1 Big Shift That Will Change Your Career

November 10, 2018

Career 911

You’ve sacrificed so much for the pursuit of an acting career. You’ve invested so much. But it still often feels like guesswork. It’s likely that you’re not where you want to be in you career. You want to know how to get a great agent and how to keep an agent. You want to know how to get a headshot that gets you called in for auditions, a reel that books you work without having to come in to audition, and maybe even a website that does it all for you. You want the answers. You want to know how to crack the Industry, have powerful people advocate for you, hire you to work for them, and then hand you awards for that work. Well, it’s our experience that if you want all that, you’re going to have to go all the way back to the beginning and forget everything you think you know about the pursuit of the Industry.

It’s our experience that even to rise through the Industry ranks, to do business in this business, you have to go back to that moment when you gave yourself to the thrilling human connection—the validation, the feeling of freedom and wholeness of humanity—that you found in the art of acting. That moment of putting on a play in your parents’ basement, stepping out onstage for your middle school play, or watching some amazing performance in a regional theater—that moment when you felt such a magical human connection that it made you want to pursue this forever.

Well, that was the art, the craft, the connection. But as you approached the business- the Industry- you realized that you were going to have to compete. The oneness of connection in the art turned to the separation of competition in the business. And that’s when you made the mistake of straying from your artistic power, when you stepped away from that deep connection, and decided that you’d better play the game of the Industry, paying someone else to brand you, manufacturing a look for a headshot you think is marketable, pursuing disinterested agents, posting a steady stream of pictures of yourself on social media and your website, trying to create buzz about yourself.

You gave up the one thing you have with the highest market value, the most powerful thing you possess: You gave up you. It is a specific kind of headshot that stops us in our tracks. It is a specific kind of reel that makes us invest in an actor. It is a certain type of website that makes us want more of you. And in almost every case it is the headshot, reel, and website that is so uniquely you that it is undeniable. In order to break down the wall between you and your success, your creative tools have to be as clear a reflection of everything that is unique about you as possible. The only way you’ll stand out is if you’re different than everyone else—if you’re you. You have to unlock the secrets of a successful acting career that already live in you, locked away as a result of fear, shame, self-consciousness, or desperation, really. You have to take command of your career, your headshots, reel, website, your agent or pursuit of an agent, and the way you market yourself. You have to exercise artistic leadership, presenting everything that is unique about you. When so many people are telling you to be someone else—to achieve some external goal—we believe that real, long-term career success comes from being a deeper, purer version of you. It’s what we see happening in the business every day.

We want to start a revolution in the way actors manage their careers. It’s our experience that your unique talent, your unique emotional experience, your unique point of view within a scene must be front and center in anything you do in the business. We need to see you fully and uniquely in your work, in your materials, in how you connect with other Industry professionals—even in your social media presence. This shift will change how you put yourself out there, and consequently, it will change how the Industry comes to know and appreciate you. It will change your career.

Let us help you get there. Enroll in class now.

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