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TalentBank.com Building your network
Every artist’s career is made up of their talent and those who are aware of it. Talent alone creates a frustrated artist who sits and screams, “I’m brilliant! Why won’t anybody hire me?” In the land of entertainment, building your network is as imperative as building your product.
When it comes to impressing people, your word is crap in this industry – your work is your value. By getting involved in smaller projects or generating them yourself you put your work in front of the public and give them the opportunity to judge you. Only by repeatedly putting yourself in this place, can you build a reputation. And it is this reputation that will eventually help you to generate paid work.
When agents, managers, producers and fans see your work for the first time – it generates an immediate impression. But not until having seen you four, five or six times will they begin to understand who you really are. Only when they truly understand you can they trust you. And until they trust you with their own reputation, they are not going to think of you and use you, especially when money is on the line.
Remember that people who help an artist on the business side of their career only help those they truly believe in. It takes time to build that faith in people. So as an artist you have to be continually creating and then making the same people aware of your work. Even if they don’t get to see it – hearing about it is valuable. Knowing that you are continually putting work out there encourages others to believe in you. These people don’t want to be responsible for making your career, but rather – they want to be a team player on your already moving train.
Agents and managers make percentages because they are only responsible for creating a percentage of your opportunities. You are the one who is responsible for impressing your public and those who can help you. By impressing people time and again – you become someone that they want to help – because you make them look good.
Here are some ways to build this network:
1. Collect business cards from everyone you meet. Put the power of communication in your hands. Utilize email addresses to keep people informed of your activity.
2. Generate press releases in relation to your big projects. When a bunch of talented people get together and create something – it is worthy of respect. And the more you do now – the more you will be paid attention to in the future. Generate press releases that you spread among your community of followers and the press. You never know who might print it.
3. Generate activity. Get your writing filmed – even if its by students. Act in unpaid projects. Write short stories that can get picked up and reviewed, even if its just online. Whatever your medium – put yourself in the driver’s seat and commit to doing a little every day to get exposure.
4. Remember to be cool to everyone you meet. Everyone is good at something and anyone who likes you and believes in what you stand for is going to try to help you when your train gets moving faster. Someone you view as an idiot today might be able to hire you two years from now, so be cool. This begins by looking at the value in everyone else out there and not focusing on what they aren’t good at. Look at their talents and they will appreciate you for doing so.
5. Behave with integrity. Do what your heart tells you and go out of your way to make sure you are treating people well.
6. The arts are a romantic business. Romance people you need help from. A bottle of wine and a thank you card go a long way. Don’t have the money? Bake some cookies. Say thank you to people every day.
7. Don’t be a flake. The entertainment industry is full of them. Be of your word every time, or at least as much as you can and you will find that people will go out of their way to help you.
8. Go out of your way to help others. By doing small favors for others you create a network of people who want to do favors for you. If you get an email from someone who needs a writer and you know one – pass it along. A Production Designer? Sure you know several. Pass the info along and you will find your mailbox full of opportunities from others who thought of you because you thought of them.
Building your network begins with recognizing that you need to work on it every day. Discipline and time will bring you opportunities, and then you can relax a little because instead of running around begging people to give you a chance, people are coming to you asking for your time and talent.
Corey Blake consults artists and businesses in Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta and New York. After founding Elevation 9000 Films in 2000 he headed the Elevation 9000 Film Lab that developed fifteen scripts over five months culminating in the shooting of eight short films, including the award-winning Gretchen Brettschneider Skirts Thirty. Corey has worked professionally as an actor since 1999. He has been the face of major national campaigns for Miller Light, American Express, Pepsi, McDonalds, Mountain Dew, Hasbro, SBC, Mitsubishi, and Wrigley’s Gum. He also starred in an Addy, Belding and Bronze Lion award-winning spot for Yard Fitness. Corey has appeared on Fastlane, The Shield, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Diagnosis Murder, G vs. E, and Sabrina. He executive produced and costarred in The Boy Scout and the award-winning Gretchen Brettschneider Skirts Thirty, a film he directed.
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