I ran into someone in the film biz at the gym the other day and before I could even utter a good morning she was launching into her latest accomplishments in film.
There was a voice over audition she had gone to, a callback for a TV series, and an idea for a weight loss show that she can’t tell me about but she swears it hasn’t been done yet. There was more but seriously…I tuned out.
For pete’s sake it was 6:30 in the morning, I hadn’t even finished my Americano, and all I really wanted to do was put on my iPod and get on the treadmill while prepping mentally for a busy day of writing. I did not want to hear an update on how her agent is working really hard for her.
My dear friends out there, if you have updates about your show, or auditions, or anything relating to the business – ask the other person what is going on in their life BEFORE you launch into what is going on in theirs.
People like to be cared for. They like to be noticed. They like to talk about themselves.
Do yourself a favor and pay attention to their needs before your own and it will re-pay you. It doesn’t matter how much of a breakthrough you have just had – ask about their projects first.
And this goes for Facebook/Twitter/MySpace updates as well. People do care about what you are doing but they won’t keep caring for long if you bombard them with status updates saying “if this meeting goes well my show is practically made!”
I’m not saying this because I intuitively knew better when I started down this path so many years ago. The only way I know this is because people’s eyes started to glaze over whenever I would fill them in on the latest happenings with my show.
I realized I was only talking about one thing. Me. Ok two things. Me and my show.
People can only be supportive so long before it starts sounding like the same old story over and over again. People in the business know it takes a long time and a lot of effort to get a TV show made but if you are offering updates on every little triumph it is going to make you look like you don’t know what you’re doing.
It’s ok to not know what you’re doing. But it is not ok to bore people while proving it.
So. Before you tell people about your show, ask them about theirs. And while we’re at it, before you even ask them about their show, ask them about themselves. It’ll serve you well.