Honing Your Edge: The Power & Purpose of Consistent Marketing

Tom Cruise keeps it real.

I’ve been talking to a lot of actors lately that feel like the actions they take never get them direct results. Consequently, they give up on those actions. It can be frustrating when you’ve put time and effort into your business and yet there seems to be no direct results. However, I’d like to challenge some of your ideas when it comes to getting “results.”

In TLTaccess, we talk a LOT about different marketing techniques, but you probably at least know the basics: mailings, postcards, websites, social media, etc. These can all be tedious to keep updated and maintain consistently – especially when “nothing ever happens.” Here’s the thing though: these actions aren’t meant to get you direct results.

“Wait, what? Then why the hell am I doing them?”

Good question. While consistent marketing will help get you results, there will almost never be a direct correlation. What consistent marketing will do is prepare you for when opportunity and preparation meet in the form of an audition, agent meeting, or general.

Let me give you an image: by the advent of the Edo period of Japan, a class of former-mercenaries – Samurai – had been elevated to the highest caste system in the society. These warriors were renowned for their fierce military prowess and ethical code of honor. Their symbol was their weapon, the samurai sword. Samurai kept their swords razor-sharp; so sharp, that many on the receiving end claimed that a cut from a samurai sword didn’t even hurt at first because it was so freakin’ sharp. Samurai would spend hours and hours sharpening and honing the edge of their swords knowing that when it came time to do battle, their weapons would carve through any barrier of armor like it was warm butter. This elevated them from being careless or lazy mercenaries to being legendary warriors.

Consistent marketing isn’t your prowess on the battlefield. Consistent marketing is the long hours you put into honing the edge of your career. If you have clearly typed yourself, then doing mailings and casting workshops and creating one-sheets keeps that sharp. So when you walk into an audition room, you are the sharpest version of that type in the room, so clearly defined that it’s impossible to ignore. Guess what? You’re hired. When you walk into an agent’s office and you have exercised the muscle of razor-sharp self-promotion, the agent will start trying to convince you why you should sign with them, not the other way around. (No joke: a TLTaccess.com member just had 4 agent meetings and every single one made offers and follow-up calls essentially fighting over him!)

Guys, hone your edge. Stay consistent, but just remember that your marketing is not the battlefield – it is what prepares you to be a legendary warrior. Er, actor. :-P 

Vote for Amy Lyndon

Hey guys! This is Justin Turner, Amy's Marketing Director, and I am commissioning you for support!

Guys, let's pump Amy up!! Last year's runner-up, this year's winner! Vote for Amy Lyndon under Cold-Reading for Backstage's Readers Choice Awards Los Angeles.

http://www.backstage.com/bso/news-and-features-bulletins/vote-for-back-stage-s-2011-readers-choice-1005109632.story

Booking Is A Separate Beast!

Acting vs. Booking. Totally different, both formidable.

In all the years that I have been working as an actor, I cannot recall ever completely duplicating my audition during a shoot. Inevitably something gets changed. So much so sometimes I think to myself, "This is so different from my audition, why did they even pick me?" The answer is simple. Booking is a separate beast! When you understand that booking a job is not necessarily how you're going to shoot the job, then you will start separating out the two and see booking as it's own art form. Trust me on this guys, I have booked over 40 films and 30 television shows in addition to helping actors book when I was a personal manager for 9 years and personally coaching 1000's of actors over the years and witness them booking big jobs!

So what constitutes a booking? Well, it would take an entire "War and Peace" gigantic book to describe that one to you, but what I will tell you is that you have to be dynamic. Actors are so afraid of "going over the top" that they actually put a cap on their own performance. Did you know that 'going over the top' is simply not being in truth? If you are in EXACT TRUTH according to the writer's intent and you are in the tone and style of the show or film, then why are you hitting it at a comfortable 7 when you should be hitting it at a 10+ to take the job? Why get all dressed up and inconvenience yourself to get to an audition and not go there to book it?

Instead of running your scene with anyone that will help you and flattening the hell out of it, why not section out your script and work your transitions and see if you actually know where this is for you and if you understand exactly what you are saying and feeling? Look for the transitions and keep switching them effortlessly like a precision driver. If you run the lines, then they will sound like lines run.

Another thing that constitutes a booking is knowing what you are doing. Why would anyone hire you if you don't know what you doing? Trust me, the last thing a casting director wants to hear from their boss is that they messed up by bringing you into their producer session and onto a set when you didn't know what you are doing.

Also, are you prepared to shoot the scene right there in the office? If not, then don't go to that audition. This is an add water and stir business people. I'm sorry, but no one cares about your process. Are you there to deliver the goods or not? Stop thinking that you're going to get a second take or an adjustment to help you hit it exactly where they want you to be. If 6 actors are brought in for one job and 5 actors get it on the first take, why would they bring back the 6th actor who needed an adjustment? Be logical. Look at this business as a business. If the tables were turned, would you do business with you? Are you conducting yourself as a business? Are you really ready to work? This isn't a joke. This is the real deal. Information is power!

Here's to booking big!
xoxo
Amy Lyndon
CEO - The Lyndon Technique
http://thelyndontechnique.com
818.760.8501