For most actors, pilot season never really turns out the way they hoped.

Even though they start with a ton of excitement and enthusiasm around the idea of this year being different from all the others, something happens.

Somewhere along the line, they realize things are not working out any better than they did before, and they start to get incredibly frustrated long before pilot season is over.

Does that sound a little bit familiar?

Whether you are in the early stages of your acting career, or if you have been in the industry for a long time, pilot season is an opportunity like none other when it comes to building your acting career.

That’s why professional actors put a lot of effort into making sure they get the most out of every pilot season.

If you want to build your career as a professional actor, pilot season can give you some of the best opportunities you will ever be presented with.

Here’s how you can make sure that you are ready to seize them...

Without realizing it, most actors make things more difficult for themselves from the beginning.

There are so many things that can negatively impact your progress during pilot season, and without a solid plan in place, what most actors end up doing is simply falling back into their old ways of winging it.

That’s one of the most common mistakes I see actors make during pilot season.

It’s not just about having a ton of auditions lined up. You can have a schedule that is full with more auditions than you can handle, and if you don’t have a solid plan in place, all those auditions might be in vain.

Here’s what I mean...

It’s a busy time for both actors and casting directors. For some projects, they are going to call in anybody who remotely fits what they are looking for, simply because it takes a long time for CDs to closely scrutinize every submission.

What that means is that there are a lot of actors that are just spinning their wheels and going through the process, without any real chance of booking.

To keep that from happening, it’s important that you work with your agent to make sure that you are being submitted for projects that make sense.

You don’t want to be overwhelmed with auditions for projects that don’t really make send,, to a point where the ones that really matter end up suffering.

Remember, things change constantly in the industry and they are now changing faster than ever before.

Thinking that this year’s pilot season will be just like all the others, and approaching it the same way is also a big mistake.

For example, we recently talked about how this year is expected to be record breaking, in terms of the number of self taped auditions.

That can be a big adjustment if you have not prepared for it.

That’s why we talked about having your self tape space set up and ready to go at a moment’s notice.

These are simple things but actors succumb to pitfalls like this, without even realizing it and before they know it, pilot season is over and they didn’t make any kind of meaningful progress.

Because these are simple things, they don’t require elaborate plans to avoid them.

The industry is already in full pilot season mode but it’s not too late to turn things around. When I say that to actors, I usually get a look of confusion as they think “of course it’s not too late, pilot season just started.”

What I mean is that, ideally, you would have put the pieces in place long before now and you would now be working your strategy. That’s why we talked about pilot season extensively at the end of last year.

If you haven’t done so, then it’s not too late to do it now but time is running. Like I said, pilot season will be over before you know it.

When you reflect on it, you don’t want to realize that you tried to make the changes too late. No one likes having to wait for the next pilot season to come around, so think about what we went over today.

Work with your agent to put your plan in place and start being strategic about the way you approach pilot season this year.

Something helpful that you can start working on right now is making yourself more visible to Casting Directors and industry decision makers because it can help you open more doors this pilot season. That’s why I created this to help...

That’s always a positive thing to do, at any time of the year.

Over the coming weeks, we will be focusing on pilot season and how you can make the most of it.

However, everything will build on what we went over today so take some time over the next few days to put your strategy in place.

We will start building from there, and if you don’t have that building block in place, everything else is likely to be much less effective.

For example, Casting Directors will be putting a lot of trust in you, when deciding to move forward with you so they tend to do some research. Be sure that what they find is up to their standards.

Without having the proper plan in place, you are much less likely to be in front of the right CDs and you are more likely to be spinning your wheels on auditions that don’t make much sense for you.

Can you see how those two concepts work together?

Your industry reputation is also an important factor that could help you make more progress this pilot season. Here’s how I can help you be sure that it’s always in top shape..

I can’t stress this enough...

We went over some deceptively simple concepts today. That doesn’t mean they are unnecessary.

In fact, most actors fail to implement them, because they are deceptively simple.

As you may recall, doing the opposite of what everyone else does is usually the right thing to do.

So, as you are working on putting your plan in place, feel free to get in touch even if you just want to bounce some ideas about your plan for pilot season.

I’m happy to respond and help however I can because I truly want to...

See you at the top,
Scott