Simple Formula for Making it In The Industry in 2019

WARNING! What you are about to read is incredibly powerful yet so deceptively simple. There are more than one “head slappers” contained in this special report, so you might want to ready the aspirin. 

In all seriousness, I admire you. Chances are we’ve never shaken hands but I know a thing or two about you already. 

I know that you are an actor that is interested in becoming a full time actor that touches the lives of many through your performances. 

When you really think about it, we don’t get a fair shake much of the time. Those outside of the industry often look at us as going after fame and fortune out of sheer selfishness. While there are a few bad apples in every bunch, I have found actors to be quite the opposite. 

At least the most successful ones are. 

They work hard not just to buy a beach house or summer in the Hamptons, they are driven by much deeper things than that. See, when you establish yourself in the entertainment industry, the entire world opens up to you. 

You have the ear of politicians and lawmakers, access to the best medical care, you can get the inside scoop on the latest medical research to help those who can’t get access otherwise, and you can even help yourself and causes you care about financially simply by having access. 

When was the last time you think Warren Buffet passed on a chance to lunch with Leo? 

Because there is so much good to be done in the world, specifically by actors and entertainment industry professionals, I think it’s extremely important to help as many of you succeed as possible. 

Personally, it’s what keeps me going some days. 

Before I get to the nuts and bolts of how you are going to leave your mark on the industry, I have to ask you a question… 

Why? 

Why is it that you chose to become an actor? Regardless of what you are trying to achieve, there must always be a bigger reason driving you, other than just the achievement of the goal. 

Otherwise, when things inevitably get tough, you risk burning out. The most successful actors have a bigger reason behind their actions and I challenge you to find your reason and use it as the launchpad to achieving your goals. 

Once you get clear on what drives you, you then have to take the right actions towards achieving your goals. It starts by clearly defining what that goal is. This will help you to define your career map. 

Are you going after becoming an Oscar winner? That’s a very different career course than becoming a scream queen or off beat comedy star (Seth Rogan-Judd Apatow style). Think carefully about what you truly want to go after. 

If you want multiple things, start with one. Don’t chase 2 rabbits, because you won’t catch either one. For example, go for the statue or conquer comedy first, then branch out and go after another goal. 

No matter what you choose to go after, you must have mechanisms in place through which you can create opportunities for yourself. Here’s a simple one.

See whether you are early in your career and self representing or if you have an agent you trust, your success is ultimately in your hands. The most successful actors, that get booked consistently, know that they must market themselves to the industry because “if they don’t know you, they can’t hire you.” 

There’s a lot of talk about social media and how it can make or break your career. 

The reason for that is because it’s true. More and more social media stars and YouTubers are making the cross over to the main stream industry every day. You probably notice that it’s becoming rare to not be asked about the size of your following in an audition. 

Building a social media presence is simply not optional anymore. It’s a must! 

Here’s a simple and quick way to get the ball rolling on this, add credibility to your social channels, and get started towards building your platform. 

This is something else that successful actors have in common. I see so many actors get caught up in trying to impress others through social media, that what could be a great following gets bored and eventually puts their attention elsewhere. 

When you post, be genuine. Document your struggles and let the audience into your life. Don’t simply post selfies with cocktails. Let them take the journey with you and your following will grow like wildfire. 

Combine this with a solid industry reputation and the opportunities will start to seek you out. We’ve all heard that success in the industry is all about “who you know.” 

In reality it’s about who knows you. When you climb to the top of what the industry uses as a way to measure and source new talent, a world of opportunity opens up to you that you never knew existed. 

Elite agents won’t represent actors that are not near the top of the rankings and casting directors use your standing as part of determining your castability. So if you haven’t put attention on where you stand in IMDb. 

Take a look and make sure that your rankings there match your goals. Give some attention because, both in your career and in life itself, I want to… 

See you at the top,
Scott

How To Increase Your Callback and Booking Ratio

A watched pot never boils, right? 

Does a phone waiting for a callback ever ring? 

Waiting to hear about the outcome of an audition is nervewracking, but it doesn’t have to be that way! 

Professional actors are reported to have some of the highest levels of anxiety (per capita) and many of them attribute this to the uncertainty of the industry. 

Think about it. On a daily basis how much are you really sure of? 

We are faced with things like not knowing when our next role (and next paycheck) will come around, whether the auditions we went on went as well as we thought they did, whether the projects we committed to will end up getting funded and go into production, and so much more. 

What if you could take almost all of the uncertainty out of the equation? See just about everything hinges on getting some predictability on one thing: the outcome of your auditions. 

If you can generate enough auditions (more on that in a bit), turn a good portion of those into bookings and repeat that over and over again you become a full time a working actor in no time. 

Here’s how…

The key to doing this is being completely honest with yourself in the moment. Here’s what I mean… 

If you study top performers across any industry or line of work, you will quickly notice a pattern. Top hedge-funders and investors evaluate their investing decisions and use what they learn on their next investment. 

Athletes review their games or matches and evaluate what they did well and what they could have done better. In fact, professional sports teams dedicate an entire day of practice to doing this. 

Even us actors review our performances and try to improve them for the next role. 

However, as actors, we have performances to get through before we get to hit the field so to speak. We have to get through the audition process before getting the role, and this performance (the audition) should be scrutinized just as much, if not more than, the performance you deliver after being cast. 

Just as a tennis player or a golfer can spot how their swing might be off by just a millimeter or two by reviewing “tape”, you can do the same. 

You won’t have the luxury of reviewing a taping of your audition, but you can do the next best thing. In fact, the tape itself isn’t all that important in your case because not getting booked for a role is hardly ever about whether or not you delivered the best performance of those who auditioned. 

There are many, many other factors that go into the casting decision and it’s why the industry has adopted the castability index as a uniform way of screening talent. You can give your castability index a boost quickly and easily here.

Some of this is out of your control but most of it is within your reach. Sometimes a character is built in one way but ends up going through development and ends up being an entirely different character type by the time casting is done. 

That’s what makes things so tricky for actors. 

We often don’t know whether it was a subpar performance that kept us from being booked, a change in production scheduling and availability, a change in the character avatar, etc. 

Since we don’t usually get feedback on this, it’s up to us to give ourselves the feedback. 

See, you can easily increase your callback ratio and booking percentage if you simply double down on the things you are doing right. 

We get so caught up in our craft and constantly work on sharpening our acting skills, but that is seldom the problem with not booking enough work. 

What you should be doing is evaluating every single audition you go on. Come up with a set of criteria and rate yourself from 1-5. 

Rate your interaction with the CD, your performance itself, your fit for the role you are auditioning for, etc. 

Also leave an open space for you to summarize how the audition went. I suggest you type this up and make several copies. Keep them in a binder and bring that binder with you every time you audition. 

As soon as you can, after you have finished reading, pull out your binder and fill out your self evaluation form. Rate each category from 1-5 but try not to use 3. It’s kind of noncommittal. It’s in between good and not so good but not enough of either to provide the data you need. 

Over time you will be able to file these forms into “booked” and “not booked” sections and review the reasons behind the casting decisions. 

Maybe you are finding that you are doing quite well on everything but you’re just not reading for the right roles. You can go to your agent armed with that information and pursue roles that are a better fit. 

The opposite could be true. You could be reading for roles that you are a perfect fit for but your performance is a bit one dimensional. If that’s the case you know what to work on. 

It might even just come down to you not having chemistry with the CDs you are reading for. This is so common. It’s nerve wracking enough to be in an audition setting and trying to make a good impression can easily come off as being ingenuine. 

But, if that’s what’s keeping you from being booked, you can work on it and learn a few things about connecting with CDs (you can find several articles about this here at BoostMyStar). 

The bottom line is that you will know, through having collected real data in the moment, and then matching that data to whether or not you got the desired outcome (booked or not booked) what to work on. 

You will know when you leave the audition whether or not you should expect a callback or whether you should get on the phone with your agent and ask them to find something else. 

This exercise is super powerful and so simple to do! Use it on your next audition and on every audition from now on. 

That brings us to the next point of how to generate auditions. 

Most actors depend on agents and managers to do this for them, but it should be a joint effort at least. Even elite agents are not miracle workers that can pull auditions out of thin air. 

You have to give them powerful tools to work with. This is one of the most effective ones.

It’s also part of your castability index, as it’s used to measure your credibility in the industry. 

Reputation is everything in this business and if your reputation doesn’t match your goals, your road to success will be much longer and tougher than it needs to be. 

So give yourself a leg up on the competition by using what I put together for you.

Commit to doing what we talked about in this report and check back in with me in a few weeks. I want to know how things are going for you and what’s changed, after you implement this. I’m always here to help if you get stuck along the way too, because my goal is to… 

See you at the top,
Scott

About This Pilot Season…

It never fails, every year towards the end of January I start to get emails from actors in a near panic about the upcoming pilot season that they don’t have anything booked yet. 

It’s kind of a ritual in the industry to spend the month, getting rid of the holiday weight, redoing headshots, updating your reel, brushing up on your acting skills by loading up on classes, and everything else that goes into making your acting career a success. 

Time and time again, I hear from actors that spend tons of time, money, and energy getting ready for a pilot season that, for them, never really happens. 

See, having an extra audition or two does not a pilot season make. It’s something that you should be looking to do always. 

Sure the nature of pilot season has changed some over the years, but so has everything else. The fact is that it remains a time when there is more work to be booked than any other time of year. So, if you want to make this pilot season the one that you look back on as being the turning point for your career, focus on these 3 things… 

CDs are busier than ever during this time so you have to prepare for a couple of things to happen. Since they are spread so thin, you will end up seeing their assistants more often than you otherwise would, and you have to be skilled at navigating this landscape. 

It’s also easier to become just another number, since casting offices are seeing so many actors during this time. 

Whomever it is that you are reading for in auditions treat them the same way. It starts with doing your prework. Look them up and see what they are all about. What other productions have they worked on? Did you go to the same school, are you from the same town, do you both live for a good pinot grigio? 

You need someway to stand out from, what soon becomes, a blur of actors indiscernible as individuals from one to the next. Unfortunately you can’t rely on your acting skills alone to make this happen. 

You have to do something that makes you the talk of the office. What if you walked in and read the CDs palm or sent in a friend to “courier” the CDs favorite candy bar and a business card sized headshot along with a thank you “thank you for allowing me to read for you” note that was delivered a few minutes after your audition. 

I know first hand, that it just might be the best three bucks you ever spend. 

To become memorable at auditions, you first need to have enough opportunities to audition. To do that you have to make the industry aware of you. “If they don’t know you, they can’t hire you” and IMDb is one of the places you should be putting your focus on. 

Not only is it a place that industry decision makers go to source new talent, it’s looked at any time you are being considered for a role as part of your Castability Index. 

Make sure you are in good standing. If you are not happy with where you are, here’s a quick fix.

When you improve your ratings with the industry, you will find that doors are easier to open. You may find that your agent can get you into auditions for bigger roles in bigger productions than what you have been able to get into thus far. 

Since it’s a measure of your industry reputation and credibility, a good ranking can be the difference between reading for a guest role vs a recurring role. It could be the difference between reading for a bit part or reading for the second lead. 

While there is a formula for success, there is no magic potion you can cook up to make yourself successful as an actor. 

First industry decision makers have to know you, that’s why i created this for you (click here to find out more).

Then they have to like you. That’s what being memorable is all about. Get creative and have fun with this. I’ve seen everything from sending over an entire barbershop quartet to deliver a “thank you for allowing me to read” song and dance, to a simple candy bar and thank you note as I mentioned a moment ago. 

The palm reader trick is my personal favorite, as it can be done in the moment, while you’re still in the room and it immediately piques the interest of everyone there. 

Once they know you and like you, then you have to make yourself the only logical choice. 

You do this by make yourself a marketing tool that will lead to viewers tuning in to see your performance and support you. 

There’s a way I can help you get the ball rolling with that too.

As more studio advertising dollars move to online channels, the networks are increasingly looking to cast actors that can bring an organic audience with them. It’s the business side of the entertainment business. 

It’s why you see more and more Instagrammers and YouTubers successfully making the leap to the silver screen. 

All things being equal, the actor that can deliver a stellar performance and that also brings X amount of fans and followers and their attention to the production will win the role almost every time. It’s not the best system in the world but it’s what the industry is doing now and for the foreseeable future. 

So how will you approach this pilot season grasshopper? Let me know in the comments below or shoot me an email. I’m always here to help however can, so that I can… 

See you at the top,
Scott

The No Holds Barred Guide to Becoming a YouTube Sensation and How To Turn It Into Mainstream Acting Work

It never ceases to amaze me how things come full circle. 

Just a couple of years ago, telling someone you had a YouTube show would yield a polite head nod, maybe an “oh cool” and not much more. 

Today, being a YouTuber puts you in pretty good company. You’re sharing a platform with Academy Award and Golden Globe nominees! 

Going from the silver screen to a YouTube channel would have raised many eyebrows and people around town would have “started talking” just a couple of years ago. 

Today however, there is an entire section in the William Morris (WME) Handbook about how to leverage YouTube for their clients. 

If you want the inside scoop on what’s on those pages read on so you too can Become a YouTube Sensation and Turn It Into Mainstream Acting Work. 

It’s simple. Here’s how…

The #1 search engine in the world is Google. No surprise there! 

Care to take a wild guess what the #2 search engine in the world is? [drum roll] YouTube! 

It is now far more than a place you go to watch cat videos and the evolution of dance, dance (though that one never gets old). Over 1 Billion people spend at least an hour a day on YouTube searching for everything from entertainment, to news, cooking tips, and even car and home repair stuff. 

Before we get to the nuts and bolts of how to use YouTube as an actor, you first have to understand that there are 3 vastly different types of YouTubers. 

Group 1 is in it for the money. They put up tons of content, place as many ads as possible in their videos, and hope to earn a living from their efforts. 

Group 2 is in it for the attention. This group knows that if they play their cards right and put out quality content, they have the potential to reach hundreds of thousands or even millions of people and leverage that attention into bigger things. 

Group 3 is a tiny group of YouTubers that have mastered how to earn a living (sometimes a multimillion dollar living) while also gaining and leveraging massive attention. 

You should strive to fall into Group 3, and this what WME does for their rising talent. 

The formula is simple: Good Content + Attention X Social Proof = YouTube Mastery 

The big mistake that actors typically make when they go the YouTube route is that they default to “acting.” So, they get their actor friends together, tap a director someone knows and they film a bunch of shorts. 

This fails 99% of the time because you have to catch someone who is, for example, in the mood to watch an indie short about whatever it is that your short is about, at the exact time it miraculously pops up on their YouTube feed. 

Even if the production value and the talent in the short is incredible, that’s still only 1/3 of the equation remember. These videos don’t often get shared because, when you share something with a friend, it’s because you think that friend is in the same mood you’re in at the time you share it or you feel they need it for some reason or another (like they need a good laugh or something like that). 

If it’s not shared, there’s not much attention going to your videos. And, when there’s not attention, there’s no social proof. 

Not only is this a very time consuming way to create content, it usually leads to quitting after a while because there’s so much other stuff that’s more pressing. Even if the content is stellar, it’s just such an uphill battle! 

So, in the words of social media architect to the stars and Fortune 500 Gary Vaynerchuck, “don’t create, document.” 

That’s what “sells” on YouTube. We’re still very much in the era of the reality show and there’s no signs of that changing any time soon. It’s simply moving to a different platform. 

It’s why the most successful channels, tend to be centered around daily Vlogs. Even channels that start to gain traction through other ways, like product demonstrations and unboxing for example, really take off when the creator of that channel, starts to share the more personal details and let’s the viewers into their lives a bit. 

So, if you’re looking to jump into YouTube, that’s where you should start. Rather than choosing between creating a channel that is topic-centric vs you-centric, put them together! 

It may sound harsh, but if no one knows you and you launch a personal vlog…who’s going to watch? 

No one knows or cares about you at the very onset, but they care about “the actor’s life.” Make it about that and do a vlog to go along with it. 

Document your actor’s life and you will hook the audience that’s searching for content about actors, acting, how to make it as an actor, etc. Then, they will fall in love with you and will follow you to the end. 

A word of warning: be prepared to be genuine, even when it’s uncomfortable. 

So many of us actors sugar coat things and put a positive spin on it, but that comes across as ingenuine. Your audience would rather see you breakdown in tears after being passed over for a role, you were dying to get and thought you were a shoe in for, than see you brag about how you didn’t need that role because you have another 10 audition lined up. 

They would rather see a time lapse of you waiting to read for 3 hours, only to be dismissed by casting after 20 seconds of reading, than see you driving down sunset in a rented sports car. The former connects, later makes them hit next. 

If you watch some of the vlogger’s content, you will see that it comes across as improvised and I don’t know if haphazard is the right word but it’s close enough so let’s go with it. 

However, there is a very clear format to their content, when you pay attention. So, come up with a theme for your channel, I gave you a great example above, but it doesn’t have to be that as long as it relates to acting somehow (think movie reviews, episode recaps, etc.), then plan a format. 

It could be as simple as a different topic each day: Marketing Mondays, Improv Tuesdays, Workout Wednesdays, etc. 

There are so many interesting people around that you can just strike up a conversation with and document it, especially if you’re in the LA area or NYC. Tap someone on the shoulder and you just might run into a fellow actor that will talk your ear off about what they have going on and what they’ve done in their career so far. Many of them will have super interesting stories. 

I still do this all the time (though without a camera)! I once talked to Howie Mandel about the ripeness of cantaloupes at Whole Foods for a couple minutes all the while thinking “this guy has a familiar face.” 

I advised Bernie Mac (RIP) at Best Buy on what headphones he should get for the long flight he was going to be boarding soon. Truthfully I recognized him instantly, but I didn’t want to come off as stalker fan until after I talked to him for a minute lol. 

Look up some channels that are also about the topic you have chosen and model them. Use their same keywords and notice how they write their headlines and which thumbnails get them the most views. 

Above all, start from where you. Remember the equation: Good Content + Attention X Social Proof = YouTube Mastery 

Production quality is nowhere in there (with 1 caveat I’ll get to in a sec but it only applies to those behind the camera). You don’t have to save up for a fancy HD DSLR camera with a Super Lens. You don’t need anything besides the phone in your pocket to shoot, edit, and upload the videos. 

Once you master YouTube, the sky doesn’t even begin to describe the limit! 

You could leverage that attention into major motion pictures like Akwafina, the YouTuber and self proclaimed best Asian Female Rapper. You can catch her in Ocean’s 8 playing a leading role alongside Sandra Bullock, Anne Hathaway, Mindy Kaling, and scores of other superstars. 

With enough attention and social proof, you will inevitably cross over to the “main stream.” 

I’ve given you a couple of solid ideas on how to create good content and if you want to run your ideas by me shoot me an email or leave a comment below. 

The trickiest part about mastering YouTube is getting attention. It goes hand in hand with social proof and they are rather interchangeable. 

You need to have a bit of traction for people to watch your videos. Clicking on a video that has 6 views (if it even shows up in your feed) usually leads to you scrolling to see what else there is. I can help you get the ball rolling and send a guaranteed number of views your way. 

Shoot me an email to find out more. 

Way too many actors have ignored YouTube for too long and it’s starting to leave them behind. Imagine going into an audition and already having a successful channel that shows casting that you are dedicated to your craft and talented. 

Combine this with a solid industry reputation and your career will shoot skyward.

See when you audition for something, the CD is not simply judging you on your talent and how suitable you are for the part. 

They must also take into account, your reliability, work ethic, reputation as I mentioned above, and your marketability. This along with a few other factors make up your castability index. 

It’s why I put this together to help you ensure that your reputation and your castability index match your goals.

A YouTube channel goes hand in hand with this and is the perfect way for you to showcase your talent, work ethic, dedication, and so much more. 

While they will won’t publicly confirm what’s in the works, I have it on good authority that “Web Series” is going to soon be a big factor for IMDb credits and STARmeter rankings. 

So, if you haven’t paid much attention to your IMDb (the world’s #1 place for casting to discover up and coming talent before anyone else) you should check this out. It was created to give you an advantage over what is already steep competition in the industry.

Combine this with mastering YouTube and the career you sometimes didn’t even dare to dream of is yours for the taking. 

See you at the top,
Scott 

P.S. If you also work behind the camera, we can help to boost your MOVIEmeter so that your films get the attention they deserve. Shoot me an email to find out more. 

Remember the production quality caveat that applies to you? YouTube is the perfect place to showcase your skills, Neistat style. Let me know if want to know more about this. 

PART 2: The Ultimate Guide to Making 2019 Your Year to Shine

One week down and only 51 to go in 2019. Honestly, I forget who it was that I first heard this from but it stuck with me. “Most people overestimate what they can do in one year but they underestimate what they can do in 10.” 

I don’t fully agree with that. Because I’ve seen it happen time and time again, I truly believe that you are always only one audition or one booking away from your wildest dreams coming true. 

2019 is already well under way and most of us are back at it, well rested after the holidays. This could be your year to shine, if you play your cards right and follow a step by step plan to get your big break and finally succeed in the industry to the level you know you deserve. 

You know I’m always here to help in everyway I can. Here’s how… 

Last week, we talked about how to get in touch with just about anyone you want in the industry. We also talked about how to layer your performances and deliver an Oscar worthy performance every time. 

Today, in part 2 of this special report, we’ll dive into the mechanics of how to fill your schedule so that you have as much work as you can handle. 

Some actors go from one production to the next, to the next, to the next, while others (who may be just as talented) are sitting at home waiting for the phone to ring. 

What those actors, the ones that go from one production to the next, understand is how to turn one acting job into many. See, the best time to get another job is while you still have one. Not only do they stay in marketing mode, continuing to seek out opportunities while working on a production, they also leave an indelible mark on the current production. 

Think of what happens when the director calls it a wrap. 

Everyone cheers, hugs, high fives, goes out for a drink and then parts ways. Sure, everyone will mingle and deliver the niceties of “it was great working with you I hope that we get to work together again sometime, etc.” 

However, the actors that have mastered how to turn one job into many, know that they must stay Top Of Mind, not to the other actors, but to the production crew, namely the director, the assistant directors, casting, and any production executives they may have met along the way. 

They do things like have a bottle of champagne delivered to the director on the day production is scheduled to wrap, send flowers to the CDs office thanking them for the opportunity to be part of the production, and I’ve even seen an actor deliver Oscar-Like trophies to the crew and executives that read “Best Director, Best Picture, Best Screenplay, Best Ensemble Cast, etc.” 

The more elaborate or thoughtful the gesture, the longer you will stay top of mind. The next time the CD is casting for something you are even remotely a fit for, you will get a call to read for the role. When a director commits to a project that has yet to be cast, they deliver a list of actors they would like to have on the project. 

Guess whose name will be on that list. Screenwriters, will keep you in mind and literally subconsciously write roles that would be a perfect fit for you and ask that you be seen for the role. That’s if you effectively stay Top Of Mind. 

That’s not to say that you have to spend hundreds of dollars getting trophies made. It truly is the thought that counts. Does the director always go for pizza from craft service? Send a pizza and tip the delivery guy a couple bucks to put a note in the box. 

Even a thank you card will go a long way, because hardly anyone in the industry ever sends one. 

Use any excuse to send a card. Send one when the project is finished going through post, send another when the trailer is released, send another when it premieres, another on everyone’s birthday, you get the idea. 

The easiest and fastest way to get another job, is to tap into the network of people you have already worked with. 

Chances are you probably haven’t executed a plan like this so far. That’s ok. Start from where you are. If you recently wrapped something, send some cards. Did you recently go on an audition? Send the casting director a card thanking them for the opportunity to read. 

Were you passed up for the part? That’s ok. Send a card wishing them luck with the project and gratitude for having the opportunity to read. End every communication with an offer to help. 

It could be an offer to make an introduction, join the marketing team and flyer every post on Sundance, anything to stay top of mind. Sometimes they may take you up on the offer to make an introduction. Other times you may be asked to provide feedback for an advanced screening, attend the premier, or even step in for reshoots. 

This is what “paying your dues” is supposed to be like: doing anything and everything to stay top of mind. 

When you go the extra mile, everyone will want to work with you over and over again. Also, consider that a CDs job is to source talent. None of them want to start from scratch every time they are casting. They want to flip their “rolodex” make a few calls, see a handful of actors and call it a day. 

When you knock it out of the park on set (with your performance, your attitude, your work ethic, etc.) the casting office will hear about it and put you on the shortlist for the next project that you may be a fit for. 

This is how you fill up your schedule so you too can go from one production to the next. 

Because most actors know that Casting Directors hold the key to your career, it surprises me to see how few of them make a concentrated effort to build a relationship with CDs and stay Top Of Mind. 

This effort should start from the moment you meet the CD. You should never leave an audition room without first making an unforgettable impression on the CD. 

Remember the goal is to be unforgettable so whatever you do should be out of the ordinary. 

One of the most effective things I heard a member of our tribe do was the palm reading trick. Anytime he walked into an audition, he would enter the room with loads of confidence, walk straight to the Casting Director and shake their hand while introducing himself. 

As he pulled his hand away, he would gasp, turn the CDs hand over (palm side up) and read their palm. Let me be clear, this actor has no known psychic abilities and isn’t particularly skilled or even interested in palm reading. He simply learned a couple of things that palm readers look for and how they interpret them. 

If you adopted this as your way of being unforgettable, no CD would ever forget you. Even if they didn’t believe in palm reading, you would be the talk of the office for the next several days. Follow that up with a thank you card and the memory of you would be forever anchored in their mind. 

The palm reading trick is only one way to become unforgettable. Get creative and think outside the box. I received an email a few months ago from an actor that researches the CD before every audition and sends something ahead of her audition time. 

She once researched a CD and found from her Twitter account that she loved Red Velvet cake from a specific bakery in town. So, she ordered the CD a small red velvet cake, had her (the actor’s) photo printed on the icing along with “see you at 3:30” and had it delivered to the CD. 

The CD was so tickled by this gesture that she was waiting on pins and needles for that actor’s scheduled time to read. She just had to meet the person crazy, yet thoughtful enough, to send her favorite cake. 

The actor was ultimately passed over for the role in that production, but she was now on the CDs radar and was called to read consistently. Not just for her, but the CD also told her colleagues about this actor and they wanted to have her read too. 

She booked more jobs that year than in the previous 4 years combined and to this day, she continues to take on bigger roles in bigger productions, all stemming from that red velvet cake. 

Again, it doesn’t have to be as elaborate a gesture as that. It could be a candy bar with a business card sized headshot and a hand written note. 

Whatever you decide on, as long as it’s witty, funny, ironic, or thoughtful, you can’t go wrong. Don’t try to buy the CD by sending an expensive floral arrangement or concert tickets. It’s offensive and will backfire every time. 

Keep this in mind as we head into pilot season. 

Things can get out of hand pretty quickly if you don’t organize it, so keep track of everyone on a spreadsheet and set reminders of when to send things out on a calendar. 

Something I want to be clear on is that, CDs will still do their research and look into what you have going on. 

In order for anything you do to be effective, you have to make sure that your industry reputation matches your goals. Here’s a quick and easy way to do that.

As humans, we are wired to lead with emotions and back up our actions and decisions with logic. 

The strategies you have discovered in this special report are incredibly effective at accomplishing the emotional appeal and getting your foot in the door. 

That’s only half the battle and you must ensure that you are also the logical choice. So, if you do the first part well, stay Top Of Mind, while also having an outstanding castability index (which is determined largely by this) you will leave Casting Directors no choice but to hire you. 

Once you are on set, follow what I have outlined here to turn one job into many and you will soon find yourself achieving the things you always dreamed of. 

If you are committed to something, it means that you erase any possibility for the opposite to occur. In other words, you go all in, never look back, take the leap and build a plane on your way down. 

So, if you are committed to making 2019 your year to shine, then I want to share with you something that some of the most successful actors in our tribe used to make themselves visible to the industry and put their efforts to “be seen” virtually on auto pilot. 

You can get the details on that here.

Tell me what you will do next grasshopper. What plans and goals have you set for 2019? Most importantly, tell me how I can help you achieve them because my goal for 2019 is to… 

See you at the top,
Scott

The Ultimate Guide to Making 2019 Your Year to Shine!

Alas, another year bites the dust. I am reminded of a new year’s resolution I made this time last year that I’ve since strayed from: brevity! I resolved to keep things brief and get right to the point. 

So, reigniting that resolution, let’s get right into it with a hard question. 

How did 2018 measure up? In other words, how did your career progress compare to your goals? Think about it honestly for a few moments. 

Did you make the kind of progress you wanted to make? Did your progress match your goals, or did you fall insanely short of where you thought you should be at this point in your life? 

One of my mentors constantly reminds me that “next year you will be another year older…” and he usually leaves it open ended like that for my mind to fill in the blanks. This made me realize a long time ago that we can’t approach a new year (or even a new day) with expectations of doing better, without a solid plan in place. 

What I love about ending the year and starting a new one is that I get to measure the progress that our community made through the year and share with you the most powerful strategies of 2018. Check out the one that tops the list here.

If you’ve been with us for the entire year then, you have been exposed to dozens of career changing strategies through the year. Every one of them was carefully vetted and proven to be powerful. 

This special report is the distillation of that, and combined with what I’m going to bribe you with, is about as close to success in pill form as you can get. 

Without further ado, this is The Ultimate Guide to Making 2019 Your Year To Shine!

If you’ve been around Boost My Star for any length of time, you know that I’m a big fan of “compressing time.” Let’s say that, from A to Z, you are starting from A. How do you get to Z as quickly as possible? 

Do that mental exercise real quick…Ready? 

You go to Z! There is no rule stating that you have to go through b, c, d, e, f, etc. That’s what compressing time is all about and one of the ways that you do this in your career is to get in front of people that are already where you want to be (at Z) and have the power to take you there too. 

Fair warning what comes next, is a head slapper. Powerhouse agents, directors, elite CDs, producers, and industry executives are some of the hardest people to reach in the world because everyone is trying to get in touch with them, right? 

Wrong! That’s only the perception. They are in fact some of the easiest to reach people on the planet, if you know how to approach them. By far the easiest way to get in touch with them is to pick up the phone and call them. 

An elite talent agent will field upwards of 200 calls per day. They are accustomed to people calling them! An elite CD will field 100+ calls per day from people looking for talent and from talent looking for projects. They expect to be called too! 

For those that field fewer calls, like A list directors you would do anything to work with, the only people that call them are those that they want to call them. So, if you are calling, the perception is that you are one of those people too. 

It’s a can’t lose scenario, yet not 1 actor in 10,000 will pick up the phone and make a call. My good friend and elite Casting Director, Cheryl, has tested this dozens upon dozens of times. “When actors recognize me while I’m out and about, I give them my number, tell them I want them to read for something, and let them know that I will be expecting their call. They never, ever, call” she says. 

Out of the dozens of times she’s done this over the years, she has received exactly 1 call. There’s a reason why only a fraction of one percent of actors achieve the levels of success they hoped for. To achieve uncommon success, you have to do the uncommon thing: make the call! 

For those actors that are brave enough to make the calls and end up on set, the next part is to deliver a world class performance. I’ve taken every acting class you can imagine, and some weird ones that you probably can’t imagine LOL. 

By far, the most impactful concept I have ever encountered, wasn’t meant for actors at all, yet it’s one of the best tools you can have in your actor’s toolkit. 

It was created by a couple of young, ambitious psychologists at UCLA in 1955. They set out to create a model that would basically explain why people do what they do. 

If you understand why people do what they do, then you can bring your characters to life by understanding why your characters do what they do. This is what “The Johari Window” allows you to do, masterfully. 

Before we get into how to use The Johari Window, I want to be clear on something. This (or any form of acting actually) will only be effective when you understand your character’s place in the world. 

Most of us think in terms of the character arc and how they move through it. In reality, the arc is secondary to the story and your character’s place in the world so to speak is to exist within the story. It is the story that moves your character, not the other way around. Follow me? 

So, when you make use of The Johari Window, you allow the character to be rooted in your subconscious mind and allow the story to move the character, since you are no longer consciously focusing on the actions at hand. 

Stick with me for a sec. 

This is a model of The Johari Window:

Let’s walk through an easy example of a character that is an alcoholic. These character choices are pretty easy to make and one can deliver an OK, one dimensional performance. 

When you run the alcoholic character through The Johari Window, however, you put your performance on steroids and make it Oscar Worthy! 

Before you run it through the model, you have to first do basic character back story, so that you have a platform from which to launch. 

For example, alcohol stimulates blood flow and increases body temperature so your sleeves are likely to be rolled up. You might have balance issues and trip over stuff as you walk across the room. You might even scrunch your eyes from blurred vision. 

You then take those character choices and plot them on the window. Then you can start to add depth to your character. 

For example… 

Is your character’s alcoholism known only to himself? Delivering a performance of an alcoholic that is self aware is very different than delivering a performance for one that is in denial. If your character is in denial (you would plot the alcoholism on the “Not known to self” box) they wouldn’t be worried about monitoring their behavior. 

If the character is self aware, does anyone else know? You will look to the storyline to find that answer. 

Here’s how your performance might be impacted. 

Let’s say your character is self aware but the trait (alcoholism) is not known to others. A one dimensional performance would just have you delivering your lines normally, maybe with a shade of apprehension: like you’re holding a secret. 

Once you run this through the model a whole new world opens up to you. Since your character is aware but no one else is, would you be chewing gum constantly to hide the beer-breath? Would your character be seemingly uncharacteristically able to keep their balance? Wouldn’t your sleeves always be neatly unrolled, so no one would suspect a thing? Would you perhaps powder your neck instead, to absorb moisture from the increased body temperature? 

If your character is actively keeping the secret, would they even drink in front of others, knowing that they couldn’t control themselves and their secret would eventually come out? Would you have some kind of tick, maybe constant finger snapping, from abstaining throughout the day? 

These are the character choices that fill out a performance and cause it to transcend the fourth wall and become real in the mind of the audience. 

You can use this model anytime you feel that your performance is shaky. Dissect your actions within the scene and run it through the model. 

Ask yourself, why does my character feel this way? Is that factor known or unknown to them? Is it known to the others in the scene, is it known to the audience at large. This will immediately layer your performance and make it much more impactful! 

If you’ve been around here for any time at all, you know that I’m a big proponent of getting started before you are ready. So, never leave the site of something without first taking an action on whatever it is that you learned. 

If you have an audition to get ready for, run the character through The Johari Window. 

If you don’t have an audition lined up, take this time to create an opportunity for yourself: make the calls! 

To help with creating opportunities for yourself, I have created something that can put you in front of industry movers and shakers, on auto pilot. You can get the details on that here.

Before you can get booked, you first have to get known. 

The most talented actors on the planet, the ones we all admire, are not 1000X more talented than most of us, but what has made them 1000X more successful is that they understand this concept. 

There’s a reason why they put in 20 hour days on a press junket, take “vacations” only while on set in between work days, and put in massive effort to grow their personal brands and platforms. 

You can do the same, and you have an immense advantage simply by hearing and reading this right now.

You have the ability to compress time and go from A to Z, skipping everything in between, simply be deploying what you have learned in this special report. You have an incredible tool at your disposal now to deliver world class, Oscar worthy performances, without fail. 

All that’s left is what you’re going to do with it. 

Regardless of what you decide to do next, if you want to become a full time actor and reach the success you’ve always dreamed of, you have to ensure that your industry reputation matches your goals.

Most actors don’t even realize this until it’s too late. 

We’ll dive into this and much more in part 2 of The Ultimate Guide to Making 2019 Your Year to Shine! To fully make use of what’s to come in Part 2, you first have to take care of your industry reputation and start putting the pieces together to build your platform by using the tool I mentioned a moment ago. 

Do this first, and then stay tuned because my goal is to… 

See you at the top,
Scott

How to Get More Auditions and Be Booked For Gigs You Actually Want

He was the epitome of taking “the road less traveled by.” 

He was my acting coach and one of the greatest people you would have ever met. I unfortunately attended his funeral a few years back but I was delighted to see hundreds of people, most of them actors and other industry professionals. 

I have made it my mission to document what I learned from him, so that it will be available for actors everywhere. 

For starters, here’s one of the most important and impactful things I learned… 

As actors, we love to work our craft. There’s nothing like the feeling you get from being on stage or in front of the camera. 

However, it’s easy to overlook working on our craft because we are constantly looking for the next set to hop onto. 

While there’s nothing wrong with this and you should absolutely do this every day, that’s only half the equation. The wrong knowledge and talent combined with the right mechanics will yield a terrible result. 

Simply stated, imagine taking a super talented actor, throwing them onstage and telling them to sing any song they chose. What do you think the outcome would be? 

Why? 

Wrong talent, right mechanics (even if the are totally tone deaf and can’t carry a tune whatsoever, everyone knows how to sing a song…some of us are just really bad at it) 

When you couple the right talent with the right mechanics, magic happens! 

My acting coach had a unique ability to teach this. I’ll get to why in a second, but first have you considered why the top .01 of the industry “made it” while many of us spin our wheels for decades, without much progress? 

Here’s what they knew… 

When you couple the right talent, with the right mechanics, and they meet opportunity, the sky doesn’t even begin to describe the limits. There are none! 

My acting coach taught me that I have the right talent, in fact almost everyone is born with the “acting gene,” and he coached me through the right mechanics. 

The second half of the equation is someone like my friend Brian. He can teach you how to create the right opportunity. Getting the opportunity to spend time with someone like him is priceless and for most, it has been. 

I convinced him to share something with you that he has only shared twice before. In his long and illustrious career he has only shared this 2X before in this format and he is going to share it with you on a live and free webinar. 

Obviously, he can’t do this forever, so sign up now while you have the chance. Remember, he has only shared this twice before and I’m not sure when he will do it again, if ever. 

Here’s a little bit of what you will from Brian… 

How to: 

• Stand out in a crowded market – with or without representation 

• Identify the 3 biggest mistakes every actor makes that stop you from gaining traction with the biggest casting directors 

• Discover the easy steps – you didn’t even know existed! – that put you on top of the list (both when you and your representation submits you!) 

• Pitch yourself so you get in on the BIGGEST television, film, and theatre auditions 

• Submit to projects with the confidence that you are getting a fair shot 

• Present a profile to your agent that gets them excited to submit you for the biggest gigs (even if you fear your credits are unimpressive) 

And tons more! 

In fact I’m so confident that you will love what Brian has to say that if you feel like it was a waste of your time, let me know and I’ll give you a free gift as a humble apology. (This would be a free week of BMS, if anyone redeems) 

You already have the “acting gene” and we’ll go over the right mechanics soon, because you have to start working on creating the right opportunity now. 

Find out more by signing up for Brian’s webinar. Do it now while it’s fresh on your mind. 

You know that I only bring you information, tools, and resources that I hope will help me… 

See you at the top,
Scott 

P.S. In case you’re in a hurry and scrolled to the bottom here’s what’s going on: my friend Brian is hosting a live webinar. It costs you nothing and you will learn how to create endless opportunity for yourself as an actor. He’s only doing it for a limited time so sign up now! Remember, when you combine the right talent, with the right mechanics, and the right opportunity (what Brian will teach you) there are no limits to what you can do. 

One Thing All Successful Actors do To Win the Audition Every Time

Think of the auditions that you’ve been on recently, when you were cast for the role. 

Now think of the auditions you went on but were passed over for someone else. 

What was the difference? 

Was it your performance, did you have an off day, were you truly just “not a fit?” What was the reason that you didn’t win the role? 

Most actors are masterful at justifying why they weren’t cast, but the truth is that if you lay the groundwork you should be cast in every production for which you are castable and audition for. 

I know it sounds like a stretch, so let me explain… 

Do you think that if Mark Wahlberg expressed interest in doing a film casting would say “eh, no thanks.” He has laid the ground to be cast in everything for which he is castable. 

This doesn’t mean that you have to be a superstar to make this happen. 

Everyday actors, many with less experience than you might have right now, are making this happen all the time. 

Here’s how… 

First and most important is that they focus only on pursuing roles for which they are a fit. 

Most of us have the mentality that “any audition is a good audition” and this is true to an extent. If you are just starting, by all means go see anyone that will see you. Not only will you get into the groove of audition and build some thick skin along the way, but if you pay close attention and review your wins and you losses after you get the news, then you will pick up on what you did right and what you could have done better. 

For example, early on in my career I had a set of criteria that I would judge myself on, immediately after finishing an audition. 

I would measure from 1-5 my interaction with the Casting Director. Then I would note how I arrived at that number. Did the CD like me? Did she have no interest in learning more about me (which is never a good sign)? 

I evaluated my performance, as objectively as I could, also from 1-5. Would I cast myself? How was my vocal tonality? Did my arms flail about mindlessly? 

I had at least 10 different categories that I evaluated immediately after leaving the audition, sometimes more. 

Just about every successful actor that I’ve ever met has had a similar system in place. Some of them did it in their head. Others made voice memos in their iPhone recounting how the audition went. 

The most successful of them wrote it down and had a rigid framework for what to measure and why they measured it that way. 

It’s not enough to just mentally go over it in your head over and over again. 

See, when you write it down, not only do you commit it further into memory, but you can also review it when you get the news about whether you were selected for the role or not. 

Personally, I kept my evaluation sheets filed away in a 3 ring binder. Every time I got news that I won the role, I went to the binder flipped through to the sheet for that audition, read it and then filed it behind a green divider. 

Every time I got news that I was passed over, I went to the binder again, flipped to find the sheet for that audition, read it and then filed it behind a red divider. 

Over time it became sort of a playbook for auditioning. I could comb through the green sheets and look for the trends. 

For example, almost every time I won the role, I had a great interaction the CD and of course delivered a 4 or 5 on the performance scale. I noticed that nearly every time, my vocal tonality was on point. 

So, I focused on that whenever I went into an audition. 

I came up with all kinds of ways to ethically charm the CDs and make myself unforgettable to them. 

My results got even better and my casting percentage went through the roof. I then focused on really honing in on my vocal tonality. I immersed myself in real world applications of tonality. I found that acting classes weren’t as helpful with this as I had hoped, because they were situational. 

Toastmasters and Dale Carnegie courses were much better for working on tonality because they focused on real world scenarios, and that’s the feel you want your performances to have: real world. 

I mastered tonality and my casting percentage skyrocketed. 

I’m far from being the only one. If you study actors that have achieved the kind of success that you want to achieve, you will pick up on this too. 

They may not all have the same system, but they will have variants of a system like this. When you start to consider what you want your system to look like just be sure that it has elements that are clearly defined and that you can measure objectively. 

You should also be doing this on set. This one will be a little bit less objective but it’s just as important. With auditions you can measure the outcome: cast or not cast. 

On set, scenes are seldom composed of a single take. Often they are made up of multiple takes. If you do 4 takes to get a scene, chances are, pieces of all 4 of those takes will be used in post. 

Pick apart a take of the scene as a whole and evaluate it using criteria that are also clearly defined and that you can measure objectively. For example, you can measure your vocal tonality, whether you were in your character or in your head (on a scale of 1-5), etc. 

File your “good performance sheets” and your “not so good performance sheets” just as you did your audition sheets, and review them before the start of a shoot day. Review them before you step on set and at the end of the day. 

Over time you will be able to subcategorize them based on the type of scene. 

The key to making this all work is getting enough auditions to so that you can gather data. To do that you have to make sure that your industry reputation matches your goals. Here’s a quick fix for that.

If you rely on your agent to get you auditions, you are not fully leveraging your industry opportunities. In the end no one is as invested in your career as you are, and that means you have to take responsibility for your success and make yourself visible to the industry. 

As actors we have a thousand and one things going on at any given time so it’s easy for things like this to fall by the wayside. 

Keep in mind that even if you build the best review system in the world and are gung ho about putting it to use as soon as your next audition, it doesn’t matter…if you don’t have one. 

So, whether you are self representing, have an agent, or ideally doing both, this will at least give you a leg to stand on when you pursue opportunities.

Put your review sheet together right now, before you need it, so that when your next audition rolls around (and if you do the above it should be sooner rather than later) you can put it to use. 

Feel free to send it over in an email if you would like me to give it a look. After all, my goal is to… 

See you at the top,
Scott