by: Natalie Lipka

A successful actress friend of mine once gave me a valuable piece of advice for those times when I am feeling unproductive. She said one way to feel like you’ve gotten something done is to clean out your closet. I have tried it and it is true.  There are many times in this business where you feel like you are playing the waiting game. Sometimes you have already completed all your tasks and you still don’t feel like things are working. But this idea just keeps things moving especially in your mind. When you clean something that is messy or cluttered, it helps you to feel productive and organized, which can ultimately be very empowering in any given moment.

So lately, I have decided to take this metaphor a little further. I am not just cleaning up my closet, I am cleaning up my acting career.

Buffering the Balance Sheet
Thanks to past guests Brian Vermeire and Kristina Hughes, I have recently started using an amazing program called Performer Track.  This service that we talk about on Ep94 is the most organized way that I have been presented with to get your career finances and contacts in order.  I just got the breakdown of how to use it this week and will continue to keep you posted.  But I do know this is going to save me time when it gets to the dreaded April 15th.  Oh, and remember how I mentioned about keeping an audition journal in my social media moment a while back? It takes care of that too! This service is taking all the things I do separately to keep my business on track and puts them together in one organized place. My current learning curve about this organizational product is still pretty high, but I am looking forward to gaining more time to focus on my craft while Performer Track works it’s “magic.”

Spic-and-Span Your Social Media
I recently attempted to clean out my Twitter account by looking for the people that I followed that might be spam or that have been inactive for the last three years. I tested the online applications ManageFlitter and Crowdfire. It was a bit rough at first, but seemed to do the job and it felt good. Why should I be following people that don’t interact at all on Twitter? As I mentioned on HCU last week, the point of social media is to be social. It’s bad business not to be social.  

Clean Up Your Casting Sites
After signing with my new commercial agent, my first task was to update my LA Casting and Casting Frontier sites. I suggest, agent or not – DO THIS ASAP! Get any and all of the casting sites you are on up to date! This is so important. Would you take an old resume to an audition or a job interview? The answer should be no. We work WAY too hard to get those roles, why wouldn’t we want everyone to know about them? By the way, Performer Track makes it really easy to update these sites. Make sure your pictures are up to date. I know that it can be expensive to add all of your pictures, so you may not be able to do it all at once, but in the end it only helps you and shows casting directors that you are a professional. Let me tell you, if you are feeling unproductive, this office work will always make you feel accomplished.

Next up – the dishes! (LOL)

I would love to hear any tips you have for me.  How do you stay productive?