What I learned from a Talent Manager
“Careful the things you say, children will listen.”
I had the privilege of meeting with a talent manager last year, and I want to share with you everything she shared with me.
Spoiler alert, she didn’t sign me.
But boy did she give me some amazing advice. Here’s what I learned. For the purpose of this blog we will call her Julie.
We work in a super competitive business. So we have to do what we can to make ourselves look hirable and awesome! There are three key things you can work on starting today that will up your actor game.
First and foremost. Get a website. Having your own website is a game changer. Julie said that casting directors and talent managers, agents even, are curious. They want to know everything they can about us. So how better to navigate that, then having a website that you control. Having a website will ensure that when a casting director needs to see a little more of you than a self tape, or whatever you did during your audition, they can go online and seek that out. You won’t have to worry about that one YouTube video of you singing karaoke in a pub, because you’ll have polished beautiful videos of you singing, or doing a monologue on your actual website. You can add your tv/film reel, or your voiceover reels. You can add your bio, your press releases, or any special projects that you’ve been working on. Are you a yogi, or a martial arts guru? You can add those skills as well. Your website, is just that, your website. And it’s an awesome way to show casting directors and prospective agents “who you are.”
To get started, I recommend purchasing your domain name asap. You will want to be able to use your professional name dot com as your website. Don’t be like me, and let someone snatchyour name up and try to sell it to you for $1500. Yeah, that’s why there’s an “m” between that Adrienne Walker in my website domain. Secondly, choose a host. If you’re super smart and savvy, you’ll go with squarespace, they are the BEST. They already provide domain purchasing and you can start your website pretty easily by purchasing one of their chic web templates. If you’re interested in starting with Sqaurespace, please use my link, as I’ll get a small percentage for shouting them out. I’m not super tech savvy, but I have found Squarespace to be user friendly, and easy to navigate after a learning curve.
The next thing Julie told me to do was fix my resume. I had a very “artsy” looking resume that I thought looked pretty professional. Well Julie called that out right away. She said that your resume should be clear, dry and easy to navigate. Casting directors don’t want to search your resume to find your contact information or where you studied. So I reformatted my resume and I’m super proud of it now. Now all I need are some more tv/film credits so that my one credit isn’t so lonely. You can check out my downloadable resume here.
Lastly, she told me to get into some acting classes. No, I didn't do a scene for her or anything like that. But Julie took a look at my poorly formatted resume and saw that I didn’t have any acting coaches on there that she recognized. That was really good for me to know. Casting directors look at your coaches! If they see someone reputable then they can vouch for you and your abilities. Julie recommended that I try The Heidi Marshall Studio. And I’m so glad that I did. Heidi is an excellent teacher, director and coach. If you are in the New York area and are looking for an acting program that’s flexible and very hands on, try out The Heidi Marshall Studio. She generally stays booked, but you can get on the waiting list.
Those are my takeaways from my meeting with Julie. I’m so glad that she sat down with me and shared her expertise. I am so grateful to her. I hope that you find these three key game changers helpful. We are in a very competitive field. We might as well give ourselves the best advantage, and control our on narrative a bit.
Cheers,
Adrienne