Stop networking now? But isn't networking the key to success in this industry?
OK. Let me explain.
What if you could never meet another industry contact and had to base your entire career on the people you know right now? How would you behave? Would you have a career?
Take a look at your contacts. How long has it been since you communicated with them? What added value are you bringing to the relationship? Now, I'm not saying be all things to all people. (I've tried - see last week's post - there's not enough *you* to go around). What I'm suggesting is offering what you can. A director I know needed a specific voiceover actress type. I found him 4 options and he hired one of them. Another person I know needed a male actor. I found 3 options and one of them got the job. (Now that we have email, facebook and twitter, this usually doesn't even require a phone call.) When I heard about a film festival that sounded cool, I volunteered to work in their office. Yeah, for free.
Bottom line is that when someone needs a position filled, are you going to be the first person that pops into their head? Are you going to be the first person they call or recommend? Just going to networking events, collecting business cards, or even having that one ubiquitous coffee date, is not going to get you jobs. Cultivate relationships with the people you already know by getting to know what THEY need and then looking for ways to either help them yourself or connect them with the people who can.
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Success in LA - multihyphenate actress-writer-producer Rebecca Jupiter thinks outside the box - if you enjoyed this or any other post, please become a follower over on the right. It's free and takes only a few seconds. Thanks!
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Are you trying to please everybody?
Bill Cosby said "I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody."
The other day I sent an email update to my contact list with news of my film going to Cannes and my other latest doings. I've gotten hundreds of positive responses, which is so wonderful and uplifting.
I've also gotten a few unsubscribes, since I use a mailing list provider, and I even got one person who wrote a one-line criticism of the fact that I didn't read his screenplay (he refused to write a treatment because "there are things that occur in the
process of reading a script that can never be captured on a treatment.")
At one time in my life, I would have been heartbroken about these few negative responses, even with the overwhelming number of positive ones. But my wonderful coach Dallas Travers has taught me that there are two kinds of people in your career and your life: your collaborators and your NYPs. Not Your People. These people don't like you, don't respect you, don't understand you, or just plain don't care about you. And the more time you spend worrying about them, the less time and energy you have to celebrate your unique contributions.
Many people put forth the dating analogies in this industry - either you click with someone or you don't, and if you do, you'll probably work together. If not, you probably won't. But there's no sense in beating yourself up over the ones who are NYPs.
My advice is this: when someone compliments your work or takes an interest in your career, don't stop there. Get to know them - what are they in need of right now? Maybe there is something you can help them with, someone you can connect them with, or a job lead you can hook them up with. In the process of helping them, you're also reminding yourself that you are generous and abundant, and that positive glow is one of the most valuable assets you have in attracting the work you want.
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Success in LA - multihyphenate actress-writer-producer Rebecca Jupiter thinks outside the box - if you enjoyed this or any other post, please become a follower over on the right. It's free and takes only a few seconds. Thanks!
The other day I sent an email update to my contact list with news of my film going to Cannes and my other latest doings. I've gotten hundreds of positive responses, which is so wonderful and uplifting.
I've also gotten a few unsubscribes, since I use a mailing list provider, and I even got one person who wrote a one-line criticism of the fact that I didn't read his screenplay (he refused to write a treatment because "there are things that occur in the
process of reading a script that can never be captured on a treatment.")
At one time in my life, I would have been heartbroken about these few negative responses, even with the overwhelming number of positive ones. But my wonderful coach Dallas Travers has taught me that there are two kinds of people in your career and your life: your collaborators and your NYPs. Not Your People. These people don't like you, don't respect you, don't understand you, or just plain don't care about you. And the more time you spend worrying about them, the less time and energy you have to celebrate your unique contributions.
Many people put forth the dating analogies in this industry - either you click with someone or you don't, and if you do, you'll probably work together. If not, you probably won't. But there's no sense in beating yourself up over the ones who are NYPs.
My advice is this: when someone compliments your work or takes an interest in your career, don't stop there. Get to know them - what are they in need of right now? Maybe there is something you can help them with, someone you can connect them with, or a job lead you can hook them up with. In the process of helping them, you're also reminding yourself that you are generous and abundant, and that positive glow is one of the most valuable assets you have in attracting the work you want.
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Success in LA - multihyphenate actress-writer-producer Rebecca Jupiter thinks outside the box - if you enjoyed this or any other post, please become a follower over on the right. It's free and takes only a few seconds. Thanks!
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
A slight adjustment
I've wanted to shoot a gun for quite a while now, and last night I *finally* got to do it. A friend and I arrived at the LA Gun Club and experimented with a .38 Special (revolver) and a 9mm.
Shooting the 9mm did not come easily for me - it kicked back so much that most of the time I completely missed my target. After getting so excited about shooting, that was pretty disappointing. Luckily, though, I found the revolver much easier to handle. Most of my shots were dead-on, and my hand didn't have to absorb all that force. Had I only tried the 9mm, I would have left the shooting gallery pretty discouraged about my marksmanship. Instead, I knew a bit more about handguns and could actually form an opinion about one of my favorites.
When I first arrived in LA, I borrowed a friend's car for a couple weeks while I got settled. Bless her heart, it was such a generous thing for her to lend it to me, but man, did that car drive me nuts. It was oddly shaped, noisy, and I just couldn't seem to park it correctly. One day on the freeway I thought to myself, "I can't live in LA. I hate all this driving and parking. I should have just stayed in New York." I went back to New York for a couple more months and had a realization - the problem wasn't LA and all the driving. It was the car. I resolved to go back to California and find a car that I LOVED driving. That slight adjustment made all the difference. On days when all I do is drive from one audition to the next, I can turn up the music, open the sun roof and bask in the glory of living in paradise.
Sometimes slight adjustments are more important than making drastic life changes. Every time we get a new piece of information, we can adjust our strategy and process to get closer to success. If we abandon everything we've learned because of challenging roadblocks, we lose all our momentum. Are you facing a challenge right now and considering a huge, drastic change? See whether a subtle adjustment can accomplish even more, allowing you to incorporate everything you learned about what didn't work from what you were already doing. One of the most important elements of success in this industry is the positive attitude we bring to each project, each meeting and each day. So it's important to have positive reinforcing experiences along the way, and those can't come from the despair of failing after the first try. Please feel free to share success stories (or challenges you're facing) in the comments section!
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Success in LA - multihyphenate actress-writer-producer Rebecca Jupiter thinks outside the box - if you enjoyed this or any other post, please become a follower over on the right. It's free and takes only a few seconds. Thanks!
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