Actor's Business Cycle – Professional Relations
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of Working in the Biz
Oct 9, 2009
The concept of the Actor’s Business Cycle, or ABC™, has been adapted from the corporate world. Taken step by step, these easy to understand concepts will provide you with a powerful tool to realize your career goals. By now, you’ve been hired to work on a play, movie, commercial, etc., which was covered in The Actor’s Business Cycle – The Point of Purchase.
The director and/or producer have purchased your “widget”…that is you and your talent…in order to help make their production the best it can possibly be. Unfortunately, many actors forget that though they’ve landed this particular role, they still need to be aware of the broader implications of their work as it relates to their career; because after the show is over, the powers that be will evaluate the pro’s and con’s of having worked with you.
Five Important Questions
Okay, so the Director, Producer and Agent purchased your “widget”. They used it for their project; i.e. – The Interview, the Audition or the Job. During that time they began to compare, both consciously and unconsciously, the promises you made in the advertising phase with how your “widget” actually performed. Essentially, they are asking themselves the following questions.
- Were you easy to work with? How much of a “team player” were you? Divas and temperamental artistes will not do well here.
- Were you able to do all the things required of you during the project? Remember when you told them how well you could foxtrot for their musical? Or how fluent you were in German? Well now they’re going to grade your work with a pass or fail.
- How much did you contribute to the project? Were you an actor who could solve their own problems without having to bring everything to a screeching halt? Did you go through the proper channels to fix them?
- How well did you perform? In this business it doesn’t matter whether you’re sick, had a fight with your partner or were distracted by a new prop or costume. You were expected to focus on the show and deliver the best possible performance….period.
- Were you worth the money and time they spent on you? No matter whether you were being paid top dollar or working for free, money was being spent on you by the producer and director and they will ask themselves the four previous questions and do the math.
Professional Relations
If you do not deliver on your promises, you will have “Bad Professional Relations”, and you now have a problem that you must identify and fix as soon as possible. If you can, talk to the people who bought your “widget” and ask them for their feedback in helping you identify what went wrong. Either way, here are some questions you must try to answer.
- What promises were not kept?
- What can I do to fix them?
- Were there any extenuating circumstances that prevented me from doing my very best?
If, on the other hand, they believe that your “widget” performed as advertised, wonderful! You have just attained “Good Professional Relations”. But remember, something can be “Good” by degrees. Even if you delivered on your promises, and know that you’ve done your job well, there’s always room for improvement. Because to get to the final step in this cycle, you must actually go beyond merely doing a good job...you must do a GREAT job!
“It doesn’t matter if you think everything’s fine; when it comes to customer service, if the customer feels there is a problem…then there is a problem!” - Unknown
To read the next article in this series, go to: The Actor's Business Cycle - Brand Loyalty: Why Trust, Behavior and Consistency are so Important to Your Career
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