Actors: Create Authentic Relationships with Casting.

Try going on vacation… you will get auditions. 

It’s true. 

I just declined 3 appointments this past week. 

(To be fair, I’ve been declining a number of appointments as I am still slowly stepping back from acting. 

I am not sharing abt declining appointments to brag. There are reasons why I am getting these auditions when I have put little work into my career for the past two years. Yup. No emails to casting and no LA agent. Haven’t had one for awhile… 

Why am I still getting auditions? It’s because of the work I did for FIVE YEARS prior to that. 

For those five years I –

1. Did good work as an actor.

2. I nurtured my relationships. 

3. Rinse & repeat.

The auditions I got this week were direct auditions from casting. No one submit me for them. 

Two from a local casting office I’ve booked though in the past. 

One from a big comedy office in LA who I’ve also booked through in the past. 

It’s all about RELATIONSHIPS, my friends. 

I built relationships with these CDs over time. I did good work over and over again, sent in my tapes early and sent a few update emails over the years and genuine thank you’s when I booked. I even workshopped with the LA CD after I booked cause I’d booked off a self-tape and hadn’t previously met them in person. (Yes, it’s OK to do that. No, you don’t have to, but they can see you work on something else and actually get to know you as a person and as an actor as opposed to just being someone whose tape they just liked.)

What do I want you to take away from me sharing about this?

Two things –

1. Know that when you rest, when you have other hobbies, when you go on vacation and when you don’t hold onto your career so tightly, the universe opens up to you and there is space to let things in. 

2. This career takes time. I didn’t build these relationships overnight. I know you want it yesterday. I know you probably feel like you have put in the time. And maybe you have…and maybe if you’re being honest with yourself, you put in some time. You put in time to get good at your craft, but not the business… you put in time to learn how to survive and make money in a major city… but not at building relationships, etc, etc. 

You have to put time into the things that are going to move the needle for you. You have to look at what you’ve already done (yay!) and where are your holes? 

And in my opinion, many actors biggest hole is their relationships with industry professionals. Ya know casting who gives you appointments, and producers, directors and showrunners who can actually hire you. 

There are so many ways to connect with industry pros – instagram, facebook, linkedin, twitter, email… try to find out how that person likes to communicate and reach out to them that way (if their social accounts are public that’s usually a good sign and you can ask around with your actor friends). You can always say something like, “if you prefer to not hear from me here abt acting, just let me know and it won’t happen again 🙂 .” 

If you want to meet someone new – see if they’re doing a panel or talk somewhere, attend a workshop with them, listen to a podcast they were on, google their name in quotes and see what the internet has to tell you about them. 

Do NOT just email someone and say “nice to meet you. will you keep me on your radar?”. It’s not specific, interesting or engaging enough. 

Instead… 

• Reach out to them with something specific that you learned from a podcast or panel they were on and what it meant to you to learn it. 

• Reach out to them about a specific role and why you are right for it and would like to be considered for it. (Or have someone on your team do this) 

• Reach out to them citing something you loved about their work and why. 

• Reach out to them with a personal connection (i.e. you went to the same college/from the same town) or a personal referral. I always share the story about how my MOM, who lives in RI and is not in the biz at all, once got me a general meeting w/ a huge CD in LA just cause she kept telling people about my acting – so make sure you’re telling everyone you’re an actor – and eventually she told a family friend whose cousin turned out to be a CD. Ya never know! 

• Reach out with a referral from another industry professional who can connect you to them (i.e. a director who loves you can likely connect you with a CD they’ve worked with in the past)

After reaching out with that personalization (all those ideas I just shared), THEN you can share a quick fun fact or two about yourself so they can get to know you a bit, but you gotta take action… 

k, hope this gets your brain turning! I’m sure there will be lots of questions about this…would you want me to do an IG live or something about creating relationships? lmk. 

Have a fabulous week!