The document provides advice for pursuing an acting career along with a supplementary source of income for stability. It recommends empowering yourself by deciding to find fulfilling work. It also suggests recognizing skills already gained from acting like communication and using those skills broadly. Finally, it advises considering education to learn new skills and exploring options like social media jobs that match interests and abilities.

2. • Pursuing Your Dream Career
Here are some of
the key points

3. Empower Yourself
• Decide right now that you are going to find a
supplementary source of income that will work
with your acting career and provide you some
stability and personal satisfaction. You are not
too old, too unqualified, or too whatever. You
can and you will do it.

4. Recognize What You Already Have
• Between your acting-related skills and your work
experience, you already have marketable skills.
From acting alone, you have communications
skills, improvisational skills, listening skills, and
probably some ability to read people. If you’ve
managed to develop a following using the web,
you also have computer skills and social media
skills. If you’ve been producing your own content,
such as a web series, you also have project
management skills.

5. Think Broadly At First
• Don’t try to pick a job title if that’s too daunting.
Just identify what you like to do and what you’re
good at and then explore options. Ask trusted
friends and professional mentors what they could
see you doing, or what jobs they know about that
utilize X, Y, and Z skills. Go online and do Google
broad searches like, “social media jobs in Los
Angeles” or “professional training programs in
Los Angeles.” Think like a detective and follow the
paths that seem most appealing.
•

6. Consider Going Back To School
• Once you identify jobs that you are interested
in, consider getting further education. It
doesn’t have to be a traditional degree program
(though it can be). It can be as simple as
learning a new computer program or as
extensive as getting an MBA.

7. • Even if you are looking for a job within an organization and not
freelance work, you should consider your career a small business.
Always look for ways to diversify to bring in new revenue streams.
Keep existing skills current and learn new ones.
• Network and create win-win relationships with others. Anticipate
changes in the industry and be proactive in adjusting your path to
reflect them. You are probably already treating your acting career
this way, but you need to broaden it out to your professional career
as a whole.
• The idea here is to create a livelihood that allows you to have the
life you want, whether you fulfill your childhood dream or not. And
acting itself might be more joyful and go better when you are not
relying on it as your sole source of income or enduring a day job
you don’t like in order to pursue it.