Hello beautiful people!
Let’s do some Brandprov! Woo hoo!
If this Brandprov term is new to you, please head over to this piece for context on my li’l trademarked bit of awesomeosity, then come back for today’s lesson.
Okay. Ready?
Let’s watch some Brandprov mastery at work. You may have seen this first clip before, but watch through this whole series of goodness I share (interspersed with my guidance) and take notes about where you’re seeing brilliance in action.
Now, it’s important to note that there is no such thing as right or wrong where Brandprov is concerned; there’s only showing up to every interview, every networking event, every pressline, every junket, every talkshow, every fan interaction more on-brand or less on-brand. How developed the muscle is, is entirely up to you!
You’re furthering the buyers’ understanding of what you bullseye with every public encounter. Getting good at Brandprov is going to make you appear lower-risk in the eyes of the buyers sooner! When they see you as someone who is effortlessly furthering the world’s understanding of who you are; what you do best; and what you do for them as studio heads, showrunners, writers, etc.; you are cementing your place at the next tier with so much efficiency it’s baffling!
So let’s work this muscle now.
Today’s work: Every time there’s an awards show on, watch the arrivals. Watch the hours-before earliest arrivals on the web or on the lower-profile cable channels. Watch the folks who are early to the red carpet, eager to do press (possibly for the first time at this tier). What are they wearing? What are they saying? How are they doing the just-a-couple-tiers-above-you-now work that you can begin to train yourself on today?
When it’s not awards season, watch latenight talkshows. Watch early morning talkshows. Watch segments on the local news with visiting actors whose latest project needs pimping out. Listen to radio interviews, podcasts, livestream Q&As, always with an ear toward the Brandprov going on.
Start studying which guests have publicists who force the interviewer to stick to a pre-approved list of topics and which ones can easily speak extemporaneously with the best of ’em. (Notice which of those two types gets “first chair” in the circuit.)
Get a plan in action for drilling yourself on Brandprov. Grab Your SMFA Networking Gameplan filled with Brandprov prompts and make a date to Zoom or Skype or FaceTime with a fellow ninja to get these muscles stronger. If you’re too shy to do this with a partner at first, self-tape the questions and randomly play them back to yourself, self-taping your responses.
Watch the footage back! How fast are you on the Brandprov uptake? How quick-witted can you be while staying on-brand? How good are you at avoiding the questions that are sticky or political or invasive about your personal life or anything else you’d never want to be asked (but will be asked)?
Practice is EASY but you have to do it. Get inspired by watching your fellow ninjas engaged in a Brandprov jam with me here:
Practice, then take this OUT into the world!
If the idea of doing this in the red carpet environment just seems too many tiers away, take it to the Q&A portion of a CD workshop. Take it to a casual networking event. Take it to the office of a target agent after you’ve landed a meeting. You will — regularly — be required to have convos about yourself with people in this business and your ability to come off as the best version of yourself, professional and on-brand at all times, is going to get you to the next tier faster.
And we want that, right?
So. What’s your gameplan for Brandprov rehearsal today? Are you putting a Brandprov practice session on your calendar for this right now? You should be! Running your Brandprov is as important as running your lines. This doesn’t make you come off as rehearsed; it makes you come off as comfortable in your skin — which the busiest folks in the industry always are. (There’s that Day 3 enoughness thing again. Damn! That’s everywhere, isn’t it?!?)
Wanna do a text-based version of your Brandprov homework? Start up questions below and have at ’em with your replies in the threads. Do this throughout social media with the #SMFAninjas too!
Have FUN with this! Then we will have fun watching you. 🙂
’til tomorrow… stay ninja!
