by Dallas Travers

We’ve all heard the old line in this business, “It’s all about who you know.” I believe that it’s less about who you know and more about how well you know them. One key to success is powerful relationships. So, here are eight simple tips to help you strengthen your professional relationships.

1. ADD VALUE

Be willing to help others. Listen well. Go see your friends’ shows. Show up on time and stay through the end. Send thank you cards. Remember birthdays. Offer help and support. Tell others about a great book you’re reading or a fantastic restaurant you enjoyed. Participate because you want to, not because you have to. Share your ideas, resources and time. The Tao of Show Business involves a natural flow, so if you are unwilling to give things away, you actually block the natural flow of things. How can you expect people to help you when you don’t first help others? Don’t be the person who only contacts others when you need a favor. Stay in consistent communication so asking for help is no big deal, and receiving it is easy. Add value and increase the value of your day-to-day life.

2. BE AUTHENTIC

Stop worrying about what New York casting directors or agents are looking for. They’re looking for you, so just be yourself. Be authentically you, so that you will easily find your people. Be you and make everyone’s job a little easier. My client, Justine, got fired from her fourth agent in about four years. Not because she couldn’t act or even because her résumé was weak. Justine left the wrong impression with her agents every time she met with a new one.

You see, Justine is really quirky and kinda clumsy. She’s adorably neurotic and very marketable. Yet Justine figured the best way to take an agent meeting was to arrive all buttoned up and proper. That’s what she did and agents got the message, so these same people continued to send her out on auditions for uptight professional types; the opposite of who Justine really is. It’s no wonder she couldn’t keep an agent. Justine wasn’t her authentic self and therefore wasn’t making the right match. As soon as she allowed herself to be her true self, she found the right agent who found the right auditions and Justine started booking like crazy. Be authentically you. Nobody else does you like you do!

3. EMBRACE THE POWER OF TEAMWORK

Share your passion and talent with the people in your life and encourage them to do the same. John Paul Getty once said that he would rather have 1% of the effort of 100 men than 100% of his own effort. You do not have to take this journey on your own. You can enlist the support, feedback and resources of others to make things happen more efficiently and effectively. Force yourself to ask for help and be the first to offer it. Be willing to ask questions and open to receiving honest, constructive feedback. Connect people together. What better way to strengthen your team than to connect your people together! Think about the people you know and identify who they should know and why. Make introductions to support the Collaborators in your life and tie your separate circles together while you’re at it.

4. EXPECT NOTHING

As cool as it would be to control everyone around you, that’s just not the way it works. You can only control your own actions, so let go of any expectations you may have about who should do what and how things should all go. Don’t keep score. Be responsible for your own needs and wants. Focus on you and do the things that inspire you or make you feel good. Take action because you want to, not because you have to. Release your need to be in charge and be open to any possibility. Surprise yourself.

5. LISTEN MORE AND TALK LESS

The best conversationalists are those people who listen more than they speak. Pay attention to what’s going on. Observe others and learn from their successes as well as their mistakes. Make others feel appreciated because you listen to what they have to say. Even if you’ve heard it all before, always bring new ears and eyes to every situation in order to learn. That’s how you get better.

6. FOLLOW UP AND FOLLOW THROUGH

Stay in touch. Don’t leave things unfinished and be mindful enough not to over-commit. Do what you say you will and communicate openly. Be honest. Don’t be flakey. Show up when you say you will. Answer your phone and return phone calls quickly. Actively participate in your career and keep your word.

7. TURN YOUR COMPLAINTS INTO REQUESTS

Stop moaning and make change. If your scene partner isn’t pulling her weight, don’t complain about it. Look for creative solutions and constructive ways to create new results, encourage new behaviors, or completely change your relationship. Crying won’t get you anywhere, so be a part of the solution rather than the problem. If you cannot turn your complaint into a request, you have nothing to complain about.

8. BE COOL

The only power to be had exists in the present moment. Don’t worry about what happened last week, about what you forgot to do, or where you dropped the ball. Stop worrying about the future, wondering about whether or not you’ll get that callback or if your agent is really working hard on your behalf. You cannot change the past and you can’t predict the future, so just be cool and stay present.

Respected as one of the entertainment industry’s leading experts, Dallas Travers teaches actors the career and life skills often left out of traditional training programs. Her groundbreaking book, The Tao of Show Business, has won over five awards including first prizes at The Hollywood Book Festival and the London Festival along with the National Indie Excellence Award. She has helped thousands of actors to increase their auditions, produce their own projects, secure representation and book roles in film and television.

If you’re ready to jump-start your acting career, get your FREE Thriving Artist Starter Kit now at www.dallastravers.com.

In today’s ever-changing market, every working actor needs a website for their acting business.  Trying to perform in NYC with any regularity? A website offers a fantastic tool for you to be able to showcase instantly to agents, casting directors and the industry who you are as an actor, what’s unique about you and what you do as talent.  But if you’ve never had a website, where do you start?  When do you need one?  Should you pay to have someone build you one?  What needs to be on your website?

First off, if you’re a working actor you NEED a website.  It’s important that you are searchable via the web (Google, Yahoo, Bing etc).   With a website, you can control the content and how you’re pitching yourself as a performer.  You also want to make sure that everything you’re putting on the web is material that you would want the Industry to see.  Anything that you might be embarrassed by i.e. Facebook postings, Youtube videos etc. you want to remove instantly.   I also think that if you’re currently using Facebook for your business of acting that the page you are using is solely for that purpose.  Keep your private life separated from your business life.

Start a Website

In starting a website, first you need to look at do you have the time and technical skills to build one or do you want to have a web designer or company create one for you.  If you can operate a computer and know programs like Microsoft Word, you can actually build your own website for FREE using online resources like Moonfruit or Wix.  In using their services for free, ads will be placed on your website.  If you don’t want the ads, you can upgrade for a very low fee.

If you don’t have time to build your website or you’re not tech savvy, I recommend Reproductions and ActorWebs as two outstanding and reasonably priced companies that specialize in building websites for actors.

Once you’ve determined which way you want to go, you will need to purchase your domain name from a company like GoDaddy.com.  Your domain name should be YourName.com or close to it i.e. Your-Name.com, YourNameNY.com etc.  Once you’ve purchased your domain name, you will attach it to your completed website or give the information to your design company and they will do it for you.

Content and Examples

As far as the content of your acting website, you can start off with something basic that includes your homepage, a photo gallery page, a resume page and a contact page.  From there you should add demo pages/clip pages.  If you need references, look at actors websites who you know or name actors.

Here are some examples:

LoriHammel.com

ChristineEbersole.com

DannyGurwin.com

The most important step is to start gathering the materials that you want to use to SHOWCASE yourself and begin the process!  Break a leg!

Here’s a great interview with one of our Actors Connection Voice Over teachers Maggie Phillips.  Maggie has been a professional actor since she graduated from high school.  Although Maggie is also a member of SAG and Equity, her first union card was AFTRA—which she received when casted in a principal commercial role for a local supermarket in her home town of Philadelphia.  Maggie works in all three jurisdictions, but proudly speaks of AFTRA being her first and her parent union.

The Actors Fund Work Program (AWP) supports its participants in identifying and finding meaningful work to complement their industry career or for a new career.

The following is an interview with Maggie, conducted by Kathy Schrier, the Director of The Actors Fund Work Program at our New York acting school.

Kathy Schrier:  How did you get involved in acting?

Maggie Phillips:  During my sophomore year in high school, I went on a field trip to the Philadelphia Academy of Music where Clare Bloom was doing A Doll’s House. Although our seats were in the heavens, when Ms. Bloom came on stage and did the tarantella-I was hooked.   I knew I would also be an actor.  During the rest of my high school years I acted in both straight plays and musical theater.  I also was committed to teaching from a young age, and went on to get a BS degree from Villanova University, majoring in theater communication education.

Kathy Schrier: I know you have committed a lot of time to your unions.  Why?

Maggie Phillips:  My dad was a union guy.  He worked for Ma Bell as a repair person, and was very active in his union.  I knew from a young age that workers needed representation and the importance of worker solidarity.   I also knew dating from my first AFTRA job, that actors are workers and also need a union.

Kathy Schrier:  How did you hear about AWP?  When did you come and why?

Maggie Phillips:  How did I hear about AWP-the way most of us do—through another actor!  I came to AWP in 2000 it was during the SAG commercial strike; of course this meant that I would/ could not take SAG jurisdiction work.  By this time, I had an established stage and voiceover career and quite frankly doing well financially. However, I knew that the issues that led to the 2000 strike were indicative of a changing business, and it would never be the same.    By 2000, cable had become a strong player in the broadcast industry, creating new union challenges.  Ironically, my dad’s union faced similar issues with the growth of wireless communication.  Since Regan fired the PATCO worker in 1981, we have seen a decrease in unionization in this country making it difficult for all unions, including the entertainment industry unions, to organize in the new economy.

Kathy Schrier:  What has AWP done for you?

Maggie Phillips:  Besides being an actor, I have also taught and coached acting, voice and speech privately, and on a secondary and college level.  When I first came to AWP, I thought I needed help on how to build upon that experience.  Working with my career counselor, I identified an interest in working with non-native English speakers, and took a course at Baruch College.  I was actually hired immediately after finishing, to teach English to Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) at Baruch.

Kathy Schrier:  I know that you did other work with your AWP career counselor and participated in the “On the Fence Group” tell me about that.

Maggie Phillips:  About four years ago, I was seriously thinking about leaving the business and becoming a speech therapist.  With support from my career counselor, I began doing research, and she recommended my participation in “On the Fence””-an Actors Fund workshop for entertainment industry professionals with established careers who are considering a full career change.    My participation got me “off the fence” and gave me a vigorous renewed commitment to the industry and my work as an actor.  Ironically, after my participation in On the Fence, I saw an increase in my acting work.

Kathy Schrier:  I know you have gotten work through AWP as a fair housing tester and working on local political campaigns.  What skills from acting do you bring to this work?  How has this work affected your work as a union activist?

Maggie Phillips:  The only people working for the Fair Housing Justice Center as testers are actors who are members and were referred through AWP.  As testers, we are “acting” as potential renters or buyers with a specific set of given circumstances.    Although all of my acting skills come into play—remaining calm and centered, staying in character, utilizing observation and listening skills, and improvisational techniques there is one major difference.  This work is not fiction and my ability to obtain accurate non-prejudicial information has given critical support to those who have been victims of housing discrimination.  Also, through AWP I have been paid staff on several local political campaigns.  What I like best about this work, is educating the public about the issues facing our city.  My strong communication and observation skills as well as my commitment to making New York City even a better place to live, has made this great complementary work to my acting gigs

I see all this work as an extension of my commitment to the labor movement.  I got involved in the union because I believe that actors need to have decent and fair wages, hours and working conditions; as a fair housing tester, I do similar work for those seeking housing.

Kathy Schrier:  Any last comments?

Maggie Phillips:  What is great about AWP and the work it has provided to me it both complements my acting work in terms of scheduling flexibility, but it also allows me to utilize all my acting chops in work that I love and is important to me and the broader society.   All professional actors need AFTRA and The Actors Fund!

The Actors Fund is a national human service organization that helps all professionals in performing arts and entertainment.  The Fund is a safety net, providing programs and services for those who are in need, crisis or transition.  For more information call 212. 221 7300- or visit www.actorsfund.org.

To learn more about our upcoming voice over classes in New York, click on the Classes tab at the top of this page.

To perform in NYC, you need to perfect your self-promotion tools.

Jessica Myhr is one of NY’s top stylist who works with some of NY and LA’s finest photographers to get the very best looks for each actor in their headshots.  Her clients work with her prior to shooting a session and their sessions are always extremely specific. The clothing and colors support and enhance each look without looking pushed.

When you meet a client, how does that first impression guide you?

Before I take on a client, I usually meet with him or her to do an initial consultation, to determine whether I can help that particular client achieve their goals and get a sense of their essence as a person.  First impressions in our industry are very important, because as an actor you sometimes have less than two minutes to not only do your work in the room, but leave the room with an impression of yourself, hopefully, something strong, memorable and authentic. When I see a client for the first time, I cannot help but assess them – What kind of energy do they have?
What would I cast them in? How do I categorize what they are wearing?  And ultimately, does their look, essence and the roles they play match up? Usually, there is some disconnect in one of these areas which brought them to me in the first place. My job is to help the client achieve clarity- that who they want to be and what roles they want to play- become inherent in their image and style.

When color took over headshots, did you see that as a major advantage, or has it become a competition between who has the brightest shirt on?

I do see color as an advantage, especially for actors pursuing film and television. The medium is in color and it makes sense that we can see actors as true to their likeness as possible. Theatre has more range, in my opinion, and therefore more imagination with look and how image can be altered. TV moves so quickly, from the casting to the shooting process, that there isn’t the same amount of time, it is more of a “what you see is what you get” kind of medium. Initially, I do think getting a color headshot was focused on popping bold colors to attract attention. And to some extent still, actors think if they wear a bright colored shirt, they will look better on camera and in photographs. This is not accurate and can be very distracting if it is not a color that makes the actor look their best. When I work with my clients, I do a specific color test to analyze what palette of colors truly make the actor look amazing and draw us to them personally, not just the color itself.

Are your clients skeptical of the process at all? Do you get “Why do I need this?” If so, why do they?

Yes, I think in this business a lot of people prey on the gullibility of actors. They should be skeptical. Most of the clients that come to me know that something isn’t working; whether it is picking out a great audition outfit, prepping appropriately for a headshot session, or working on their image as a brand. They come to realize after a few sessions with me that their image is vital to working as an actor and communicating accurately what they are selling. What is an actor’s business card? A headshot. We are not just names on a card, but an image is associated with our name. Our image IS our product before people in the business can identify our work as artists. If you are confused about what your image is saying in the room, it’s time to do some homework, like any smart company would and devise some strategies about where you want to be.  I tell many of my clients, the one thing you can control in the audition room is your image…what do you want it to say?

If you are interested in working with Jessica, contact her at:
jessica@inherentstyle.com