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