The freedom to pursue their dreams: meet my friend Miata

Seminar Update: I'm coming back to New York in September

Feature Article: Paris Hilton is a Genius

Summertime Blues, part 2: Are you getting your RDA of art?

NOTE: Some words in this ezine have been disguised to avoid triggering overzealous sp^m filters.

The Actor's Success
The online eZine for Actors
Who want thriving careers
from Robin Jones,
MFA & Certified Life Coach

Volume II, issue 8
August 2005

Not to be missed! the 1st Tuesday of each month.
Please pass on The Actor's Success to those in your network.
To change e-mail address or leave the list, scroll to the bottom.

"The freedom to pursue their dreams"

Actor's Success subscribers can register for the workshop for only $45.00 instead of the usual $60.00 price!

E-mail info@abundancebound.com and write “Actor’s Success” in the subject line. Include name, contact number and whether you would prefer to pay for the seminar by check or credit card. Miata will contact you to complete registration.

By the way, I don't receive anything for plugging Miata's business except the satisfaction of helping a friend and colleague, and knowing that those who sign up are in for something exceptional.

Seminar Update

Last month I made a request for your help in sending me leads on seminars for me to join. Thanks to your help, I'm headed back to New York to give another for The Actors Connection in September. Here are a few details:

The Confidence Factor: A huge hit as a guest at our Marketing Marathon this past Spring, Robin is leading this highly interactive free seminar designed to impact your confidence level at auditions and bookings.

Do you suffer even a small amount of anxiety at auditions? About your acting career in general? Stressed out about making a living at your chosen profession?

Developing confidence is a matter of having full permission to be who you already are, without reservation, without apology and without hesitation.

In this seminar you will learn how to experience yourself as empowered; develop tools to keep that feeling alive in any situation; commit to taking bigger risks and steps forward in your career and life! Your confidence instills confidence in the casting directors that hire you!

September 22, 12pm ~ Free ~
Check out the seminar calendar at Actors Connection to sign up!

And if you've got a lead on a venue for me to come out and speak, please let me know!

Feature Article: Paris Hilton is a Genius

I've never given Paris Hilton much thought; I've got better ways to spend my time. But until a few months back, I realized I've been giving her way too little credit. Somewhere in the back of my mind I had passed her off as someone who fell into success by simple happenstance.

Then I heard an interview with her and her shrewdness emerged: "I always wanted to build a brand. Barbie's a brand. I knew I could be like that - an American princess."

Well, maybe not the kind of princess I want my daughter to aspire to, but she certainly has built a brand. Do a Google search on "Paris Hilton" and see how many pages come up for her. Then do a search on Julia Roberts. Or Brad Pitt. Compare the results and you'll see what I mean by the power of her brand.

Don't get me wrong, I don't think Paris has a great intellect. I don't even think she thinks she has a great intellect. I certainly don't measure success by the same standards she does, but I do think she has incredible self-knowledge: she knows just how shallow she is, and uses it to her greatest advantage. In this business, that's one of the keys that will mean the difference between success and giving up.

I talk to a lot of people that decide to become actors and take off for Hollywood or New York to "make it in the big time." And of course, if that's your dream, you've got to chase it. But you've also got to be totally honest with yourself, or else it's going to be a nightmare.

This may seem like common sense, but take another look. It's important to know who you are, for a few specific reasons:

1. You need to know if you can handle the pressure, the rejection, the frustration of taking yet another survival job, the pitfalls, the cruelty. Sometimes the highs can be just as difficult as the lows. Are you ready to ride them all?

Most importantly, year after year, will you put your hunger to succeed above your fear of failure?

2. It can't be said too many times: as an actor, you're an entrepreneur, and you are the product you sell. When you're standing in front of that casting director, are you giving her a great reason to buy what you've got? If you don't know your product inside and out, you can't effectively sell it.

In other words you must accept all the nasty little flaws that you can't stand about yourself, as well as the things that make you magnificent. If you don't you won't be operating in the real world and that's where it all happens.

3. You'll never reach your peak as an artist unless you're willing to face yourself head on. Part of acting is the exploration of who you are and who you could be given the right circumstances. Denying any part of yourself defeats your ability to give your characters the complexity they demand. Allow what's truly inside you to rise to the surface and you'll increase your range dramatically.

Understand who you are deep down, what lights you up, what terrifies you, and ultimately, what keeps you moving forward day after day and year after year and you'll understand your product. In marketing terms, you'll know what solution you provide to your customers and greatly increase your power to get cast.

Attached is a worksheet to help you dig deeper into who you are and what you offer your customers. It's a PDF file, so you may need to go to Adobe to download the reader for fr*ee.

Summertime Blues, Part 2

I'll bet that as an artist, you're also a great art enthusiast. Because you're so tapped into the process & production side of art, you're able to appreciate it more deeply than others.

Are you getting your RDA of art?

Art is there to enrich our lives, to bring our deepest emotions and thoughts to the surface, to make the moment of the experience rich and delicious. Just as your body requires a certain amount of vitamins, proteins, etc., so does your soul need its own kind of nourishment.

So take a second right now and ask yourself, "Am I getting enough of that in my life?"

And if not, get to an art museum, take a chance on going to a concert of someone you've never heard of before, go to a dance recital, go downtown and check out that street performer you've been hearing about.

The arts are alive everywhere ~ don't just feed them with your dollars, feed them with your heart and they will feed your soul in return.

Until next month, my friends, I wish you much success,

RJ

© 2005 The Actor's Success & Robin Jones

Robin Jones is a Certified Professional Life Coach specializing in helping actors beat the odds of the business and build thriving careers.Visit www.ActorsSuccess.com to move your career forward now.

Help me reach my goal of 3000 subscribers by 2006 ~ forward this to a friend or colleague!