An Acting Career Organizer:
A Great Tool To Have
by Kimberly Felice

An acting career organizer is the ultimate tool to keep us on track. We hear it over and over...“acting is a business” or “they call it show business for a reason”. We are repeatedly reminded that, as performers, we are in business and must treat it like any other profession. Yet I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard performers say, “I’m just starting my acting career I don’t need to worry about that yet.” WRONG! That is exactly when you need to worry about it. 

The day you decide to become an actor/performer is the day you need to get your business in order. What if a doctor decided to open an office but on the day of his grand opening he didn’t have a stethoscope, phone, patient records, Rx pads, etc. “I’ll worry about it later” he says.  How long do you think he’d be in business?  Well the same is true for you.  If you don’t have your headshot, resume, and a way to keep records of your business how successful can you expect to be? An acting career organizer, if used correctly, will help you keep things in order.

When you start your acting career you must at least track your industry contacts, headshot mailings and submissions, auditions, classes and expenses. So how can you run your business successfully? You'll soon find that an acting career organizer is the best friend you could have.

Contacts We are in an industry built on relationships and so you need to keep good records of all of the people you meet or would like to meet.

• What is their mailing address, cell phone number and email address? Are they current?
• If they are a casting director, what projects do they cast? Theatre? Film?
• Do they accept postcards?

You must have an easy way to track the details of everyone you meet throughout your career journey. 

Mailings/Submissions– You will do mailings and submissions throughout your career.  A veteran actress in Hollywood, that I know personally, who has had roles on Desperate Housewives and ER still regularly does mailings. It’s even more important as a beginner. If you don’t submit yourself for projects how will you get an audition?  If you don’t mail to agents how will your career progress? Whether you do 10 or 100 mailings per month you must print labels, keep track of whom you mailed to and when to follow up.

Auditions– After you’ve done a few mailings, hopefully your phone will begin to ring off the hook. When you get the calls to audition you need to know:

• What type of project is it? Commercial? VO? Dance?
• What time is the audition?
• What's the address?
• What role am I auditioning for?
• What should I wear?
• What's the pay?
• Are there any special instructions?
• when is the shoot date or first rehearsal date, etc.?

Also, how will you remember what you wore to the audition so you can wear the same thing to the callback? How will you remember to send a thank you note? Your success depends on tracking these details and more. An acting career organizer can help you with all these things and more.

Expenses– Unfortunately, from day one we are spending money on headshots, subways, gas, postage, resume paper, classes etc. Fortunately most, if not all, of your expenses are tax deductible. But if you don’t keep a record of all of your expenses YOU ARE LITERALLY THROWING MONEY AWAY! What is the simplest way to categorize and track how you spend your hard-earned cash? How can you prevent spending April 14^th in a teary-eyed panic?

Classes– Education for us is endless. We will always need to keep our skills sharp, practice and grow. Can you remember what classes you have taken since the start of your career? What classes will benefit your career the most? Did you add them to your resume?

Whew, that is a lot of information to record and schedule. When I started my career I was doing the spreadsheet and notebook thing and it was time consuming, overwhelming and expensive and no matter what I did I wasn’t really as organized as I knew I should be. How can you easily track everything?

With an acting career organizer you can easily keep all of the important details of your personal and professional life in one place – protalentPERFORMER, The Total Career Organizer for Performers. It is very handy and user-friendly. It isn’t too late. You don’t have to feel overwhelmed or disorganized anymore.

Since getting truly organized I have booked a number of film, voice over, commercial and TV spots including MasterCard and CourtTV. Why? Because I got my business organized from day one! So can you!

by Kimberly Felice, Actress/Entrepreneur

www.protalentsoftware.com, the total acting career organizer

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