entertainment careers – Master Talent Teachers

Career: Keep Your Eyes on the Prize!

December 1, 2014/in Newsletter /by MTT

by: Suzanne Lyons

Is life going to get in the way of your career commitments from time to time? Sure. Are you going to be thrown the odd curve? Of course. Is it going to throw you off course and affect your focus? Absolutely. The question is, for how long. I have been a career coach for over 25 years and have seen people get stopped and stuck for days, weeks, months, even years. How can we turn that into minutes and seconds?! How can you do it? Keep your eyes on the prize! When an ‘incident’ or ‘event’ happens that throws us off track, we react to our interpretation of the ‘incident’ and not the ‘incident’ itself. It’s fact versus fiction. We stay stuck in what we think it means.

Okay, so that director was mean to you during your audition or that executive hasn’t returned your call. You can spend weeks making it mean something or you can separate fact from fiction and move on. It’s that simple! I find one way that helps me get back on track more quickly is my Vision Board. In his book “The Success Principles,” Jack Canfield says that “if you have trouble seeing your goals, use pictures, images, and symbols you collect to keep your conscious and subconscious mind focused on your goals.”

We all want to dream big and create a life of abundance and magic. And why not? As Marianne Williamson said “Your playing small does not serve the World.” So create a Vision Board displaying all the images that represent your purpose, vision and goals. It is so much fun to do. Nothing will get you back on track more quickly than this great exercise. It will help you “keep your eyes on the prize.” Don’t forget to look at it every day!

Are You Equipped to Follow Your Dream?

January 28, 2014/in Newsletter /by MTT

by: Joe Tremaine

We all chase our Dreams!

Reach for our Dreams!

Dream our Dreams!

Hopefully REACH our Dreams!

At any point in one’s career I think it is wise to take a long, hard, honest look at your career to determine your strengths and weaknesses. What do you need to work on to become better equipped to follow your dream?

In dance, are you weak in a particular genre or area?

In acting, are you weak in improv, scene study, etc.?

Make a list of your strengths and weaknesses. Once you feel you have your list complete, then spend the most time working on your weaknesses – obviously!

You must be totally honest with yourself in recognizing what your particular weaknesses are. Your various teachers would/could certainly offer the best advice. However, be cautious of getting too many people’s opinions.

Then, as you begin to turn each of your weaknesses into strengths, you will experience a satisfaction, a pride in your efforts, all of which will compel you to work more diligently than ever before!

As your list shifts from the weakness side to the strength side:

You will become a more sale-able “product”!
You will become more SUCCE$$FUL!

Stop Apologizing to Get What You Want

May 6, 2013/in Newsletter /by MTT

by: Christina Shipp

I am always shocked how much I hear people apologize these days. Frequently, for things they have no need to be sorry over. Frequently, just for being who they are. And I stand by and think to myself, why on earth are these people giving their power away?

Here’s the deal, business lovers: no one is going to give you power unless you claim it for yourself. So why not embrace the Tiger within you? This is what Peter Arnell means in his book “Shift” when he talks about Embracing the Tiger within. He uses Chris Rock’s bold stand-up to illustrate his point. A while ago there was a lot of media buzz over a trained circus tiger that “went crazy” and bit his trainer causing severe arterial damage. Chris Rock made a valid point in his routine, saying: “That tiger didn’t go crazy! That tiger went Tiger!” The idea is this: that tiger only did what was in his nature to do: to dominate and to be king of his domain.

So how can YOU go Tiger? How can you fully embrace the nature and essence inside of YOU? How can you honor who you are and your strengths? Unapologetically so, with confidence and power?

Bottom line – figure out who you are, uniquely, at your core and name it. Name it, define it and own it. Be consistently and authentically YOU. Be your own Tiger. Because you’ll never have to be sorry about that.

How to Make Requests

April 8, 2013/in Newsletter /by MTT

THE LANGUAGE OF BUSINESS

by Suzanne Lyons

This is one of the hardest things for people in the entertainment industry to do. In other businesses it’s the normal language of business. Making requests is common practice. Here, in the entertainment world, we tend to feel like we are interrupting, interfering or over stepping our bounds, and instead of making request we end up asking for favors. Favors don’t work in business. Requests work in business. It’s the language of business. We tend to ask in a tone of voice that is more like a favor.

In a meeting where the person has shown an interest in your script, you say “I’m really happy you want to read my script, thanks so much for doing this, I really hope you like it.” And it’s the tone that implies a favor… like they are doing you a favor if they read it. I have tons of unread screenplays that have been collecting dust in my office for years that came to me as a favor. A request has power in it and it keeps the power in your court. It would be more like, “thanks so much for agreeing to read my script. I am certain it’s a perfect fit for your company, and can I call you in two weeks to get your response.” They may counter offer and say no, call me in three weeks, but at least it’s in your court.

One of the actors I coached years ago was amazing at doing all the necessary steps needed to get her name out there. She was great at creating relationships, setting goals, getting her head shots and demo reels out, doing follow up, etc. She just couldn’t figure out why nothing was happening. When I asked her if she was actually making requests she was silent. I said, did you say, for example, “here is my demo reel that you asked for… can I call you by the end of the week and get your response?” I could see the light bulb go on in her head when I asked about making this request. She said it had never even occurred to her. And by not being aware of this simple (yet important!) business tool, she’d missed some great opportunities. So she committed to me on the spot that she would go back and make all the calls again, but this time she would add this new tool… she would make requests! The results were unbelievable. By the time my month of working with her was over she was up to five auditions a weeks, getting call backs and roles!

EXERCISE: Okay, now I want you to take your Map of Relationships (your data base of relationships) and call everyone (yes, I said everyone!) on your map and make a request. Get back into relationship and then, tell them what you’re up to and make a request. Maybe it’s asking for a referral to someone on your Target List. Always, end those calls with “and is there anything I can do for you?”