Unless you possess 1 unique quality, you should probably quit trying to be an actor.
Here’s why…
Try this: pick any city block in the greater LA area. Take a beach ball with you, stand on the side walk, close your eyes and toss that beach ball in the air, without regard to who is around.
Now, retrieve your beach ball and ask whoever the ball hit, or landed close to, if they are an actor.
You will get a “yes” 99 times out of 100.
This is why, unless you have that 1 quality I mentioned a second ago, you should completely stop trying to be an actor, right now…
However, this does not mean that you should give up acting!
In fact, it is easier than ever to make it in the industry and have a career that exceeds even your wildest expectations if you make just a few simple tweaks to the way you approach the industry.
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson did it and he went from being a joke in the industry, as a washed up wrestler trying to become an actor, to the highest paid and most in demand person in the industry.
Here’s what he did and how you can easily do it too.
He’s stopped trying to be an actor, and became an entertainer instead. He went back to what made him successful in the wrestling arena and used it to catapult his new career to incredible heights.
What’s most impressive is how fast it happened.
This is him still in “actor” before he made the switch.
This is The Rock after he made the switch, having a good time and being in “entertainer” mode.
See, so most of us in the industry don’t have a strategic plan for how to connect with an audience. This should really come before anything else because people who care, pay attention and that’s something you can highly leverage.
For example, If I were to tell you that Susie Lasko has a new film premiering tonight, how likely are you to give it a second thought?
If you hear that someone like The Rock or Meryl Streep has a new project premiering, it catches your attention.
The reasoning behind this is what most people get wrong.
Marquee actors do not draw huge crowds simply because they are superstars.
It is solely because they have earned a reputation for being a reliable source of entertainment. That’s why we turn on the TV or head to the Movie theatre: to be entertained.
You see YouTubers and Instagrammers crossing over and going mainstream for this reason.
So evaluate whether or not the way you are approaching the industry is giving you the reputation as being a reliable source of entertainment.
That’s the switch that you have to make. Become an entertainer first and foremost and you will release the floodgates of acting opportunities.
It does not take a gigantic fan base to make a mark on the industry.
You don’t have to be a Dwayne Johnson or a Meryl Streep but you should aim to be as many places as possible.
Are you making an effort to be on podcasts, be guest blogger, putting out viral content on social media, or trying to book guest expert spots on the local news?
You don’t have to make it about being an actor and what you have going on. You first have to earn the reputation of being a reliable source of entertainment, remember?
You can do that simply by talking about other topics you know well, and then let the narrative naturally progress to your career and what you have going on.
I received a message for a member of Boost My Star tribe a few weeks ago about a new role she recently booked.
Not only was it a fantastic role that I’m sure will open up tons of new opportunities for her, the way she booked it was incredible.
She auditioned for the role and hadn’t heard anything, though she did confirm through her agent that the role hadn’t been booked yet.
By day, she is works as a marriage counselor and she just recently began making a concentrated effort to get media attention as a relationship expert rather than as an actor.
When you think of a marriage counselor, you probably picture someone quite cold and clinical in their demeanor but she is quite the opposite.
She is bubbly, funny, and does not fit the traditional mold at all so this made her magnetic to the media.
She was asked to do a segment on the evening news and when the producers asked how she wanted to be introduced, she told them.
On the show, she wasn’t just billed as a relationship expert but also as starring in the upcoming project she hadn’t even booked yet.
Her Instagram flooded with comments from people wanting to know more about the project and wanting to see it.
She sent the video of the interview to casting and they had no choice but to book her for the role.
I’m not saying that you have to do this exactly and declare that you have won a role for which you haven’t been booked yet, but you do have to put together a plan to get as much attention as possible.
Your efforts will have a snowball effect of starting slowly and then picking up speed exponentially, so I put this together to help you get the ball rolling and a layer of legitimacy to your efforts.
Naturally, when I share this one of the first things I hear is “I don’t anything special or have any cool skills to do that.”
Yes you do!
Dig deep. Even if you have only tended bar for 10 years, you could come up with a great drink recipe for whatever holiday is coming up and get tons of attention for it.
Don’t worry, you will not be boxed into being just about that one thing that gets you the attention as long as you tie it back into what it has to do with your acting career.
Because you are going to be referencing back to your career, when someone looks you up, you want them to find that you are a working actor.
If someone looks you up because they are curious and want to learn more about you and find that your IMDb is 250K, their interest in your career will likely fade.
So, be sure that your STARmeter matches your goals and fuels your reputation as an actor.
In the next report, I will show you how you can use this strategy to target Casting Directors, Producers, and other industry decision makers specifically.
However, before you get to that point, you want to already have a little bit of traction. Do this now, so you will be prepared for the next step.
In the meantime, if you have any questions or want to brainstorm ideas let me know in the comments below or shoot me an email. I read every one that comes in because my goal is to…
See you at the top,
Scott