Hello beautiful people!
Let’s step and repeat.
But how much do we know about how many times in an average (non-quarantinetimes) year a working actor, a content creator, a storyteller who’s not famous appears on a red carpet, does the “step and repeat” move in front of photographers, speaks to press about projects exciting to boring, hits a gifting suite or two, and heads home?
Just another day.
Whether it’s a charity art auction, a political rally, an industry Q&A your team says you’re required to attend, the upfronts themselves, or any other place where they’re celebrating the opening of an envelope, you will have to suit up and show up.
Today’s work: Identify what “suiting up” looks like for your brand. Starting with the galleries at Getty Images, WireImage, AP, and Variety, do a deep dive on the non-major-red-carpet events going on every single day in Los Angeles (and pretty dang often in larger minor markets too). When you get the SAG-AFTRA member newsletter, don’t just toss it out! Flip through it to study what your peers are doing when they show up to these events. Check out the “out and about” photo galleries in the trades. Stop interpreting paparazzi photos as if celebs are getting “caught” and instead see them for what they are: brand reinforcement opportunities almost always crafted in advance by a team and executed with precision by the storyteller we’ve come to trust. What can you see being done with intention? And what does your intentional next-tier red carpet action look like?
Do you wear the same designer’s threads you’ll be wearing at the highest tier? Just off-the-rack for now rather than custom? Are you a show-up-early type? Stay-all-night? Do you skip the events for the causes but secretly donate huge sums of money to them? Or are you the face of your on-brand charities because you feel your more public involvement has an impact? Are you bidding on pieces of art? Are you attending polo matches put on by networks? Do you hobnob with the studio execs at upfronts even before your name has hit a pilot season YES list? Do you join the Academy as soon as you qualify so you’re seen by the peers who’ll someday vote for your win? Are you a leader of your unions? Do you go back to your alma mater and inspire students on career day? What does it look like when you do every bit of this? Especially when it’s not about you!
For my non-showbiz creatives in the mix, your version of this work includes listing out all the coffees, networking functions, dinner parties, book clubs, professional organizations’ gatherings, retreats, group training events, conferences, and more. You may not have quite as many of these things to hit as your showbiz colleagues do, but you certainly have ’em! And you can’t wear the same thing every time! Let’s get intentional with your closet, y’all!
Extra credit: Create a Pinterest board, in-app photo album, or old-school vision board that represents how you’ll be doing the circuit before you’ve got a team whose job it is to advise, steer, and style you. Include images of you as you currently show up when you hit a friend’s opening night or a colleague’s festival premiere. How can you begin leaning into that next tier with just one or two key pieces you may not yet own but be able to acquire in the next few months? Bonus reading filled with tips for rockin’ the red carpet here.
’til tomorrow… stay ninja!
