Building a career as a professional actor is one of the most challenging things anyone can undertake.
Not only are actors presented with much adversity and rejection, it is so common that it is considered just part of being in the industry.
The actors that are able to overcome the challenges and build careers as professional actors, often struggle to comprehend how they accomplished what they did, making it difficult for them to be helpful to other actors.
So, when you are building your own career, who are you supposed to turn to for advice and guidance?
Acting coaches can help you work on your audition technique and help you with delivering powerful performances, but that is as far as their guidance goes.
Agents exist to help you get auditions and negotiate your bookings but most of them can’t help with anything beyond that.
So, what most actors do is bring on a manager to help with the big picture. A manager can provide guidance on how to get your career to the next level and they have the skills to help you build a plan for accomplishing your goals.
Hiring a great manager can be a complete game changer for your career and professional actors try to hire them as soon as possible. The problem is that great managers don’t typically work with actors that are still in the early stages of building a career.
They want to work with actors that have already experienced a certain level of success, so until you build your career to that point, who are you supposed to turn to?
Not many resources exist. Most actors just end up winging it, never really having a plan for building their career.
If that is something you would like to avoid, here’s where to start...
First, begin by defining what you want to accomplish in your acting career. I know it sounds basic and in reality, it is, but most actors simply don’t do it.
They aimlessly go from one audition to the next hoping that something will change along the way.
Professional actors don’t do that. They define what they want to accomplish and then work towards it.
As they begin to build their acting career, they focus on the fundamental building blocks, ensuring that everything is in place.
Those building blocks are training, representation, industry visibility, networking, and materials such as headshots and an acting reel.
Most actors don’t move beyond training and their materials are often misaligned with their career goals.
Without the fundamental building blocks fully in place, everything becomes more difficult.
For example,attempting to network with industry professionals can be counterproductive without a headshot and reel that appropriately represent what you are hoping to accomplish in your career.
Agents will often stress the importance of developing a strong portfolio. Your portfolio is essentially your body of work and ideally you want your body of work to be representative of the career you are building.
So, if you are attempting to build a career in which you star in big budget dramas your portfolio should reflect that.
Most actors simply focus on going after whatever they can book. While that is important in the very beginning of your career, there comes a point where you have to start being discerning about the opportunities you pursue.
Your first few credits are almost necessarily going to come from projects in various genres.
After that, narrowing your focus to a single category is typically more effective. There are several reasons for this and we talk about them often.
One of the most important reasons is that it allows you to network with other people that also focus on the same category.
When most actors try to build their network they simply try to meet anyone and everyone that is remotely connected to the industry.
However, professional actors know that building a network effectively is all about connecting with people that can open doors to new opportunities.
If you find that you are constantly connecting with people that don’t exactly fit that requirement, then your network may not have the impact you hoped for on your career.
An agent is typically the center of an actor’s network, and a great agent can help you expand your network in many ways.
So, building an effective network is typically much easier with a great agent on your side.
Attracting a great agent is largely dependent on the other fundamental building blocks we covered earlier.
Everything builds from there. Many actors struggle to ever get their acting career off the ground because the building blocks never take shape.
We will talk about how to sign with a great agent next time.
For now, start working on what we talked about today. Think about whether you have approached building your career like this or whether you have been one of the actors that has been winging it.
Think about your career plan and consider whether you are successfully working towards the goals you set for yourself.
Assess the progress you are making on the other building blocks of your career. We will discuss them further over the coming weeks.
What’s important at this point is beginning to build your plan if you haven’t already done so and taking an honest inventory of your career progress.
You will likely realize that you are doing really good in some areas but lacking in others, and as we further discuss the areas that need improvement you will be able to identify more specific actions to take.
However, there are a few things that remain the same, regardless of where you are in your career...
For example, whether you are in the early stages of your acting career or if you have been in the industry for a long time, your industry reputation may be scrutinized by Casting Directors. Make sure that yours is always in top share. Here’s how I can help...
Over the years, I have seen that many actors are so eager to get their career to the next level, that they skip much of what is required to get there.
They skip the fundamental building blocks and in doing so, they don’t do the things that make Casting Directors and industry decision makers notice them.
If you have been around Boost My Star for any length of time you know how important that is because, if the industry doesn’t know you they can’t hire.
That’s why, regardless of where you are in your career, it may be a good idea to increase your visibility where Casting Directors and industry decision makers are looking for talent. Here’s how I can help with that...
As you build your acting career, your network will grow too. It’s one of the building blocks, so it’s actually a necessity.
As that happens, you will want to be sure that your network is full of others that are as driven to succeed as you are. Here’s how I can be a part of your circle.
We will talk more about that over the coming weeks too.
As you start to work on what we talked about today, feel free to get in touch. I would be happy to help in any way I can, even if you just need to bounce ideas, because I truly want to...
See you at the top,
Scott