Even entertainers need day job. Imagine if your day job did not SUCK!
So you rip catwalks, shred monologues, can rap 16′s against the bosses of bosses, can hit a higher note than Celine Dion and funnier than Rodney Dangerfield of Kevin Hart (which I doubt, sorry but they crack me up!) but everyone else seems too idiotic to recognize your talent.
I get it and yes I feel your pain. But THEY don’t and honestly, before reading this article you probably thought they did not care. But they do and here is why:
THEY (employers and recruiters) care because YOU represent the inner celebrity that is in all of us. Every show you perform at, every headshot you take and every club you gig at represents a step closer to your big break. When that agent flies you out to set and you are on first-class just sipping on an ice cold beverage while watching Netflix with your head on a silk pillow, ah, the high life of a newly made celebrity.
Such imagery can cause envy and insecurity in most people. So it is very important to select the RIGHT opportunities to pay your bills while honing and sharpening your craft. There is no way you can be excellent at your craft if your everyday life is spent stressing out at a dead-end restaurant or stuffy office gig. You need a relief, a mental vacation away from the cold harsh world of work.
An escape is a moment away, but first a story about an entertainer I know, who is making nearly six figures and not busting tables yet not quite “made” it yet.
Lets call him Sylvio.
Firstly Sylvio is not a funny dude. Honestly, everyone else think he is, but I find his humor very annoying and not quite my lane. But he manages to get a gig or two a week at some decent places. These gigs do not pay even a quarter of his mortgage and they certainly are not packed with Comedy Central headhunters looking for local talent in Suffolk County.
So how does he bank nearly 100k a year in HIS field?
Simple. And I heard someone else doing this from Michael Ellsberg, author of The Education of Millionaires, so it kinda surprised me that I actually knew of someone who makes a very decent living off of this.
Sylvio, the not so funny comedian banks his roll by teaching public speakers and executives how to be funny. He reserves the downstairs conference rooms of libraries and rinky dink hotel rooms and sometimes advertises on Craigslist. He fills the room with the lamest executives he can find and injects them with much needed banter, swagger and comedic arsenal. By the end of the session, emails are exchanged, golf dates are made and synergy takes place.
Slyvio basically still works in comedy, except he is now getting paid for it on a consistent basis. He found a NEED and filled the void.
You can do the same.
Model? Why not volunteer to become a product/service demonstration for small businesses? Agree to something like a measly 300 per week for a probation period and set up table and banner at malls, train stations or events. Hold a Q and A or just sit there looking good and engaging visitors. Carry a clipboard and collect emails. Those emails are LEADS. Now you have a board full of LEADS. Renegotiate to receive a commission on each lead that results in a SALE. So now, you are salary plus commission employee and still get to take pictures and promote yourself to onlookers.
Never know which editor or blogger or intern will be shopping that day.
This is not normal strategy, it is actually quite weird. BUT that is what we need to do at times to make the life we want to lead. We need to think outside the BOX of normalcy and what everyone else is doing.
Actors and musicians can do the same. Create a jingle, something catchy and give it right to the company. Watermark it and put a price on the watermark. Guarantee you will have more business than you can handle, because the company that has jingles are pulling in MILLIONS. And that is why they have gotten the millions, from thinking outside the BOX.