There are a lot of weird, inappropriate people in the world. And a percentage of them become actors.
Those actors, with their flaky, rude, non-professional, and loony behavior, have spoiled it for the rest of us.
At least it can feel that way.
It can feel like a majority of industry folks (after a couple close encounters with those kind) have concluded that it’s safer just to assume all actors are “psycho until proven otherwise.”
That’s why it can seem like the people with whom you want to build relationships have their defenses up at all times. They just don’t know if you are psycho or not.
So, your first challenge is to use your communication and networking skills to get your desired target to lower their defenses. That’s the goal: to get people to feel comfortable with you so that they lower their defenses and help you move your career forward.
Whether you are writing an email or talking with someone at a party, your primary focus should be to do what you can to lower their defenses.
All of the following can help or hurt your chance of achieving that goal: your physical appearance, the appearance of your materials (including how you format your correspondence,) the energetic vibe you’re giving out, how you language what you’re saying (written or verbal), the timing of your requests.
As I said in my previous post, in the months to come, I’ll be sharing small changes you can make regarding HOW to network and communicate that will help you get better results from your current efforts. Much of what we discuss will be about how to lower people’s defenses and get them to open up to you – because once you master how to do this, your level of access in this industry will become significantly higher.