Something that they don't teach you in acting classes, they don't tell you anything, and they leave you hanging high and dry. Today we're gonna talk about that. When I got ready to start in the business, what people said to me, and I remember this distinctively because there was two pieces of advice I would get constantly. The first thing was, don't do it. And the second thing was you're gonna be broke. That was it. That was the career counseling that I got. No roadmap, no strategy, no business plan. Just don't do it. And if you do, good luck starving. And here I am, decades later, still working in Hollywood. So let me save you years of confusion. It took me to figure it out. Don't go anywhere, stay with me, because you are about to share in my background what could literally change the chur the trajectory of your career. That didn't come out. The trajectory of your career. Yes. So drop in the chat if you've ever been told that acting as a career was a bad idea, or if you did it, you would be broke. Put it in the chat. I know, because it has happened to me. Oh my god. So when I started out, I never, not once, heard anybody describe acting as a business. I heard talent, I heard luck, I heard you gotta know the right people. And I heard you either have it or you don't. And then my favorite one was if you don't make it by 30, you're never gonna make it. I forgot about that one, but that was a big one that I heard also. But business, capital, investment strategy, not a peep. No one said anything about those. I never heard those words like acting is business. You gotta have capital before you start so that you can plan it outright. None of that. And you know what's wild? If you walked up to somebody and said, I want to open up a restaurant, the first thing they'd say to you is, Do you have money safe? Because it's gonna be between two and three years before you see a profit. You need capital, you need a runway. They'd say that to a restaurant, wannabe owner, someone who wants to open up a boutique, someone who's trying to start a cleaning business or their garage, but nobody ever says that to actors. And nobody says it to us because we treat our careers like a lotto ticket, like one audition, one callback, one role was gonna hit, and suddenly we will make it without any classes, without any tools, without any investment, without any foundation. That is crazy. But that is how many of us as actors look at our career. I can tell you I did that in the beginning, but that's not how any business works. And acting is a business. The lie that has kept so many talented people stuck is that actors are always struggling. That broke is just the way of life for actors. Let me tell you, that's a lie. So let's end that lie today. Break it. If if you started out with your acting career and had a zero financial plan, type yes. I want to know if that's you as well. Because you're not alone, you know, and it's not your fault because no one in acting classes ever taught you this. So I'm gonna give it to you straight. This way, you know what you have to do, you can prepare yourself, you can set yourself up for success instead of feeling like you're a failure as an actor. Here's what I want you to understand, especially if you're in the early stages of your career, you, my friend, are a startup. Yes, you are a startup. Just like any business, you, the actor, are a startup. Now, say it loud if you have to. Go ahead. I am a startup. Now, let me show you how a startup actually works. Because when you understand this, your entire relationship with money, with time, patience is going to change. So, this is how a startup works. Investment capital, you have to have it before revenue comes in. You gotta have a bank account with some money to set you up properly. You have to build your infrastructure first. How about that? To have a startup, you have to build your infrastructure first. You also have to be willing to operate at a loss for the first couple of years. Another thing you do with a startup is that you test, you fail, you adjust and you repeat. What is it? You test, you fail, you adjust and repeat. And you start to build your team and your network. And you have to think in terms of a long game between three and five years, if you're starting a company, if you're starting a restaurant, if you're starting a boutique, a business, it's gonna take you be three between three and five years to really establish yourself. So, how how do we um connect that to acting? Here's how it goes: an acting career works this way. You invest in training before the bookings come in. Did you hear me? You got to invest in trainings before the bookings come in. That means you got to get into an acting class, you got to be willing to stay there a minimum of 18 months. So you really know what you're doing, you got a good solid foundation, you have a teacher who knows um your telltale signs. You know, in acting, when we're not centered, we're not in our stuff, we have these telltale signs, and and and the person who knows us knows you weren't really present, you were doing that acting thing you do. So you gotta invest in your acting career before the money starts coming in. Then you gotta build your brand. That means you gotta uh put together your real uh different videos of you doing the thing that you do that nobody else does. That's part of your brand. What is your brand? And you should have maybe three to five scenes that really uh pinpoint what it is you do in that scene. Like, oh my god, she does comedy like nobody's business. Oh my goodness, she is such high drama, she is a fierce action hero. We need to see that in your reel, and your reel, it should be about 90 seconds, so you could have two clips, three clips, four clips, but it should be 90 seconds, and it should be a slamming 90 seconds. That when we see that 90 seconds to 120 second uh reel, we go, oh my god, we gotta hire her. There's no fat in that reel. It is like it is bam, bam, bam, bam, bam. And then the first thing you need, part of building your brand, is your headshot. And that headshot has to be so specific, it has to say exactly what it is you sell in just in that one headshot. You know, if it doesn't sell it in the headshot, then you don't have a brand, or you're not putting your brand out there. So your headshot is important. This is all part of your startup, getting your stuff together. Then you also have to have um work flex jobs, meaning you have to be working and making money at something that you know, if you needed to go audition or do a callback or whatever, that you could change your hours so that you can be ready to do your stuff. Or maybe you have uh you drive Uber and you could do that at night, or you you work at a at a restaurant and you can work at night so that you can adjust your schedule to accommodate your acting, but you want that job that they're okay with you adjusting your schedule. Because if you take a nine to five job and you think you're gonna be going out on auditions or you're gonna be doing self-tapes during that nine to five, it is not gonna happen. Not at all. People will get tired of you and they will fire you, and then it'll be very difficult for you to get another job because after a while, when they start asking for um, you know, they they want to know uh if you, you know, if if they should hire you, they want recommendations. People are gonna say, no, you know, they don't show up or they cancel or they leave in the middle of a work day. So you got to make sure that the jobs you get are flexible jobs that's not gonna hurt anybody, that that your boss isn't gonna get crazy. That that's one of the best things right now is um, you know, Uber or Lyft, those type of jobs where you can do it on your own time, you know, and you figure out what the schedule is that works best for you. Or um uh task grabbit is great. If you have a lot of skills, you could hire yourself out in Task Grabbit. So there's there are things you could be doing, but you gotta make sure that it aligns with your um with your acting. So you could take your classes, you could do what you what you want to do. Um, and there are a lot of opportunities out there for you, but you gotta pick it. You gotta go looking and you gotta make sure that your work ethic is solid. Because if you're gonna be Uber um while you're pursuing your acting, you got to make sure you put in those hours for Uber so you can make that money. You can't just go, well, I don't feel like driving Uber today, so I won't. No, no, no, no, no. That's not how it works. You gotta be bringing in money while you are doing your startup, which is your acting. And then you have to, you know, get out there and audition, find a manager, find an agent, find representation, and and be able to look for auditions. And so let me so let me break this down. As an actor, you do self-tapes, you go on auditions, you get rejected. That's part of the process. You make your adjustments and then you repeat it again. You you submit for stuff, you do your self-tapes, you might get rejected. Um, with commercials, it's a numbers game. You know, you go out on a bunch of auditions. Well, it's a numbers game for all of it. But when you know your brand and you hit your brand, chances are you're gonna start booking more frequently. But in the beginning, you're learning, you're figuring things out. So you have to um give yourself that grace to just start going, practicing, learning the lay of the land. Who are the casting directors for theatrical, who are the casting directors for um commercials, who are the casting directors who are uh um casting plays? Maybe you want to be doing plays. So it takes a few years to start learning all of this, it's not gonna happen overnight. And then you also during this process, you want to start building your industry relationships. You really want to start putting it all together, okay? That's part of your startup. That's stuff they don't tell you in acting classes. You gotta think of this as you playing the long game. This is not an overnight game. This take it, it's you're building a career. You know, um, actors are not taught that this is a long haul. It's a long haul. You wanna you're you're in a marathon, you're not in a sprint, it's a marathon, and it takes time. It takes time to build your career. If you walk into any business incubator or bank for a small loan and said, I expect to be profitable in six months, they would laugh you outside of the room. The standard runway of a startup is between three and five years of sustained income before real return comes in. Well, it's the same for acting. Your career is no different. So let's talk about those first three years, what it actually looks like for your startup, your acting startup. So, every serious startup, whether it's a restaurant, a tech company, a boutique, a service business, goes through predictable phases. And so does serious acting careers. Uh, let me walk you through the three. In the first year, you're spending more money than you earn on purpose. Why is that? Because you're setting yourself up, you're learning the business. You're, you know, you have to invest in a bunch of stuff because you're setting the foundation. A restaurant owner in one year signs a lease, buys equipment, hires staff, runs soft launches, builds clientele, and loses money in the process. This is called the building infrastructure. A service business in one year invests in branding, a website, tools, and it takes early client at low rates just to build testimonials and a portfolio. A boutique owner in one year sources their inventory, they set up shop, they market to the neighborhood, and they reinvest every dollar back into the business. So they're not making anything the first year. You in your first year, you're taking classes, you're getting your headshots, you're building your reel, you're finding the right agent, you're doing student films, you're working uh flexible jobs that allows you to get off and do what you need to do, and you're learning the business. So stop waiting to feel ready. Invest in getting ready. Acting costs money. Your flexible job is your startup capital, your savings account is your business fund. Live lean, invest smart. I learned that from actors who were working that um they didn't spend a lot of money because they didn't know when the next paycheck was coming in. So, and if they bought something, made sure it was like on clearance, it was something maybe they could return if they needed to, but they weren't out there spending their money. They they really understood I need to save this until the next job comes. That means they have to pay their rent, they have to do um get their food. All of that has to come out of whatever they made the the last time they worked, or have some kind of side hustle that's bringing in income while they're auditioning. Um, when you know, when I first started acting, I was very fortunate in that because we were saying, you know, you need a job, you need it. So I always had a real job. Well, let me not say a real job, they're all real jobs, but I had a a traditional career job. I was working at a a record company, I worked at a radio station, I programmed the music, so I was making a good money and I was able to be flexible within my my job that I could go on auditions and if I book something, I could do it. But it got to the point where my bosses were not happy because I started booking a lot. I was booking it and it got to the point where I had to quit my job. I just I was like, okay, I'm now at that crossroad that I have to leave this job because my acting is coming in. What I didn't know when I did leave was I didn't have a bank account set up to give me a long runway to understand that, hey, it's gonna take, you know, I might not work for another six months. Where's my money coming from? So um I was able to get unemployment for like six months, but it wasn't enough to cover all my bills. So I'm telling you stuff that nobody told me. You wanna have a runway, you want to be able to have enough money in your bank account to keep you going, to keep you steady. Um, it's really important. If you're in your first year, really think of acting as an investment, not something you're gonna pull out of right away. And if you do pull out, you know, if you do start booking work, put that money to the side and stay with your job. I remember when I was early in my career and I have booked um two episodes of The Jeffersons, and I remember Marla Gibbs, I remember Marla Gibbs, um, who was uh one of the leads in the Jeffersons. She said she kept her day job when she booked the Jeffersons for the first three years. She kept her job. She worked at an airport at a for airlines and she kept her job because she said this could go away in a minute. I won't know. And it wasn't until the third year where she let go of that job where she was like, okay, I think this show is gonna last. Um, I heard Eva Longoria recently talking about the same thing that when she started acting and she got um on General Hospital as a regular, she kept her day job for two years until she felt comfortable that she was making enough money that she could quit her other job. So I'm not telling you anything that smart actors don't do. I mean, the real serious actors, they're looking at their finances. They're not just going, well, I'm gonna get an acting job and then I'm gonna be rich and famous. That's not how this business works. I know people have those stories, but they're one in a million. And I know you go, Well, I'm gonna be the one in the million. Maybe you are, but maybe you're not. So be ready for the not. So if you are, you just have more cash in your account. How's that? So, so year one, we're learning that it's all about outgo, outgo, outgo, knowing you're gonna lose money in your career. Year two, you're you are starting to build momentum. There's traction starting to show because you've been submitting, you've been sending your pictures out. Now, casting directors are getting to know you, God willing. You got yourself an agent who believes in you or a manager who believes in you, and you should be uh reaching out to them regularly. You should be contacting them at least twice a month to say, hey, I'm doing this, I'm working on this. So, so that you are top of mind with them in business. By year two, a startup is starting to see what's working. You're starting to see, you know, what kind of um, you know, you go on these types of auditions, you're getting callbacks, or you're going on these auditions, you're not getting callbacks. So maybe those are not the right auditions. Maybe the character breakdown that they're submitting you for is wrong. But this is the time to start looking at, okay, I'm booking, I'm I'm at, you know, if you're getting called in for a lot of stuff and and you get a uh callback, then you are on the right path. But if you get called in for a bunch of different stuff and nothing sticks, then you gotta really look at your brand and really hone in on what it is that you sell. What do you sell? Because you're not giving the casting people enough to say, oh, I can buy her as this. And that is so important. It's not just about going on auditions, but it's about um getting callbacks and booking the work and going from a job where you do under five to now you've you've graduated and now you're being asked to be a reoccurring, or you you know you're getting bigger roles on shows. So it's important. We want to move up. As actors, we want to keep moving up. We don't want to stay. Well, I go out, you know, I get these one line, three lines, and it's been like that for 13 years. We don't want that. Okay? That's why I'm walking you through this so you can set yourself up for success. So let's talk about year two. Restaurants in year two, they're starting to get regulars. Maybe they get some press coverage. Maybe they get Yelp followings and Yelp reviews. They're using any profits that they're getting to upgrade their menu, add staff, invest in marketing, and they're not taking a vacation yet because they haven't really solidified that business. A service business in year two has a growing client list. They have some referrals. Their investments, they're investing in better tools and certification, a team member to help scale their business. They have stronger vendor relationships. Maybe they are doing pop-ups or they have a second location on the horizon that they're looking at. They're making investments and they're reinvesting in their inventory and brand. So year two for you should look like this. You're getting called back by the same uh casting directors. They keep calling you in for stuff. You're now building a reputation, you're meeting industry people, you're building strong relationships, you're even maybe booking some nice parts. Maybe you're, you know, you're booking co-star and student films and industrials and commercials. Do not stop investing. Now you gotta upgrade your headshot. Now you got to take an advanced class. Now you got to join a community. This is not the time for you to sit back and coast and go, well, you know, I'm getting called in, and so everything is good. No. Year two is where most actors either accelerate or flatlined. And the ones who accelerate, they double down. The ones who flatlined, they thought the traject they thought their traction was arrival time, and it wasn't. So we want to be aware of what it is that we're doing. If you've been doing this for a long time and you haven't seen anything, follow this guide. Start, start fresh, start, reinvent your stuff, reinvent your what you sell. Okay, so year three. This is where things start to come in. This is where your investment starts to pay off. And let me just say something. For you actors who uh came out of college or grad school and and you think it's all that. No, it's not. No, not not necessarily. Just because you went to college doesn't mean it's gonna translate in show business because there's a lot of people in show business who did not go to college. You still have to start like it's a startup, okay? It's still a startup. A startup, a startup, a startup. Okay, so in business, year three is when a startup either crosses into real profitability or reveals fatal cracks. The business that survives are the ones that built a foundation in year one and two. And so you got to build that foundation. A restaurant in year three is profitable, it has a loyal base now, it has survived the hard early phase. They're thinking of expansion, they're catering, they they got a brand now, and and their foundation is solid. A service business in year three has a waiting list, they got a team, they now have a reputation, they're turning down work um because they're just busy. A boutique in year three, they have brand recognition, they're probably getting media coverage, they got loyal fans, they've they're building uh this this boutique that um is is good with uh pro product and service and customer experience. They are doing everything right. If they're if if they're still around, they're doing everything right. You in year three, you, my friend, the actor, you have invested correctly in the right acting classes, you've you got the right training, you got the right tools, you're building relationships, you have your mental game on point. You your mindset is about winning. You are now becoming that working actor. Maybe not a famous one yet, but you're working, you're walking into audition rooms, you're setting yourself tapes with confidence because you've been doing the reps, you have representation, you got footage, you got a network of of people, you're in a great community. You have figured out your brand. And here is the most important thing. Actors who are booking in year three started investing in year one. They weren't waiting till something came in, they weren't waiting until they felt like doing it, they made their business a priority because they understood that acting is a business and you are the CEO of your company. Now, where are you in this three-year arc? What is it that you need to do to invest in right now? What do you need to get you to the next level? That's for you to start to think about. Um, I want you to really start thinking about how do you um become that working actor? How are you um bringing in finances for yourself? See, really smart actors always have other streams of income. If you look at the big actors, they have clothing lines, fragrance lines, makeup lines, they got all they got their hands in other pots. So if if that year acting is slow, they still have revenue coming in. How can you start building your revenue so when acting is slow, you are doing um well financially because sometimes it's low, you know, sometimes they're not booking people. And unless you're doing your own projects and you have funding from outside sources to get your stuff done, this conversation involves you. You got to figure out how your money is coming in. So you want to make sure that you have a job with flexibility or you have skills that you can create a side hustle and you know do your business. Maybe you're great at styling people, maybe you're great at um um putting uh what do you call organizing spaces. You can you can um do that, create a business. People always need somebody to help organize them. Maybe you're good at reading scripts, you can um see about working for people who need uh to have their their scripts read and and get notes on them and and that kind of stuff. Look at your skill set and see what it is that you have, and maybe this is somewhere something for you to uh talk to Chat GPT or Perplexity or Gemini and say, I got these skills. What kind of side hustles could I have from these skills? Ask it, see what it what it gives you back. So it is important. I'm gonna give you a couple of things that you need to have as you are moving forward with your business. Number one, be um be living below your means on purpose, have a job with flexibility so you get a check from somewhere else and you're not um, you know, you're not feeling choked. Budget like a CEO. Really important. Uh know where every dollar is going to that you are spending exactly to the penny. Actors who treat their money like it's water always slips through their fingers. They never have enough to invest in whatever what whatever matters, such as headshots, classes, workshops, reels, uh traveling to auditions. A budget is not a punishment, it's a plan. It's a plan to keep you successful. Every startup has a budget. Now you can too. All right, and and also as a business, you want to be saving consistently, even if it's like $20 a week. Have a war chest. Uh uh, I always had an account that was for my tools or my classes or whatever I needed. So I know, okay, I gotta take care of my rent, my acting class, I gotta take care of my uh mastermind group, whatever it is, I have already set that aside. So you want to think uh intentionally financially. You want to be thinking of um making sure that you're setting yourself up for success and you want to be finding deals, find a purpose, you know, um, so that you can take care of what you need to take care of. The bottom line here, let's talk about the bottom line. Finances are not the end game of your career, they are the foundation. Okay? Did you hear me? Finances are not the end game of your acting career, they are the foundation of it. So stop waiting for your lotto ticket, start building your business. Actors who build real sustainable careers are the ones who show up to their career in a way as a business owner shows up to their business. You have a plan, you got financing, and you you have the long game in mind. Um, so you're not relying on other people. One of the things that I've seen over the years is a lot of times I've seen actors move to Los Angeles. Um, they don't have financially, they're they don't have the financial means, and then they'll hook up with uh someone, you know, as like I I've seen a lot of guys do this. They'll hook up with a girl who has a regular job who's not an actor, and they'll live off of her, basically. They don't really care about her, but they need somewhere to live, and so they're living off of her. And I've seen uh women do it too, you know, living with older men who take care of them, and they're not in a love relationship. It's not something, but it they think it's a way for them to get their career. What I'm saying to you is act like a CEO, not like a hooker, not like a uh uh uh I don't know what uh uh a guy would be called, but don't prostitute yourself to have a career. Really think of yourself as an owner of your business so you can do it right. So I hope that this has helped you. My call to action for you today is to start thinking of yourself differently. You are an owner, and I've got a um community I want to invite you to call the Acting Smarter Circle. So if you want to be around supportive actors, you want to get strategy, you want to get advice, you want to get support, come and join us at ActingSmarter Circle.com. That's actingsmartercircle.com. And we'll meet once a week, every month. We we meet every week monthly, and we will help you to get your career to where you want it to be, and that is from undiscovered to unstoppable. So until next time, please see yourself as a CEO of your career. Don't you know, don't take it lightly. Don't don't think of, you know, oh, it's a lotto ticket and I'm gonna win. No, it's a business. It's a business. You can do it. It is a business. All right. Well, I will see you next time.