Aaron Marcus shares two ways to find acting work when auditions dry up: send friendly updates to casting directors and agents with current headshots and resumes, or listen to your gut if it's time to try something else. He offers a free video on home auditions at howtoactandmodel.com.
No acting jobs? In this video, I'm going to be sharing with you 2 strategic paths for actors. Also, watch this to the end. I've got a great bonus video for you. It's how I unexpectedly booked an HBO show and what I learned from it. Okay, let's get started. Hi, I'm Aaron Marcus, and welcome to the Acting and Modeling Quick Tips channel and the Actor Career Center. Look, I don't know what it's like for you right now, but full disclosure, work is slow for me. I've had very few auditions, and there just isn't a whole lot happening right now for me. And I've got a couple different theories about that. I— well, anyhow, you know what, I think theories and ideas about it, that's another video. Let me first tell you, as far as a strategic path goes, and this is one you probably don't want to hear. The second one, I'm going to give you more specific information as to what to do. But, you know, maybe, maybe you've hit a time period where you've said enough is enough. I've done everything I possibly could. Mentally, I'm just not prepared to go into a spiral here. I don't see things changing for me, and I'm just not happy, and I want to look into something else. And my thought is, if that's truly where you are at, Then listen to yourself, and maybe it is time to make a change for yourself. I'm not telling you to. I'm not suggesting that you do. But we all get to a point where sometimes we might think like it's time to try something different. Now, I can tell you, I've been doing this for over 40 years, and there have always been slow times for me. That's just, that's just how the industry goes. Now I realize with my, with my age, I'm getting older. I know this surprises people, but I am getting older and there aren't as many jobs for someone in my age category as opposed to somebody, you know, 30s, even the 50s or mid-50s. So Here's what I've done. Number one, if things are really slow, yeah, I mean, it's easy just to say, I want out, and I've never gone that route. What I have done is I've sat back and I thought, okay, things are really dead right now. What can I do to make things start happening again? And, and I'll tell you, here's— this has been my strategic plan throughout my career. Number one, I always make sure that my materials are great and up to date. If not, it's time for a new headshot. It's time to play around with my resume, just making sure that everything is accurate, making sure the things that are really important are at the top. I start marketing myself pretty hard, and I will get in touch with casting directors. I'll send them emails. These are people I've worked with, people I know, maybe some directors I've worked with for commercial modeling work. I'll reach out to commercial photographers. I'll reach out to art and creative directors at advertising agencies just to let them know I'm around. You know, I don't say, hey, things are dead. Is there anything for me? Because it's just not a good way to do it. Hey, just wanted to stay in touch with you. Here are some of the more recent projects I've worked on, and I hope we get a chance to work together in the near future on a radio spot, TV commercial, or commercial modeling job. And so it's the art directors and creative directors at the ad agencies that I will reach out to. And Even with agents, you know, sometimes I'll reach out to an agent. Once again, I'm not going to say, hey, things are dead, what's going on? But, you know, I'll ask, hey, is there anything I can do to try to get more auditions happening? And see what they have to say. So when things are slow for me, that's when I get more proactive. I know you're supposed to be proactive all the time, but when I'm busy, I just don't have time to do it. But when things are slow— That's exactly what I will do. So I wanted to share those ideas and, and thoughts with you. If you have any ideas on how to make things happen for yourself, what do you do when work is slow? Please share it here on the channel. I'd really appreciate it a lot. And, and I just want to make sure that, you know, if you haven't done this yet, If you go to my website, howtoactandmodel.com, it's all spelled out, and you sign up to be on my free mailing list, not only will you receive weekly emails from me, but also you're going to get a great bonus video. And it's 6 Secrets to Mastering Home Auditions. And this is something you absolutely need to do. As a matter of fact, you You know, if things are slow, this is a time to make sure you've got all the right equipment, you know what you're doing, you know how to edit, you know how to shoot things properly, the lighting is perfect, the backgrounds are right. Anyhow, watch this video and you're going to learn all about that. And just go to howtoactamodel.com, sign up, and you'll get this free video. Also, if you haven't subscribed to the channel, this is the time to do it. Just subscribe, click the notification bell so you always know when a new video has been uploaded. I did promise this really good video. You'll see it right up here, and how I unexpectedly got booked on an HBO show and what I learned from it. I think it will be really helpful to you. Anyhow, I'm Aaron Marcus. I can't wait to hear some of your ideas and can't wait to talk with you again soon. See ya.
