I talk, in my classes, about how targeting your buyers is like threading the needle. If you’re a nonunion, new-to-town, blonde in her 20s, and you’re targeting series regular roles on any network sitcom, you are attempting to thread the tiniest eye of the tiniest needle with the biggest, bulkiest piece of yarn on the planet.

If you’re a co-star level actor with good training, mid-40s everyman, and you’re targeting an agency that’s among “The Big Ten,” your thread may be a little thinner, but you’re still trying to thread it through a tiny needle’s very narrow eye.

The goal, in targeting, is to come up with where you are the thinnest piece of thread and you’re aiming for an eye of a needle through which that thread can be navigated. Notice I didn’t say, “easily navigated.” The goal is not to grab a huge needlepoint needle and come at its eye with a tiny sliver of thread. Boring! That’s hoping you get cast in a one-scene role in a community theatre production of a play your dad wrote. And that’s not why we got into this business, is it?

So, I guess this is a super-short column this week, to remind you to be realistic as you set your targets (a process I’ve detailed at length, before). If you keep hearing you would be great as a co-star on a show that shoots in Vancouver but you aren’t legal to work there, even if it’s the best-fit show for you EVER, that’s a narrow eye and you’re a bulky piece of yarn.

That doesn’t mean you take it off your target list! It just means you shop around for better fits, as your first targets. 🙂 Your mission: Revisit your target list and check for the needles that are too easy to thread, the ones that are too snug a fit (for now), and which ones your energy should be primarily focused upon.

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/001491.html. Please support the many wonderful resources provided by the Breakdown Services family. This posting is the author’s personal archive.