Are you thinking like an actor in all the wrong places?

Thinking like an actor has it’s place. But if you’re doing it in all the wrong places, it is probably stalling your career.

If  feel like you’re struggling and all over the place when it comes to the business side of your career, it’s time to stop thinking like an actor.

Start thinking like a producer.

Let me break down the difference between the actor brain and the producer brain.

Check it out.

Creative

Actor Brain

Your are gifted with ability to come up with idea after idea.  Ideas are gold when it comes to keeping your work fresh, exciting and alive.  The actor’s job is to come up with ideas.  But when it comes to implementation and decision making on which idea to go with, the actor is trained to take direction.

 

Producer Brain

Creativity always has its place in business.  Great marketers infuse their work with a creative flair.  The difference comes down to the decision-making ability.  At some point you must decide what you are focusing on and stick to it.  Waiting for direction means you’re simply waiting.  Indefinitely.  When it comes to achieving your specific career goals,  it’s up to you to get out of idea land, and into the world of action.

Emotional

Actor Brain

Actors have a huge task.  They must turn their heart and soul inside out for all the world to see.  And they need to do this on demand, time and time again.  That’s asking a lot.  We must not only face our deepest feelings, but also bring them to the surface while others simply watch.  The ability to have instant access to an entire spectrum of emotions is important.

Producer Brain

A producer cannot make decisions based on pure emotion.  It kills business.  You must step outside of your feelings, look at the long term goals, and make decisions accordingly.  The saying goes, “feelings aren’t facts” and a profitable business isn’t built on feelings.

In the moment

Actor Brain

Thinking ahead or anticipating kills your performance.  Thinking like an actor means being short sighted, only looking at what is right in front of you; being utterly and completely in the moment.

 

Producer Brain

Getting a film, webseries or tv show made takes long term vision, strategic planning, and purposeful, consistent action.  These things don’t just happen.  And yet so many actors run their career with the hope or assumption that suddenly a big opportunity is just going to come along.

Big opportunities happen when you have a specific goal, you direct all of your action toward making that goal happen, and you keep going regardless of the obstacles along the way.  Eventually doors will open, connections appear out of the blue, and big opportunities come.  But it’s the result of serious focus and effort on your part in a specific direction.  Not by winging it.

Thinking like an actor has it’s place.  And that place is rehearsal, auditions, and performance.  That place is on set or backstage.

If you want to succeed as an actor, you must treat your career like a business.  You must think like a producer, so you can act for a living.

Don’t give up.  Just get a plan.  Make a decision about your goals.  Yes.  A decision about your goals.  The more general you are, the more general the results.  Stop waiting for things to happen to you.  Go out and make them happen for yourself.

Don’t know how to make it happen?  You know I can help you with that, right?   In fact, if goal setting, decision making, and strategic planning sounds like a lot of not-fun work to you, I’ve got just the thing.

Join me in Think Like A Producer, Act For A Living.  It starts tomorrow!

Don’t stall your career by thinking like an actor in all the wrong places.  That’s just silly.  The solution is so simple.  Think like a producer.  Create a plan.  Get it done.  Make it happen.

Leave a comment.  Where is your actor brain stalling your career?  How has treating your career like a business helped you achieve a specific goal?  Share your stuff below.

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Tagged as: acting success, emily grace, Emily Grace Productions, think like a producer, think like an actor, thinking like an actor