Last week’s “It’s All Just Data” churned up a lot of feedback! Here are three of my favorite bits of it, to share. 🙂
“And once those patterns emerge, amazingly, you’ll find they confirm much of what your gut was telling you all along about how to feel about who you are in this world.”
^^^
Love this. It’s very true of the patterns that I see emerging through all of my research.
Thanks, Bonnie!
xx
Merkel
Thanks, Merkel. The fun part is, over the years, it’s become incredibly clear that this is how it works. Exactly how it works. The patterns confirm the gut instinct we had all along, but that we pushed aside due to self-doubt or due to seeing “everyone else” doing something a certain way. Ah… if we could JUST start out believing in ourselves, huh? Ah well… this way works too. 😉
Next email:
Hi Bonnie!
Just a super quick note from me to say thank you (once again). I’ve been collecting info from all sorts of folks on my type and brand. I sat down with everything I’d collected so far (using the SMFA Master Type List) this past weekend, to see what I had. Well, without quite realizing it, I had begun to judge that information… and then, oh boy, I was letting it judge me.
I got A LOT of “cheerful,” “happy,” “honest,” and “helpful.” I’d actually begun to get mad, get my feelings hurt, and get myself in a funk. I’m mean, grouchy, sarcastic! Ha! I was feeling irritated because people actually see me as happy and cheerful. So… now I take a step back and rethink this… and re-read your latest article.
The first unofficial SMFA Atlanta meetup is tomorrow night! Thanks for inspiring us to get that going!
Best Wishes,
Jennifer Baskette-Ridings
Ah! I love that, Jennifer! Thank you for sharing it all with me. That your results were rubbing you the wrong way is just a gorgeous bit of irony for the brand you embody. Love it! And love that you’re coming from a more empowered place thanks to last week’s article on how to reframe it. Yay!
Super thrilled that y’all (must use Y’ALL here) created an Atlanta-area group for working on the Self-Management for Actors principles and I am inspired that groups are springing up all over the world (running list of the regional SMFA groups here, in the main SMFA Facebook group). That you’re meeting regularly with other business-minded rockstars to focus on the business side of your craft is just awesome!
Keep sharing photos from your gatherings! I love them… and y’all, of course!
Final email for this week:
Hi Bonnie!
I just read your “Data” article and wanted to tell you how relieved I am to know you’re a math-ey! I am too — with all the definitive answers opposed to the subjective ones. Thank you for helping me know that my creative and geeky sides can coexist.
As far as researching goes, I’m the *quintessential* researcher. I always have been. I researched how to run a business and then how to start and run a nonprofit, and started a theatre company that was never in the red — yes, I’m a little proud of that — and that knowledge helps me self-produce my own content now. 🙂
The problem I am having lately is finding who is booking what. I only this weekend found that one of my peers booked a couple of roles that I auditioned for (and I actually received feedback that it was between me and one other). It drives me a little bonkers not being able to assess who is booking what and, thus, where they are (agency).
I LOVE my agent. No, I mean I really LOOOOVE my agency. There is nothing more I could ask for in an agent, and I am one of the lucky ones. So it’s not that I want to know what other agencies are booking in order to leave the one I have, but, more specifically, what agencies actors are booking more from certain CDs and how can that be tapped into. Just like what you said in your article. They all used to post who booked what show on Facebook, now the whole region has stopped that practice, KILLING MY CHANCES FOR DATA, and I feel out of the loop.
I market myself. I self-manage. I have Bon-ified myself and know that I am on the right train… I just prefer to know my — and everyone else’s — itinerary!
How can we find the data we need if it is now guarded like state secrets?
Yours in data,
A researcher without a path of data to follow
PS — Please excuse all the prepositional endings! LOL
So, first off, YAY fellow mathlete! Ain’t stats grand? 😉
Next, it’s not that you can’t track these castings anymore… it’s that you can’t track them as quickly as you used to. Yes, when agents were sharing on social media about their clients’ bookings, you could see the updates in real-time, pretty much. Some reps are sharing bookings with Kabookit, so keep an eye on that site, for sure.
But your good ol’ buddy IMDb-Pro still lists cast members (use iSpot.tv for commercials) and of course consuming the episode, the film, the commercial, the webseries, etc., will allow you to see for yourself who booked. No, not as efficient as being at a particular rep’s Facebook page or Twitter feed and reading up on it all at once, but still do-able and the data’s still good (just slower coming together).
Try that for a few months and lemmeknow how it’s going. Also note that social sharing has a seasonal rhythm to it. While pilot season may cause some reps to be tight-lipped about bookings ’til it’s clear the series is a GO, you can bet there will be press releases going out at that point (so keep those Google Alerts fired up).
Ninja on!
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/001931.html. Please support the many wonderful resources provided by the Breakdown Services family. This posting is the author’s personal archive.