Creative Career Coach Dallas Travers has helped thousands of actors to increase their auditions, produce their own projects, secure representation and book roles in film and television. Her award winning book, The Tao of Show Business: How to Pursue Your Dream Without Losing Your Mind won first prize in the “How To” category at the 2009 Hollywood Book Festival.

In last Wednesday’s post Dallas introduced us to the Rule of Seven. In this week’s article she’ll tell us how to use those priciples to network effectively, land the right agent, and increase our auditions.

Keith Ferrazzi wrote a book called Never Eat Alone. He’s known as The Master Networker and I bet he knows all about the Rule of Seven. One of his many secrets to relationship building is this idea of staying in consistent communication and constant communication with the people that you know. Rather than reaching out to a large group of people once or twice a year with a massive update about what’s been going on in your career, Keith Ferrazzi has a practice of doing what he calls pinging. Pinging is the simple practice of making one call a day to someone he knows. Ferrazzi just to checks in and see how they’re going and keep the communication lines open. Doing that every day – this small little step – allows him to very easily maintain his relationships.

Now, when Keith needs a favor, it’s easy because he’s doing less more often. He’s staying in consistent communication with the people that he knows in order to really master those relationships. Rather than feeling like he has to manage an entire address book of people, he just takes it on one person at a time. That is doing less more often.

Casting Director Workshops

A lot of actors I meet complain that casting director workshops don’t work, and I agree with them; they don’t work if you don’t know how to work with them. But with this principle of doing less more often, there is an easy way to make casting director workshops work for you.

An easy mistake a lot of actors make when it comes to workshops is they feel the pressure to meet as many people as they can, or perhaps they get so excited about workshops that they overdo and they burn themselves out by workshopping too much. Casting director workshops are expensive, and I don’t believe that you can truly master relationships by trying to meet too many people inconsistently.

So do less more often when it comes to building professional relationships. Rather than believing you have to know everybody, force yourself to compile a small target list of those people you really ant to meet and do your best to meet them as often as you can.

My client, Billy received some not-so-good advice from his manager. She recommended that Billy attend casting director workshops in order to acquire some credits. Her suggestion was to attend one workshop every week with a different casting director. Wow, if Billy did that, he’d meet 52 people in a year’s time. Isn’t that swell?

Though I am a believer in casting workshops, I do not agree with this strategy. By meeting 52 people once, Billy would spend over $2000.00 to become unknown.

Your job is not to be seen. It is to be known. You can become known by applying the Rule of Seven to a select list of casting directors rather than the Rule of Whatever to whomever might be on the calendar.

I have developed a very simple strategy that has helped countless actors book their first major film or television role. Here’s how you can use The Rule of Seven to snag more auditions. Here goes…

Step 1– Create your target list. There are literally hundreds of casting directors in Hollywood, so it’s pretty impossible to effectively apply the Rule of Seven to all of them. Not to worry – you don’t have to. Just select a small (less than 12) list of casting directors and target them specifically and consistently.

Visit www.castingabout.com or www.imdbpro.com and research those television shows where the most opportunity for co-stars and guest stars exists. Please note that I did not just tell you to make a list of your favorite shows! I know, everybody loves The Office. But part of what makes that show so great is the fact that the cast is stuck together day in and day out working in an office, so new characters are rarely introduced. Instead, make a list of those shows that feature new characters on a consistent basis such as Cold Case, CSI, or any of the other countless procedural episodics.

Step 2– Get some face time. Register for two different CD workshop services if you can. Now, remember, not all services are created equal. I recommend that you join a service that truly auditions their talent before accepting an actor. This insures that the caliber of talent is consistent and sets you up to really shine.

Step 3– Only workshop with those casting offices on your target list. This will allow you to maintain your sanity and your budget by attending a limited number of workshops with a purpose rather than taking a shot in the dark and workshopping with various CDs through a process of random selection.

Step 4 – Do your best to attend every workshop you can with members of your target list. Remember, it’s The Rule of Seven so aim to workshop with the same people multiple times over the course of a year. That’s how you become remembered. That’s how you’ll build trust. And that’s how you’ll eventually snag auditions.

Step 5 – Follow up. Send a thank you card after each workshop specifically speaking to one thing you appreciated or learned in the class. Be real. Be authentic. Avoid the obligatory “hey thanks… hope you call me in soon.” And instead specifically identify one part of the workshop experience that you appreciated most. This shows that you actually paid attention.

Step 6 – Stay in the loop. Send a postcard update to your target list at least every other month. Remember Bed Bath and Beyond. You must remind them how they know you and keep your name in the forefront of their minds.

Landing the Right Agent

A lot of actors forget about the Rule of Seven when they’re hunting for an agent. Trust me, do less more often… especially when it comes to landing the right agent.

Before I outline exactly how to find your next agent, I’d like to tell you how NOT to get an agent. Please don’t buy an agent directory and mail one headshot to every agent on the list. Don’t target countless people just one time. And don’t invest a ton of money and energy into creating the one perfect submission package. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Instead, do less more often and target a small number of agents several times over the course of a few weeks. Remember, it’s all about the Rule of Seven, folks!

Now, let me walk you through the right way to land the right agent.

Step 1– Create Your Target List.
Visit www.imdbpro.com to identify which agents represent the actors who book the roles you hope to add to your resume. If you don’t have an imdbpro account, get one. It’s called “pro” for a reason. Your goal here is to partner with an agent who will actually get you auditions, so don’t limit yourself to only the top, celebrity-filled agencies. But don’t sell yourself short either and target any bottom feeders out there. Focus on those agents who represent actors that are one or two steps ahead of you career wise. If your next step is booking small roles in big budget features, then target the agents who represent the actors who play those same roles.

An easy way to distinguish the right agents from the others is to also Google the agency name along with the word “complaint.” If your search generates a couple of unhappy remarks, don’t sweat it. But if your search generates multiple hits, I’d steer clear. No representation is better than the wrong representation. You deserve an agent who will work for you and support your efforts.

When you’ve decided on a short list, collect addresses and specific agent names, as well as their phone numbers and get ready to rumble. Rule of Seven Alert: Pick fewer agents than you think you should! In order for your audience (agent in this case) to absorb your message, they must receive your message seven to twelve times. Pick a manageable number of names so you can be persistent and consistent with your ships. Don’t worry, after you’ve applied The Rule of Seven to your first group of agents, you can move on to a second short list.

Step 2– Map Out a Seven Step Marketing Plan.
I recommend that you hit each agent on your list with a marketing message of your choice every other week for a total of fourteen weeks.

The Rule of Seven works when your audience develops a familiarity with your product, so don’t be afraid to begin with a subtle message that generates some curiosity before you send in the big guns. Your first touch might be a simple postcard, letter of interest, email, or invitation to an upcoming performance.

One: Mail a creative postcard

Two: Fax a one-sheet or press release

Three: Hand-deliver a handsome press kit

Four: Mail a letter of recommendation

Five: Email or deliver your demo reel

Six: Mail a creative castability sheet

Seven: Call to request meeting

If you want results in your acting business, you must embrace the business whole heartedly. Seventy-five percent of your job is marketing. And this, in my opinion, is an unfortunate fact because if you liked marketing, you’d be pursuing a career in advertising, right?

You could be the most talented actor in town and if you’re not willing to market that fact in an authentic way, if you’re not willing to share your excitement about the fact that you’re an actor, it doesn’t matter because you won’t be working. Every actor, at every level must master their own marketing. Even celebrities must market. Sure, the may not do postcard mailings, but they do interviews, appearances, photo shoots, and radio spots. It’s all about marketing and being known.

Remember this — Marketing is a process, not an even. You can make sense of your business by doing less more often and applying a simple, measurable marketing plan based on the Rule of Seven.

While you’re at it, allow your actor to do your marketing. So many artists think that there’s this big divide between their art and their business. If you’re naturally an artist, you assume that the business is going to be unnatural and uncomfortable for you. As an actor, you’re creative, you’re intuitive, right, you’re really committed. Let those qualities seep into the way you run your business.

You’re going to see really great results when you do that and you’ll also start to see that the way you do anything is the way you do everything. You can be an actor and you can also love marketing, and those two things support each other rather than compete.

You can easily apply The Rule of Seven to every area of your career. The best part about The Rule of Seven is that it allows you to become more consistent and persistent in your marketing efforts, which naturally leads to exciting results. Just remember that what you do is less important than how often you do it and how happy you are during the process. So go out there, do less stuff more often, and have a blast.

I want you to take one thing that you’ve gotten from this article and put it into action in the next 48 hours. Don’t wait, strike while the iron’s hot, strike while you’re excited and begin to implement this principle of the Rule of Seven.

You can purchase Dallas’ book The Tao of Show Business: How to Pursue Your Dream Without Losing Your Mind here and be sure to visit Thriving Artist Circle to learn more about her coaching programs.