Want to Fire Your Agent Try Saying This Instead

Hey, are you angry and want to fire your agent? Well, before you do, try saying this instead. I also have a great bonus video for you. It's People Were Shocked When I Turned Down a Great Job, and Here's Why. 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. In this video, I'm going to be sharing with you 2 times when I was really angry with agents, wanted to fire them and seek representation elsewhere, but I'm glad I didn't. And I said these things to them, and it was a really smart move, and I want to share that with you. Let me also just say I'm not suggesting in any way that you never leave an agency. Sometimes it's, it's a good move, but I just want to make sure that you do it for the right reasons. So the first scenario was when I saw an audition for a really good job on a website. I think it might have been Actors Access. I can't remember which one. And it was perfect for me. And I'm thinking, why didn't the agent contact me? And, and I noticed that everything about it just seemed right. And I started thinking, I can't believe that I'm seeing this and my agent didn't contact me about it because I know that she uses Actors Access. So I contacted the agent and I'm really upset and she started having an attitude with me. She said, Aaron, I sent you the information, you didn't respond. And I was thinking, I didn't get this information from you. To make a long story short, I asked her, I said, I'm just kind of curious because I didn't receive anything, what email address did you use? As it turns out, she had an incorrect email address. And so we talked about it and it got straightened out. And then I started getting emails about jobs from her all the time. So I'm really glad I didn't just get angry and say, forget it, I'm not working with this person anymore. Uh, Smart move. The other thing that I wanted to share with you, it was a different agent, and I'm not hearing from the agent, and I just didn't understand why. It was a long time, a long stretch. I wasn't getting any information about auditions, and so once again, I'm upset. Because— and look, I realize, and something that, that I assume you know as well, look, agents want you to work. Agents want you to book jobs because that's how they make money. You know, they're going to take either, if you're in the union, a 10% commission fee from any union acting job. If it's a non-union acting job, typically 20% commission. And if it's a commercial modeling job, they typically will get a 20% commission fee from the model. And in addition, they might also be getting a 20% commission fee from whoever's being invoiced for the job. So the agent is really getting a 40% commission fee. Not always, but typically that, that's what happens. So the agent wants to do everything they can For you to be in a position to book a job, because that's how they're going to be making money. And I just wasn't hearing anything, and I was getting upset about it. But here's what I did. Instead of just going in and complaining and saying, you're not doing anything for me, and I feel like you're killing my career— and there are a lot of things that could be said, and I'm sure that have been said, but here is my strategy, and it's a really good one, and it's been very helpful to me, and I've used it a few times, and I want to share it with you. Instead of going in and complaining, hey, I've been with you for 6 months now, not hearing anything, what's going on? Here's what I did. Hey, just wanted to talk with you because it's been a while since I've gotten any information about an audition. I wanted to ask you, is there anything that I can do that will help get me more auditions? So I'm not, I'm not pointing a finger at the agent. I'm not complaining that the agent is not doing their job, you know, inferring that they're being lazy or they don't like me. I'm asking for their feedback and their help. Is there something I can do? And it was amazing. The couple times I've done this, I got responses like, hey, well, you know what, let's take a look at your headshot. Let's take a look at your commercial photos. And sometimes they said, you know what, I just don't think these are selling you well. I think you need to put together a different headshot or you need some new commercial shots. Sometimes I heard, Aaron, I've been submitting you for projects. For whatever reason, the casting directors have not been requesting that you audition. And the third thing that I heard, they just said, I just haven't had any auditions in your category for a while. Not sure why. But in all 3 of those situations, it was a great conversation. Had a nicer connection with the agent, and it was very clear as to what was going on. So instead of just feeling angry and bitter and wanting to leave, I walked out of a situation feeling much, much better, and it helped me tremendously in the future with that particular agent. So I wanted to share those with you. Hey, if you have ever experienced anything like that where You're getting angry with an agent, things weren't working out, please share it with us. And you don't have to mention the name of the agent or anything like that, but just tell us what happened, you know, and what you wound up doing if you decided to leave. I'd like to hear about that, and we'd also greatly appreciate hearing from you as well. So please share it on the Quick Tips channel. If you haven't done this yet, please subscribe, click the notification bell so you always know when a new video has been uploaded. If you like the video, give it a thumbs up. That is helpful. And please share the link with your fellow actors so we can continue building a great channel with actors helping each other. I did promise a bonus video. You'll see the link right up here. And people were shocked I turned down a great job, and you'll learn why I did that. I'm Aaron Marcus, and I can't wait to talk with you again soon. See ya.