Showing posts with label Business. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Business. Show all posts

Wednesday, December 17, 2014

Creativity and Freedom for Actors

Creativity & Freedom for the Professional Actor

The Foundation for Acting Success

 By Josh Ubaldi

Success has often been described as ‘the freedom to become whoever you want to be.’  This statement is doubly true for an actor, who gets to shed her own identity, and inhabit that of a totally fictional character.

It’s no wonder then that we consider professional, working actors to be so successful and so “lucky” to be in the creative profession they have chosen. This sense of freedom goes far deeper, though. It molds the foundation of every actor’s business success.

What would it really mean to be free enough to become whoever you want?  Imagine being free from expectations, limitations and hesitations. To some this might sound incredibly freeing. To others, it might sound intensely structure-less and without any security, read: terrifying.

Most individuals who choose acting as a profession certainly come closer to the former, even if huge parts of them still experience the insecurities of the latter. The foundation for consistent, joyful, daily acting success certainly lies in maintaining the essence of that freedom, joined with a creative structure that offsets the pitfalls of paralyzing insecurity.

In my years of working with actors, I’ve noticed two primary qualities that drive their deepest needs: creativity and freedom.  While each individual actor has his own set of unique personal needs, these two keep him married to this non-linear profession, and all the traditional sacrifices that are tied to it.

They are, by nature, the essence of the success definition: freedom, explicitly, and creativity at heart of ‘whoever you want to be.’ Once school or college is finished and a career decided upon, the lionshare of the population spend so little time examining the fulfillment of their true essence. Actors, on the other hand, tend to keep this reality very lively.

Not only do they need to make choices for the characters they will become in their work, they must also make constant choices to practically stay in their profession until they achieve a financial stability through their work.  If you haven’t yet realized that this daily brings up the question of ‘who am I?’ think again. Most actors squander far too much energy asking themselves questions like ‘Am I a waiter or an actor?’ ‘Am I am admin assistant/ personal assistant or an actor?’ ‘Am I a dog walker or an actor?’

This is the reality of making financial ends meet and staying in a profession that has few explicit business guidelines for successful enterprise, which is the my basis as a business coach for actors. I experience actors struggling day in and day out. Alarmingly, they by default often live the same year over and over, in the hope of getting big breaks, and being chosen for the next shooting star. Worst of all, they let other people’s definitions of success and business dictate their choices, until we work together to free them from other people’s paradigms and into their own success strategies.

The desire to create, or have creative expression, is intrinsic to all humans. Again, most people find great, daily iterations of this: relationships, children, cooking, crafts, sports, etc. For an actor, it is more fundamental, more visceral. The need to create an entire persona, with one’s entire person, is an overwhelming need. The pure infinity of choices available to every person, latent in every new character they play, is intoxicating to the actor. It’s a rush of both adrenaline and emotional/spiritual connection that lacks parallel in most professions.

When this creative need is joined with a need for freedom, the road ahead gets foggy. The freedom might be the freedom to find the next great part, or the freedom from responsibility to make ends meet, or the freedom from bad relationships. These situations make up the business aspects of the foundation.

While creativity must be given free reign for great acting craft, long-term freedom is built upon solid business decisions. A working structure that each actor creates for himself will allow him both the freedom he desires to create, as well as the security to do more, fail more, and achieve more. Actors who build a solid business structure fail bigger and better than they did before, and get bigger payoffs that go deeper than before.

So many actors misinterpret the freedom for time and space to create, as a lack of structure. In practice, most of them by default invest an unbalanced amount of time on both money jobs and pleasant distractions or self-medicating. They simply don’t go far enough to ask themselves better questions to work within their acting business on marketing, sales, accounting and strategic planning.

The real magic is conjured when actors apply some creatively-driven, basic business strategies to their daily practices. This simple structure results in more jobs, better jobs, more team members, and more powerful relationships. Herein lies the real freedom they seek. Best of all, when they structure their business practices to be as fully creative as their craft work, they also get a hugely deeper satisfaction. When actors fully employ, instead of struggle against, their greatest needs, both are fulfilled in one fell swoop.

Josh Ubaldi is a Business Coach for actors and creative businesses. He is based in Los Angeles. Josh is the owner of Build Acting Success and the Successful Actor’s Guide at BuildActing.com

Saturday, November 29, 2014

How to Get Clients for Your Budding Photography Business?

So you are a looking to be a professional photographer and want to set up shop but don’t know how to attract clients? Don’t be overly worried, you are not alone! This is a dilemma most beginners find themselves in but with a bit of innovation and smart work, you should be on the right track to becoming one of the most sought after photographers in town! Here are a few tips to get you started along the way.




There are a horde of them out there all trying the same things and trying to please everybody with their creative photography! One basic way to succeed in attracting clients is to create a niche for yourself. Find out what you are best at clicking. You may be great with the outdoors for instance or even with children. Make a portfolio of your best shots and have it seen by people- online as well as offline. The more visibility you have the better for you. As people see them you get a general feedback of what is more appreciated and that probably is your strength. Develop on that and pursue it with a lot of zest. Marketing yourself is of prime importance to get you clients.

Build your relationship with social media

As a photographer there are various platforms out there for you to display your best work without spending any money to do so! Get your best shots noticed on sites like Pinterest, Tumblr, and Instagram etc. and link them to all your other social media like Twitter and Facebook. Get people to like your posts, comment on them and review them. Leave your contact details where ever possible so prospective clients can get in touch with you instantaneously.

Have your own website

Develop and maintain your own website. Have appropriate content and optimize your site with the right keywords or phrases for SEO. Make sure you have the right content for clients looking for information they need to consider hiring your services. Link you website to all other social media and where possible to websites of your friends and associates. Drive traffic to your website and thereby to your business. Make use of free online tools like Google Keywords and enhance your site’s rankings.

Promote yourself through emails

Email marketing is one way to acquire new clients. You should get them interested in what they are actually looking for. If you are not good enough to draft great emails, look for writers who can do it for you for a fee- it would be worth the effort. Also offer freebies or attractive discount packages. You can acquire email addresses through trade associations or other similar organizations. Make the most of these free tools to benefit from them.

These tips may seem a bit heady but they work! There is hardly anyone out there who would not try something with an offer than something without. And most importantly be true to your clients and to yourself. This should ensure repeat orders and more notably, recommendations. Try these and before long you could be handling more customers than you bargained for! Visit at www.FeaturedPhotog.com