How My Business Degree Made me a Better Actor.
I often receive comments like “That’s an odd combo” when people find out my degree combo (B.A in Acting & BComm in Marketing), but in reality the pairing is surprisingly practical and in my own opinion, smart! Even though doing a degree in acting can be fulfilling, challenging, rewarding and fun it does lack classes that cover more practical business skills such as marketing, accounting and social media management. Check out the biggest ways my business degree helped me be a better actor below ↓
Marketing Yourself.
I remember when I changed my mindset around this concept and how helpful it was when I was searching for an agent in Toronto. If you can start thinking of your skills as a product that is being sold by you, the brand, you can begin to use marketing as a way to gain more awareness of yourself and what you have to offer potential clients or agents. When you think about all the ways marketing a product makes it more appealing, you can apply these to yourself as well – specifically packaging and placement. Are your website and/or demo reel appealing and high quality? Are you utilizing SEO (search engine optimization) to make sure your materials are being viewed by the correct people? Are they easily found through social media or search engines? Are you working with an agent that is putting you in auditions best suited to you? Market yourself as you would a product.
Accounting & Personal Finances.
Boy do I wish I had been more prepared for this one. I believe every theatre and acting school should have at least one full year course on personal finances and taxes for actors. I was thankful to have taken multiple finance and accounting classes once I entered into my second degree as they have helped me a lot dealing with acting finances. Taking an approach to finances from a business minded perspective helped me to better keep track of expenses on a month-to-month basis and to get the most out of my taxes at the end of the year. I encourage you to check out my blog post “Things I Didn’t Know I Could Deduct from my Taxes as an Actor” and if possible, take one of the numerous free personal finance courses you can find online, you can thank me later.
Social Media.
It seems these days everyone and their dog has a social media following. Taking social media marketing classes has allowed me to better understand how to use SM in ways that matter. Obviously having a large following can be extremely beneficial as it increases the chances of people, specifically the right people (aka casting directors & agents) knowing who you are. However, what I have come to learn is that using social media to help market yourself to the correct audience is more important than having hundreds of thousands of followers. For example, If your entire following is fellow actors, while that may create a great sense of community, it is most likely not leading to new job opportunities for you. My advice is to make sure if you’re spending hours on your social media presence that you have a clear understanding of who your target audience is and how you can better reach them. If you aren’t achieving the audience you’re looking for, perhaps your time would be better spent in acting classes or working on your demo.
Public Speaking , as Myself.
This one may seem redundant as all you do in acting school is speak publicly. Well, that’s not all you do, but you get what I mean. However, 90% of the time you are playing a part or acting like someone completely different from yourself. In business school you are almost always required to do presentations as a portion of your grade and I believe these lead you to being more prepared for grant pitches, networking events and other areas of the acting industry we aren’t as prepared for. I myself know many actors who can perform an entire one-woman show but the idea of speaking publicly about themselves is a nightmare! Taking a business course or class is a great way to practice speaking to the more business inclined sides of acting, off screen or stage.