Why we LOVE NY ACTORS MARKETING GROUP, or: Stop Procrastinating Now!

Hello and welcome to my blog!  Each blog entry will do its very best to include some useful advice for actors (and perhaps New Yorkers at large), as well as one music recommendation (because I can’t help myself).  Comments welcome – as well as sharing with your friends

I am a procrastinator. When I lived in Jerusalem, there was a sign on my closet door that read, “I’ll procrastinate tomorrow”.   As a self-employed person at my own one-woman business – Maayan Schneider, Inc. – opportunities to procrastinate are almost endless, and it takes a lot -  a LOT – to push myself to do those everyday things that actors must do: submit to projects, prepare for auditions, arrange for and meet with industry folk, work on our craft and oh, yeah, go to the day job and pay rent and do laundry and clean the house and maybe see friends and family sometime if we have  a free night (Free night? What’s that?)

To the rescue: Ms. Alexandra Hynes (alexandrahynes.com), who advertised on Facebook that she is starting a NY Actors Marketing Group, inspired by Dallas Travers (an actor’s-business coach, to be discussed in a future blog). In the group, actors could meet once a month, set goals, and – because they are accountable to other persons in the group – push each other to pursue and achieve those goals on a deadline.

Our first meeting consisted of three people: Alexandra, Marissa Kelton (www.marissakelton.com) and myself. At first I didn’t know how the meeting would go – we were strangers! – but Alexandra took the reins, asking each of us where we were in our career and what our immediate and long-term goals are. From there, each month we select that month’s goals - we write down the 5 things we’ll get done by the next time we meet. Then 2 weeks later, Marissa, who is the most organized person I have met in New York City, sends out a detailed Goals So Far email as a half-way mark, for us all to not lose sight of what we’ve committed to achieving.  While the make-up of the group has now changed, I have gotten SO MUCH done in the year and a half we’ve been meeting, because the group provides what we all need – FOCUS, SPECIFIC GOALS and ACCOUNTABILITY. I simply cannot arrive at our meeting without having completed the tasks I said I would complete.

Want proof? Our next meeting is coming up; one of my goals was to write and publish another blog entry by then….and you’ve just finished reading it.

To join an actors’ accountability group or start one of your own, check out www.meetup.com

 

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As always, some music to end:

I was introduced to Bear’s Den about a year ago, through one of my beloved Maayan-Please-Listen-to-This-You-Will-Love-It-Trust-Me friends (by the way, what is it with having the word “Bear” in a band’s name? Is it a sign of good luck? Bear’s Den, Boy & Bear, Jack and the Bear, Minus the Bear….. hmmm.)

Two of Bear’s Den’s members, Kevin Jones and Andrew Davie, once of the band Cherbourg, are now joined by Joey Haynes to make more beautiful music, led by touching lyrics and Davie's strong vocals.  I saw them live early last year at New York’s Mercury Lounge, after waiting outside for a while as the gig (part of “Communion Austin to Boston”) had sold out – and it was well worth it, as they were wonderful. So much so, in fact, that a friend I dragged to the gig with me leaned over in the middle of this song, “Pompeii”, and whispered: “Thank you for taking me to this show”: