Acting Career
New Year Message

If You Are Not Working Regularly As An Actor
Or Can't Seem To Get Your Acting Career Started,
Then Reading This Acting Career New Year Message Can
Drastically Increase Your Chances For Success!

Read It!

I: The Difference Between The Best And The Rest
II: How Far Are You Willing To Go?: My Spike Lee Audition
III: Getting Ready For 2008: Questions & Information
IV: A Testimonial: When You Know You're Doing The Right Thing

V: A Powerful Video That Shows Why I Built ActingCareerStartUp.com

VI: Special Book Offer!

Acting Career New Year Message

So? What have you been doing for your acting career over these holidays?

The Difference Between The Best And The Rest This holiday season is a time to take stock of how the year 2007 went, of the results we achieved, of what went well and of what didn't. And when we think of those things, it's important to ask ourselves the question WHY? It's important that we look ourselves in the mirror and tell ourselves the truth. Only when we do those things consistently, can we really have a chance at getting closer to our dreams. Do you know why I've asked you the same question at the beginning of the last few e-mails (What have you done since the last time you heard from me?)? Because the competition is so fierce among us actors, that just like in anything else, the ones who rise to the top are ALWAYS doing something for their careers. They are eating, sleeping and breathing acting. Always! That's one of the things that separates the best from the rest. That's what separates the actors who get work from those who don't. It's how I just recently booked a spokesperson job, a hosting job and two industrials all in a two week period and how two of those jobs could likely lead to longer contracts. That was the same period that I had a role in an independent film.

You see, headshots, résumés, casting websites and agents are all fine and they are important, but EVERYTHING we do in life, whether school, work or acting begins with us as individuals. If we don't have certain characteristics, if we don't "have what it takes", we won't succeed. It's just that simple. That's not true, because I said it, it's true because that's what the statistics say, whether we like them or not. There are also studies that have been done on that, that I will share with you in the upcoming weeks. Knowing this is what has helped me to be successful in my life over and over again. This year I will tell you more about that and about where I got that information, that thousands of successful people all over the world, including successful actors know about. I want you to have it too. It will give you an edge that many other actors, I assure you, don’t have. I'll also give you an update on my personal situation to show you that I am "walking my talk" and that I am thus getting very good results on the way to achieving my bigger goals!

I want to inspire you to take action so that you can get what you want! And I promise you that I will give you the tools you need to do that. If you apply the things I talk about, I am 100% sure that you will see positive results! I'm sure of it, but ONLY IF you apply them and if you believe in yourself. One thing that you might not know about me is that aside from acting, I am also a success coach for top managers in companies. And my clients do get results.

I will be changing the free E-book on ActingCareerStartUp.com at the beginning of the new year to include a free report of some information I have gathered for you about the chances of achieving success in an acting career and what it takes to achieve that success. What you will read there might surprise you, but in any case, it will give you an edge that others don’t have. If you are already a member of ActingCareerStartUp.com , meaning if your name is already on the mailing list, I will send it to you automatically when it's ready. So stay tuned for that.

Acting Career New Year Message

My Spike Lee Audition Acting Career New Year Message I'm going to leave you now with a couple of questions, some information and a beautiful testimonial. First the questions. I will be back in touch in two weeks. In the meantime, I invite you to sit down alone someplace where it's quiet and go into great detail about what kind of career you really want and what it will take for you to get there? Oh, and while you are at it, ask yourself the question, how far you are willing to go to get what you want? That is something that you will continuously be confronted with as I was this past summer.

While on vacation, I received a call from my agent asking me to return early to come and audition for a Spike Lee movie! It meant spending almost a thousand dollars to change my flight and upsetting some of my relatives whom I hadn't seen for a year, but I did it! Because it was that important to me. I had to make some sacrifices when I got home, because spending that money wasn't in my budget. On one hand I hated to spend the money. On the other hand I had to look at myself in the mirror and ask myself if that was really what I wanted? It took me about 2 seconds to answer myself. It took a little longer though to figure out what I was going to tell my relatives!

In the end, I didn't get the part, but I feel good about two things. One, Spike Lee has seen my work on tape! Two, I feel at peace with myself, knowing that I did everything I could. That's all anyone can ask. I won't have to carry that baggage around with me the rest of my life with that nagging thought, "I wonder what would have happened if I had gone to that audition?" This way, the next time I audition for him (and I will one day!) he will have already seen me. Who knows, maybe it will be worth something! And by the way, I sent a thank you card to the casting director who auditioned me and I still keep in touch with her today.

This is just one example of when my conviction was tested. Another example is when I received a phone call from a production company in New York for which I had done some work in the recent past. I had informed them that I would be in Italy for several months working. When they called to ask me to come and audition for a television program, I reminded them that I was out of the country. The producer sheepishly said that he was aware of that, but thought he would call anyway to ask. I changed my plans and flew back for the audition. I didn't get that job, but as a result of that audition, I got a different hosting job instead! You just never know.

Throughout your acting career, you will be challenged from time to time, tested to see if your career is really that important to you!

Oh, and don't you think that I am made of money! To get the money I need to fund my acting career, I have come up with some pretty innovative ways, that I share with you on this website and that I will continue to talk about next year and beyond, because they work for me and they can work for you too!

How far are you willing to go for your acting career?
Sooner or later you will have to answer that question to yourself. You might as well do it now.

Getting Ready For 2008: Questions &...
Acting Career New Year Message

So, getting back to preparing for 2008, remember the careers from the last e-mail I sent you? And here is a guide for you to go into detail. When you think you really have a clear idea about What you want, drill down into more detail. Why is this so important? Here's a little secret. The more specific you are about what you want, you will be 10 times more likely to achieve it!

A friend of Sean "Puffy" Combs reported that when Sean was a nobody, his vision for the future was so clear, that he even knew what he wanted his logo for his company to look like even down to the color scheme! Now that's specific!

Think about the things you need/want to happen in 2008:
Do you need money for your classes?
Do you need money for rent if you move to a big city for example?
Maybe you need to find an agent?
Have you been looking around on the internet for acting career information and getting nowhere fast? If it’s not working, what ELSE can you do?
Want to find acting work in your little town, but don’t know how?
Whatever it is, think about the exact steps you will need to take to make those things happen!

I update my personal plan every year at this time. My plan is 27 pages long. It’s very, very specific. I know exactly what I want, how I'm going to get it and when I want it to happen! I’m not saying that your plan needs to be that long, but have a plan! Trust me, it will help you. In less than a month, I have a new video I will show you in which one of the actors I interviewed talks about just that! I think you find it interesting. So you’ll see, it’s not just me who says these things about planning. Acting career coaches talk about it and other SUCCESSFUL actors do too.

I must warn you. You should prepare yourself for what people around you might say though.
The negative people will say that you can't plan things that way.
The negative people will say that acting depends on luck!
The negative people will say that it's too difficult.
The lazy people will say it's too much work.
These people often will tell you those things, because they themselves can’t see how you can achieve anything that way, so they want to convince you that it isn’t possible.
They are not achievers themselves, so they want to keep you in their company as a non-achiever so that they won’t be lonely. They’re afraid that if you become successful, they will be left alone.
Don’t listen to them!
You just keep doing, doing, doing!

In my case, this is what happens. While those negative people are wasting time talking (I try to avoid them whenever possible, but it’s not always easy.), I'm writing another version of my book.
While they are talking, I'm putting more pages on my website.
While they are talking, I'm interviewing another industry professional to get more information for my website visitors, my readers and for me and then putting into practice what they tell me!
While they are talking, I'm mailing out postcards with my picture on them to industry professionals and contacting production companies reporting to them what I have been doing in the way of acting work, since the last time I contacted them.
While they are talking, I’m continuing my way on the road to getting what I want. All these things are part of my long-term success plan, which is very clear in my mind, while at the same time doing what I can to help other actors achieve their goals and to avoid some of the mistakes I have made along the way.

Then, when I come up for a breather or decide to take a break, I turn around and I can hardly see them, because those negative souls, who are spending time concentrating on problems and difficulties rather than solutions and getting things done are so far behind me...still talking.

I realize, that in this moment I am bordering on sounding arrogant here, which is not my intention at all. Believe me. I just feel so strongly about what I'm doing that I cannot and will not let anyone deter me from my goals! No one! No one! No one! I know from experience that this way of thinking breeds success! I also realize, however, that some of the visitors to ActingCareerStartUp.com are teens still living at home. You need to get your parents on your side. They can be your biggest help in pursuing your acting career. Just don't go against them as I'm sure they have your best interests at heart, even if they don't want you to get into acting.

How strongly do you feel about your goals?

...The Information
Acting Career New Year Message

Now for the information. I just put up a new page yesterday with a lot of fantastic information. Articles & Interviews. Some of it you may have seen before and some of it you certainly have not. One of the highlights of this info are the articles around how to get money to fund your career. There's some great stuff there! In all there are links to about 40 articles and interviews on that page.

A Testimonial: How You Know You're Doing The Right Thing
Acting Career New Year Message

And lastly, for the testimonial. Sometimes when we set out to do things or to achieve our goals, it is difficult to find someone who believes in what we are doing or who understands us. Being human beings, it's always nice to hear something nice come back at us, something positive, something heartfelt, something genuine.

I can think of no better way to send out the old year and bring in the new, than with this e-mail message I received just yesterday morning from a young actress who has been following ActingCareerStartUp.com for some time now. I was pleased to receive her comments. This is what she wrote:
"Here is a comment about your site.

To Tony,
I have to say this is the best acting site I have EVER been to. I'm sure you have helped many people begin their dream! I've helped in advertising your site to over 38 of my aspiring actor friends. You are doing an amazing thing by helping these people. I wish you the best in your acting career so that you may be a role model for all those who look up to your success. -Rachael W."

Thank you Rachael! And thank all of you who have sent in comments of appreciation for what we are doing here at ActingCareerStartUp.com.

Acting Career New Year Message

I wish you all a fantastic end to 2007 and a sincere wish for a 2008 that meets all of your expectations of getting you closer to your acting career dreams!



If you are bothered by the male voice, just turn it off.
I'll be changing that soon.

The Video (Also take note to what the boy begins to say at the 5:40 mark in the video and think if you know of anyone like the people he is talking about.)
Acting Career New Year Message

I know that for some reason, not all actors are willing to share all the information they have with others to help them become successful. If you want to know one of the main reasons why I have decided to create ActingCareerStartUp.com, have a look at this video.

If you like what we're doing here at ActingCareerStartUp.com, if we've helped you in any way or you think the information you find here can, then, pay it forward. Maybe it can help someone else!

Peace to All!

Tony

Anthony L. Smith
Actor, Author,
Motivational Speaker,
Seminar Leader,
Host

Acting Career New Year Message

p.s. Have you picked up your copy of Tony's book Acting Career Start-Up yet?
OR The limited time offer of $6.00 for the downloadable e-book version.

Also, sign up for the RSS feed for the blog on the left hand column of the site. You can receive automatic updates to your google, yahoo, msn account or to your rss reader every time a new page is added to the site!

Go now and take advantage of this special acting career New Year message.

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Take The Actor Quiz and help us see where you stand in your new acting career!

Hi Tony
I would like to thank you for helping me with the monologue question I asked in October 2007. I went to the auditions for a Drama course and I am happy to say that I have been accepted as a first-year student at the Tshwane University of Technology. Please keep on sending me those newsletters and let me know where I can find books that will help me in my acting career. Thank you once more. Have a blessed day.
Sincerely
Edward Thaba -South Africa

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Hi,
I was wondering if there is anything established like actingstartup.com in the U.K. because you are amazing and I have learned loads...
Thank You.
Nadine., Newcastle, UK

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Dear Anthony,
Just wanted to thank you for bringing me in to [audition for the video], meet you and chat this Saturday. I was really excited to hear about your working on actingcareerstartup.com and even took a look at it today - it's awesome! You are very well-spoken, knowledgeable and enthusiastic, and it shows through the work that you do! I hope our paths in the industry will cross again and really enjoyed meeting you. Thanks, again and best wishes with your very important work!
Warmly,
Gretchen, NY, NY

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Hey Tony, thanks for the info, yours by far is the most useful, I am 30 years old, and I myself always (secretly) wanted to be an actress, but I never knew where to begin, so thank you. You have given me hope!
Ana C., Tampa, FL

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Hi, I’m John.
You answered a question for me about two weeks ago about how to write my cover letters…I want you to know your advice was helpful. I got called in for a part as an extra in my first movie! It’s not big, but it’s my first one! Thanks for your help!
John, San Diego, CA