Y’all know I’m a huge fan of mentoring. Connecting the spaces between people at other tiers in this industry makes a large, harsh, overcrowded place sometimes feel more small, loving, and intimate. I’m all for that. But one of the things that happens when you ask for — and get — help from a tier above is that you get to (or have to) work much, much harder than you ever imagined.

Of course, that’s not always the case. There’s the type of help that is informative but not terribly hands-on (“Here’s a link to a resource. Hope this helps.” “Let me loan you a book that helped me when I was where you are, in my career.” “You should consider taking a class in this.”) and general in nature. This is the type of help a lot of folks who are bombarded with very general requests for help tend to offer. (Actors who’ve only read one or two of my columns will get a reply — if I get around to answering their emails at all — that provides links to reading that will get them headed in the right direction, along with an invitation to reply with very specific follow-up questions, after that baseline of research has taken place.)

The type of help I’m addressing in this week’s column is the kind that involves a tier jump for you, if you accept the help as the “yes, and…” it really is. This is the kind of help that involves a huge amount of work on your part too because it’s from someone who is driving at a higher gear than you are, and you need to get a running start to change gears from where you are to where they are (or to the gear between where you are and where they are, if the person offering the help is several tiers/gears above).

I love this kind of help, because it feels like a hustle. It feels like a ready-to-pounce hunting cat’s “butt twitch.” It’s filled with energy and passion and WORK that may make your brain ache, at first, but that leaves you a better person in a better place, for having done the work.

You’ve been developing a pilot and you reach out to a showrunner. If this very busy person has time to mentor you at all, you’re going to be told to get your work in front of staged reading groups that the industry keeps a collective eye on. You’re going to be encouraged to attend WGA Foundation workshops to be sure you’re not making newbie mistakes. You’re going to hear a list of script contests you should enter, because they offer feedback from industry pros as a part of the process. You’re going to get deadlines for turning in various acts in your script and chunks of your show bible for them to critique. You’re probably approaching this person because you’re hoping for an introduction to an agent or an arranging of a meeting at network to pitch your pilot. What you’re going to get (if anything — again, this guy is really busy) is homework. And you need it. It’s what’s a part of the everyday life of the person looking to tier jump from where you are to where you’re hoping to head.

You’ve got a great film that you’re trying to get from the festival circuit to the major awards circuit and you reach out to a publicist. If this person takes on à la carte clients and has room for you right now, you’re going to be told to create press kits and get them out in front of the most powerful people in the industry and in the media. You’re going to be encouraged to network with Academy voters and voter-adjacent people. You’re going to be given tasks involved in creating a huge industry screening to increase buzz for your project and you’ll be asked to open up your contacts file to ask for every favor you never thought you’d need to request. If you thought you were going to be given an all-access pass to red carpets all over town, you misunderstood the “help” that comes at the next tier. It takes a ridiculous amount of work to even connect with the people who may invite you to the next tier. Prove you’re ready. Twitch that cat butt!

You’re an actor looking for your SAG card or an introduction to an agent. You reach out to a friend in a position to help you with both. You’re given an assignment of producing your own project so you can Taft-Hartley yourself. You’re provided with a strategy for targeting the best possible agents and managers for who you are, where you are, and what you need to target. Instead of looking at any of that as a reason to bitch about how you’re not being helped, see it as a lesson in “how to fish” so that you have the tools that put you a tier above — every time you’re actually ready for that tier jump.

Bonnie Gillespie is living her dreams by helping others figure out how to live theirs. Wanna work with Bon? Start here. Thanks!

Originally published by Actors Access at http://more.showfax.com/columns/avoice/archives/001267.html. Please support the many wonderful resources provided by the Breakdown Services family. This posting is the author’s personal archive.