How Do You Get in Front of the Right People?

Breaking In and Staying In #5 - Building Your Sphere of Influence

Illustration by Josh Seth Blake

Hey friends,

With the WGA strike over (fingers crossed for good news for the actors soon), things are getting back up and running. I don’t know about you, but everything that had been on hold for five months is now caught in this chaotic time crunch before the holidays hit. We have a few pitches that have all jumped to the front of the line to try to sell before everything shuts down for the year, but at the same time… no one seems to know who is buying, what they’re buying, or if they’re buying at all until next year.

It’s all served as a reminder of how much is out of my control, and to focus on the few things that are: writing great scripts, collaborating with good people, and pursuing ideas that I care about despite what everyone else says will or won’t sell right now (based on… I don't know… what someone else told them will or won’t sell right now?)

No one knows anything! But the business needs new stories no matter what. I’m going to focus on writing them. Hopefully, you will too.

Alright. Into our topic for the week: How to reach the right people.

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The last few weeks we’ve covered where to focus your efforts when you’re feeling that creative and professional stagnation: first you have to build proof that you can take the next step and remove as much risk from the process as possible (the only way to do this is with a great script), build calling cards to bring people toward you as a creative and not just your one single project or script, and reframe your perspective around the gatekeepers so you can give them what they need to open the gates for you.

But how do you get in front of those gatekeepers in the first place?

We’re gonna move into the next section of the Breaking In Wheel of Progress (and pain), The Personal Recommendation, talk about why it’s important, what to avoid when reaching out to people, and then break down some real, actionable steps and goals you can work on to start to build out a sphere of influence to help you connect with the right people.

Big post today! Let’s get into it…