Aaron Marcus explains how actors and models can earn more by keeping detailed records of their work. Document every commercial, pharmaceutical gig, and product you've used to avoid conflicts and track what's still generating income. Use spreadsheets, binders, or notes to review past work and improve your marketing.
Hey, I'm Aaron Marcus, and I can tell you it's a really gloomy day outside. It's pouring, it's chilly, it's just gray, it looks bleak, and I have spent pretty much the entire day from about, I don't know, 7:20 this morning till about 2 o'clock just online. I've been answering questions for people, sending out information, and so— Hi, Aaron. Something came up and I thought, you know what, I want to share this with you because this can really make a huge difference in your career. So before I forget, if you are watching this on my YouTube channel and you haven't subscribed yet, make sure you click the subscription button and the little bell, the little notification button, and that way every time I upload a new video, you'll get a notification. So I was just asked to submit photos. There was a go-see. I couldn't make it to the go-see, and this time they actually did allow me to shoot the photos at home and send them to the casting folks. And it's for a really big commercial modeling job. It's a pharmaceutical job. And what I do— and this is something that you absolutely should be doing is after every job, make sure you keep great records. And what I mean by great records— and you can do this whether it's an Excel spreadsheet, if you don't want to do that and just write it down, you can put it in a 3-ring binder, or just any way that you can easily access it. I typically do both just because I used to do 3-ring binders way before I was doing that much with computers and probably before I was even aware of Excel. And what I'll do is I will list the pages by the year. So basically what I do is every time I do a job— so let's say it's 2019— on the top of the page it says 2019, and then I will put the date, I will put the name of the type of job— is it a union acting job, is it a commercial modeling job— then I put Put the details in there, who it was for. Sometimes if it's a commercial print job, I'll put the photographer's name, the advertiser's name, the product, which is— that's really important. Let's just say it's a pharmaceutical. What kind of medication? So not only the name of the medication, but what's it for? Is it cancer? Is it high blood pressure? Is it diabetes? Whatever it is. And that way, I can keep track. And the reason why I'm bringing this up to you right now— so in this, this GOSI that I had that I was telling you about, I was just sent a form and it's very specific. And I find that this is true especially when it comes to pharmaceutical jobs and insurance companies. And it could hold true for other, you know, other types of products as well, but especially those 2 areas. They want to know very specifically what other pharmaceutical jobs I've done, not even ones that are just connected with the product to make sure I don't have something running for a competing product, but it could be anything. And they want to know the name of the, the name of the product, the usage of it, the year That it was shot, and is it still currently being used? If you don't have good records, you're not going to have a clue. And this isn't a time— well, look, actually, there's never a time you want to lie, but especially this time, you do not want to just fluff this off and say, nah, I don't have anything running, even though you know you did something in the pharmaceutical world a little while ago. Because there could be some serious ramifications if, you know, you say that you don't have any conflicts currently running, you do the job, and they spend a lot of time, a lot of money, they put together a whole campaign, and then all of a sudden they find your face on a competitor's website or in a brochure that they saw of a competitor or in a magazine. There are all kinds of problems, including legal issues as well. Wouldn't surprise me if your agent dropped you and you're going to be in a situation you just don't want to be in. It's always, always, always, always best to be honest, and you might not be considered for the job because of that. And as difficult as that is, You're much better off doing that than accepting it, doing the job, and then possibly have them find out that you do have a conflict running. That is a horrible situation. So what I do is I spent a pretty good amount of time. I went through— I went all the way back because they wanted like the last 5, 6 years or something like that. And I wrote in there for every single one, to the best of my knowledge, this is not running. To the best of my knowledge, this is not currently running. I mean, ultimately, I have no idea. I know that— I know how long these things are allowed to run for. You know, I have the vouchers and it will state, you know, 12 months, 2 years, 3 years, whatever it is. Now, if they decided to keep using it and they broke the agreement, well, I have no control over that. They don't tell me. I mean, sometimes they do if they actually know they want to extend it. Sometimes the people from either the client or the people from the ad agency, they just don't even remember that there was a certain limit to it and they just decided, well, let's just keep running it and We don't get paid. We don't get notified. That's rare, but that does happen sometimes. So that's why I put, to the best of my knowledge, I do not have any conflicts currently running. So anyhow, I just wanted to share that with you. Make sure you are honest. Make sure you keep great records of all the work that you do. It's also, you know, I'll tell you on a side note, it's also helpful to be able to go back year after year after year and see, are you getting more acting jobs? Are you getting more modeling jobs? What kind of jobs are you getting? That might help you learn how to market yourself better. Maybe there are areas you're not getting work in. Maybe you need new photos, shots that really will sell you in those other categories that you're not currently working in. So anyhow, it's really helpful to just check out that information Anyway, but something else that I do, I also have— and I don't go back, you know, 6, 7 years, but I might go back the last 2 or 3 years and I'll have it on my cell phone. So that way, every time I go to a go-see, if they do ask about that, I've got all that information with me. So anyhow, wanted to share that with you. Please feel free to share this video throughout your social media pages. Look, I'm doing this so that I can help other people and also help build a bigger community of people just sharing information with each other. If you want, you can follow me on Instagram as well. I do have information there also. It's just Aaron, A-A-R-O-N, R. Marcus. But anyhow, feel free to share this. And also one other last thing, if you can, you know, once again, these are all free. If you would like to support this channel, I'd love to ask you to make a donation. Whatever is good for you, you know, whether it's $1, $5, $10, $100, whatever you want to do, whatever is comfortable for you. There is a link that goes straight to my PayPal account at the bottom here. Once again, if you're watching this on YouTube, and yeah, I greatly appreciate the support. Um, and to help keep this channel up running. And hopefully it's something that you are getting something out of as well. So anyhow, I'm Aaron Marcus, and if you do have any follow-up questions, always feel free. You can reach me at howtoactandmodel.com, and look forward to talking with you again soon. See ya. See ya.
