There’s something that I have been keeping to myself Grasshopper.
Not intentionally, I just haven’t told you about it in a while. Coincidentally, it happens to be the most effective strategy for skyrocketing your acting career.
Why?
It combines a few of the most effective strategies an actor can deploy.
When I first shared this, many actors ignored it. The ones that applied it, have seen amazing success.
See, it allows you to accomplish several things at once. It’s called the Demonstration of Power Pack Strategy because that’s exactly what it allows you to do: demonstrate your acting power to those you most want to get in front of.
Simultaneously, you force their attention because it’s not a passive process.
You can do it digitally, but a physical 3 dimensional package is going to be 100X more effective. Start by putting together a list of 10 industry people you want to get in front of. They could be Casting Directors, Producers, etc.
Once you have compiled your list, it’s time to flex your creative muscle.
What you’ll end up doing is sending a package to the list you just put together. One of the most effective things I’ve seen done, is a suitcase. Inside was a DVD player, a headshot, resume, and a personalized letter.
The actor that sent this ingenious package ended up getting an incredible role, in what turned out to be a fantastic production.
Her agent attempted to get her in to read for the role, to no avail.
When your agent submits you for a role, it is very much a strategy of “hope.” They hope that your headshot and resume even gets seen. Moreover, neither your headshot or resume do you justice.
You need a way to showcase your talent, before ever getting in the room.
That’s what makes the demonstration of power pack strategy so effective. Whatever direction you decide to take it, just be sure that it includes your reel, headshot, resume, and most importantly a personalized letter to whomever you are sending it to.
It should also be user friendly, meaning putting your reel on a usb drive is probably not going to get it seen.
Having a DVD player set to auto play when the package opens, is likely to be much more effective.
Since I first shared this strategy, I’ve received a ton of emails from actors that have had much success. One of the most creative accounts I’ve seen was a treasure chest.
Delivering a treasure chest containing your reel and resume to a CD sends a great subliminal message to the recipient. What makes this so powerful is the personalization.
In this case, the actor was hoping to get in to read for a film. So she picked the recipients carefully. She chose to deliver the treasure chests to 3 people involved in the film: the CD, Director, and the screenwriter.
Each one of the chests had a different twist. After doing the research, she knew the CD had an affinity for chocolate. So, she filled the treasure chest with gold (chocolate) coins. Inside the chest, was the DVD player set to auto play when the chest was opened.
She also rolled up her resume and headshot to look like a treasure map and even had the resume and letter printed on paper that looked aged and weathered.
During the research phase, she also discovered that the Director and the screenwriter were both into comic books.
So, she included a somewhat rare title in the treasure chest. It was sort of like an ethical bribe to consume the contents of the treasure chest: the resume, headshot, etc.
It wasn’t an ultra rare, expensive comic either. It was just a bit of a personal touch that the recipients appreciated.
Taking just a little bit of time to do the research on people that you want to get in front will make a world of difference. Then, you can approach them having built a bit of rapport.
Considering that the industry runs on personal relationships, rapport is very important.
I want to be clear on something: not everyone you send the Demonstration of Power Pack to will respond. Some of them will be out of town for weeks at a time and your delivery will have simply lost context by the time the return.
Others will simply ignore deliveries from people they don’t recognize.
The overwhelming majority however will respond in someway. Ideally, you will get a meeting or an audition out of your campaign.
The most important part of whether your campaign will succeed is actually not contained inside the package you deliver.
See, when someone (whether it’s a CD, director, etc) receives your delivery, before deciding whether or not they will respond or engage with you in some way, they will look you up.
They will look into your background and try to gauge whether you are someone they should spend time on. So, before you launch something like this, be sure that your industry reputation is in tip top shape.
If you put in the time to research the recipients, put together a package specifically for them, while your industry reputation is in good shape then your chances of success with this strategy increase exponentially.
Here’s a quick way to make sure your reputation matches your goals.
So what will you do next Grasshopper? I purposely left much room for interpretation here, because there’s not one right way to do this.
Let your imagination do the work but remember that your backstory, meaning your track record in the industry, and the personalization of the delivery are what’s most important.
As always, you can reach me through the comments below or shoot me an email with any questions. I read and respond to every one of them that comes through, because my goal is to…
See you at the top,
Scott