Taking a Chance on Personal Branding

I was recently introduced to a website called TED: Ideas Worth Spreading.  The idea of TED, which began as a conference in 1984 to bring people together from the worlds of Technology, Entertainment, and Design, hence the name, is that great information, great ideas, and great innovation, should be shared with as many people as possible in order to enlighten and inspire everyone who is subjected to it.  In a lecture by Chris Anderson, the founder of TED, he explains the concept of crowd accelerated innovation.  The basis of this concept is quite simple, yet if utilized properly, can be extremely revolutionary.  People introduced to new information, anything from a science experiment to a dance move, get inspired to either recreate, adapt, or improve whatever they see and learn.  Therefore, more people exposed to this information will result in more inspiration, and ultimately more innovation.  With more people involved, there is greater opportunity to create bigger and better change, and at much faster speeds. 

Anderson adapted crowd accelerated innovation into internet accelerated innovation, discussing how with the internet and online videos, it is now possible to share one’s knowledge and talent (and anything and everything else for that matter) with millions and millions of people worldwide instantaneously.  People who would have never had the opportunity to be exposed to certain things due to their geographic location or any reason whatsoever can now watch and learn from whoever they want, whenever they want.  When a video goes viral on Facebook or You Tube for instance, within a matter of hours, not only will an astronomical number of people have watched it, but a huge number of people will have most likely begun trying to imitate what they have seen, leading to more sharing, more inspiration, and more advancements.  Everyone tries to outdo the person before.  And once again, the cycle continues.

You can learn a lot from the TED website, not only about the ideas of the world’s most inspired thinkers, but also just from the speakers’ passion and they way they convey their stories to the audience.  Don’t panic, if you have flashbacks of the most boring lectures you can remember back from your days in school, these lectures are nothing of the sort.  These speeches last less than 20 minutes each and are actually interesting and entertaining.  The time goes by in an instant.  And speaking of passion, one of the highlighted “Best of the Web” talks (watch video below) is given by an entrepreneur named Gary Vaynerchuk.  He’s an inspirational speaker and encourages listeners to do what they love; and passion is literally oozing out of this guy’s pores.  He insists it’s the only way to succeed in one’s career.  He says that in order to do well, it is essential to hustle- to work as hard as possible every chance you get.  There are no excuses.  They key is to stay up-to-date on everything and to take advantage of every opportunity possible.  You have to figure out what you really love and carve a niche for yourself in the market, work to build brand equity, network, and just go for it.  In order to position yourself to succeed, you have to use all of the social media tools out there in order to connect to your user base anywhere and everywhere you can.  You have to get people to talk about you.  If you are doing something noteworthy, then you are going to get recognized.  And the more people you expose yourself to, the more people who will talk about you, which is a variation of Chris Anderson’s crowd accelerated innovation.

Vaynerchuk also discusses that they only way to truly succeed is to be completely transparent.  You have to be authentic and be true to yourself.  In order to make people believe in your product or your services, first they have to believe in you.  He stresses that there is only one chance at life, so we better take advantage of it.  We are going through the gold rush of branding and there is an infinite amount of potential for success.  As long as you work for it and want it bad enough, you’ll achieve it.  Just absolutely love what you do and working so hard won’t be so hard at all.

I came across a second video dedicated to the topic of personal branding, which also stresses the importance of transparency.  In this video , found on the BNET website, the CBS Interactive Business Network, host Robert Gerrish interviews Australian author Ben Angel.  Ben says that it’s okay to tell your own stories and that you can’t be afraid of hiding anything in the fear of not fitting in.  You should put things you may normally have the tendency and desire to hide in the forefront.  It’s okay to be controversial, mind you, as long as it’s in context.  There is nothing that is better to educate your clients about how you utilize your services than if your personal stories are able to stimulate debate.  Being more seductive and vulnerable to clients is going to take you a long way.  And since this information is coming from an expert a half a world away, just as it is coming from Vaynerchuk, a New Yorker, it’s obviously a worldwide, accepted principle.  Just be yourself.

Hopefully this simple information will be a motivating factor to get you to open up about yourself, to take a leap of faith, and to decide to take a chance to not only do what you love, but to put yourself out there while doing so.  It may sound scary, but after opening up, you will feel completely liberated.  The personal and professional rewards you reap for taking that chance will be more than worth it.

SAG, New Media, and iActor- The Way of the Future

I have chosen to dedicate this post to the Screen Actors Guild, which for those of you who don’t know, is a trade association consisting of over 125,000 members.  Despite its large numbers, I am not a member, mainly because I am neither qualified nor eligible to join.  There are various prerequisites of membership, such as having played a principal role in a SAG affiliated and approved project.  Although I’m not a member, my clients and prospective clients are, so I admire their exclusive club from the outside looking in, as it’s known as the most distinguished performers union in the world.  

Having recently completed some in-depth market analysis on entertainment industry trends, I found a common thread among all sources and a main topic of interest concerning advancements in technology and in what ways technological breakthroughs are affecting the business.  Probably the most influential innovation of all time, or at least of recent history, is of course the Internet.  With every passing day, it offers more and more capabilities, providing the entire world’s worth of knowledge instantaneously at our fingertips.  In addition, the Internet is now serving as an additional platform for the distribution of shows, news, and movies alike.  With Video on Demand, consumers can now watch what they want, when they want, and even where they want, with access to media on their mobile phones, which is changing both the mindsets and behaviors of the public and the advertisers trying to reach them.

The Screen Actors Guild, otherwise known as SAG, is the largest labor union representing working actors.  According to its website, “The Guild exists to enhance actors’ working conditions, compensation and benefits and to be a powerful, unified voice on behalf of artists’ rights.”  SAG not only strives to protect its members, but to also help find them work.  It has developed a New Media Department which “provides valuable insights into the implications of emerging technology”.  In other words, SAG formed this department because as technology and new platforms evolve, so too must actors’ contracts.  Just as downloading songs has had major repercussions on the livelihood of musicians, downloading television shows and movies will have the same effect on actors.  Therefore, their work must be protected over these new distribution channels before its too late.  SAG is focused on making sure that happens.

In addition, SAG now offers a free service to its members called iActor, which I feel truly speaks to the times.  iActor is an innovative online casting agency featuring only members of the Guild.  Each member has the opportunity to create an online profile and can upload multiple resumes and headshots onto the platform that target different varieties of work, such as commercials or features, as well as video and voice reels.  These profiles can be modified and updated at any time.  When a producer or casting director is in need of talent, he or she simply can access the iActor database and sort through all of the profiles, narrowing each search by any combination of categories and terms such as skills, physical characteristics, and credits.  Once any prospective performers are found, agents are able to contact the actors’ representatives through direct email.  And then that’s where I come in.  If actors want to solicit a particular casting agent, director, or producer directly, for example, they can email their profile to any of their contacts and a properly formatted version of their resume will automatically be attached (although running that by your manager might not be a bad idea).

iActor is groundbreaking in the fact that now casting agents too have all of the information they need right at their fingertips.  And every actor on the platform has an opportunity to be ‘seen’ by every casting agent searching the site.  Actors with less connected representation for example, who may not have been looked at before, are in the running for parts alongside everyone else.  It makes for a fair and unbiased playing field- a field much bigger and broader than ever before.  Now actors who don’t live in the heart of Los Angeles or New York have the same exposure and opportunities as those who do.  SAG has even gone so far as to put together a team of individuals to personally assist members who are not computer saavy, as well has holding regular workshops for those needing additional assistance or helpful tips so that no one gets left behind.  Finally, iActor features automated Station 12 cast clearance, which means that producers will know right from the start that an actor is cleared to work, rather than spending the necessary time, money, and resources trying to determine an actor’s eligibility.  That’s additional time, money, and resources they can save and rather dedicate to their production.

Overall, I am emtremely impressed with the Screen Actors Guild and its attempts to stay current in order to both protect and showcase its members.  In this day and age, it is essential to continuously adapt and evolve, as technology is radically changing how everything is done. The union is making every attempt to help procure work for its members while looking after each and everyone’s best interest.  And for all of those SAG members out there that haven’t yet taken advantage of the iActor casting directory, hopefully this article will give you the incentive to do so, because if it hasn’t been necessary to join thus far, judging from industry trends, it is definitely the way of the future.