Due to many of you readers who have asked when the BOOK is coming...
it IS coming!!!
I have made the decision, to write that book based on this blog that has readership worldwide!!
I am thrilled, excited, and pacing myself...
I shall keep you posted on its development, and by posting this information, it will keep me accountable and not let the files and notes develop dust!!!
I need to set a realistic goal and hope to have a hard copy of something informative and useful in your hands soon.
Thanks for reading - I mean it!!
In the meantime, while I am writing the book, I still will be blogging here!!!!
Keep reading!
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Professional Relationships Part 4: The Colleague
Sunday musings...
Please recognize the colleague is not necessarily the peer. Two very different places of being.
Your colleagues are those fellow singers/actors who work along side you, and you along side them.
This professional relationship is crucial to how comfortable your business process will be - from auditioning to rehearsals to performance.
You don't need to like each other - but you need to respect the other's reason for being there. If not, a rehearsal or performance can be an ultimate disaster.
You don't need to like what that colleague does - but you need to respect the process and the fact that they are and you need to work together. Figure out a way to make it work!
A simple reminder: "TREAT OTHERS THE WAY YOU WOULD WISH TO BE TREATED" will serve you well in the professional colleague situation.
If there are issues, go through the proper channels.
Here are the big no-nos in rehearsal/performance with your colleagues.
1. DO NOT give directorial notes to your colleagues. This is the job of the director.
2. DO NOT give vocal notes to your colleagues. You are not their teacher.
You are there to work and create and develop trust. If someone decides they are more important and begin to spew their marvellous wisdom without being asked, simply walk away and or tell them where you get that information from! "I take my notes from the director" or "My voice teacher and I will deal with my voice" will either shut them up or put them on the defensive. Bottom line, they have NO BUSINESS speaking to a colleague like that.
If you have a problem with a colleague/a concern about a colleague - go to you SM or director. Go to your MD. Just make sure YOU are doing your job.
If we were more concerned about doing our OWN work, perhaps each of us would bring a stronger balance to a rehearsal and performance instead of trying to "fix" others.
The collegial relationship is not a personal one. Personal relationships can and often do develop through working together, but ultimately those colleagues are work relationships in that context.
The work comes first.
Mutual respect for just being there and being hired to do a job must be intact.
A colleague earns their way out of that mutual respect when they refuse to acknowledge what they must bring to a role; bring to their craft; dismiss and disregard the needs and professionalism of a colleague or the process.
You don't need to like the person you work with, but you need to respect the position of the colleague. This will help to keep the perspective.
We are all part of a process, and after that process is over, we may and often do, run into those colleagues again. Often the colleague can be an ongoing professional relationship that creates more possibilities for work!
You very often will be asked for a recommendation. A colleague that was professional, prepared, respectful and ready to work will come to mind. If you are that professional and prepared colleague, YOU will come to mind.
If the colleague chooses (and it IS a choice) to behave unprofessionally in ANY way - they are dismissed by their colleagues and never really get a second chance.
As with all these relationships, know your boundaries; know what you are there to DO; be prepared to DO IT. Don't make excuses; don't create difficulties; don't feel you are in the position to "fix" things or people. Know your role and play it - as a colleague.
Often great colleagues will be more than happy to offer suggestions/advice WHEN ASKED. They know what their strengths are and what their position is. They do not demand attention that isn't theirs. They do not push their weight around by telling their colleagues what they aren't doing and what they should be doing.
They are pliable, prepared and open. They are ready to work, ready to adjust, ready to play!
They know how to take their work seriously, and how to laugh at themselves.
They are about process and clarity. They hold others to the task they represent. They will not take abuse of power, overstepping of boundaries, or disregard of position.
They are always willing to go the extra mile for the sake of the production - to help a colleague if asked.
They are not stingy, rude, stupid or overbearing.
These are the colleagues you WANT to work with, and the colleagues you want to BE.
The Colleague Relationship can be a mutually rewarding one when both colleagues recognize the reason for the other! They each bring the uniqueness of their process and craft to a place of exploration - together. They can illuminate each other, and lift each other up - or they can put their ego ahead of everything and ruin it all.
The choice is simple. If you don't see it, perhaps you'd be better off doing something on your own.
Please recognize the colleague is not necessarily the peer. Two very different places of being.
Your colleagues are those fellow singers/actors who work along side you, and you along side them.
This professional relationship is crucial to how comfortable your business process will be - from auditioning to rehearsals to performance.
You don't need to like each other - but you need to respect the other's reason for being there. If not, a rehearsal or performance can be an ultimate disaster.
You don't need to like what that colleague does - but you need to respect the process and the fact that they are and you need to work together. Figure out a way to make it work!
A simple reminder: "TREAT OTHERS THE WAY YOU WOULD WISH TO BE TREATED" will serve you well in the professional colleague situation.
If there are issues, go through the proper channels.
Here are the big no-nos in rehearsal/performance with your colleagues.
1. DO NOT give directorial notes to your colleagues. This is the job of the director.
2. DO NOT give vocal notes to your colleagues. You are not their teacher.
You are there to work and create and develop trust. If someone decides they are more important and begin to spew their marvellous wisdom without being asked, simply walk away and or tell them where you get that information from! "I take my notes from the director" or "My voice teacher and I will deal with my voice" will either shut them up or put them on the defensive. Bottom line, they have NO BUSINESS speaking to a colleague like that.
If you have a problem with a colleague/a concern about a colleague - go to you SM or director. Go to your MD. Just make sure YOU are doing your job.
If we were more concerned about doing our OWN work, perhaps each of us would bring a stronger balance to a rehearsal and performance instead of trying to "fix" others.
The collegial relationship is not a personal one. Personal relationships can and often do develop through working together, but ultimately those colleagues are work relationships in that context.
The work comes first.
Mutual respect for just being there and being hired to do a job must be intact.
A colleague earns their way out of that mutual respect when they refuse to acknowledge what they must bring to a role; bring to their craft; dismiss and disregard the needs and professionalism of a colleague or the process.
You don't need to like the person you work with, but you need to respect the position of the colleague. This will help to keep the perspective.
We are all part of a process, and after that process is over, we may and often do, run into those colleagues again. Often the colleague can be an ongoing professional relationship that creates more possibilities for work!
You very often will be asked for a recommendation. A colleague that was professional, prepared, respectful and ready to work will come to mind. If you are that professional and prepared colleague, YOU will come to mind.
If the colleague chooses (and it IS a choice) to behave unprofessionally in ANY way - they are dismissed by their colleagues and never really get a second chance.
As with all these relationships, know your boundaries; know what you are there to DO; be prepared to DO IT. Don't make excuses; don't create difficulties; don't feel you are in the position to "fix" things or people. Know your role and play it - as a colleague.
Often great colleagues will be more than happy to offer suggestions/advice WHEN ASKED. They know what their strengths are and what their position is. They do not demand attention that isn't theirs. They do not push their weight around by telling their colleagues what they aren't doing and what they should be doing.
They are pliable, prepared and open. They are ready to work, ready to adjust, ready to play!
They know how to take their work seriously, and how to laugh at themselves.
They are about process and clarity. They hold others to the task they represent. They will not take abuse of power, overstepping of boundaries, or disregard of position.
They are always willing to go the extra mile for the sake of the production - to help a colleague if asked.
They are not stingy, rude, stupid or overbearing.
These are the colleagues you WANT to work with, and the colleagues you want to BE.
The Colleague Relationship can be a mutually rewarding one when both colleagues recognize the reason for the other! They each bring the uniqueness of their process and craft to a place of exploration - together. They can illuminate each other, and lift each other up - or they can put their ego ahead of everything and ruin it all.
The choice is simple. If you don't see it, perhaps you'd be better off doing something on your own.
Friday, July 23, 2010
Professional Relationships Part 3: Teachers and Coaches
Friday musings as the professional relationship topic continues...
I have written much about the responsibility of these important relationships.
The teacher/singer, coach/singer relationships can perhaps be the most "sticky" due to the intimate nature of TRUST in the studio.
However, we must develop a professionalism within that space from BOTH sides.
As a singer, you must know WHY you are there. You are not paying your teacher nor your coach to be your friend, your therapist nor your enabler.
You are not paying your teacher nor your coach to abuse you either.
The boundaries of these relationships sometimes get murky, and you must be able to see clearly in order to establish the guidelines.
A teacher is NOT responsible for your mental health.
A teacher is responsible for creating a safe place in which to discover your voice and develop your technical behavior.
A coach is responsible for helping you find the intricacies of style and language and form and characterization.
HOWEVER, personalities get involved and when personalities get involved, it gets personal.
As a teacher, I genuinely care for my singers. I will not blow sunshine up their asses, but I care for who they are and who they are becoming, as singer, as artist and as human being. That is my nature - I happen to be a nurturer.
However, my job is to give them a technical understanding of their voice and lead them to a solid technique. I cannot DO it for them - but I can set up a foundation of discovery for them to take responsibility for.
I need to know what is best for the student - and in doing so, sometimes I must send that singer on.
Singers also need to know if it's time to move on, they can.
Ultimately, if you aren't getting what you NEED in a PROFESSIONAL CAPACITY from your teacher or coach - for what they are trained to do, then you need to move on.
Ultimately, as a teacher or coach, you have the right to keep working with a singer or NOT.
None of us is stuck. We need to handle our business as business. This allows for a clean slate and no mess.
What are you looking for in a teacher?
If you are looking for shrink - that's not a teacher. Those aren't my credentials.
If what the teacher or coach offers is what you are looking for, then that professional relationship can be forged.
As with any relationship, we can often overlook foibles or glitches in personality if what we are gleaning and gaining from the sessions are true and purposeful.
However, anything negative that creates a dysfunction in that professional relationship is not to be overlooked!
You don't need to pay someone to abuse you.
A teacher doesn't need to keep a space for a singer that simply isn't doing the work, or isn't able/willing to respect the professional relationship.
Again, MUTUAL RESPECT is key.
If the boundaries are clear, teachers/coaches and singers can have healthy and profitable relationships that work! Imagine it!
If the boundaries are clear, and someone crosses it or disrespects it or disregards it, then it is easy to sever the relationship.
Sometimes, it is just time for change.
Sometimes, life/schedule/needs dictate change.
Don't just walk away from a professional relationship. It doesn't take angst to simply say in person, via email (I believe in putting things in writing) a simple "thank you and I'm moving on!"
Or in a teacher/coach position "it's time for you to find something new".
Sometimes, we just need change. We don't always know why. We just need to experience elsewhere.
We don't have to explain it. We just have to DO it and make it clean.
"Time for me to discover/time for you to carry on and discover" is part of the process!
I can honestly say, that with all the professional relationships I have forged with my teachers and coaches who in turn, were professional with me, I have continued to keep in touch with them, and would be able to call them up and say "could I sing for you?" and if they had room and inclination would welcome me.
These are crucial relationships in the development of the professional self and the artist self.
Recognizing who you are with and why you are there and what it is for is part of how we continue to explore our place in our artistry and in the business.
I will always respect, and in many cases, ADORE the teachers and coaches I have worked with who recognized the professional relationship. Many I have become friends with - but even when we work, we still know the boundary of that professional relationship. When we work, we work. It is teacher/singer, or coach/singer.
Ultimately, YOU the singer must find the teacher and coaches that you can respect and learn from and with, as well as finding those that offer YOU respect in turn.
Pay for the service. Play no games. Love or care about the human being.
Know and recognize and respect all boundaries from both sides. If you expect respect you have to give it.
Enjoy the process and the development of these often lasting relationships! Even if it's time to move on, it doesn't mean you have to cut that person from your life if it has been a solid working relationship!
Walk away from the relationships that are negative, abusive or simply wrong.
Either way, none of us are "stuck" in a relationship unless we want to be. And THAT is a problem that is definitely for a psychiatrist to riddle out with you!
I have written much about the responsibility of these important relationships.
The teacher/singer, coach/singer relationships can perhaps be the most "sticky" due to the intimate nature of TRUST in the studio.
However, we must develop a professionalism within that space from BOTH sides.
As a singer, you must know WHY you are there. You are not paying your teacher nor your coach to be your friend, your therapist nor your enabler.
You are not paying your teacher nor your coach to abuse you either.
The boundaries of these relationships sometimes get murky, and you must be able to see clearly in order to establish the guidelines.
A teacher is NOT responsible for your mental health.
A teacher is responsible for creating a safe place in which to discover your voice and develop your technical behavior.
A coach is responsible for helping you find the intricacies of style and language and form and characterization.
HOWEVER, personalities get involved and when personalities get involved, it gets personal.
As a teacher, I genuinely care for my singers. I will not blow sunshine up their asses, but I care for who they are and who they are becoming, as singer, as artist and as human being. That is my nature - I happen to be a nurturer.
However, my job is to give them a technical understanding of their voice and lead them to a solid technique. I cannot DO it for them - but I can set up a foundation of discovery for them to take responsibility for.
I need to know what is best for the student - and in doing so, sometimes I must send that singer on.
Singers also need to know if it's time to move on, they can.
Ultimately, if you aren't getting what you NEED in a PROFESSIONAL CAPACITY from your teacher or coach - for what they are trained to do, then you need to move on.
Ultimately, as a teacher or coach, you have the right to keep working with a singer or NOT.
None of us is stuck. We need to handle our business as business. This allows for a clean slate and no mess.
What are you looking for in a teacher?
If you are looking for shrink - that's not a teacher. Those aren't my credentials.
If what the teacher or coach offers is what you are looking for, then that professional relationship can be forged.
As with any relationship, we can often overlook foibles or glitches in personality if what we are gleaning and gaining from the sessions are true and purposeful.
However, anything negative that creates a dysfunction in that professional relationship is not to be overlooked!
You don't need to pay someone to abuse you.
A teacher doesn't need to keep a space for a singer that simply isn't doing the work, or isn't able/willing to respect the professional relationship.
Again, MUTUAL RESPECT is key.
If the boundaries are clear, teachers/coaches and singers can have healthy and profitable relationships that work! Imagine it!
If the boundaries are clear, and someone crosses it or disrespects it or disregards it, then it is easy to sever the relationship.
Sometimes, it is just time for change.
Sometimes, life/schedule/needs dictate change.
Don't just walk away from a professional relationship. It doesn't take angst to simply say in person, via email (I believe in putting things in writing) a simple "thank you and I'm moving on!"
Or in a teacher/coach position "it's time for you to find something new".
Sometimes, we just need change. We don't always know why. We just need to experience elsewhere.
We don't have to explain it. We just have to DO it and make it clean.
"Time for me to discover/time for you to carry on and discover" is part of the process!
I can honestly say, that with all the professional relationships I have forged with my teachers and coaches who in turn, were professional with me, I have continued to keep in touch with them, and would be able to call them up and say "could I sing for you?" and if they had room and inclination would welcome me.
These are crucial relationships in the development of the professional self and the artist self.
Recognizing who you are with and why you are there and what it is for is part of how we continue to explore our place in our artistry and in the business.
I will always respect, and in many cases, ADORE the teachers and coaches I have worked with who recognized the professional relationship. Many I have become friends with - but even when we work, we still know the boundary of that professional relationship. When we work, we work. It is teacher/singer, or coach/singer.
Ultimately, YOU the singer must find the teacher and coaches that you can respect and learn from and with, as well as finding those that offer YOU respect in turn.
Pay for the service. Play no games. Love or care about the human being.
Know and recognize and respect all boundaries from both sides. If you expect respect you have to give it.
Enjoy the process and the development of these often lasting relationships! Even if it's time to move on, it doesn't mean you have to cut that person from your life if it has been a solid working relationship!
Walk away from the relationships that are negative, abusive or simply wrong.
Either way, none of us are "stuck" in a relationship unless we want to be. And THAT is a problem that is definitely for a psychiatrist to riddle out with you!
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Professional Relationships Part 2: The Unmanaged Singer
Wednesday musings on these professional relationships...
Are you an "unmanaged" singer/actor/dancer/artist?
I don't believe in that term.
If your career isn't represented by an agent, then guess who your agent is?
YOU!!!
You are self-managed. Claim it. Don't make excuses for it.
THIS is a relationship too. Take on that responsibility as seriously as you would a relationship with another person.
Can you self submit? Of course you can!
Why are we so hesitant to be the BUSINESS partner of our artistic side?
If you aren't represented then YOU have to do it. If you make excuses, whine, then you certainly aren't ready to find an agent anyway.
If YOU are your agent, then you work in a slightly different way. You must work as agent EVERY DAY for yourself. Submit, make requests, don't back down! What's the worst thing that can happen? You are told no.
Pick up the phone, use the email and that Internet and begin figuring it out!! Start creating yourself as SELF AGENT and don't apologize for it.
If an outside agent calls a casting company and begins apologizing, their clients won't be seen.
If YOU as self-agent call and apologize, you won't get seen.
However, if you create the business persona precisely in the fashion that the business wants to be addressed by, watch out and see if you don't get an audition, or at least are encouraged to submit.
Yes, there are hoops. There are always hoops. Ask what you need to do to jump them.
You are an artist - get creative!
Why sit there and complain, when you have the power to create a positive difference in your life with yourself?
SUBMIT SUBMIT SUBMIT. Start thinking what the business needs from you as a business person. Recognize the business speak and USE it.
CALL CALL CALL. EMAIL EMAIL EMAIL. Don't make excuses, don't belabour the point of self-management, get to the point! What is the point?
I NEED AN AUDITION AND I WANT THIS AUDITION WITH THIS COMPANY.
Then get it.
Do your research. Find a way to network so people in the business KNOW your name.
The only person who can do this is YOU.
Even if you had an outside agent, you would still be following up, getting clarity, finding out what submissions are coming up and what you'd be good for, letting them know of projects you would like to be submitted for.
So now, it's up to you.
Take on the challenge of this relationship with self. Don't let your client down!
This business is about NETWORKING. Figure it out. Who can you get to know? Who can you get to know about?
Nobody is going to come to you - you have to go out and find it and get it.
Is it easy? Is ANYTHING worthwhile easy?
If you are an artist who wants to be in this business, then create a business relationship with yourself and get out there!
Represent yourself. Promote yourself. Do it unapologetically, and with a plan.
How do new agents develop relationships in the business? They have to start somewhere too.
If they can, so can you.
Don't apologize for being self-managed. Lead with the strength of representing your own career.
Find out where that will take you when you introduce yourself simply as
"Good afternoon, my name is so-and-so and currently I have self-representation. I see you are casting for blah blah and I believe I have something to contribute to that production. Would you be willing to consider me for an audition?"
Some of you might say "oh Susan I can't do that!"
My answer - is it easier to ask "would you like fries with that?" YES YOU CAN!
GO GET IT!
Are you an "unmanaged" singer/actor/dancer/artist?
I don't believe in that term.
If your career isn't represented by an agent, then guess who your agent is?
YOU!!!
You are self-managed. Claim it. Don't make excuses for it.
THIS is a relationship too. Take on that responsibility as seriously as you would a relationship with another person.
Can you self submit? Of course you can!
Why are we so hesitant to be the BUSINESS partner of our artistic side?
If you aren't represented then YOU have to do it. If you make excuses, whine, then you certainly aren't ready to find an agent anyway.
If YOU are your agent, then you work in a slightly different way. You must work as agent EVERY DAY for yourself. Submit, make requests, don't back down! What's the worst thing that can happen? You are told no.
Pick up the phone, use the email and that Internet and begin figuring it out!! Start creating yourself as SELF AGENT and don't apologize for it.
If an outside agent calls a casting company and begins apologizing, their clients won't be seen.
If YOU as self-agent call and apologize, you won't get seen.
However, if you create the business persona precisely in the fashion that the business wants to be addressed by, watch out and see if you don't get an audition, or at least are encouraged to submit.
Yes, there are hoops. There are always hoops. Ask what you need to do to jump them.
You are an artist - get creative!
Why sit there and complain, when you have the power to create a positive difference in your life with yourself?
SUBMIT SUBMIT SUBMIT. Start thinking what the business needs from you as a business person. Recognize the business speak and USE it.
CALL CALL CALL. EMAIL EMAIL EMAIL. Don't make excuses, don't belabour the point of self-management, get to the point! What is the point?
I NEED AN AUDITION AND I WANT THIS AUDITION WITH THIS COMPANY.
Then get it.
Do your research. Find a way to network so people in the business KNOW your name.
The only person who can do this is YOU.
Even if you had an outside agent, you would still be following up, getting clarity, finding out what submissions are coming up and what you'd be good for, letting them know of projects you would like to be submitted for.
So now, it's up to you.
Take on the challenge of this relationship with self. Don't let your client down!
This business is about NETWORKING. Figure it out. Who can you get to know? Who can you get to know about?
Nobody is going to come to you - you have to go out and find it and get it.
Is it easy? Is ANYTHING worthwhile easy?
If you are an artist who wants to be in this business, then create a business relationship with yourself and get out there!
Represent yourself. Promote yourself. Do it unapologetically, and with a plan.
How do new agents develop relationships in the business? They have to start somewhere too.
If they can, so can you.
Don't apologize for being self-managed. Lead with the strength of representing your own career.
Find out where that will take you when you introduce yourself simply as
"Good afternoon, my name is so-and-so and currently I have self-representation. I see you are casting for blah blah and I believe I have something to contribute to that production. Would you be willing to consider me for an audition?"
Some of you might say "oh Susan I can't do that!"
My answer - is it easier to ask "would you like fries with that?" YES YOU CAN!
GO GET IT!
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