Things I say all the time: Your headshot is not a photograph; it’s a marketing tool. Your demo reel is the trailer for the feature that is YOU. Your website should make me feel like I’m sitting down with you as I visit it. Your cover letter’s mission is not to get you representation; it’s to get you a meeting. And, my favorite: Your resumé is not a list of everything you’ve ever done; it’s a recipe for how to cast you next.
With all of these handy lines I’ve been saying forever, the core truth is this: If you look at each element of your marketing arsenal as an INGREDIENT and think about your goal of crafting a very specific recipe (getting cast in a specific project, getting repped by a specific agent or manager, getting a meeting with a specific showrunner or producer), stripping away the ingredients that DON’T help you complete the proper recipe becomes easy.
That string of hosting clips you keep on your demo reel? Y’know, the demo reel you show to casting directors who DON’T cast hosts? That’s like a delicious pineapple that you’re not gonna layer into your zucchini lasagna.
Those stills from stage plays all over your website? Y’know, the website to which you keep sending on-camera agents, hoping they’ll sign you for pilot season rather than worrying you won’t be available for TV due to your theatre company’s rehearsal schedule? Those are marcona almonds that you’ll never use to top your chicken nachos.
And the print modeling credits you’ve listed on your resumé? That resumé you dutifully send out to score acting — not modeling — gigs? Welp, those would be capers you’re never gonna use to top your delicious tiramisu.
It’s not that those ingredients suck. In fact, they’re delightful ingredients — in other recipes. In the recipes you’re using in an attempt to create specific dishes, they are a disaster, or — at the very least — the dishes don’t end up tasting the way you intended.
Think about the agent you’ll attract if your tools are scattered, unfocused, not leading the agent down the path to understanding *exactly* how to market you.
Compare that with the agent you’ll attract if your tools leave zero question about where you’re headed next.
Sure, your tools are just a small part of the complete meal you’ll serve up. The ingredients make up the individual dishes, but your talent, professionalism, and charm brings it all together and turns it into an experience the guests will never forget.
Do me a favor in these last days of 2013: Review each of the ingredients that work their way into the dishes you’ve created (that headshot, that reel, that website, that cover letter, that resumé) and determine their “rightness” for the dinner party you’re ultimately hoping to craft.
Know that the asparagus doesn’t feel bad when it’s left out of a certain dish. Lose attachment to the ingredients you omit from these particular recipes. And confidently go forward with having a 2014 that COOKS!
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/001760.html. Please support the many wonderful resources provided by the Breakdown Services family. This posting is the author’s personal archive.