New year, new plans and resolutions.  What are yours?  Do you make any, or do you just close your eyes and hope you’ll get everything you want by wishing for it?  I’ve been doing a lot of organizing, making my plans for some different directions I want to explore this year.  My regular subscribers will have noticed that I haven’t been putting out my eBrief for awhile – that’s because I haven’t set the changes in place yet. I’ll be sharing my plans with you soon, and maybe some of them will inspire you to make your own.

No business can succeed if the person running it doesn’t actually “run” it, but just lets it wander where it feels like going!  It’s often hard for creative people, in particular, to organize the business side of what they do.  Creativity tends to use more of the right side of the brain, while business skills tend to use more of the left side, so if your left side is a bit “weak” you may find that dealing with things like finances, goal setting and structure building drive you insane!  This then causes you to neglect them and we end up with a person who may be very talented at what they do, but have no idea how to sell and keep track of it.  If this sounds like you, don’t ignore the problem.  Get help.  I do business coaching, of course, but so do lots of people, whether in private sessions or classes, or through places like adult education or TAFEs.  It’s all out there for you – take advantage of it and get your business on a strong footing. That includes you, ACTORS!  You are selling a product – YOU – and you need to know how best to market it and make it valuable to the “buyers”, or in other words the people who are in a position to cast you.

Make 2010 YOUR year. Start strong by making some detailed, well planned and carefully thought out goals and plans, and then spend every day following through on them. There are 3 sayings I find very valuable and make sure I have within view of my desk at all times:

“If it’s to be, it’s up to me.”

“To get the things I’ve never had, I have to do the things I’ve never done.”

“What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?”

Combine those with, “Make it happen” and “Just do it” and you’ve got some pretty good affirmations for 2010!

But don’t just say them, LIVE THEM!

I’ve finished the American TVC I was working on for Splenda and am now getting ready to drive back from Sydney to Melbourne.  I’ve been here for over a month and I’m homesick for my Island! I’ve finished the film in Melbourne – “The 25th Reich” – so now I can focus on my poor neglected writing for awhile.  It’s been an interesting time, coaching 4 American dialects in the film: West Coast, Texan, Brooklyn Catholic and Jewish Bronx, all set in 1942 so that adds a slightly different sound to today’s modern ones. The actors worked so hard and I’m sure we’ll see it on the screen. The commercial, on the other hand, only wanted help with one word: “sweet”!  Can’t wait to see the finished results for both projects.

To all my Sydney clients: I’ll be back in March again for about 10 days.  To my Melbourne actors: I’ll be taking bookings again from the first of February.  For everyone: Skype/phone bookings are open now; just email me for a possible time.