Thinking it’s best to just wing it in your acting career and not have an actor business plan?
Let me ask you this….
- Do you think Starbucks just decided by chance one day to also sell sandwiches with its coffee and tea?
- Do you think FedEx randomly chose its logo?
- Do you think Disney+ didn’t plan its launch and marketing strategies?
- Do you think these huge companies left their futures up to fate?
Oh, hell no! No successful company haphazardly make decisions.
Yet actors do it all the time! Making decisions with no rhyme or reason and leaving things up to fate.
That is not the way to have longevity in this business and to ensure that you’re creating the career you ACTUALLY want.
Sooo… do you make career decisions without having your actor’s business plan in place?
Here’s What NOT Having An Actor Business Plan Looks Like
Choosing to do sides at a casting director workshop because someone gave them to you… as opposed to knowing your materials reflect your Brand, and taking into consideration how you’re positioning yourself in the industry.
Choosing to wear a particular shirt for your on-camera audition because you like it… as opposed to knowing it makes you pop and captures your essence.
Choosing to do a web series for free… as opposed to understanding how it fits into the bigger picture of what you want and where you’re going.
From this day forward, I decree that every decision you make for your career must fit within your actor business plan.
So, how do you do that? Well, first off….
What the Heck is an Actor Business Plan?
Your actor business plan is everything. It is your timeline, your outline, the vision you have for your career.
It’s giving yourself a path to get exactly what you want and it will put you on the trajectory to do so!
Without one, you will most definitely end up in someone else’s plan.
I had a client Kelly in NY and she had set a one-year goal of landing a commercial agent. This one part of her plan. The year came to a close and we had a one on one session and she said: “I didn’t hit my goal.”
I asked her what did happen and she said – “Well I booked, 6 commercials, 2 print jobs and an industrial.”
That is not a failure in my book at all! Now she had a body of work to entice an agent. Within 3 months, she got that commercial agent after all.
With no plan, I’m not sure if any of that would’ve happened.
A goal without a plan is merely a wish.
And no, you can’t predict the future, but I’d rather plan for my success then hope and pray.
What I find happens with actors is this – You feel it’s hard to make a choice about what to focus on.
Can you relate?
I get it. How can you make a choice, if you’re confused on what serves you best! This is at the very foundation of your actor business plan.
Creating Your Actor Business Plan
Your actor plan has three parts – a Reason, Purpose, and Strategy. If it doesn’t, you’re leaving your acting career up to fate!
REASON – The basis of your plan uses your intellect.
This is your mind. Why must you do a particular thing? Why it is a smart business move?
Examples:
I will take this non-paying showcase because half the cast has agents who will come to the show, and my goal is to get an agent this year.
I need Brand-centric footage for my reel, so I’ll take this non-paying role in this grad thesis film because it’s exactly the type of work I want to do.
I got my colors down! I know this shade of blue makes me pop, so this is the shirt I will wear to my commercial audition.
PURPOSE: Your plan must give you a sense of purpose.
This is your intuition and instinct. How does this feed into your passion and your vision for your life? Allowing your gut to determine why you feel this particular way is the best course of action.
Examples:
I am burnt out with auditions so doing this Shakespeare play will feed my soul to keep me sane.
I will take an improv class at the Groundlings so I can experience more freedom, and ease into my auditions and my life.
I love this writer and have worked with her before, and even though this gig is for very low pay, I have to speak her words and continue to cultivate this relationship—I know this writer is going places, I feel it!
STRATEGY: Your plan must dictate your course of action.
What is the strategy you must implement in order to make this particular goal or project a reality? Nothing will happen, no movement toward your goal will occur, without a strategy.
How Do You Create Your Actor Business Plan?
Going to deeper into strategy – how do you create a strategy for your acting career?
Here are my 5 steps to do just that:
- First, you get to decide what is in alignment with your reason and purpose. What is it you want?
- Choose a one year goal that motivates the heck out of you!
- Then you get to make your goal measurable by breaking down that larger goal into small monthly goals to achieve along the way to the big goal. These are your milestones. They will allow you to see progress and keep you on track!
In order to arrive at the destination (your goal), there are lots of things that get to occur. It’s the culmination of all those milestones that add up to the goal. - Make sure you’re in control of all your milestones. For example, if you’re an actor looking for that agent, a good monthly milestone would be:
Meet and audition for 3 new casting directors INSTEAD OF book a co-star role on TV.
The first you are completely in control of. The latter you are not. - When you’re scheduling your tasks for the week, you use your milestones to know what you get to do. Your milestones support you in staying focused on the big picture AND breaking things down into daily actionable tasks for your actor plan.
No one is going to give a structure to your acting career but you. Not your agent, not your manager, not your mom – YOU!
If you want to create your own success and stop living at the whim of the industry, this is the way to do it.
Reason, Purpose & Strategy Must Be Your Mantra
You’ll never go wrong when you make Reason, Purpose & Strategy your success mantra.
So, when you’re ready to build your actor plan or the next time you’re faced with a decision, ask yourself, “What is my Reason, Purpose, Strategy?”
Your greatest power is your power of choice.
In the absence of your own intentional choice, life will make a default choice for you. And therefore a default plan.
Don’t you want to be in control of your career? I know you do.
Please, whatever you do—have an actor plan. Don’t leave things up to fate and don’t be afraid to take risks.
The first step in your actor plan should be knowing who you are. Click here to read about my The Actor’s Branding System. If you don’t know who you are, how can you even craft a plan to get there?
Come on over and share your journey in my Facebook group The Actor’s Workspace.
