The Cycle of Audition Domination

You are about to learn The Cycle of Audition Domination dear grasshopper. This will help you go from available and open to any role that comes your way, to booked solid and cherry picking your projects. 

Think about this for a second… 

When you go on an audition and land the role, how do you feel? Excited, encouraged, emboldened? 

When you go on 5 auditions and get 0 callbacks how do you feel? Chances are you would be looking for an excuse not go on the sixth audition. 

The reason for both of these scenarios is The Cycle of Audition Domination.

Let’s break it down. We are all governed by certainty. When you hop in the driver’s seat of your car and turn the ignition you’re certain that it will turn on and you’ll drive off safely. 

If you had any doubts about that, if you thought even for a split second that there was a possibility that there was a gas leak and that the entire thing would go up in flames when you turned the key, how eagerly would you turn that key? 

Acting is the same way. You have to be absolutely certain that when you walk into an audition, you are merely there as a formality because the role is already yours. 

See your level of certainty will dictate your level of action. If you’re 100% certain that the role is yours to lose, you will play your heart out. 

If you’ve been on several auditions with 0 callbacks, you’re basically going through the motions with a belief level so low that it doesn’t even allow you to play full out. So how likely are you to land the role then? 

It’s a vicious cycle. 

So, when you go on an audition and land the role, what does it make you want to do? Go on more auditions and land more roles, right? 

When you’re getting booked consistently, you feel unstoppable going into an audition. Your belief level in landing the role is so high, that you will play it out on a level that you didn’t even know you had. 

That’s unshakeable confidence in yourself. 

So, you can increase your level action by going on more auditions but if you’re doing it with a low belief level, then you’re just doing more of what doesn’t work. 

To change your results, you have to change your level of belief. You have to build the ultimate belief in yourself and have unshakeable confidence and you do this by achieving in the mind first. 

Stick with me. This isn’t “positive thinking” stuff, this is real world, behavioral science. 

In the 1980s and early 1990s, Dr. Denis Waitley spearheaded a research effort with athletes in the US Olympic program. Athletes were hooked up to sophisticated biofeedback equipment and they were instructed to run their events only in their mind. It’s called Visual Motor Rehearsal. 

Researchers discovered that even though the athletes weren’t moving a muscle, their brains fired the same neuro sequences as when they were running the event in reality. 

Furthermore, they found that all of the athletes improved their physical conditioning and ran their events faster and completed them with greater success than before. 

This happens when you give yourself results in advance. When you can see the goal as already accomplished, then you increase your belief level, which in turn raises your action set, and improves your results. 

Think of this in an audition setting. Getting results in your mind and seeing yourself as already having the career you desire, tells your body that you’re successful already and so you act like it. This is what people mean when they say “if you go there in the mind, you’ll go there in the body.” 

Have you ever tried your hardest to do something and then realized that you had just a little bit more left in you? 

Think of marathon runners. Do they collapse at the finish line or do most of them look like they could go another mile or two? There’s always more in the tank but in order to access it, you have to change your beliefs by getting results. 

Think of it this way. If I gave you Scorsese’s cell number and said “he’s waiting for your call to discuss an upcoming project.” How eagerly would you make the call? If you were certain, then you would absolutely make the call. 

But if I said “Hey I found this online. It’s Scorsese’s number. Call and see if he has a role for you.” Would you even bother? Probably not. Your belief level in that phone call leading to anything would be so low, that you probably wouldn’t even make the call. You would convince yourself that he wouldn’t even answer. 

Do you think Leo gets butterflies in his stomach when he dials Scorsese these days? They’ve worked together enough that Leo knows Scorsese will answer. He’s certain. 

Succeeding in any business but especially in this one, is all about confidence and certainty. The climb is what gives you confidence. You don’t need to have already reached your ultimate goal. The progress Is what raises your belief in yourself and propels you to bigger and better roles. 

Reading this you probably don’t have your back against the wall. It may not be filet mignon (or the vegetarian version of filet mignon) but you probably aren’t counting on your next role to feed yourself. 

You might not live in Beverly Hills but I’m sure you know where you’re going to sleep tonight. 

Comfort is the killer of success. My point is that you, like most other actors, are probably relatively comfortable. It’s not a do or die situation...or is it? 

You should be deathly afraid of waking up one day, realizing you squandered your life away hoping instead of acting. 

I know I am…and that is what drives me. 

So grasshopper, that’s the Audition Domination Cycle. 

In order to dominate the audition circuit, you need to have absolute certainty that you walk in, not to audition, but to claim your role. 

This is how you dominate the audition circuit and the industry. Before long, you will find yourself moving from one Hollywood bubble to the next with ease. 

Don’t forget that, in order to do this, you need to have auditions to go on. Just like apples, you should have at least one a day. 

Without auditions, everything else is irrelevant. The key to getting more auditions, so that you can apply this and dominate the industry is here.

If your career is on the perfect path, then by all means keep doing what you’re doing… 

But if you want more, you have to do something differently. Otherwise, you’re doing the same thing over and over, hoping for a different result which is the definition of?... 

So, what are you going to do differently today? Here’s where I would start. Go here and get the details.

See you at the top, 

Scott 

You Business

Dear grasshopper, many of our tribe members experienced a world-view shifting “aha” moment when I mentioned that you have to be in the “You Business.” 

Here’s what I mean. You’re not an actor, you’re a product. This is the way the industry sees you, and since they make the decisions on whether or not you are a working actor, it’s best that you start looking at things from their perspective. 

When you do this you open your mind to all kinds of things, that you would have otherwise been blind to. When you think of a successful product, in any market, what made it succeed was that it filled a market need by solving a problem. This is true from food products, to cars, and yes even actors. 

So if you are a product, and all successful products fill a market need and solve problems, wouldn’t it make sense that you consider what problem you’re solving. 

You have to solve a problem the industry has and fill a need in the market if you want to be successful in the industry. You do this by being different. If you look around an audition room and fit right in, you’re in big trouble. 

This is why child actors tend to go from 0 to 100. Yes, the Disney machine is a wonderful thing but the real reason that they can take off like wildfire is that “tweens” who can act well, fill a market need that always exists. 

So, what market need are you filling? 

If you can’t come up with an answer to that, then again, you’re in big trouble. 

The secret to success is to start with your unique angle and differentiator in mind. 

Remember Awkwafina, the Asian female rapper costarring in the upcoming Ocean’s 8, alongside a star-studded cast? This is a great example of differentiator and unique angle. 

Pitbull was one of the first guys to rap in a finely tailored suit, instead of Nike’s, and he rode that wave to become a worldwide phenomenon. 

Matthew McConoughey became the go to guy to play the trusty, home grown fella because of his obvious, yet fitting southern drawl. 

Kristin Bell’s career skyrocketed when she positioned herself as the only 20 something in the industry that could play a mature, 16 year old convincingly. In early interviews she says this with some dejection, because she truly wanted to play roles with more depth. This is what “paying your dues” really means. 

Most people take that to be some badge of honor that is earned by moonlighting as an actor (instead of the other way around) and clinging to roles as an extra for 12 years, hoping that something falls in your lap. That’s not what it’s about. 

Paying your dues is about being patient and playing the long game. 

When you go down this road of becoming an industry of your own, realize that it’s not going to happen overnight. Realize that it will take some effort on your part, though there are certainly shortcuts to success.

Right now, I want you to pull out a notepad (or open the memo app in your iPhone) and brainstorm what you want your angle to be. What will make you different and what need will you fill in the marketplace? 

A great way to come up with this, is to list all of the special skills you have or skills that you can acquire. 

Can you play guitar and do you have a knack for doing comedic song parodies? This was a big part of launching Adam Sandler. 

Did you do Karate as a kid? Brushing up on your moves might also give you a great differentiator. Piper Perabo used this angle to resurrect her career with the hit show, Covert Affairs. 

Can you pull off impersonations like no one else? Think about that one for a second. 

The only thing keeping Alec Baldwin relevant in the industry, is his impersonation of The President. 

Also, remember that Tina Fey was kept top of mind for years with her impersonation of Sarah Palin on SNL. As you think of this, it doesn’t have to be a political figure (that’s just an easy one). A great Cosby impersonation might serve you well these days, for example. 

A little known secret about the inner workings of the industry is that, even though Hollywood is considered to be the world leader in entertainment, we actually borrow a great deal of our content from overseas. 

Mark Burnett has built a fantastic career by simply taking what is working around the world, and adapting it in the US, which in turn gets distributed back across the world but that’s a subject for another post. 

Looking to other markets to see what’s catching on, is a great way to stay ahead of the curve. Chances are, if the current European pop culture craze was teenage vampires adapted from an existing book series, it would be pretty safe to assume an American version was imminent. 

Once you figure out what your unique angle will be, then you have to become “that girl” or “that guy” that is synonymous with your angle. 

Think of it like this: The Fat Jewish is basically a male Yenta. He’s unhinged and has a big mouth, with no filter whatsoever. 

For anyone who has succeeded in creating an industry of their own, you could describe their unique angle to someone and they would instantly know who you were referring to. 

It might go something like this: Who’s that big guy that says whatever he wants all over Instagram, has no filter and weird hair? “The Fat Jewish!” 

Your unique angle should have the same effect. This is how you build an industry of one for yourself even if no one has heard of you yet. The trick to it is to get in front of as many people as possible and give them something they can’t forget. 

There’s two ways to go about this. The hard way is to hope that someone finds you and likes you, then tells their friends about you, so on and so forth. 

The smart way to do it is by design. Get the scoop on that here.

See, in order to be a part of the conversation, you have to start one and this is the way to do it. So come up with your unique angle and then put yourself and your angle in front of as many people as possible. 

Doing this is what insulates you from the ups and downs and uncertainty that comes with being in the industry.

If you already have all of the stability you crave and have your next year of work lined up, then good keep at it! 

If that’s what you crave, then go here now and get the details.

See you at the top, 

Scott 

15 minutes in the spotlight

Dear grasshopper, is it better to have loved and lost or to have never loved at all? 

In an odd way, that’s kind of what we’re talking about today… 

Would you rather have your 15 minutes in the spotlight or would rather not have it at all? Because you are a member of the tribe, you may never have to make this choice. 

Here’s what I mean. Success is scientific. It can be broken down into replicable steps and systems. So if there’s a formula for fame, you can duplicate that formula and achieve it for yourself. 

By the way, in speaking of fame, I don’t mean the shallow can’t make a Starbucks run without paparazzi in your face kind of fame. I mean fame, as in being a successful actor that is recognized for their talent and roles they play. 

More Leo or Mindy Kaling, not at all Bella (Thorne)! 

While the fundamentals of achieving fame remain the same, the formula changes slightly with the times. Today, as it has always been, the name of the game is attention. Control attention, control your destiny. We are rapidly moving into an anti-studio system much like what happened over 60 years ago. This was when actors freed themselves from the shackles of the studio system and became stars with options. More on that in a bit. 

Without getting too much into the details, I don’t think we’ll see such a dramatic shift as we did before. Meaning, I don’t see the modern studio system going away entirely. Primarily this is because of technology. While we’re all excited about Facebook live and Periscope, studios have had the ability to livestream for decades. Them being at the forefront of innovation won’t change as we get deeper into virtual reality, augmented reality, and whatever comes after that (holograms?). 

You’ll see in a moment how this is actually good news for you. 

Something that has changed with the times is the sequence of events. In the past, an actor would achieve fame and build a platform through the studio system. They would audition, “get discovered” and studios would put their marketing dollars to work for their actors. 

Today, that sequence is entirely reversed. Now you must have a platform and a degree of success in order to attract the studio dollars. 

Here’s a 15 second, tuition-less MBA for you. 

This practice is called “growth by acquisition.” It’s what big businesses do to grow. It’s the reason that Amazon bought Whole Foods, instead of starting their own grocery store chain. It’s much safer because Whole Foods already has a revenue stream. 

Never forget that Hollywood is a business. Studios have adopted this same “growth by acquisition” model to grow. Instead of starting from scratch, they are now acquiring new talent with revenue streams attached. It’s a much safer investment for them. 

The audition and be discovered route is long gone. You have to do something! The power is 100% in your hands. This one is a bit backwards, but it’s a great example. 

Louis C.K. is a comedian that has struggled to make the leap and go “mainstream.” 

Though he has enjoyed moderate success on cable TV, he’s had a few failed attempts. He talks about doing HBO standup comedy specials in the past that were OK at best. The network was nervous to let him loose, so they boxed in his creativity. 

The content ended up mediocre and so did revenues. After several failed attempts, Louis took the matter into his own hands. He filmed his own special, released it via his social media channels and sold well over 100,000 copies. 

He didn’t hire a big crew or book fancy post production facilities. He hired a filmed student with a Cannon DSLR that also happened to be pretty good at Final Cut Pro. 

Since then, he’s been getting offers left and right. He is being asked to do standup specials, live shows, nationwide tours, he’s being pitched feature films, and more. 

This is happening all over the place. See mainstream TV shows are considered successful with 3 million + viewers. 

On the other hand, YouTubers are getting 50 million views for a new episode (much more than that over time) and they are amassing billions of views on their channels. 

In fact, YouTube recently announced that they now reach over 1.5 Billion viewers each month that watch over 1 hour of videos per day! Let that sink in for a moment… 

Media has shifted and it has put the power in your hands, but you have to stay ahead of the curve. 

The next big revolution will come when Social Media companies start buying the studios, or the studios start buying the social media companies. Whichever way it goes, the consolidation will mean one thing for you, if you’re not dominating social media you won’t stand a chance. 

At the time of this writing the best way to get started with social media domination is Instagram. It’s growing the fastest and has the most upside. You can still be early enough to the party to stand out just for being there, and because it image driven, it’s the perfect place for your audience. 

So here’s what you need to do to dominate Instagram. 

1. Start a “fan” account and profile your favorite actors and their work 

2. Research the biggest accounts related to your actors and see what’s working for them. Figure out the top 3 hashtags they use and the types of content they post 

3. Post 3-5 times per day, working those hashtags into your captions 

4. Comment on other accounts, related to yours, in order to increase exposure and gain new followers 

5. Once you hit the scaling point (5K+ followers) introduce yourself to your followers and move them into your sphere of influence. You now have a platform 

Yep, grasshopper it’s that simple. People overcomplicate this soooo much! Instead of looking for articles on how to grow an Instagram account, just do the above. You literally cannot screw it up, so just start. 

The one thing you may have to do is kickstart the party.

Getting your first few hundred followers can be a bit tough, but you can hack your way to it. Here are the details on that.

Once you control the attention of the platform you just built, you can leverage it however you want to improve your career. 

Remember Emily Ratajkowski? She started as the girl in that Robin Thicke video for “Blurred Lines.” Like most people in her position, she could have taken her 15 minutes of fame, and then slipped back into obscurity. 

But she didn’t! She leveraged her new found fame into a huge social media following. Soon after appearing in the video, Emily was cast opposite Ben Affleck in Gone Girl. Do you think it was her previous performance that led to her being cast, or was it the following she had built? 

As her following continued to grow, so did the scope of her opportunities. Super Bowl Commercials, political rallies, and a starring role in Entourage the Movie. 

The critics have deemed every one of her performances as less than stellar, to put it mildly. I’ll leave it to you to decide the degree to which you enjoy her acting talents. 

What’s telling, is that she continues to be cast. We know that it’s not solely because of her talent, so what it is it? She made a very smart move. Rather than basking in the limelight, she got strategic. As she was being interviewed everywhere from blogs, to tabloid shows, and print magazines she plugged her next project and her social media accounts. 

Hollywood couldn’t ignore her rapidly growing influence, and the things she referenced in her interviews came true. She said she wanted to walk in Paris Fashion Week and guess who came knocking with an offer? 

What stops actors from doing this is often an egotistical sense of being “too good for that.” They’ll think things like “I’m an actor not an Instagrammer.” You have to decide what’s important to you. Do you want to be an actor or a working actor? 

The reason Mark Zuckerberg is worth over 64 Billion Dollars is because he built the biggest platform for “attention-getting.” That’s how much the world values attention. 

Remember that the industry is a business. Being a working actor means you have to bring value to the table beyond just your talent. You are probably “better” than most actors for your role type, but that doesn’t translate into production profits. 

So with that in mind, what will you choose to do next? 

If you make the bold step to build an attention asset that you can control and leverage however you wish, then here’s how I can help.

If you choose to stay on the sidelines and roll the dice, more power to you. I’ll be back again soon yet another powerful release on how you can seize the moment and take your career into your own hands, instead of hoping to get lucky. 

See you at the top,
Scott

3 Bubbles

Dear grasshopper, one of the things I love most about writing for you is that I’m constantly challenging myself to dissect what has worked to take actors to the next level. Today’s release really made me do that in a way that I hadn’t done in a while.

This turned out to be one of the most important pieces of content I will probably ever write. Once you understand what I’m sharing with you today, your swagger will absolutely change for good!

I’m about to break down for you the 3 bubbles that exist in the industry and how you can operate within them to thrust your career forward. Once you know what the 3 bubbles are, and you can identify which bubble you are operating in at any given time, you will have an unbeatable strategy for moving forward.

Not only that, I’m also going to cover how to make yourself irresistible in any given situation to achieve your desired outcome, specifically how to quickly connect with a casting director, producer, agent, or anyone else in the industry.

No one in our business has ever talked about this before so I’m happy to bring it to you now.

Before I get to that, it’s important that you understand the unspoken architecture that rules the industry. Most of us never give it a second thought, and in doing so, we do our careers a big disservice.

There are 3 main circles or bubbles that you will be operating in at any given time. It’s important that you know which bubble you are in, so that you can conduct yourself accordingly. Most of us see our careers as linear, when in fact we must conquer one bubble in order to move up to the next one.

The 3 bubbles are the newcomers bubble, the dailies bubble, and the insiders bubble.

Let me break this down further. The newcomers bubble consists of actors with no or little experience. If you find yourself at a cattle call more often than you would like, chances are you are in this bubble.

Then there’s the daily bubble. This is where most actors get stuck. It’s a middle ground between newbie, and full timer. In this bubble, you likely have an agent or you are at least in the process of selecting one. You will already have several professional credits on your resume and you should be working somewhat consistently.

Finally, you have the insider’s bubble, which is pretty self explanatory. In this bubble, you are in the know. You have made valuable contacts within the industry and you have become a “full timer.” Most of us strive to be in this bubble but the reason that so few make it has nothing to do with talent, looks, or lack of connections.

The reason is that we tend to look at our careers as a linear event rather than a series of stepping stones.

Here’s the real secret…

In order to graduate to the next bubble, you have to operate as though you are already there. If you’re reading this, you are likely familiar with the concept of “act as if.” This is it in practice. See when you are in the newcomers bubble, you have to act as though you are in the daily bubble.

When you are in the daily bubble, you have to act as if you are already a member of the insiders bubble.

You do this by creating a series of mental associations for those you are trying to influence.

Here’s what that means…

We are all governed by what are called cognitive biases. Basically, these are the filters through which we process the world. You might be familiar with some of these already, such as the herd mentality effect, wherein if you see a crowd of people running in one direction you are likely to join them without any information as to what they are running from.

These cognitive biases are the way our brains are wired, and they make up what we know as instincts. Like them or hate them, if you look at any major social or pop culture movement, at the core of it is a leader who has mastered the use of cognitive bias.

Whether you study The Beatles, Eminem, or even the Harry Potter or Twilight Saga movements, they were all highly skilled in the use of the cognitive biases. I’ll explain how you can use the cognitive biases in your career in a moment.

There are 3 of them that can be highly useful to you, as they are “stacking biases” that empower each other and magnify their effectiveness.

These are the ingroup bias, the herd mentality bias, and the credential bias.

The ingroup bias, speaks to our tendency to identify with people in our peer group. So, if you can get the casting director to associate you as a member of their peer group, rather than just another headshot, you are in like Flynn.

Let’s look at this in the context of an audition. Your goal would be to get the casting director to associate you as a member of the bubble above the one you are currently in, because that’s where they perceive themselves to be. So, if you are in the “dailies bubble” the casting director should associate you with the insiders bubble.

Anytime you hear someone name dropping, this is the ingroup bias at work. If you go into an audition and can work the actors you look up to into the conversation, this forms an association between you and them in the mind of the casting director.

For example, if you are auditioning for a comedic role, you could speak to how you learned your comedic timing by studying Vince Vaughn and Ben Stiller. This creates an association between you and the insiders bubble.

It may sound too simple to be effective, but remember that this is the way our brains are hardwired.

We already discussed herd behavior, and it’s pretty self explanatory: following the actions of the crowd.

Here’s how you can exploit this cognitive bias in an audition setting. This is actually something that I have personally used for several years and it never fails. The more people that are in the room, the better.

It instantly builds rapport and works in conjunction with the ingroup bias, making it super powerful. Also, because you will subtly direct the casting director to take an action, it puts you in control of the situation and the room.

It’s the palm reader trick. I simply walk into the room introduce myself as I normally would, while walking over and shaking the CDs hand. By the way, most actors won’t do this so it immediately resets the casting director’s rhythm and sets you apart from the crowd. 

As they reach their hand out, I gasp softly and instead of shaking, I turn their hand over and read their palm. Yep! Truthfully, I know very little about palm reading and I don’t have much interest in the subject.

I learned just 3 things to look for on someone’s palm. This allows me to speak to both what the presence of those elements mean, or what their absence means. Either way, I always have something to say.

Remember these are stacking biases, so here’s where the herd mentality comes into play. Inevitably, everyone else in the room, will begin to study their own palms. When they do this, you have activated the herd mentality bias, with you as the leader of the herd.

This exchange should last no more than about 30 seconds but it never fails to fascinate and build rapport with the people you are trying to influence. After you finish your short narrative about the CD’s palm, you can return to the audition setting with a command of the room.

It’s as simple as that. Master these 2 stacking cognitive biases and you will be able to control a room. When you can control a room, you control your career. When you control your career, you get to decide when you are ready to graduate to the next bubble.

If you are currently in the “dailies bubble” and want to move to the insider’s bubble, act as if you already are and pair those actions with the stacking cognitive biases of ingroup bias and herd mentality. Then you will be able to take your career to the next level and become an insider.

As you move from one bubble to the next, you may find that people will start looking for confirmation that you belong. The best way to counteract this is by using the credential bias to your advantage. The credential bias is the reason that we assume people in white lab coats are doctors. We assume they have credentials and rarely question their authority.

The best way for you to “credential up” as an actor is here.

This is by far the most effective way for you to increase your credibility in the industry and it’s the perfect companion piece to everything else we covered.

Your head might be spinning after that. It’s a lot to take in but don’t overcomplicate it. Just try it out. Start with the palm reader trick and let me know how it goes. It you need any support I’m only an email away or leave a comment below.

I can’t wait to hear about your success, with these strategies.

See you at the top,

Scott 

P.S. I could literally write an entire book on the subject because the rabbit hole is that deep. If you think I should, shoot me an email or leave a comment below and let me know. This only scratches the surface and is perfect to get you started. If you want to learn more, I’ll bring you more on this in the coming weeks. 

Theory of the Organizers

Dear grasshopper, there are many ways that you can get what you want out of your career and out of life itself. 

It starts with the way you act. The beauty of our business is that you don’t have to come from a long line of successful actors to be accepted. If you look at the current crème de la crème, you will see that they are all the only ones that “made it.” 

Sure, some of them come from a showbiz family, but they will without exception tell you that it’s only hindered them. Being, Will Smith’s son for example has more challenges than just being Jayden. 

What’s great about the industry is that if you do what successful actors do you will eventually get the same result. 

If you study the biggest achievers in the industry you will see that, without exception, they went all in and committed to mastering their talent, and more important, they committed to mastering the game. 

Peel back the layers and you will see that they are rule breakers, refusing to abide by “the way it’s always been done.” They’re the square pegs in a round hole. 

And it goes way beyond our industry. While I want to focus on how this all impacts your acting career, I have to introduce you to a few people for it to make sense. 

See we are all governed by our rituals. Our rituals are our long enduring habits. If you kick off your shoes, throw your feet up on the couch, and tune into Netflix for 4 hours after work every day, that’s a ritual. 

The people that have failed to accomplish what they set out to have negative rituals. 

Like Michael, the literal rocket scientist who never landed a job in his chosen field, despite having a PhD. His rituals consisted of talking about aerospace engineering. He did the bare minimum to get by. 

In a highly competitive field where a fraction of an inch means life or death, his peers left him in the dust. Their rituals consisted of practicing their field of study. Less talking and more doing. 

Today Michael finds himself working the nightshift at Ralph’s, longing to be at a launch site somewhere. 

Ask yourself this question. “Am I being an actor, or am I just talking about being an actor?” 

See if you look at anyone who has risen to the top of their industry, you will see that they have in some way become an organizer of it. 

Simply stated, the practitioners are mere commodities while the organizers are the in demand experts.

Here’s what this means to us actors. If you study the career trajectory of the actor you most look up to, you will see that their careers really took off when they crossed over into the role of an organizer. 

I’ve chronicled some of them for you in previous articles. Matt Damon and Ben Affleck were virtually unknown until they crossed over into organizers with the film Good Will Hunting. 

Sylvester Stallone would likely not have a career at all today, if he remained in the role of an actor instead of crossing over into being an organizer with the Rocky series. 

Even Mindy Kaling did the same thing. She went from actor to A lister when she moved into the role of organizer with The Office and later The Mindy Project. 

The way you become an organizer in the industry is to get involved in the production process. This doesn’t mean that you have to abandon your acting career. What it means is that, if you want to have longevity and a deep impact on the industry, you have to learn it in inside and out. 

By simply going through the process of writing a screenplay, you will learn so much about character development that you can use on screen. It does not have to be an Oscar worthy masterpiece, just a good effort. 

Think of everything that you would learn experientially, if you were to hop behind the lens for a change, or sit in the director’s chair. 

In order to step into mastery, you should also be able to step into any creative role on set and execute it with precision. 

If you ever catch yourself in Buda, TX with some time to kill, you might want to hunt down the world’s smartest bartender. She won’t be hard to find there’s only 3 places she could be. 

Samantha was the embodiment of a success story in the making. She grew up in Chicago and graduated as valedictorian of a class of over 2,000 students. She was accepted into every Ivy League school she had applied to and ultimately ended up at Brown. 

Long story short, Samantha didn’t have a tragic fall from grace. She never really got off the ground. She coasted on the accolades for a semester or two and never really went all in. 

She was studying medicine but never explicitly set out to be a doctor. 

She always had a “Plan B.” She said that she could be a teacher, or do research if she couldn’t make the cut as a doctor. 

See, when you give yourself a “Plan B”, you immediately accept failure. Your mind starts to look for ways in which to act on Plan B and forgets all about what should be on your mind: Plan A and only Plan A. 

So, if you want to be an actor, then you have to set the intention in your mind that you are going all in. Scrap your Plan B and burn the boats. When you do this, you will find a way or you will make the way. 

Sylvester Stallone had nothing left, except for his dream. He was so defeated that he literally had no money to eat. Desperate, he sold his best friend (his dog) for $200. It was grocery money that allowed him to survive, and he did anything and everything to forge ahead. 

There was no way for him to break into the industry in the “traditional way” so he made a way. When he sold the rights to Rocky, he bought back the dog for $15,000. 

Most people you know will talk a lot about becoming successful. While that’s far better than being negative, nobody successful, becomes successful. They start there. 

When you act as though you are, at some point you’re no longer acting. You just are. 

So, if you want to be an actor, be an actor. Instead of taking an off day, find something to work on. At some point, you will no longer be trying to be an actor. You will just be an actor. 

Remember that your rituals are like a crystal ball, looking into your future. 

I love the story of Jim Carrey and the check. Feeling like he was ready to give up, Jim Carrey wrote himself a $10 Million Dollar check. In the memo field, he wrote “For Acting Services Rendered” and he gave himself 3 years to cash it. 

He then went to work. He adopted new rituals that drove him toward the goal he laid out for himself. A lot of us have goals, but without the rituals to drive us toward them, they will remain dreams. 

It was almost 3 years to the day that Jim Carrey was holding a $10 Million Dollar check for his role in The Mask. It was all because of a clearly defined goal and the proper rituals driving toward the achievement of that goal. 

As a teenager, Seven Spielberg snuck onto the Universal Studios lot, strolling past the guards as if he ran the place. Before long, he did run the place and had 2 of the highest grossing films of all time. 

He too practiced rituals that drove him towards achieving his goals. He didn’t sneak onto the lot to talk to pretty actresses, or kick rocks. He spent his days visiting every soundstage, to observe production techniques and learn the process. 

He would interact with the cast and crew to build a working rapport that served him well later on. The end of his days consisted of working on scripts. 

Success is always designed and on purpose. 

If you want to find success as an actor you have to adopt the rituals that will move you in the direction of your goal. 

Do this and remember that you don’t become a successful actor. You already are, so act like it. Never quit and there is no way that you can fail. 

You can either do it the hard way, hoping to be discovered on the audition circuit like everyone else, or you can do it the smart way and skyrocket your career on purpose instead of hope.

So, what’s it going to be grasshopper? You’re running out of time to decide, so go here and get the details before you miss out. 

See you at the top, 

Scott

The Ultimate Guide To Getting Your SAG Card

Writing this, The Ultimate Guide To Getting Your SAG Card, was difficult on several levels. Let me start by stating that, this is in no way a SAG bashing… 

However, some of this is pretty cringe worthy. 

Before I give you the blueprint for how to get your SAG Card, you need to understand the methods behind the madness. 

Remember, the industry is not all about “the art.” At the end of the day, it’s still business and SAG is just a component of big business. Like many, similar initiatives in other industries, the stated mission of SAG is noble...but at the core, it’s less than that. 

See, at its inception, the stated mission of SAG was largely the same as it is today: to ensure that performers would be guaranteed fair pay, favorable conditions, and not be subject to discrimination for demanding those things. 

Noble, right? 

Of course it is and if it were to have been a completely open system, that’s where the story would end. 

However, since a union production has to jump through hoops to hire a nonunion performer, the competition for those inside the union was relatively low. That’s what the main driver was at the beginning, to obliterate the competition for union’s “founding actors.” 

They couldn’t just come out and say that of course, so they created several ancillary benefits to union membership. 

See, actors needed SAG credits to become a member but it was incredibly tough, and still is incredibly hard (for everyone not reading this guide), to get union credits as a nonmember. 

Because producers have to fill out paperwork, provide a compelling reason for hiring a nonunion performer over a SAG performer, and pay a fine for doing so, the chances of landing a gig that qualifies you for membership in this way is pretty rare. 

Remember tribe, I reserve no room for fluff nor frills in the community so I’m not going to go deep into this subject. 

It’s true, you can collect 3 vouchers for background work and become SAG eligible. 

You could also be cast as a principal in a union project, but again the chances of production going through the hassles of hiring you under the purview of the Taft-Hartley act (WTF why haven’t the abbreviated that yet???) is super slim. 

It would be like me telling you to buy a scratch off lottery ticket to pay rent, it’s incredibly lucky if you can pull it off and be “Taft Hartley’d.” And if you do pull it off, for goodness sakes go buy a power ball ticket immediately! 

By now you know that what most actors do in this town, should usually be your blueprint for what not to do. This occasion is no different. I know way too many actors that spent years doing meaningless background work, hoping to get a voucher and doing things mom wouldn’t be proud of just to get one. 

See, this whole internet fad has given us a 3rd way that puts us in the driver’s seat. We no longer have to beg and plead someone to give us a few vouchers, and we don’t have to hope that LA implodes, leaving us as the only available actor left so that we’re a shoe in for a principal role and get Taft Hartley’d. 

The Taft Hartley process changed within the last 2 weeks, as of this writing so bear with me. 

Several years ago, SAG created the “new media” division to cover nontraditional forms of content distribution. While this has mostly focused on internet content so far, it’s likely that the oversight of that division will soon stretch to things like gaming, social media distribution, virtual reality, and more. 

In some ways, it’s already the governing body by default instead of by design. That however is a subject for another guide, because there is so much untapped opportunity in those fields for you. 

Some say that you should wait as long as possible to get your SAG card. Since you are no longer able to do nonunion work once you become a member, you would be limiting your opportunities. 

I disagree! Do you want to build your resume or build a career. Having a SAG card immediately get you better access to better projects and agents, so if you want to build a career you should get one as soon as possible. 

The easiest, fastest, and most reliable way to become SAG eligible and get your SAG card, is to do it yourself. 

I’ll explain, see the new media division allows for you to create a production of your own, cast yourself as a nonunion actor and “Taft Hartley” yourself in the process. 

Because SAG cannot keep you from expressing your creativity, this “loophole” isn’t even a grey area. It’s not there by design but you can still use it for your benefit without worry or hesitation. 

The truth is, with more content distribution moving from traditional channels to the internet, SAG has to move along with it. Like every good business, it must continue expanding so it created the new media division as a way to encourage productions to participate in SAG. 

Don’t worry, it’s not complicated or expensive and you can totally do it on your own. 

All you need is the will to do it. 

The process is simple. 

1. First you sign up as SAG signatory production. You can do this online and in as little as fifteen minutes. 

2. Once you have completed your application, SAG will send you a production information packet to fill out. Relax, it only looks intimidating but it’s actually just a fill in the blanks exercise with info you should already have if you are going down this road and you’re putting a project together anyway. 

3. You will have to follow all SAG guidelines during production and you will be assigned a SAG representative to help with this. They’ll help you ensure that all of your ducks are in a row and that your process moves along smoothly. 

Even though you have to pay everyone in accordance with SAG scale rates, they do allow for smaller productions and even deferred pay. 

Also, SAG has added a “Legitimacy of Application” clause to prevent abuse. As long as you put together a real production with real value, you have nothing to worry about. It was only intended to ward off people who would put together a 10 second, one line short and call it day with all of the other requirements fulfilled. 

So, use this experience to boost your production knowledge and gain real industry experience. After all, you will become a credited SAG producer through this and take a project from idea to completion, so make the most of it. 

Once you become eligible they will want to review your resume and training credentials. Remember that one of the key drivers of credibility is your IMDb ranking so be sure that it’s top notch. 

4. After you have finished your project, you will have to complete a post production packet and walk your production contract along with your check stub and initiation dues, into a SAG office to kickstart your eligibility. 

That it’s! Compete steps 1-4, put your project together and we’ll be welcoming you to the SAG family in no time. 

This is exactly how you can skip the years of hoping and instead hack the SAG framework and become SAG eligible, even if you have never set foot on a SAG production before. 

I’ll leave with this: 

John F. Kennedy asked Wernher von Braun what it would take to put a man on the moon. His response was ‘the will to do it.” 

So grasshopper, do you have the will to do it? You can continue on the path that everyone else takes and hope that someday you become SAG eligible and get your card, or you can take your career and your life into your own hands and create your own future. 

Whichever way you choose to go, remember that I’m always here to lean on for support and I’m just an email away. 

See you at the top, 

Scott 

P.S. I know it’s SAG-AFTRA but I have insider info that the AFTRA will soon be dropped, as will the “loophole” of joining a SAG affiliate for a year to become SAG-AFTRA eligible 

P.P.S. What project do you have floating around in your head that you’ve been wanting to get off the ground? If this gave you the extra push you needed to get it going, shoot me an email, and let me know what it’s all about. 

The Demonstration of Power Pack

Dear grasshopper, if you’re on this page, it’s probably because something about The Demonstration of Power Pack intrigued you. 

Rightfully so! Before I give you the details on it though, take just a second and allow yourself to approach this concept with an open mind. 

It’s simple yet brilliant. When you read about it you might think that it’s way too much work for you to take on, or that your situation is different. 

Relax. You can actually pull this off with materials you already have and it’s deceptively simple. 

Plus, at the end, I’ll give you examples for how to do this easily and on the cheap. I’ll also go over how this will work for you in multiple situations. 

Cool? Cool.

First let’s talk about what The Demonstration of Power Pack is. It’s pretty self explanatory. It’s a literal package, delivered to your “target” that is intended to create a sense of Shock and Awe. 

Let me give you an example that I learned about over lunch last week. 

There was an agent at WME, let’s call him Tommy, that was pretty fresh out of the mailroom and he was just building his book of clients. Most of them were D listers looking to move up in the world or newcomers that showed promise. 

Tommy had hit a brick wall with a client that happened to be a newcomer. She was super talented but because of her short resume, he could not get his new client an audition. Everyone thought she was just too green. 

Normally, this is when someone would throw in the towel. But not Tommy, not his client, and I know you wouldn’t quit either. 

So this it when The Demonstration of Power Pack was created. Like every other great invention, it was created out of need and in a do or die moment. 

Tommy’s client fit a very important criteria that super agents look for when signing new talent…she was smart! 

The brilliant idea that she came up with was so crazy that it had to work, or at least that’s what she hoped. 

She wanted to read for a new project that would put her alongside some pretty big stars but of course Tommy couldn’t get her an audition the old fashioned way. 

This is where it gets interesting. She went to Target and picked up a briefcase. 

She loaded the briefcase with a portable DVD player charged and preloaded with her reel. She rigged it so that the DVD player would power up when the briefcase was opened. 

She then printed a giant headshot, wrapped it in brown butcher paper, and rolled into a scroll. She even sealed it with red wax and a stamp. 

While at Target she also picked up a neck pillow and a bag of popcorn that also made their way into the briefcase, along with a cigar, and 2 notes that said “read first, read second.” 

The first note read “sit down, get comfortable, press play and enjoy a snack…Then call casting and tell them I’m your leading lady.” 

If you think that’s bold, get a load of this… 

The second note read “go to this restaurant tonight at 7:15 pm and tell them you’re here to meet Tommy. He’s my agent. You two can work out the details over dinner. After dinner, light your celebratory cigar because we are going to make a great f***ing movie. 

Yes grasshopper I agree, this is totally nuts! But that’s the kind of business we’re in: showbusiness! 

Her agent was super skeptical about it working but he admired her creativity so he said “you put the briefcase together and if you get him to show up to dinner, I’ll wine and dine the hell out of him.” All in, she spent less than $200 on this experiment and the return has been humongous. 

She got the role she was after, and has since worked on many projects for this studio, starring alongside Ben Affleck, Paul Giamatti, Reese Witherspoon, and many more. 

She pulled the career of her dreams out of this little experiment. These days, when she’s not doing a feature, you can catch her doing a recurring role on primetime. 

Was there an element of luck? Absolutely. But she did something, instead of sitting on her hands waiting for the phone to ring. If she went through all of this effort and didn’t get a response, she would have just ended up right back where she started, so she had nothing to lose. 

But let’s say that your situation is different. Let’s say that you’re trying to land an agent instead, or that you’re not going after a single role but just trying to get a few more auditions under your belt. 

Ideally you would send a Demonstration of Power Pack to your top 5 agent choices or your top 5 CDs for auditions you want to get into. 

While The Demonstration of Power Pack in its original form will have the best results and get you most responses, at some point it kind of gets cost prohibitive. 

So, I’ll give you a few examples of how to lower or zero out costs. 

The important thing to remember is that the goal is to create an experience for the receiver that is unforgettable and forces their attention onto your reel. 

It doesn’t have to be as orchestrated a courier delivered briefcase. 

If you need to scale The Demonstration of Power Pack down to drive down costs so you can reach more people, you could mail them a flash drive, comp card, a note, and a snickers bar instead. 

This would be ideal for reaching out to multiple agents or multiple Casting Directors, without spending a ton of cash. It still gives you the benefit of differentiating and creates a unique-enough experience for the recipient, since no one else is doing this. 

And if you really want to scale the concept down and accomplish this without spending any cash, you could do the entire thing online. 

Put together a simple website using Wix. It should have your reel, your resume and headshot available, along with clear instructions on how to contact you. This simple website would only take you a couple of hours to put together and it would allow you to send out The Demonstration of Power Pack at scale, to whoever you wanted to, and without even paying for postage. 

So, there you have it tribe. 

You’re likely thinking one of two things. 

1. This is crazy and it’ll never work

OR 

2. I have to try this! 

Look, you only live once. Why not go all in, right? This is far from the only time that WME has used this strategy on new talent. The Demonstration of Power Pack is now an integral part of the talent launch playbook. 

It has since evolved and gone to a level Tommy and his client would have never imagined. Think barbershop quartet, and Obama impersonators delivering classified intel. The beauty of it is that you are only limited by your will, and your imagination. 

So, what will you come up with? 

The industry is hungry for new talent, so hand it to them on a silver platter. 

Research shows that you are almost twice as likely to succeed with something new if you just take 1 related action step immediately after learning about it. So shoot me an email and tell me what ideas came to mind. 

Remember tribe, I’m always here to help in whatever way I can. I can’t wait to hear your success stories with this so keep me in the loop. 

Talk soon, 

Scott 

P.S. In case you’re new to the tribe, start here. This is what we’re all about.

Big innovation

When talking pictures were first introduced, not everyone was convinced that they would be a hit. Many people thought they would be a simple fad that would soon be over. Those that didn’t adapt to the changing landscape where never heard from again. 

What we’re talking about today is just as big of an innovation. 

This is something that tends to get lost on us actors, and you might be wondering what tech innovations have to do with your acting career. 

Stick with me for a moment… 

Think of it this way, when the industry moved to talking pictures, actors were judged by an entirely different set of criteria. Before “talkies” came about it didn’t matter if you had a pleasant voice or a heavy accent. It was irrelevant until talking pictures became the dominant media. 

Those that saw the move coming were able to prepare for it, and seized the opportunity. Those that didn’t, were quickly forgotten. 

Think of how quickly the industry adopted CGI. It went from 2D movies with an explosion scene, to full 3D pictures with entire worlds created in CGI. This happened seemingly overnight and it shows no signs of slowing down whatsoever. 

What does this mean for you as an actor? 

For starters, production is different. It no longer takes place on a faraway island where the surroundings are enough to get you into character. It takes place in a soundstage, under artificial light, while you’re covered head to toe in sensors and wearing a helmet cam to capture your facial expressions. More than ever, your acting skills have to be top notch. 

Even more important than that, is how technology is reshaping the casting process. Long gone are the days of talent being discovered at a community theatre production or a cattle call. Today, the actors that are getting attention from Hollywood, are the actors that have the attention of an online community. 

It happened in the music business and it’s happening in our business. 

The man driving this change is none other than Lyor Cohen, commonly referred to as the most powerful man in the music business. 

Lyor Cohen spent decades at the helm of the biggest labels around. Feeling like the industry was too slow to evolve and adapt to the streaming services revenue model, as album sales sharply declined, he started his own label: 300 Entertainment. 

He spent 2 years in the heart of Silicon Valley, learning about the coming technology and working to understand how tech could help evolve the music industry. 

One of the chief problems that he used technology to solve, was sourcing and launching new talent. 

I’ll get to how this all ties into Hollywood and your career in just a sec. 

See, what Lyor did was automate that process. The old school way of sending out talent scouts to find new acts, bring them in to record a few demo tracks, market test the demo tracks, and then explore signing them to a full recording contract, was long and cumbersome. 

This process could take months. Today, that entire process takes days. What Lyor Cohen did was create a system that scours the web, picks up on emerging artists that are generating attention and puts them on a “watch list.” 

If the artist continues to generate positive attention, the system then recommends that artist to the executives, who can act quickly to sign the artist and launch them much faster than ever before. 

This is where it starts to affect your career. See, Lyor’s company 300 Entertainment was actually a joint venture with Google. 

Something you should know about Google is that they, self admittedly, only focus on “moonshots.” This means that they will only tackle problems that can grow the company 10X instead of a measly 10%. 

You know that YouTube super channel that has the best music, VEVO? It is actually a joint venture owned by Universal, Sony, and yep Google! 

This is important because YouTube, a Google company, has long since been positioning itself as the next major studio. It is now bank rolling content creation, and has built production studios around the world, to produce its own shows. 

For about ten bucks, you can already catch some of them on YouTube Red. 

YouTube is about to make the leap and declare itself a studio. The move isn’t surprising. Other tech companies have done the same thing with much success. Netflix now has a production arm, so do Hulu, and Amazon amongst many others. 

Even Gary Vaynerchuck has stated time and time again that soon the major networks will no longer be ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX. They will be social media and tech companies, turned into studios. 

The cards are falling exactly into place. Facebook live is a mere precursor to streaming content. Why turn on the TV and channel surf, when your favorite shows are waiting for you on your timeline? 

The investments that Facebook is making into virtual reality are not in vain. The company is positioning itself for a time when the television is no longer the way we consume entertainment. 

Facebook is already in the entertainment business, and shifting into producing content rather than just giving you the ability to share it, is the next step in their business. 

The fact that the industry is shifting into being controlled by tech companies means several things. 

Namely, what tech companies focus on, is taking humans out of the equation, replacing them with algorithms and machines. 

You already see it happening with drone technology in production. It used to take a team of 3-4 people to operate a camera dolly. Now all it takes is 1 dude, a drone, and an iPhone to accomplish the same thing. 

This kind of monumental shift is happening where it matters to you most of all: The Casting Office. 

See the man behind this movement, Lyor Cohen, announced that he has partnered with the leading social media platforms to “identify emerging artists and develop their careers.” He went on to say “If you want to get signed, you have to engage with Social Media, and of course YouTube…this is what allows artists to be discovered and be more successful.” 

Don’t make the mistake of thinking that this will be isolated to music business. It has already bled over into our business, you might just not have noticed it yet. 

When the head of the newest major studio in town tells you the secret to being noticed by them, you should take note of it. 

What has happened is that industry has basically declared that social media is the way in. The reason is simple. If you control social media, you control attention. If you control attention, you control a revenue stream for the studio. Remember, this is show business. At the end of the day it’s about revenue for the studios. 

So let me ask you a simple but bold question, grasshopper… 

What did you do today to grow your social media presence and build your credibility in the industry? 

If you did anything at all, was it a moonshot or a safe play? 

The studios are no longer letting talent come to them by mere chance. They are actively going out and searching for it. They’re just doing it with computers these days. 

This means that you don’t have a CD to impress anymore. You first have to impress the computer before you can even get to the Casting Director. 

How do you do that? 

Simple! I’ve actually been telling you about it for quite some time now. Build your social media following and boost your IMDb STARmeter, the industry’s measure of your credibility. Go here for all of the details on that.

Do this and your chances of success skyrocket. 

Industry executives are telling you that this is the way in. So start heading in that direction. 

Or don’t and just keep doing what you’re doing and getting the same results that you’ve been getting so far. 

…understand however that it might just be your last chance for a very long time. 

Because of how much work goes into building your social media following and boosting your IMDb STARmeter, I have to ensure that our team can handle the workload of bringing on new members. 

We are just about at 100% capacity. 

So, if you go here and the details are gone, that means we have officially closed the program. It’s a pretty lengthy process to expand our capacity, so when that happens I cannot be sure if or when it would reopen. 

Do yourself a favor and go check it out now while it’s fresh on your mind.

If you decide that it’s not right for you and you want to go it alone, no biggie. I’ll still be around with more insider info and career igniting strategies. 

However, you don’t know what you don’t know. So go and get the details while you still can or risk missing out.

Talk soon, 

Scott