The Business Side of Show Biz

Whatever your motivation for becoming a performer, you need to be able to support yourself to continue doing what you love. It’s a rare creative who has a naturally sound head for business, but if you can develop that skill, you’ll be laughing (almost) all the way to the bank, writes Kat Hoyos.

I got into performing because, as a child, I wanted people to watch how amazing I was. I thought I was good at playing Jingle Bells on my new keyboard on Christmas Day and didn’t care who was there to hear the brilliance within. And so it began, my love affair with music, dance, singing and acting. What a life, I thought. Maybe I can do this forever.

Then high school came around, and something changed inside. I got nervous. I became self-conscious. I discovered this thing called anxiety. I didn’t know what it was at the time, but I didn’t like it. But I still performed. And then one day I was singing out loud to a song on the radio with (let’s call her) a ‘friend’ and I heard her say, “That’s a nice voice”, I looked at her and said, “Thank you!”, and she said, “No, I meant the singer on the radio.” My heart raced and my cheeks grew hot. I felt humiliated.

Not long after, while still in high school, I decided to try my luck at an open call for a big musical touring Australia (I’m not telling you which). I didn’t ask for any help. I found a song I liked, sourced sheet music at a shop (at the time, it wasn’t online) and I didn’t get anyone to play it for me. Not even my music teacher. I was too embarrassed to ask for help. I felt ashamed and didn’t want anyone to know what I was doing. I couldn’t read sheet music well but got the gist and rehearsed it with the original radio edit.

The first time I heard the song according to the sheet music was in the actual audition. In hindsight, it wasn’t that bad. I asked them straight after, “When do you think I’ll hear back?” The panel laughed a bit and said, “We’ll call you.” Naive and innocent Kat − if only I could hug you then! I never heard back, of course. Ah, the feeling of rejection. I had hoped and wondered. Why? What did I do? Can I try again? I can be better. What if I sang something from the show? Is this what happens? I’ve gotta try this again, right? Can I take this pain of never knowing? The gut takes all of it in, filing it away emotionally, storing it in body and mind.

Giving you a dose of little Kat and teen Kat was a setup for where I’m taking you next. Although I have been successful in my career on stage and screen, there have been many heartaches along the way. We carry everything we’ve experienced in life into this career. This industry plays on our hearts because we are so connected to the idea of sharing stories and emoting via our own stories.

As a coach in full-time courses at various institutions, I am mesmerised by the feedback I hear: “I want this as a career, I can’t think of anything else I’d rather do.’’ Great! Dream big! However, there’s an incongruence between the fantasy and the reality. Would you be willing to be uncomfortable with uncertainty? Would you be willing to be resourceful to find how to make this industry work for you?

There are thousands of graduates entering the industry every year. The percentage who move into professional careers that will carry them through the years is low. Even lower the older you get. So what’s missing?

I can say with confidence that once people graduate, there’s a fear of what to do next. The first words you’ll hear are, “Get an agent.” Okay, but then what? What can you do to help yourself? What if you decide not to get an agent, or weren’t successful in finding one out of grad school? Does that make you nothing? No, it doesn’t!

You know the saying, “Don’t wait for the phone to ring.” There’s plenty you can do to keep creatively fulfilled − it’s just that now you’ve put pressure on creativity to make money. But you’re also in an industry that is unstable and uncertain. The people I know who have been able to stay resilient and retain longevity in their careers have adapted, diversified and been entrepreneurial in their thinking.

I started The Artists Hustle because I wanted to help people succeed by understanding the business side of the industry. There is so much we don’t know about how to run ourselves as a business. It took me years to figure this out on my own, doing my research, asking questions and making costly mistakes. Did I have something like this for me when I started? Nope. Did I wish I had? Yes. You keep yourself grounded by making sure you have both the professional and spiritual tools in place, and following a few simple guidelines:

• Authenticity matters, so be comfortable with all that you are, otherwise you’ll give the impression you don’t want to be seen, for whatever reason. Thoughts become things.

• Mindset and mindfulness represent a huge unravelling that has been in conversation for several years and I am so here for it.

• Prioritise who and what you surround yourself with. Create boundaries. You will never get time back, so choose how you spend that precious commodity.

• Fill your cup back with the people and things that make you feel soulfully good. And lean into that. Find gratitude every day, even for the stuff that may shake you.

• Objectivity is so important, as it means being able to separate the human from the art. You might call yourself an actor or a dancer, but you’re a person who can act or a human who dances. Know that business decisions are not always made based on your talent (maybe in that open call when I was young… but hey, I’ve learnt from that).

• Professionally, you need to have a system that keeps you in that frame of knowing you are an asset with goods and services to offer. These offerings of yours come with an exchange of money. Understand the value of money and your time. Learn to love money, invoicing and tax.

I would have loved someone to show me exactly where to go with setting myself up as a business, asking such questions as: What does your office setup look like? Do you have a day-to-day schedule to help accelerate your career? Do you understand who and what the union does? Contracts? How much pay should you anticipate from job to job? Do you know how much to ask for if the job comes to you? What benefit is an ABN? What about your marketing tools? Are you realistic about what you can do versus how you may be perceived in the industry? What about communication tools?

Kat Hoyos is has starred in Channel 9’s Here Come the Habibs and Amazing Grace, as well as Hairspray the Musical, Jersey Boys and many more. Kat also created The Artists Hustle, an online business program for performing artists ready to turn professional. @kathoyos @theartistshustle

Originally posted from: Medium.com