Category Archives: Business & Careers

Lyn Burgess interview. How to be your best self.

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I came across Lyn Burgess and her coaching a few years ago through Creative Edge Audio. I was very happy when she said yes to being interviewed for Frost. I find Lyn incredibly inspirational. I hope you do as well.

1) How did you get into personal and business coaching?

I worked for many years in operational roles in the financial services sector and was made redundant from an H R Director’s job. I had outplacement consulting and looked at my skills and my values and out of that came ‘coaching’. I think I always had a coaching philosophy though when I was managing teams of people, I always found I could get them to do what was needed without yielding a big stick – and they’d be quite happy to do it as well. Setting up my own coaching business in 2002 seemed like such an obvious progression, I’m not sure why I hadn’t done it before!

2) Best tip for confidence?

“Fake it till you make it!” It’s good to model someone else who is a confident person – give yourself a ‘confident outfit’ or a lucky pair of knickers. Start off by just ‘pretending’ to be confident for 30 mins each day and experience how it feels. Make sure you have some interaction with other people and see how differently they react to you. Also, create a visualisation of you being/feeling confident. Practice this every day. Also think back to a time when you felt confident so you remember that you can do it and notice what happens in your body. Start little and often and your mind will become the confident person you want to be

3) What do you love about your job?

Pretty much all of it. You won’t ever meet a coach that doesn’t enjoy what they do – they always want to do more, help more people. I love marketing my business, I love networking, I love finding new places to advertise, I love working out how to reach more people, how else I can coach them. I love other people’s success and knowing that because I helped them set some goals and asked them a bunch of questions it really made a difference to their lives and their career. I also love doing presentation and workshops to groups of people. You get some great energy back and participants always learn from other people.

4) Advice for actors?

Be tenacious, get clearly focused on exactly what you want ie. a part in a period drama at the Globe starting in October 2010 paying me £X, rather than “I want a job”. The latter kind of statement is useless, if that’s your idea of a goal then go work in Tesco – there, you have a job. Never give up and be proactive. Just because you have an agent, doesn’t mean you can sit at home and wait for the phone to ring. You can switch on the TV and see that being an actor is not necessarily about being talented. You need to be in the right place at the right time, knowing the right people and not having any hang-ups, or moaning about the industry and telling yourself how tough it is. Network your butt off. It’s much easier to make connections face to face, rather than sitting in a pile of CV’s. Make it easy for casting directors and agents – put yourself in a box to start off with. Once you get well known, then you can diversify, but if you look like a thug and sound like a thug, play thugs.

5) Who is your inspiration?

3 people. One: An old boss of time who saw potential in me and would always say “Lyn, I want you to go and do such and such a job now” and I’d think, ‘I’m not sure I can do that’ – then I went and found that I could do it. Every two years he gave me a different job role to do and it just made me realise that you can do things that you are unsure about. He believed in me and that enabled me to believe in myself. Two: Fiona Harrold – A UK life coach. When I first started my accreditation to become a coach I read her book “Be your own life coach” and I felt so inspired and knew I was on the right path. Three: Tony Robbins – a US life coach. He does the fire walk which I have done – which is actually really easy to do. Check him out on YouTube or read his books, he’s awesome.

6) What’s next?

I feel like this question should be at the end. One of the things that I’ve always wanted to do is to work more with people on a project and within a team of people ie. on a TV programme or on a film. So work with the writers, the producers, the directors and the actors and be part of the production team for whoever needs me. Help with issues of time management, working to budgets, stress management, team dynamics etc. I want people to say in years to come “God, we never make a film/tv programme without a life coach!” It always helps to have someone disassociated from the project to look at it in an impartial way to give those in it another perspective. I also have an idea for a book called “Life, Camera, Action” which uses well known Film quotes to illustrate coaching themes – but I need a writer to write it – then I can develop it into a workshop to take around cinemas in the UK.

7) Tell me about your workshops?

The workshops I run on a monthly basis and they cover 3 main themes. They were born out of doing some advertising when I first started out on Shooting People where I wanted to get into the minds of people in the industry and offered some free coaching in return for completion of a short questionnaire. I had about 90 responses and realised that was a lot of free coaching! So I set up the workshops so that I could coach a whole bunch of people at the same time, rather than one to one. The workshop topics are : Focus, we work around goal setting, looking at what holds you back and create an action plan. Self Belief – on this one we look at limiting beliefs from your past, blast them out of the way and look at confidence building. Networking: where to go, what to say, how to follow up etc etc.

8 ) What is your background?

Financial Services – and by that I mean processing mortgages and secured loans. I also worked in 2 Building Societies. I started as a secretary and then held Managerial roles for years. I have done acting and theatre directing, so I know what it’s like to stand on a stage – which I loved. I always found that I could relate to most people (even if I didn’t like them) so it was always a career that involved interacting with others. Financial services was great because it was fast moving and you had to constantly change and be flexible and I think life is like that too. Every few years you have to reinvent yourself because the landscape keeps changing. I love that, I love taking risks. Too many people try to be a perfectionist and there’s no such thing as perfection, you are striving for something you will never attain. Do something, get a result, tweak it and then do it again!

9) What does your average day consist of?

Variety! Coaching clients which can be via email or telephone. I don’t do much face to face work apart from the workshops. Marketing, twittering, advertising and promoting. Pulling together some ideas for joint workshops. Following up on contacts that I’ve met networking, or recently at Cannes. I never seem to have time to blog frequently enough. But I do promote an 8 Week Makeover Programme that is a very cost effective way of coaching. I also run the events committee for Women in Film and TV, so that usually forms part of my day, checking in with the event producers or organising an event of my own. I email the WFTV office several times a day.

10) What is the hardest part of the job?

Wanting to do everything right now and being impatient. Want to help more people, answer emails, twitter, write newsletters, do my accounts. The hardest part when you first start out is getting to know the difference between empathy and sympathy with a client. I’m good at it now and have developed quite a good sense of emotional detachment. Coaching is always forward focused so it’s my job to keep people ‘in action’ – the hardest part for me is understanding that people move at their own pace – not mine. I sometimes come away from a call thinking “was I any use there? That person is not doing enough” and then two hours later I’ll get a text or an email from the client saying “thanks so much for the sessions, they are always really useful!” So it’s all about perception, and as one of my Magic Quips said: “it might look like I’m doing nothing, but at a cellular level I’m really quite busy”

For more on Lyn go here:

Casting Call Pro Interview. Advice for actors and businesspeople.

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Catherine Balavage interviews Simon Dale from Casting Call Pro.

1) What was the idea behind the business?
We’d worked together in online recruitment for the film & tv industry for four years, working at The Production Base, a service for all those behind the camera (e.g. editors, camera operators, sound recordists, runners etc.), so we knew the industry. Chris’s sister was graduating from Mountview and was paying substantial subscriptions to a number of casting breakdown services. We realised that with our background and technical expertise this was an arena we could enter.
2) How did you make it a success
Crucially, we wanted to offer members more than a simple directory listing. With this in mind we built community elements in addition to the casting breakdowns – we wanted to bring the actors tools to help develop their career. Hence the directories of agencies, photographers, theatres, schools… and the community aspect to the site. Individuals, schools and companies are now using it to track and stay in touch with friends, alumni and old colleagues. We also offered a very different model to the other services out there in that we offer a completely free profile listing in the directory – which has helped us grow to our current size of 25,000+ members. We do have a premium subscription, but the profile listing is entirely free.
3) What mistakes do actors make?
Some have an inflated sense of their ‘right to perform’, perhaps down to ego, perhaps thinking that the mere fact of undergoing training entitles them to a lifetime of work. The harsh reality is that it’s a very competitive field whose daily currency is rejection. It’s hard to be seen for parts, harder still to be cast – that’s simple mathematics, there will always be a huge number of people up for the same part, many of whom will be talented. And so often (especially for commercials) it’s less about the depth of the acting talent and more about the surface look.
We hear about actors who breeze into an audition having done no preparation, no background research, not even having learned the lines they’ve been given. Sure, there will always be stories about people who stroll in, shoot from the hip and land the role. But you’re taking a huge risk if that’s your general modus operandi.
4) What advice can you give to actors?
Be proactive – don’t expect work to come to you. Try and find an agent if you don’t already have one. Network with people, attend industry events. Go to as many auditions as you can – it will help your technique and even if you’re not cast you are still in front of the casting directors. I have a friend who was up for a part two years ago – she didn’t get it, but the Casting Director contacted her eighteen months later with a role she thought she’d be perfect for. Difficult as it is, try and remain positive. Rejection day in day out is, inevitably, going to wear you down at some stage. Remember that you’ve chosen to enter an incredibly difficult profession, and that you might not be landing the roles may not be down to your acting talent. Keep the faith!
5) What advice can you give to other businesspeople?
Plan ahead. And plan ahead some more. Prepare your budget, make realistic forecasts. Bed yourself down for some lean times at the outset. We left well paid jobs to set up Casting Call Pro. We took huge risks and made personal sacrifices. We worked without salary and had to put in an awful lot of time and effort, not knowing if, further down the line, we would have a successful service (though of course we believed that we would, or we wouldn’t have taken the risks!). Look at the business holistically. As you grow, operating a business becomes so much more than running the core service that you set out with. You’ll need to learn about finances, PAYE, VAT, Corporation Tax… you’ll be interviewing and employing staff, running an office – all the while trying to run and expand your original business idea. For small companies (less than twenty employees) it probably won’t be feasible or necessary for you to hire HR staff or in-house accountants and lawyers – so you’ll be wearing many hats, office manager, bookkeeper, HR…
It’s likely that at some point in the first two years you will hit a low – financially or emotionally. You’re putting in all the work but not seeing the returns. These are absolutely pivotal times – most businesses fold within the first two years. If you retain your belief then you might turn the corner. We had to get different jobs to pay the bills, but we didn’t give up. And then we turned the corner and have never looked back.
6) What it the best thing an actor can do for their career?
Find an agent. Be proactive in trying to independently find and put themselves up for auditions (though do keep your agent informed). Train. See as much theatre, film and television as possible. Periodically reassess their career and drive – and, if necessary, give themselves a metaphoric shot in the arm to keep their spirits up. (Remember all the positives, your ambition, your passion – those things that first inspired you to get into acting.

7) What is the funniest casting you have ever had?
Among the strangest we’ve had are requests for actors to play pranks on bosses and ex-partners, as well as a over-zealous salesman who was offering an all-expenses-paid trip to Helsinki for anyone who was willing to impersonate his CEO at a client meeting the the real CEO couldn’t attend.
8 ) What do you thing of actor’s paying for casting director workshops?
It’s entirely up to the individual. Sessions with CDs seem to be on the increase. Research the company providing them, and the CD(s) themselves. What have they cast? These seminars and workshops can vary enormously – some being straightforward talks, panel discussions, Q&A, and even interactive sessions at which the actors perform a piece and receive feedback from the CDs. As with all these things (casting services included), ask friends and peers – what do others think of them?

9)  What is next for Casting Call Pro?
As ever, we’ll keep developing the service, building new features and adding new tools to try and help the actor and to better our service. Already we have expanded out from actors to create allied sites for dancers, stage crew, film crew etc. Watch this space!

Casting Call Pro is an excellent website for actors. Both of Frost Magazines editor are on it. To find out more and to join follow the link http://www.uk.castingcallpro.com/