Stand Out to Fit In
It’s time to see how you and your talents fit into your future career plans and to determine what you can do to make yourself more perfect for your ideal job. This week, you’ll spend time brainstorming what makes you great! You’ll identify talents and physical traits you have that relate to your field. You’ll take note of whether you happen to have great social skills, whether things about your “look” make you stand out, and you’ll pinpoint anything else interesting or unusual about you that you can capitalize on to catapult your career. Are you an aspiring actor who’s awesome at acrobatics? Or a singer who can harmonize with anyone? Or are you a dancer who can break-dance like no one else? Do you have crazy hair that makes you stand out? Are you exceptionally tall/short/pale/dark/geeky/extroverted/gutsy or anything else? Write it down. You never know when what makes you “weird” will actually be the thing that will get you your dream job. (We’ll work on leveraging these things later, in the social media chapter.) Later in the week, you’ll brainstorm the reciprocal. What skills do you still need to be competitive in your dream job? What could you learn that would help your side hustle?
You may be wondering why you should identify things that make you different from the people who are currently doing the jobs you want to be doing. You want to fit in to get the part, right? Not necessarily. The people who are currently doing the jobs you want to be doing are, well, already doing those jobs. If you look and act exactly like Robert Pattinson, why would you be hired to do a new feature film instead of him? If you could be the evil twin of China Taylor (one of Janet Jackson’s dancers), would you be hired for Janet’s next tour instead of China herself? Probably not. You get the point. You’re always going to be better at being you than at trying to be someone else. So let’s explore what makes you different. What can you do that most people can’t do? Or what is your special combination of skills and/or aspects of your appearance that would make someone notice you in a crowd?
A comedic actress who can play the accordion is significantly more interesting than just a plain comedic actress. Will this person always be hired to act and play the accordion simultaneously? Probably (and hopefully) not. But another key benefit of knowing what makes you special and sharing it with people in your industry is that it makes you memorable. A casting director for a television show that shoots in New York sees thousands of faces every day. It is not unheard of for an agent in Los Angeles to have thousands of submissions for a small role on a television show. And these submissions are just from people with agents; they don’t include the people who will submit self-tapes who do not have representation. Of these thousands of faces, casting directors will maybe ask ten to fifteen to come in for an audition. It seems a little daunting, but if you happen to create a niche for yourself that is memorable, you will hopefully stand out from the crowd. And then, Madame Casting Directress will one day say something to her assistant to the tune of, “Remember that funny brunette with the accordion? Let’s bring her in for this costar.” And then you’ve gotten yourself into the room with casting and you can let your acting skills take it from there.
Once you identify what makes you stand out, it’s time to find what could make you more employable. These days, artists do not do just their one kind of art in a vacuum. Working performing artists usually have multiple skills if they’re among the privileged who are consistently working in the industry. If you’ve seen The Band’s Visit, you know that those singers are not only singing but they’re playing instruments as well. If you’ve ever seen a Cirque du Soleil–themed show on a cruise ship, you know those dancers are not just dancing but they’re also singing and performing on aerial silks. Each new skill you add to your bag of tricks makes you more and more employable. Your extra skills don’t necessarily have to be performance-based either. Perhaps you will find that it will help your career to learn to produce your own content or to spend some quality time on YouTube learning how to use Final Cut to edit your reel. Find the extra skills that will help you most to be uniquely you. Take into account the skills you already have and acquire new ones to help you speed along the path to achievement.
LET ME TELL YOU A STORY. . . .
I was a ballet dancer by trade. I danced in ballet companies, I trained at American Ballet Theatre school, and I regularly sewed pointe shoes instead of eating dinner. When I entered the musical theater scene, I stuck out in dance auditions like a sore thumb (largely because I wore a black leotard and pink tights). At my first audition for My Fair Lady at a lovely theater in New Jersey called Papermill Playhouse, I realized that one of these things was not like the other. Perhaps I stood out in the dance studio in a good way, but it was hard to tell. I noticed, though, as I continued to audition, that I stuck out when it came to the singing portion as well. As I listened through the door of the audition room, I heard dancer after dancer enter the room, sing “I Got Rhythm” or “All That Jazz,” and then walk out in four-inch heels.
I began to get nervous. I was still in my ballet slippers and all I had brought with me to sing was “Think of Me” from Phantom of the Opera. To make matters worse, that was the only song I had sung in English for years. See, I had taken a lot of voice lessons in high school and college, but I had only been interested in opera. I haughtily considered myself a lyric coloratura and didn’t prefer to sing things in English or notes “on the staff.” For years, I had challenged myself to sing higher and higher notes and now, here I was listening to these throaty chorines belting out show tunes. I was at a loss. “Well,” I thought, “I don’t have any other choice and I’m not going to sing ‘Happy Birthday’ a cappella, so I might as well go for it.”
Long story short: I got the job. I had good dance technique and a lot of personality, so I considered the dancing portion of the audition a success. However, that’s not why I got the job. I found out later that the main reason I got the job was that the music director needed another soprano in the ensemble, and the score of the show was very high. Wait . . . I was offered a job in the dancing ensemble of a show because of my singing skills? This, to me, was odd, so I started to ask around about what kind of songs dancers sung at auditions and what was expected. It turned out that very few dancers at that time had classical training, and even fewer dancers sang high notes. Apparently, we dancer-sopranos were a pretty sought-after commodity in the regional musical theater circuit. A light went off—I had found my niche. I found a voice teacher who helped me not only build upon and show off my skills as a soprano but also fill in the gap in my training—learning to belt. After six months of weekly study, I had a book full of great songs like “Glitter and Be Gay” and “Gorgeous,” to show off my high notes, as well as a few songs like “Don Juan” for me to pull out if asked to belt.
Less than two years after showing up at that first audition with no idea of how I fit into the musical theater world, I booked my first Broadway show. And then my next one. And the next one. And I didn’t stop working for the next ten years. Was this all because I learned to capitalize on my particular mix of skills? No. Did it help? Sure did. The fact of the matter is that if you find the gaps in the market of your chosen artistic pursuit, and you and your talents can fill them, you will be likely to succeed. Similarly, if you find and fill the gaps in your skill set that will help you be a more well-rounded artist, you’ll probably succeed as well. If you do both, I believe you can conquer anything.
DAY 1
Today you’ll be writing down all of the things that set you apart from the other people who are in your chosen artistic field. We will be dividing your brainstorm into three categories: physical characteristics, skills and hobbies, and other attributes. You could list any physical attribute you have or anything you can do with your body such as flexible back, freckles, great style, piercings, or anything else. This can also include your “look” (think grunge Barbie, girly-girl style, or other things people might observe about you on first glance that would stand out). Your skills and hobbies can include things like running marathons, model car building, belting high notes, being great with animals, or other things you’re good at or like to do. The last category, other attributes, leaves your brainstorming session open to anything else you can think of. Maybe you’re from a small town in Iceland or you have ten siblings. Just write down anything you can think of that makes you stand out from the crowd. Set a timer for ten to fifteen minutes and get weird.
| Physical Characteristics | Skills and Hobbies | Other Attributes |
| _________________ | _________________ | _________________ |
| _________________ | _________________ | _________________ |
| _________________ | _________________ | _________________ |
| _________________ | _________________ | _________________ |
| _________________ | _________________ | _________________ |
| _________________ | _________________ | _________________ |
| _________________ | _________________ | _________________ |
| _________________ | _________________ | _________________ |
| _________________ | _________________ | _________________ |
| _________________ | _________________ | _________________ |
| _________________ | _________________ | _________________ |
| _________________ | _________________ | _________________ |
| _________________ | _________________ | _________________ |
Your homework before tomorrow is to ask a few of your friends what they think stands out about you. You’ll be surprised at how other people see us significantly differently from how we see ourselves. An outside perspective can often be very useful in many situations.
DAY 2
Hopefully, you now have a much fuller picture of what makes you . . . you. Or at least you now have one that is written in black and white. If you have any additional attributes that you gathered from your friends in your homework assignment, add them to your list from day 1. Today you will be choosing three of these attributes to apply in future chapters when you create your artistic style. You may even be able to combine a few of these at a later date. Say, for instance, you are a ballet dancer who loves fixing up motorcycles. Now, the combination of those two attributes will make for some memorable photos for your Instagram account. I’d definitely follow it! Or maybe you’re an actor who loves fitness and animals. You can combine those. Workouts with your pet could be the next sensation and may attract eyeballs that will get you into the room with casting. But first, you’ll simply choose three of the attributes that you listed above to put in your pocket for future planning. Consider how the differences you choose will set you apart from other dancers/singers/actors/performers and what the complementary other attributes might be. Perhaps even mentally look forward and consider what your overall style might be. List your three attributes below.
Attribute #1: _____________________________________________
Attribute #2: _____________________________________________
Attribute #3: _____________________________________________
Now that you have decided on what makes you stand out, keep these three attributes at the top of your mind for the next few weeks. You will be thinking about how you can further define what makes you special, how that relates to your chosen career, and how it all fits together.
DAY 3
You will do a little more brainstorming today, but this time, you will be thinking about the opposite of day 1. What do you lack? What skills do you think you could add to the list of things you’re already great at? What classes are offered in your community that you think might benefit you in your trajectory toward success? Remember, you may be employable as a singer, but you’re even more employable if you’re a singer who can tap-dance. Or a singer who can record and edit his or her own audio tracks. Or a singer who can also play the guitar. You don’t have to know how to do everything, but you definitely should know how to do more than one thing. So what can you easily add to your bag of tricks that would make you a more employable artist in your field? Set a timer for ten to fifteen minutes and brainstorm all of the skills you might be able to add to your repertoire of talents to help you get a job. Remember to think outside the box; no idea is too outlandish. In fact, the more outlandish, the more memorable and unique.
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DAY 4
While you just may end up eventually procuring all of the skills from day 3 in your lifetime, it’s undoubtedly overwhelming to think about all of them at once. So, today, you’ll choose just one skill from your list to start adding to your mental cabinet of brilliance. Look back over your list of skills from day 3 and ask yourself, “What am I most excited about learning?” The last thing you want to do is embark upon learning something you’re not passionate about. I can’t stress this enough: don’t pursue things that don’t excite you. Ever. You should also ask yourself, “What is the low-hanging fruit?” Meaning, what is the easiest new skill that you could master that would give you the most bang for your buck? Some skills take years to master and others take weeks. Time is an important, nonrenewable resource of which we all have a limited supply. (That’s your deep thought for the day.) If you can add a skill to your bag of tricks in less time than more, that’s a great option to consider. A third thing you should consider is the financial cost you might incur when acquiring your new skill. Learning to juggle from YouTube videos is considerably less costly than learning how to golf. If you don’t currently have a lot of cash, choose something that you can learn from friends or from online resources. To make your choice of what to study first a little simpler, you’ll first narrow your choices down to three and then choose the best fit from there.
Additional skill #1 ________________________________________
Additional skill #2 ________________________________________
Additional skill #3 ________________________________________
Now set a timer and really consider each of these skills for three minutes each. Think of how long it will take to become proficient, how it will relate to your industry, and how much it will cost you. Then, after your nine minutes of consideration, make your choice.
Drumroll, please . . .
The skill I plan to add to my arsenal of amazingness is: _______________________ _____________________________________________________
DAY 5
No choice to move forward with any initiative is complete without an action plan. We all know that person who has been talking about starting a business or has been writing a book for years and still has not made any progress. Don’t be that person. Thought without action is completely useless. Like a person who wants to save a million dollars but never deposits one dollar into the bank, the plans you make mean nothing unless you follow through with them. You may not have a lot of time to acquire your new skill, and that’s okay. What you do consistently is more important than what you do on occasion. If you only have thirty minutes before you go to sleep to work on learning how to play the guitar, that’s great. After three months, you will have been practicing guitar for forty-two hours. You’ll be playing at a not-embarrassing level in six months and ready to show off your musical prowess in a year. Ensuring yourself a significantly higher chance of making more dough and getting hired more often for thirty minutes per day? That’s a good deal.
Once you choose your skill to learn, you’ll factor that cost into your Coin Calculator so you can make sure you keep that electricity on while you learn to play guitar. Here’s an example from Ronald, who wants to be a comedic actor:
Now it’s your turn:
Skill I plan to add to my arsenal of amazingness ________________________________________________________________________
How I plan to learn it (i.e., lessons, from a friend, from videos, etc.)
_____________________________________________________
How long I will spend on this new skill: ____________ hours per day / week (circle one)
Additional cost to pursue my skill: ________________________________________
Brave thing I will do to debut my new skill: _________________________________
As you begin to recognize and capitalize on your inherent attributes and you cultivate additional supplementary skills to add to your bag of tricks, you will begin to stand out from the crowd. When you begin to stand out from the crowd (in a good way), people start to take notice. And when people start to take notice, you begin to get the opportunities that you have been waiting for. Learn to stand out so that you can fit into the world of working artists.