by Voyage | Aug 12, 2011 | Uncategorized
Know Who You Are; Make Sure We Know It Too No, you’re not paranoid; when it comes to building a successful career in entertainment, the odds are stacked against you. There’s not a lot of room at the top, and there are already many younger, smarter, better-connected people out there. But that doesn’t mean you can’t still get the advantage by employing some street-smarts and business-savvy—and building a personal brand. For starters (wary artists), let’s go over what a personal brand isn’t: The word “brand” might suggest cliches, like you’ll have to wear a certain kind of shoe, get a fashion-victim haircut and always wear black, i.e. pigeonhole yourself in some way or another. To be clear, that’s not what we’re talking about. According to Personal Branding expert and Voyage Team member Nance Rosen, the real point of personal branding is to be memorable—to stand out based on an expression of your authentic self and a connection with what your audience really needs. Diablo Cody (Juno) is a great example of a screenwriter who expresses her authentic self all the way to the bank. You’d recognize her dialogue style anywhere—it’s never a Little Miss Moffet message—and her audience finds it refreshing. Writers and directors have a great advantage because they are used to creating characters with distinct voices– now the work is to find their unique character. Rosen breaks down the 3 dimensions of a personal brand: 1. Your voice—what do you sound like, and why? 2. Your values—how do you work? Are you refined and traditional like Clint Eastwood or whimsical and inventive like Michel Gondry? 3. Your...
by Voyage | Aug 12, 2011 | Uncategorized
Make A Plan & Work It! A lot of people approach their creative careers with die-hard passion, belief in their talent, and lots of people pulling for them—but no strategy. It’s no wonder that so many reach a certain level of success and then find themselves stalling or stagnating somewhere “comfortable” and doing work that doesn’t really satisfy their true ambition. Plainly put, if you don’t take steps to decisively tell the industry who you are, it won’t know—and certain decisions will be made for you. One way to combat inertia is to define your plan and figure out what it will take to progress from one milestone to the next—i.e. map it out using these 5 important business tools: 1. Strategy – You have to start with your dream. And a great way to ensure that you’re truly passionate about your dream is to write it down and then multiply it times 100 – that’s your real dream (scary, I know). Go for it. Another great building block of strategy comes from Jim Collins (author of “Good to Great”) – Collins’ personal “hedgehog strategy” lies at the intersection of (1) What you’re truly passionate about (2) what you’re genetically encoded or “made” to do and (3) what things can you be paid for. Click here to read the other 4 business tools (link to article on The Professionals program blog) 2. Milestones – you can’t eat a whale all in one sitting. Break impossible dreams down into achievable goals and work through them one at a time. 3. Process – Are you doing things in the right order,...
by Voyage | Aug 12, 2011 | Uncategorized
Use your resources to raise your profile Up-and-coming film students (i.e. the next generation who will be breathing down your neck soon enough) routinely invest over $100k just to get their feet wet; young professionals wait tables, walk dogs, and donate hundreds of hours of their labor in internships; working writers, producers, directors, and talent re-invest (at least) 10% of their income into their careers, paying their agents & managers and developing projects—what they’re all doing is investing in their careers. And it’s a no-brainer that you need to keep up. Back the talent that you know best: your own. So once you’ve defined yourself and your message it’s time to get the word out, because Hollywood wants to see evidence that people will get in line to check out your work. How do you prove to them that you’ve got audience appeal? As you build your transition strategy, include Social Media and PR to raise your profile. Voyage team member Libby Gill, who helped build the reputation of Dr. Phil and other high-profile personalities’ through personal brand strategy and publicity, weighs in on this topic: “When people are surfing online, you’ve got about 5 seconds to grab their attention- so what’s the most important thing for people to know about you? It might come in the form of a photo, a video snippet, or something quirky and unique that only you can come up with. If you had to sum yourself up on a billboard or T-shirt, what would you say, and how do you say it in a way that nobody’s gonna forget?” Social media tools and...
