Do you remember having crushes back in Elementary School? I sure do. 🥰
Those butterflies in my stomach made me so nervous! I would get in my head and awkward in my body, to the point that I’d forget what to do with my hands and just stop talking entirely. So I did what any kid would do in that situation…. I ignored her.
And guess what, it didn’t work. Actors do this all the time with their customers, and it’s the #1 reason that talented actors struggle in their careers. They don’t do it because they don’t think it’s their job. They think their rep should do it for them, or that it’s not their place to “bother” the people who might hire them. But it’s 100% your job! Maybe the most important part! Otherwise you’re just a stranger to them. And no one is excited to hire a stranger. In the last two blogs, I’ve laid out an argument that your acting career can be simple, straightforward and effective, just by… Answering Three Questions:
What Is Your Product?
Is Your Product Good Enough?
Do the Buyers Know Your Product Exists?
👉👉 But it doesn’t matter what your product is or if it’s good enough if no one has ever heard of it. 👈👈 #3. Do The Buyers Know Your Product Exists? Quick thought exercise… Think back on what you’ve purchased this week. List as many as you can. I’ll bet every imaginary dollar I have that everything on your list was from a business you like and/or a product you’ve purchased before. For me… Starbucks. Jamba Juice, CVS, Petco, Amazon, Trader Joes. Can you think of a single thing you’ve bought in recent memory that wasn’t from a business you knew and trusted? Even the impulse buy I made off of Instagram had been advertised in my feed more times that I can count. Exercise Conclusion: People Buy What They Know And Trust
Let’s flip it around and look at it from the Business perspective. The workflow for a business is straightforward:
Create great product and tell potential customers about it.
Sell product to customer for money
Rinse and repeat
Second Conclusion: Businesses Do Not Exist Without Customers
So if people buy what they know and trust… and businesses don’t exist without customers… then it’s our job to create that knowledge and trust with the buyers in our industry. But, we don't. Actors, as a rule, hide from their customers just like Elementary-School-Brian hid from his crushes. We’re afraid that we’re annoying. We carry the secret of not knowing our product or being sure it’s ready for the moment. But growing relationships with your current customers and adding new ones is the job of any business owner (like, you know, an actor). Those are the connections your reps can use to do their jobs more effectively. Anyone who hires or works with actors is a potential customer, including:
Casting Directors
Agents & Managers
Producers
Directors
Writers
Content Creators
Customers BUY what they trust. Casting CALLS IN actors they trust. Producers HIRE actors they trust.
Now let’s put it all together as The Norris Studio’s 3-Step System To Take Control of Your Acting Career:
We define our product to clarify our place in the industry. Can you write it as a character breakdown?
We learn from our audition data & the voices we trust to make our product is good enough to be competitive.
We make it our job to identify, create, and nurture our customers so they know and trust us.
When you follow these steps you’ll feel in charge of your career and confident in where it’s going. You’ll know where you fit. What roles are right for you. Which headshots to choose. Which casting directors or agents to meet. With the clarity comes confidence. And with confidence comes bookings. I hope you enjoyed this three part series and that it helps you build an acting career that’s simple, straightforward, and effective.