entertainment industry coach question 734:What is the best way to make a cold call to get work?

For all of you who hate making cold calls, you're going to love my answer to this one: DON'T MAKE THEM! I know in some industries cold calling is the norm, but ours is a creative industry, so it's not. The reason is because people want to hire people they know, like, and trust. Money, jobs, and reputations are on the line. Put yourself in the shoes of the person doing the hiring. If you had to hire someone on a $50 million feature and your job and reputation was on the line, would you hire a cold caller or someone you've worked with for 10 years? Even if your entire network of people was unavailable, would you hire a cold caller or ask your network for recommendations to other people? Cold calling is a long shot. I'm not saying that people have never gotten jobs making them, I'm saying it's working hard, not smart.

I'll answer the obvious next question tomorrow: if I shouldn't cold call people, how do I meet them?

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entertainment industry coach question 683: I used to work a lot and now people I worked with work all the time and I don't, what gives?

You MUST stop comparing yourself to other people. For all the people who you notice are working, there are hundreds who like you, had a career and are struggling to revive it.

What you SHOULD do is:

1. evaluate what you are doing to generate work for yourself

2. Analyze what the successful people are doing

3. Model their success

Consider the fact that you have a track record and how to utilize that.

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entertainment industry coach question 678:How do I balance my life and career work based on your blog yesterday?

My blog yesterday, was about treating your freelancing career like a business. That stated working at least 20 hours per week on your career even when you're not "working at your craft." Keep in mind, in the business world, 20 hours is considered part-time.

In answer to your question about balance though, what do you consider balanced? If I drew I pie graph and had you put slices in the pie like: Work/Career, Finances, Family, Friends, Charity, Spirituality, Personal Growth, Fun/Pampering, Health, etc. Then I asked you to fill in each piece of the pie rating it from 1-10, what would your pie look like?

Most people think that to be balanced, the pie needs to be equal; everything at an "8." Not true. It's what balance means to you. If you want to spend 3 days each week in the gym and you're going twice a month- you're out of balance. If you value your friends and family but are spending all of your time at work and barely make time for a phone call let alone seeing them in person- you're out of balance.

To determine how to balance your life and career, ask yourself what's important to you, and how you want to spend your time. Then map it out and see if your definition of balance is in alignment with your goals. In other words, if you want major career success but want to spend 10 hours a day playing with your kids, perhaps you should watch the movie Daddy Day Care and go into a new line of work.

When you are looking at balancing your life, what you value shows up. There are a lot of sacrifices that people in the entertainment industry are forced to make due to erratic schedules, working on location, long hours... I could go on and on. However, it's one of the rare industries that when people are working they are living their passion, they are truly fulfilled. So if you don't feel that way, this may not be the industry for you. If that is how you feel, and you can't imagine doing anything else, then balance means, budgeting your time so that you can generate work for yourself, and then maximizing the experience of everything else on your list.

For clients I've had tell me their kids miss them when they're away, I tell them to do everything in the power, to create special memories when they do have time to spend with them. That could have more impact on their children, then the parents who work 9-5 jobs every day and then come home tired and blow their kids off.

I could go on and on about this topic, so if you want more, just let me know what you want to hear about specifically and I'll blog about it.

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entertainment industry coach question 546: I don't understand, isn't it our job to tell people we are available?

This was a question in response to yesterday's blog post. Yes, it is your job to let people know you are available for work. However, it's how you let them know that will determine how your relationship will evolve.

For example: If I give you advice for 2 hours and at the end you say, "Great thanks. And by the way, I'm available," it just added something unnecessary and for me, personally, annoying, because I already know a ton of people whom I coach and would hire before you. Why? Because I care about them, like them, and trust them. So by you telling me you're available, you've just turned me off a bit. When you say "think of me" it tells me that you don't have enough confidence that you made an impression that is memorable.

The people it is "your job" to tell that you are available, are the people for whom you are their first 5-10 calls when they are looking. They need to know you're available because they may assume you're already working.

Cold calling people on production lists who are working to let them know you're available is NOT strategic, time consuming, and very rarely creates results. Your time can be better spent developing relationships on a deeper level with targeted people.

When you are meeting people, there are subtle ways to let them know you're available which are not turn offs. It's all about the quality of your questions.

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entertainment industry coach question 545: What about telling people you're available when you first meet them if you've talked for a while?

You can talk to someone for 5 hours straight. If it's the first time you've met him, you can let him know through the conversation what you're doing to generate work, thus making it clear that you're available. But meeting someone for the first time and saying you're available or "think of me if anything comes up," is a turn off. If you've done your job of creating the relationship, trust that they will think of you.

It takes three conversations to establish a relationship. People want to hire people they know, like, and trust. So "simmer down" and build the relationship before going for the work.

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entertainment industry coach question 340:What's the easiest way to get work?

The easiest way to get work is to be born into an A-list family who support you pursuing your career.

I mean, come on. The followers of this blog would not be very impressed with you if they met you and you asked them that. Life in general, people who are looking for the "easy way" are perceived as lazy, uncommitted, and flaky.

Perhaps you meant "What is the most direct path to work?" The answer to that question is different for everyone. I can tell you to start by looking at how many people you know who are in the position to hire you. If you don't know enough people, start there. If you want to be more specific about where you are on your career path, I can give you a more specific answer.

For more tips and articles by top entertainment industry career coach, The Greenlight Coach, visit www.TheGreenlightCoachBlog.com

entertainment industry coach question 321:I used to work a lot and now people I worked with work all the time and I don't, what gives?

You MUST stop comparing yourself to other people. For all the people who you notice are working, there are hundreds who like you, had a career and are struggling to revive it.

What you SHOULD do is:

1. evaluate what you are doing to generate work for yourself

2. Analyze what the successful people are doing

3. Model their success

Consider the fact that you have a track record and how to utilize that.

For more tips and articles by top entertainment industry career coach, The Greenlight Coach, visit www.TheGreenlightCoachBlog.com

entertainment industry coach question 294: With contacts, do you keep beating a dead horse?

I crack up at questions like this because the answer is inherently in the question. No. You do not need to keep beating a dead horse. To use your metaphor, if you're trying to get something from the dead horse (like you're trying to get something from the contacts you have) "beating it" will not help you achieve your results.

So, let's address the matter at hand. You have contacts. You want something from your contacts that you aren't getting. Here are some of your choices:

1. Start over. Get new contacts.

2. Re-evaluate what you're asking for. Are you giving your contacts something they can say YES to? Many times you may think you are, but if you're continually getting no (and no response is a no), then obviously you're not.

3. Try a new approach. Help your contacts instead of seeking help from them. Be a connector for them. Seek out leads for them.

4. Get involved in social activities with contacts so you know you're connecting with like-minded people. Sometimes the contacts we have are not necessarily the contacts that are "right for us." Building business relationships in a creative industry is more like dating than many of us care to admit.

So lay the horse(s) to rest. No more beatings. It's not good for them, it's not good for you.

For more tips and articles by top entertainment industry career coach, The Greenlight Coach, visit www.TheGreenlightCoachBlog.com

entertainment industry coach question 249: Why do so many people seem to be working and I'm not hearing about anything?

Stop comparing yourself to other people. If you really want to know why they're working and you're not, ask them what they're doing to generate work.

The bottom line, there's always work out there and there will always be people to work those jobs. If you're not getting the jobs, you have to focus on the business tools and strategies for building and strengthening your relationships.

Also, know that whatever questions you ask, your brain will come up with answers. I imagine your mind has been not been kind with it's answer to this one. Therefore, ask more empowering questions like: How can I generate work for myself, who do I have to know to get work, what more can I be doing to advance my career?

Let your brain ponder those, because it will come up with better answers.

For more tips and articles by top entertainment industry career coach, The Greenlight Coach, visit www.TheGreenlightCoachBlog.com

question 189: How do I get work in the entertainment business?

Before I answer this question, I'm going to ask you to read the archives of this blog. Start at number one, because early on, I was addressing many questions that dealt directly with getting work. Once you've read through the archives, you should have a lot of ideas. At that point, you will still have questions, but you'll be more clear and therefore, will want to ask me more specific questions that are the "next-step" questions for you.

I look forward to hearing from you again.

For more tips and articles by top entertainment industry career coach, the Greenlight Coach, visit www.theGreenlightCoachBlog.com

Question 131: I'm frustrated by the limited amount of jobs relative to the people who want them. What to do?

What to do? Get an advantage. Every time I survey people in the industry to see what they're doing to generate work, I get the same 3-5 answers. There is SOOOO much more you can be doing that most people "competing" with you have no clue about. Your competition narrows tremendously when you start working in a different way than the masses. If you keep doing the same things over and over expecting different results, that's the definition of...

So, start doing things differently. If you don't know how, you have to reach out to people who are already successful. They know what works, what doesn't work, what will get you where you want to go faster, and what leads are dead ends. And of course, you always have me : )

For more tips and articles by top entertainment coach, the Greenlight Coach, visit www.thegreenlightcoachblog.com

question 126: What is the biggest problem you see with people in our industry?

I prefer to call it a challenge as opposed to a problem, but really--- it's a problem. Here's what happens: People in our industry send out cold resumes to hundreds of leads per year that they read about on line or in the trades and get them no where. By the end of the year, they are frustrated and bitter. Then, they come to me, frustrated and bitter about the industry in general.

I ask them, "How many people do you know in the entertainment industry?"

The average answer is 5 -40.

Then I ask, "and of those 5-40, how many are in the position to hire you?"

The average answer is 0.

The biggest problem is that people in our industry understand their craft/art, but don't understand the business side AKA how to generate work. I know I answered your question, but I'm sure this will only trigger more questions about "how" to generate work effectively. And to that I say...

for more tips and articles by top entertainment industry coach, The Greenlight Coach, visit www.thegreenlightcoachblog.com