1.Sitting and Waiting.
Exactly! Don’t sit and wait for an agent or a manager to sell you, or a director to offer you a part. Every day is a struggle to do more, to create more and to strengthen your skills as an actor. About doing more: work on your social media by not just posting food or nice landscapes but create your instagram page as an actor, create your brand and try to engage as many followers as possible. Nowadays, videos engage more audience than photos. Choose a topic and tell your story both on instagram and youtube. As an emerging actor you could document and share your experience with getting booked for auditions, making or failing them, getting headshot sessions, learning new special skills like martial arts, a new language or an accent, and adding them to your resume. Anything you do, from getting into auditions, taking acting classes, making connections to getting new headshots will get you to the next level.
2. Judging Yourself Negatively.
Don’t be negative about yourself. By doing so you can eventually convince yourself that you are not good or talented enough. That way you lose your confidence and the failure will be there waiting for you. Instead, evaluate your current skills and abilities and work on yourself. It is also worth asking for others opinion. And, if you follow my advice and start your vlog, you will have a larger audience to ask opinion from.
3. Competing All the Time.
Acting is not boxing or some other type of a sport. There are no winners or losers especially if you’re part of the team. It’s more about collaborating than competing. If people feel that you are trying to defeat them, they would not feel comfortable to work with you. Remember, it’s like any other business, we hire people we enjoy working with.
4. Procrastination.
Don’t put off things you should have done weeks ago. If you get into habit of procrastination it is hard to get rid of it. It results less success and more stress. Besides, it lowers your self-esteem and can ruin your career. As a result, you start blaming yourself, feeling negative and blowing a lot of opportunities. Instead, make a poster that says “Do it now!”, pin it to the wall. Schedule your day, your week, your auditions, meetings, headshot sessions, acting classes and stick to your goal plan. You can schedule headshot sessions with us by clicking here.
5. Saving Money on Professional Services.
There’s this popular saying “Dress for Success”. For actors, it also includes turning to professionals for taking care of your skin, hair, getting headshots by professional photographers, making sure to have your makeup and hair done by professionals as well. If you don’t look your best in the pictures, believe me, it’s waste of money. I used to offer free headshots and people would come with dirty hair and bad skin. Why? Why would they waste both their and my time? As a result, I wouldn’t even get a chance to use those pictures for my portfolio. Nowadays, I charge for headshots. You can see my current rates here. For auditions, try to wear neat and new clothes. They don’t have to be super expensive but looking neat is a way to say that your respect yourself and people who are about to give you a job.
6. Giving up.
Giving up is the easiest thing. You can find chapters about giving up the acting career in every famous actor’s biography. It could be caused by rejections, failed auditions, lack of money or support. If you want to make it to Hollywood you should never give up!
