I recently performed an experiment on Twitter where I time-lined seven days in the life of my journey and career administration as an artist. Every day, I shared with my followers, and with the world at large (through hashtags that would speak to my target audience), what I was doing to push my career forward. What this did for me was that it created a higher level of accountability. Once I tweeted out my concept for this experiment, there was no turning back. There was no way that I could not share my journey for the next seven days. Being accountable at a higher level created an environment where I couldn’t flinch. Where I couldn’t back off. I had to show up and deliver. I had to walk the walk. And not that I haven’t already been walking the walk all year long. And not that I haven’t already been walking the walk for many years point, blank, period. But this time, it was different because I was sharing my process, in real time, with people outside of my friends, peers, class and immediate community. And I had to share everything no matter how big, small, significant or elementary the career action was.
By day four, I completed everything on my career administration list and became inspired to add eight more things to it. It felt great to add additional things to my list to move my career forward another step.
Along the way, I received supportive tweets from followers and non-followers alike. I received likes, mentions and retweets. I also lost some followers as well. I wonder if they got turned off or intimidated by the fact that having a career actually takes work? Or if they got turned off because I posted a substantial amount of tweets and it started to feel like, “Look at me, look at me, look at me”? I was conscious of that and sprinkled in moments where I engaged with others and where I tweeted about other things outside of my career administration. For example, I took a thirty minute break from my administration and discovered the world of artist Roy Nachum. I love his work and he has four pieces that I would LOVE to own: “Kid King”, “Gold Powder”, “Brief Silence” and a piece from his “Blind” series. I would also break up my tweets by reminding people of my experiment. I would also compose certain tweets like, “Day 5 of 7 of my #ActorsJourney timeline…” so that people would see that I was experimenting/trying something out.
After seven days of this experiment, I put in 31 hours into my career…and this is with a full-time day job. Another week under my belt of moving my career forward.
And of course, celebration is as important to the #ActorsJourney as is the business administration of it. So I celebrated my 7-day experiment by ordering a copy of Evangeline Lilly’s book, “The Squickerwonkers”. I love her work as an actress and I’ve wanted to purchase a copy of her book for a while now. I mean, how can you not smile and feel good when you say, “The Squickerwonkers”? 🙂
And less than 24 hours after my experiment ended, an opportunity came my way for advancement.
Below is a sampling of the Tweets I sent out:
Going to do an experiment for the next 7 days where I post a timeline of my actor journey & administration. #actor #actors #actorsjourney
My #ActorsJourney timeline: At 7:30pm I watched @TipsOnActing #Periscope re: “Is Having Followers More Important Than Talent?”
My #ActorsJourney timeline: At 8:35pm I labeled postcards for commercial #CastingDirector mailings.
My #ActorsJourney timeline: 9:45am. At library to rent #DavidIves. Doing a scene with #Oscar winner @kellytighe.
My #ActorsJourney timeline: 11:05am Researching @HamiltonMusical by @Lin_Manuel. Yo yo: @lindsayhopper & I are doing a scene from it. Word.
My #ActorsJourney timeline: 12:20pm Confirmed 2 meetings. Now cleaning out my bathroom. It’s all about creating a space where art can occur.
My #ActorsJourney timeline: 10pm, spent 35 minutes making final tweaks on my new blog entry. Now off to dance for at least an hour. #Actor
My #ActorsJourney timeline: 9am, Posted new #blog entry titled, “I Have Artistic Tourettes”
My #ActorsJourney timeline: 12pm, career administration meeting with @SapirAzulaybe (one of the most beautiful & powerful people out there)
My #ActorsJourney timeline: 8pm, continuing edits on film script I mentioned earlier. Excited that actor Franco Vega wants to read it!
My #ActorsJourney timeline: 11:15am, Blessed to be surrounded by talented people: Justin Huen would also be great as the lead in my film.
My #ActorsJourney timeline: 1:30pm, Justin Huen is HIGHLY interested in reading my script. He’d be the lead. I’m thinking of crew to hire.
My #ActorsJourney timeline: 7pm, I have my target list of major management companies. Moving out of comfort zone & contacting them. #Actor
My #ActorsJourney timeline: 6:40 pm, Researching the casting directors behind three new TV series that look really promising & interesting.
Day 6 of 7 My #ActorsJourney timeline: 5pm, Researching & compiling a new target list of literary agents & managers. #ArtistJourney #Writer
My #ActorsJourney timeline: 8:12pm, Smiling at my growing body of literary work: 2 pilots, 2 features, 1 book, 1 short film. #Writer
My #ActorsJourney timeline: 8:37pm, Creating the log line for a new TV #pilot I wrote in 7.5 hours. #Writer #ArtistJourney #TV
Day 7 of 7! My #ActorsJourney timeline: 7am, Tackled the log line again for my new TV #pilot. This is truly a game of words. #Actor #Writer
Day 7 of 7! My #ActorsJourney timeline: 8am, Materials ready to go for #LiteraryAgent submissions. Will send after the Thanksgiving holiday!
My #ActorsJourney 7-day timeline ends tonight! 5:50pm, Here at the theater. Getting ready for scene study class, planning my next 7 days.
Chasing The George 