Your Agent Isn’t an Angel
OK, by saying your agent isn’t an angel, I’m not disparaging their mood, mode or how they operate. What I’m trying to say is that your agent is not here to save you!
Many actors suffer from the notion is it that it’s the agent’s job to dust you off, polish you to a brilliant shine, and escort you to the promised land. The belief is that the agent does all the work.
In fact this was MY mistake when I took on working with 90210. Inherently the coach and teacher in me kicked in and I was spending an inordinate amount of time getting the talent I inherited and brought in by the last agent working there into what I considered to be “fighting shape”. Polishing up their online profiles, telling them the best classes to take that would mean something on their resume and sending a lot of inspiring messages to prop up feelings of doubt, took time away from the most vital aspects of being a representative…submissions and bookings.
I realized that even actors that are represented didn’t really know a lot about business and marketing and had the thought that it would and should be my job. They’d do the “show” and I’d do the “biz”. And I was facilitating this…big mistake on both of our parts!
I had seen it for many years when coaching actors…this persistent thought that there’s someone or something outside of you that has the power to make dreams come true with little effort or output from you, and once you find that person, you’ll be rich and famous. But then it was “theory” and here it was in practice, evidence of this insanity. I drove myself insane too, then I stopped it at the behest of the head of the agency.
I want to let you know that during my tenure there I had actors who never got an audition at all. I was submitting them a TON and the CD’s weren’t calling them in. Not because they weren’t talented (how would they know?) but because the materials I had to submit with weren’t viable and requests for new headshots or media on their profiles, updating resumes and other requests were ignored or took months. I pushed the buttons knowing that they’d never get in the door…and it was a very disturbing place to be in. Since I left, I’m fairly certain many of these actors have sadly been dropped from the roster. A very avoidable situation.
Getting an agent doesn’t mean you’ll ever have an audition and it certainly doesn’t mean that you don’t have to do most of the work in getting opportunities yourself. Leaving it all up to your rep is folly. You have to be in classes, write/shoot/produce/direct your own material, put up a play/Youtube video/Facebook live and get yourself out there. These days you have to work harder than your agent. Training in class consistently, creating your own material constantly, and doing whatever you can to engage with other artists is essential to your craft and your career. You have to give your agent the tools to sell you. Relying upon anyone other than yourself is career suicide. Giving up your artistic and professional responsibility to an agent is a grave error that too many actors make. Do the work and make your agent catch up.
Stay tuned for more “insider” info in my next post. To Your Success, Lisa
Well done, Lisa. Reality check!
As an actor and master teacher of human emotion, I will share your thoughts.
Patricia, you’re a doll and I’m loving that you’re spreading the word. It takes a village, if not a whole army!
Lisa, you’re an angel for sharing! Keeping up is part of the every day life style now. Whether it’s technology, skill, networking or physical and emotional health. Busy busy. Now I’m trying to figure out how to create my own stuff too and share. Sometimes I wanna say “I’m too old for all of this.” And then, nah, I just needed a nap. 🙂
Thanks.
SINGcerely,
Mary
Mary we’re all the same age! Meaning, all we have is NOW and there’s no guarantee for any of us after that…so CREATE that content, from inspiration, and let the world see your talent and beauty. We need it!
Thanks, Lisa! Will do.
(Let’s see if this semi drawing works as I’m on a choo choo train right now.)
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You know something Lisa? Nowadays age is hardly even a factor in determining career success. It doesn’t matter what age you or Mary are if you do just what you just suggested I think she’ll do well.
Very good!!
You are who you are! And now with this, you have returned to the Lisa Gold, I’ve known, admired & called FRIEND for at least a decade. I welcome you back into my life with open arms!
Bill you will ALWAYS have a special place in my heart. You’re one of the very first “clients” I had with my new biz when I formed it in 2009, and I knew you even before then at AC! Here’s to another decade of relationship as yes, we transformed to friends! All the very best to you…you deserve it!
Thank you Lisa. This information is priceless !!! … The hustle (constantly doing/growing) is continual. It’s never ending, 24/7 … This info gives us a point of view of an Agent and that of a Coach, which is you. Once inside the “room” the work starts and it doesn’t end even if an actor does not book. What one does between return (hopefully) visit is crucial, one must come back even more “polished”, and that is done through the Actor’s efforts during that 24/7. One question I ask myself everyday is: “What have I done (business and craft) for my career today?” Thanks again for the letting us know the other side of Actor/Agent team.
Hey Jay, thanks for your comment. Yeah, I can remember at a Hollywood Brunch Club meeting a few years ago listening to a manager, who is now my great friend, Jackie Fiebel of Joan Green Management say “We are working on YOUR career every day, at our desks, eating lunch there and often 6 or even 7 days a week. If you aren’t putting in even half that time on your own career you should be ashamed”. And I understood her to mean the business stuff…not the “fun” parts of being in an acting class or watching movies or reading scripts. It’s a joy to hear someone in love with the hustle..you go Jay!
I actually have a few things
“even actors that are represented didn’t really know a lot about business and marketing and had the thought that it would and should be my job. They’d do the “show” and I’d do the “biz””
Okay here’s the stark reality Lisa, most people in this industry don’t know what business they are really in or what business they need to be in. You know the Ray Kroc story (founder of McDonald’s) about how he went into an MBA classroom and asked “What business am I in?” Most of them said “Hamburgers, fast food, etc.” to which he replied “No actually my business is real estate”. Point being that anyone can create a better hamburger than McDonalds but the question is Can you create a better business system than McDonald’s that is geared towards acquiring real estate? Everybody thinks we are in show business..that’s actually not true. The business that we are REALLY in intellectual property. Fact: in the 1940s the major studios in Hollywood made 80% of their income through films and later through television. That was back in the days when the studios developed actors with raw talent.Today the major studios as they currently exist make less than 15% of their income through films, TV shows, and all other forms of media combined. The vast majority of their income is through the licensing, sale, and distribution of intellectual property. The need for actors is drastically being replaced by advanced emerging technology that is going to put a lot of people out of work before you know it including casting directors and agents. Also the industry is so different these days that with all the resources available you need to be an owner/creator of content not a trader of time for money.
“this persistent thought that there’s someone or something outside of you that has the power to make dreams come true with little effort or output from you, and once you find that person, you’ll be rich and famous” This mindset comes from the 20th Century. It’s all about conditioning and we need to learn how to better influence people more than anything else.
“submitting them a TON and the CD’s weren’t calling them in. Not because they weren’t talented (how would they know?) but because the materials I had to submit with weren’t viable and requests for new headshots or media on their profiles, updating resumes and other requests were ignored or took months.” First off to me online submissions are a bunch of b.s. That’s essentially sending stuff into a big black hole that MAYBE will be seen by people who are essentially bottom of the barrel when it comes to the final hiring decision. You know the real reason that they weren’t getting auditions, and this is generally a big problem with most agencies, it’s because you were submitting them to the wrong people. Quite frankly if any actor is waiting until a project is about to go into production and exit the pre-production phase you’re pretty much too late and for sure you’ll have more failures than successes if you’re lucky enough to even have a success. What agents need to be doing, this is what the guys in the top 5 agencies do which is why they’re the top 5, is you need to be contacting directors, producers, and other folks who are content creators and basically negotiate a deal while it’s in the development phase so that it’s win win all around and it should be done within 90 days. Casting directors have their place but they should be more of an after thought than a top priority. Essentially any agent who isn’t an efficient deal maker isn’t doing their job. If you can’t kill Godzilla while he’s an egg you ain’t got a shot in hell of killing him when he’s a fully grown monster; he’ll take your city.
“You have to be in classes, write/shoot/produce/direct your own material, put up a play/Youtube video/Facebook live and get yourself out there. These days you have to work harder than your agent. Training in class consistently, creating your own material constantly, and doing whatever you can to engage with other artists is essential to your craft and your career. You have to give your agent the tools to sell you.” You also have to be paid what you’re worth. Classes, marketing materials, etc. That all costs money. Quite frankly any clients who pay you need to pay for the privillege of your adding more value and to be honest the SAG minimums (even with an agent’s commission) just won’t cut it. Also if you’re in SAG they do tell you that these rates are minimum and it doesn’t limit the performer’s right to negotiate better rates and/or terms of employment. This is a right the performer needs to exercise and also if you have an agent what you need to do is DIRECT that agent on what to do. That’s like hiring a CFO and expecting them to make your company a Fortune 500 company. Sorry doesn’t work that way you have to know how to direct your CFO and THEN you can grow your business into the millions. Same thing with an actor and his/her agent.
Hey Ray, Thanks for illuminating many points about the ever evolving need for “actorpreneurship”. It definitely isn’t like the “old days”. However the one thing I would clarify is what you said about online submissions. Not sure if you meant actor self-submissions or not, but the reality is THAT IS THE WAY actors are submitted for projects by agents. We do not pick up the phone and call or even email a CD, director or project point person, unless the actor has the stuff ONLINE that we can then say “hey take a look”. No one is getting in the door to show what they have unless the person doing the vetting sees something they like online first. This replaces hard copy submissions and isn’t going away anytime soon. Just wanted to clarify.