each failure teachyou and what valuable pieces of
(10:38):
information can you learn fromthose failures and therefore
become more successful each time?
And that won't?
It won't it's.
It should not at all be asetback at all.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
Well, let's talk about how, how learning
personality traits, especiallythe, the big five, you know, if
artists learn those, how canthat help them in their personal
and professional lives?
Speaker 2 (11:12):
Sure.
Well, you know, there's certainelements of the big five that
really help someone besuccessful.
So one of them, one of themajor traits that's linked to
success in a lot of research hasbacked us up is the trait of
conscientiousness.
So that's the second.
You know, the C in the big fiveis conscientiousness, which
means discipline, which meansfocus.
So those that are higher inthis trait, those that are more
(11:33):
focused and more goal-orientedand more driven and more on top
of their experiences, are morelikely to be successful.
So you can harness that bykeeping journals, keeping track
of your appointments, puttingthings on a planner, keeping a
(11:54):
word with commitments and followthrough.
Because the one thing when itcomes to conscientiousness, we
tend to overestimate howconscientious we are.
A lot of people, when they findout or when they take a test
that measures the big fivetraits, a lot of people are
surprised at the fact thatthey're not as conscientious as
(12:18):
they thought they were.
They scored kind of low on thatarea and that's because a lot
of people are not fully aware of.
Self-awareness comes in, so wecan work on improving
conscientiousness by being ondiscipline and focus.
So that's one piece.
Another trait is agreeableness.
(12:41):
Now, agreeableness refers tohow well you can take direction,
and part of being successful isbeing coachable and being open
to feedback and learning andadapting from that feedback.
And that comes fromagreeableness.
Agreeableness, now, this is oneof those traits where you don't
(13:03):
want to be too low on that, butyou also want to be too high,
because if you're high inagreeableness sometimes too high
you can sometimes be takenadvantage of or kind of get, you
know, pushed over on.
So you want to have a littlebit of disagreeableness,
(13:23):
especially when it comes to,like, sales or negotiations,
because you know at some pointyou have to do, you do have to
stand up and assert yourself,which might be a little by being
a little bit disagreeable.
So, um, but it's important tobe coachable and it's important
to learn and be able to adaptthe situations, which also
(13:45):
relates to the openness which isanother trait in the big five
Openness to experience, try newthings, and I also talk about
this in my book.
Step outside your comfort zone,do something that makes you
uncomfortable.
Comfortable, uh, whether it'sgiving a, a public speech, uh,
(14:08):
going to like a toastmasters andgiving a public speak, you know
speech.
Or even something fun iskaraoke yeah, I mean, karaoke
can be very scary for a lot ofpeople, but it's something
that'll step out, you know,stepping outside your comfort
zone.
So I'm not saying everybodyshould go out and do karaoke
right now, but what I'm sayingis that doing something that
(14:28):
makes you a little bituncomfortable, because when you
do that you're going to feelempowered and that's going to
also be helpful.
And you know extroversion well,you know that trait.
It's important to have to belike, I would say, a balance of
both.
You know, because you do, youdo have to collaborate with
(14:52):
other people most of the timeand know how to collaborate,
know how to talk to people.
So I would say, practice againgoing to different meetup groups
and meeting people andcommunicating and just getting
that out there.
And the last one is neuroticism,which refers to how easily you
are reacting to stress or howeasily you can get anxiety or
(15:14):
worked up.
So those that score high inneuroticism tend to be more
prone to anxiety depression.
Neuroticism tend to be moreprone to anxiety depression.
So I think if you work on theother four, it should lower your
scores on neuroticism.
And you know it's so muchrelated to success recipe for,
(15:35):
you know, self-sabotagingbehavior or what you would
sometimes call shooting yourselfin the foot and making you know
(15:59):
mistakes or, just, you know,ruining your own chances and
also sometimes being low inagreeableness.
It's going to be hard for youto be coachable, which may make
it difficult for people to workwith you, so that's why it's
kind of important to look atthese, these five traits well,
let's talk about the differencebetween toxic self-esteem and
(16:22):
regular self-esteem and howartists can make sure that they
use this to their advantage andmake sure they don't have too
toxic of self-esteem.
And that's a good point too.
Toxic self-esteem is when youknow someone has an inflated or
(16:43):
grandiose or they say like youknow, a really high view of
themselves, but at the same time, that's also fragile.
We're to a point where they'renot open to criticism, they get
highly insulted and sometimeseven with actors or performers,
what can happen is, you know,toxic high self-esteem.
Related to what we talked aboutjust before was agreeableness,
(17:06):
the role in agreeableness, whichmeans that they're not going to
really want to hear feedbackand they're not going to be
comfortable.
They can get really angry andupset when they get any
constructive criticism orfeedback.
So, but regular self-esteem andhigh self-esteem is, you know,
respecting and yourself andreally coming to the to the
(17:30):
notion or realization that youdeserve to be here now.
Toxic self-esteem is more oflike you're thinking that you're
better than other people,whereas you know healthy
self-esteem, you still viewyourself as valuable, but but
you're still humbled enough touh, you know, like, treat
(17:50):
everybody with compassion andempathy.
So you want to, you know,definitely have high self-esteem
, but not too high, because,again, you have to learn and be
coached and, you know, learnfrom mistakes too.
So there's a big difference,you know.
In a sense I feel and usuallyagain, actors that have that or
(18:12):
anybody who has that toxic highself-esteem, is going to also be
self-sabotaging opportunities.
Speaker 1 (18:20):
Well, talk about.
You mentioned a couple ofthings in your book about
raising self-esteem.
Talk about that and you know,if possible, share a story of
someone who applied what youtalk about in your book to raise
their self-esteem.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
Sure Well, self-esteem would be what I
talked about earlier.
Raising that would be, hangingout with people that are more
that build you up, uh, ratherthan tear you down.
So surround yourself a positive, you know, minded individual.
That's the main thing.
And also, again, can beingconnected and maintaining your
happy file.
(18:56):
Uh, I worked with.
When I first started workingwith this actress actress, she
was very shy, very timid and youknow we kind of like, you know
she got a lot of positivefeedback when she was in our
acting class from other actingstudents and we started like
kind of creating our own happyfile just on that feedback alone
(19:17):
and then eventually she becamemore confident in her skin and
then wound up booking, you know,a role on orange is new black
and also booking a role on thecbs show, fbi something that two
years prior to that would havebeen, you know, a pipe dream.
(19:39):
So, celebrating your success inthe winds surrounding yourself
with positive mind people and,you know, keeping you know
mistakes or even looking atfailures more as learning
opportunities.
(19:59):
Tell us about any upcomingprojects that you're working on
that listeners need to be awareof well, I, on my um website, I
have, um, you know, recordingsyou know for sale, uh, hypnosis
recordings, you know, forconfidence, for addictions, for,
you know, sleep, for um, anyother like you know, fears, uh,
(20:23):
or if you just need like alittle bit of boost on
self-esteem, feel free to dothat.
Um, I'll also be, um, you know,launching you know my own stuff
this year uh, coach, a groupcoaching program.
Uh, so you can follow me onsocial media for updates on that
.
That's what I have lined up.
And also I have a couple otherideas for books you know that
(20:48):
I'd like to see out in, you know, the first or second quarter of
2026.
Speaker 1 (20:56):
Speaking of your website, throw it out there so
listeners can keep up witheverything that you're up to.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
Sure, my website is just my name, albertbermontecom.
Again, you can also follow meon social media, at Instagram,
dr Al Bermonte, or even, youknow, follow me on LinkedIn and
Facebook.
This is my name, albertBermonte.
Speaker 1 (21:17):
Okay, close us out with some final thoughts.
Maybe, if that was something Iforgot to talk about, that you
would like to touch on, or anyfinal thoughts you have for the
listeners.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
Well, just remember why you're here and always a
couple other things that you cando.
You know mantras that you youknow if you're big, you know if
you believe in affirmations.
I would say always, whatever,regardless, whatever profession
you're in is, always say toyourself in the morning when
(21:47):
you're waking up and rightbefore going to bed is I deserve
to be here, I deserve to have aseat at the table?
And also another affirmationcould be is every day and every
way, I am getting better andbetter.
And just keep telling yourselfthat at least three or four
times a day, every day and everyway, I'm getting better and
better, and you should seechanges within a few weeks, if
(22:13):
sooner.
Speaker 1 (22:15):
All right.
Ladies and gentlemen,alpabermontecom, please be sure
to follow rate review.
Share this episode to as manypeople as possible.
Jump on your favorite podcastapp, follow the show, leave us a
review, share it.
For more information on theLiving the Dream with Curveball
podcast, check out our newwebsite, wwwcurveball337.com.
(22:38):
Thank you for listening andsupporting the show, albert.
Thank you for all that you doand thank you for joining me.
Speaker 2 (22:46):
And thank you for inviting me, curtis, have a
great night.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
For more information on the Living the Dream with
Curveball podcast, visitwwwcurveball337.com.
Until next time, keep livingthe dream.
Welcome to the Living the Dream Podcast with
Curveball, if you believe youcan achieve.
Welcome to the Living the Dreamwith Curveball Podcast, a show
where I interview guests thatteach, motivate and inspire.
(00:24):
Today, I am joined by AlbertBermonte.
Albert has over two decades ofexperience as a talent agent.
He brings a uniquepsychological and practical
insight to his work because heis a certified hypnotist and NLP
(00:45):
practitioner, has a PhD inpsychology, so we're going to be
talking to him about everythingthat he's up to in his work and
how his work is unique.
So, albert, thank you so muchfor joining me.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
Well, thank you, Curtis, for the wonderful
introduction and again forinviting me.
I'm really happy to be heretoday.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Well, why don't you start off by telling everybody a
little bit about yourself?
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Well, thank you.
Yeah, sure, my name is AlbertBramante.
As you know, I am an agent.
My company is Bramante Artists.
I've been in the business since2003.
I started off in casting andyou know so.
I've worked all throughout manyyears representing various
(01:31):
artists for film, TV and theater.
I consider myself an architectof their careers.
You know we work together, wework as a partnership into the
team, and I also have a strongbackground in psychology.
I have a PhD and been apsychology professor, and also I
wrote a published book lastyear, Rise Above the Script,
(01:53):
Confronting Self-Doubt,Mastering Self-Sabotage for
Performing Artists.
And you know it's been a greatjourney.
Actually, I'm really honored todo what I love to do, and
that's working with actors, andjust even being a service to
(02:14):
others is what really excites me.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
Well, tell the listeners how you got into being
a talent agent.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
Sure.
Well, I started dabbling offinto acting myself because I was
always interested, even as ayoung child, in performing arts.
I was in drama club in highschool, I took some theater
classes as electives in collegeand I really enjoyed the process
of performing.
However, the performinglifestyle was more.
(02:47):
I was more suitable for behindthe scenes.
I really enjoyed working withactors, not necessarily being
one.
So, you know, after a coupleyears of acting, you know I've
made a lot of friends withactors and I started getting
involved behind the scenes, youknow, working at film festivals,
volunteering at film festivals,working in casting, casting
(03:07):
short films, casting featurefilms and eventually I came to,
you know, know some of theactors that I wanted to start
representing them and managingthem.
And you know it was 2004,.
It was when I made thetransition from, like you know,
transition from whatever littlefreelance audience to becoming a
full-time talent representative, and it's been 21 years going
(03:33):
strong.
So that's how I got started ina sense, and it happened by
accident too.
I was always on track to beingI was intending to be when I was
growing up, to be an academicpsychologist, a research
psychologist, and it wasn'tuntil my little foray into
(03:57):
acting that really changed a lotof the course of my life.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
Well, what's one piece of advice you would give
somebody Because I know you talkabout your book but what's one
piece of advice you would givesomebody that's overwhelmed by
self-doubt?
Speaker 2 (04:18):
The main reason is always connect to the source.
Why are you doing what you'redoing?
What is driving you to do?
Whatever it is you do, whetheryou're an actor, whether you're
a performer, or whether you're aprofessional, a teacher, a
practitioner what is the sourcethat is driving you, what makes
(04:45):
you passionate and remainconnected to that every day by
always remembering that, whatreally gets you out of bed every
day, and really stay committedto that so that you always
remember what it is you've doneand what you know, where you
(05:06):
came from and why.
What direction are you going?
Speaker 1 (05:11):
Well, tell listeners about your book, that that you
just published, you know.
Tell us what we can expect whenwe read it and where we can get
it from.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
Well, sure, it's available on Amazon as well as
Kindle, as a paperback or asKindle as well as an audio book.
So I have it on Audible,spotify, apple, and the book is
a combination of personalinsights as well as research.
(05:40):
I did a lot of research for thebook, so there's some sound
psychological research there,and I start off talking about
self-esteem, and then I go intothe concept of self-efficacy,
which is what that reallyself-efficacy means is that you
have the belief in your abilityto do what it is you set out to
(06:03):
do, that you're capable.
And then I talk aboutpersonality a bit, and then I go
into fear of success, as wellas imposter syndrome and even
fear of money, and allthroughout in these chapters are
actionable steps that you canwork to improve yourself, steps
(06:23):
that you can work to improveyourself, and I peppered that
all throughout the book alldifferent techniques, and I'll
kind of tell you one here, andthat is something that was
taught to me that I really foundimmensely valuable, and that's
creating what you call a happyfile.
(06:46):
And what do I mean by happy file?
So this is actually somethingphysical.
I don't recommend doing thislike in an online or you know,
or an email.
This is an actual journal, youknow, an old-fashioned journal,
paperback, notebook, whatever itis and every time you get a
positive experience whether it'sa note on a performance,
(07:09):
feedback on a job, good pressthat you receive document it in
your journal, and every timewhen you're having that moment
of self-doubt or that impostersyndrome is coming in, kick out
that happy file and remainconnected and it'll remind you
(07:34):
of why you're You're doing whatyou're doing, and it'll kind of
be like that little bit of akickstart that you need
sometimes when days are hard.
Another technique that I canrecommend is hang out with the
crowd.
That you hang out with isimportant, so always associate
(07:56):
yourself with people that areeither your level or even more
advanced than you are.
You're more successful than youare at the moment because we're
the sum of our peers in a sense.
So if you hang out with peoplethat are good, that are already
elevating themselves, there's agood chance of probability
they're going to elevate you aswell, and so I cover like that
(08:21):
and other stuff in the book tooyeah, speaking of other stuff,
in your book you talk aboutfailure extensively.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
So how can artists use our honest, honest failure?
And instead of looking at it asa setback, you know that they
can look at it as a steppingstone exactly that's exactly
what it is.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
Uh, in my background in neurolinguistic program, nlp,
one of the statements, corestatements, is that there's no
such thing as failure, onlyfeedback.
So let each opportunity thatyou know didn't go your way or
didn't go in your directionbecause that's really all it is
is it just didn't go in yourfavor or go in your way, and so
(09:04):
what you can do then is takethat failure and take it as an
opportunity.
Look at it as an opportunity tolearn, to improve yourself.
So, again, no such thing asfailure, only feedback.
So what can you learn from thisexperience?
And what did you get out ofthis?
(09:25):
Because you might have made newconnections, even though the
opportunity didn't work out inyour favor, you might have made
some new connections, or evenjust some new knowledge.
Celebrate that new knowledge,celebrate that.
And also, in a business that Iwork with actors constantly,
(09:49):
there's a lot more no's thanthere are yes's and any
performer, the one thing that,again, I always say is thing
that again I always say is youknow, with that, you know, learn
from that and look at it asthat no, and frame it as not
today, not yet.
(10:10):
So it's having a growth mindsetis really important and I
recommend to all your listenersto read a book by Carol Dweck
called Mindset, which isabsolutely one of my, you know,
go-to books and you know inthere it talks about the growth
mindset, and I mention that inmy book.
So what can each failure teachyou and what valuable pieces of
(10:38):
information can you learn fromthose failures and therefore
become more successful each time?
And that won't?
It won't it's.
It should not at all be asetback at all.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
Well, let's talk about how, how learning
personality traits, especiallythe, the big five, you know, if
artists learn those, how canthat help them in their personal
and professional lives?
Speaker 2 (11:12):
Sure.
Well, you know, there's certainelements of the big five that
really help someone besuccessful.
So one of them, one of themajor traits that's linked to
success in a lot of research hasbacked us up is the trait of
conscientiousness.
So that's the second.
You know, the C in the big fiveis conscientiousness, which
means discipline, which meansfocus.
So those that are higher inthis trait, those that are more
(11:33):
focused and more goal-orientedand more driven and more on top
of their experiences, are morelikely to be successful.
So you can harness that bykeeping journals, keeping track
of your appointments, puttingthings on a planner, keeping a
(11:54):
word with commitments and followthrough.
Because the one thing when itcomes to conscientiousness, we
tend to overestimate howconscientious we are.
A lot of people, when they findout or when they take a test
that measures the big fivetraits, a lot of people are
surprised at the fact thatthey're not as conscientious as
(12:18):
they thought they were.
They scored kind of low on thatarea and that's because a lot
of people are not fully aware of.
Self-awareness comes in, so wecan work on improving
conscientiousness by being ondiscipline and focus.
So that's one piece.
Another trait is agreeableness.
(12:41):
Now, agreeableness refers tohow well you can take direction,
and part of being successful isbeing coachable and being open
to feedback and learning andadapting from that feedback.
And that comes fromagreeableness.
Agreeableness, now, this is oneof those traits where you don't
(13:03):
want to be too low on that, butyou also want to be too high,
because if you're high inagreeableness sometimes too high
you can sometimes be takenadvantage of or kind of get, you
know, pushed over on.
So you want to have a littlebit of disagreeableness,
(13:23):
especially when it comes to,like, sales or negotiations,
because you know at some pointyou have to do, you do have to
stand up and assert yourself,which might be a little by being
a little bit disagreeable.
So, um, but it's important tobe coachable and it's important
to learn and be able to adaptthe situations, which also
(13:45):
relates to the openness which isanother trait in the big five
Openness to experience, try newthings, and I also talk about
this in my book.
Step outside your comfort zone,do something that makes you
uncomfortable.
Comfortable, uh, whether it'sgiving a, a public speech, uh,
(14:08):
going to like a toastmasters andgiving a public speak, you know
speech.
Or even something fun iskaraoke yeah, I mean, karaoke
can be very scary for a lot ofpeople, but it's something
that'll step out, you know,stepping outside your comfort
zone.
So I'm not saying everybodyshould go out and do karaoke
right now, but what I'm sayingis that doing something that
(14:28):
makes you a little bituncomfortable, because when you
do that you're going to feelempowered and that's going to
also be helpful.
And you know extroversion well,you know that trait.
It's important to have to belike, I would say, a balance of
both.
You know, because you do, youdo have to collaborate with
(14:52):
other people most of the timeand know how to collaborate,
know how to talk to people.
So I would say, practice againgoing to different meetup groups
and meeting people andcommunicating and just getting
that out there.
And the last one is neuroticism,which refers to how easily you
are reacting to stress or howeasily you can get anxiety or
(15:14):
worked up.
So those that score high inneuroticism tend to be more
prone to anxiety depression.
Neuroticism tend to be moreprone to anxiety depression.
So I think if you work on theother four, it should lower your
scores on neuroticism.
And you know it's so muchrelated to success recipe for,
(15:35):
you know, self-sabotagingbehavior or what you would
sometimes call shooting yourselfin the foot and making you know
(15:59):
mistakes or, just, you know,ruining your own chances and
also sometimes being low inagreeableness.
It's going to be hard for youto be coachable, which may make
it difficult for people to workwith you, so that's why it's
kind of important to look atthese, these five traits well,
let's talk about the differencebetween toxic self-esteem and
(16:22):
regular self-esteem and howartists can make sure that they
use this to their advantage andmake sure they don't have too
toxic of self-esteem.
And that's a good point too.
Toxic self-esteem is when youknow someone has an inflated or
(16:43):
grandiose or they say like youknow, a really high view of
themselves, but at the same time, that's also fragile.
We're to a point where they'renot open to criticism, they get
highly insulted and sometimeseven with actors or performers,
what can happen is, you know,toxic high self-esteem.
Related to what we talked aboutjust before was agreeableness,
(17:06):
the role in agreeableness, whichmeans that they're not going to
really want to hear feedbackand they're not going to be
comfortable.
They can get really angry andupset when they get any
constructive criticism orfeedback.
So, but regular self-esteem andhigh self-esteem is, you know,
respecting and yourself andreally coming to the to the
(17:30):
notion or realization that youdeserve to be here now.
Toxic self-esteem is more oflike you're thinking that you're
better than other people,whereas you know healthy
self-esteem, you still viewyourself as valuable, but but
you're still humbled enough touh, you know, like, treat
(17:50):
everybody with compassion andempathy.
So you want to, you know,definitely have high self-esteem
, but not too high, because,again, you have to learn and be
coached and, you know, learnfrom mistakes too.
So there's a big difference,you know.
In a sense I feel and usuallyagain, actors that have that or
(18:12):
anybody who has that toxic highself-esteem, is going to also be
self-sabotaging opportunities.
Speaker 1 (18:20):
Well, talk about.
You mentioned a couple ofthings in your book about
raising self-esteem.
Talk about that and you know,if possible, share a story of
someone who applied what youtalk about in your book to raise
their self-esteem.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
Sure Well, self-esteem would be what I
talked about earlier.
Raising that would be, hangingout with people that are more
that build you up, uh, ratherthan tear you down.
So surround yourself a positive, you know, minded individual.
That's the main thing.
And also, again, can beingconnected and maintaining your
happy file.
(18:56):
Uh, I worked with.
When I first started workingwith this actress actress, she
was very shy, very timid and youknow we kind of like, you know
she got a lot of positivefeedback when she was in our
acting class from other actingstudents and we started like
kind of creating our own happyfile just on that feedback alone
(19:17):
and then eventually she becamemore confident in her skin and
then wound up booking, you know,a role on orange is new black
and also booking a role on thecbs show, fbi something that two
years prior to that would havebeen, you know, a pipe dream.
(19:39):
So, celebrating your success inthe winds surrounding yourself
with positive mind people and,you know, keeping you know
mistakes or even looking atfailures more as learning
opportunities.
(19:59):
Tell us about any upcomingprojects that you're working on
that listeners need to be awareof well, I, on my um website, I
have, um, you know, recordingsyou know for sale, uh, hypnosis
recordings, you know, forconfidence, for addictions, for,
you know, sleep, for um, anyother like you know, fears, uh,
(20:23):
or if you just need like alittle bit of boost on
self-esteem, feel free to dothat.
Um, I'll also be, um, you know,launching you know my own stuff
this year uh, coach, a groupcoaching program.
Uh, so you can follow me onsocial media for updates on that
.
That's what I have lined up.
And also I have a couple otherideas for books you know that
(20:48):
I'd like to see out in, you know, the first or second quarter of
2026.
Speaker 1 (20:56):
Speaking of your website, throw it out there so
listeners can keep up witheverything that you're up to.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
Sure, my website is just my name, albertbermontecom.
Again, you can also follow meon social media, at Instagram,
dr Al Bermonte, or even, youknow, follow me on LinkedIn and
Facebook.
This is my name, albertBermonte.
Speaker 1 (21:17):
Okay, close us out with some final thoughts.
Maybe, if that was something Iforgot to talk about, that you
would like to touch on, or anyfinal thoughts you have for the
listeners.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
Well, just remember why you're here and always a
couple other things that you cando.
You know mantras that you youknow if you're big, you know if
you believe in affirmations.
I would say always, whatever,regardless, whatever profession
you're in is, always say toyourself in the morning when
(21:47):
you're waking up and rightbefore going to bed is I deserve
to be here, I deserve to have aseat at the table?
And also another affirmationcould be is every day and every
way, I am getting better andbetter.
And just keep telling yourselfthat at least three or four
times a day, every day and everyway, I'm getting better and
better, and you should seechanges within a few weeks, if
(22:13):
sooner.
Speaker 1 (22:15):
All right.
Ladies and gentlemen,alpabermontecom, please be sure
to follow rate review.
Share this episode to as manypeople as possible.
Jump on your favorite podcastapp, follow the show, leave us a
review, share it.
For more information on theLiving the Dream with Curveball
podcast, check out our newwebsite, wwwcurveball337.com.
(22:38):
Thank you for listening andsupporting the show, albert.
Thank you for all that you doand thank you for joining me.
Speaker 2 (22:46):
And thank you for inviting me, curtis, have a
great night.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
For more information on the Living the Dream with
Curveball podcast, visitwwwcurveball337.com.
Until next time, keep livingthe dream.
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