MarketingU at BroadwayCon 2020 with Jackson Thompson
Have you ever imagined what it would be like to step inside a Playbill program and rub shoulders with the masterminds behind some of your favorite plays and musicals? BroadwayCon brings that fantasy to life!
Now completing its fifth year, BroadwayCon is not just a place where fans can come together to celebrate their passion for theatre; it’s a major networking hub of industry professionals. There’s no better way to kick off the new year than to spend three days drinking up a fun-packed schedule of performances, meet-and-greets, and workshops. Naturally, Broadway Crew was there on the scene among the masses of cosplayers, creators, and spotlight stars. In fact, our Founding Partner, Jackson Thompson, was invited to represent the Crew for a business panel titled “Marketing U 2020: How to Market Yourself in the New Decade.” We’re thrilled to bring you some excerpts from that conversation.
Jackson was stoked to be at BroadwayCon 2020!
Jackson Thompson: What's up, BroadwayCon? My name is Jackson Thompson and I started a company called Broadway Crew. Basically, I was an actor for a long time; I got my MFA from UCLA, and I was out in LA for a while, then I decided to come to New York.
After all that, I realized that I wanted to do something else, so I started a company. Me and my business partner, Sam, really wanted to make a place where creatives and people in the industry … and make a living to support their art. That's actually our mission statement - to support our employees and to help them find their place in this art, and in this business that we all love. We've been around for about two years and we're really, really stoked to be here.
Bryan Campione: See this is what I love; we're a community where we all wear different hats, but we are still striving for number one. What is number one right now? Number one is our health, our comfort, but also making sure that we are able to make the money that we need to in order to survive … But there are places in our industry to do that. And I'm going to throw this to Jackson because he's an entrepreneur. He and Sam are the co-founders of Broadway Crew, they created this together. Talking about number one....how can these wonderful people out there, start to create their vision and become number one not only in their minds, but also to be seen when they're applying for a job or, you know, building their business plan, etc?
JT: Yeah, that's a great question. We all really love this industry. We love this business. We love the art form. And you can do it for free. You can do it, you can do community theatre. You can have a wonderful life doing it as a hobby. If you want to make money doing it, you have to think about it like a business.
I just got back from teaching at my undergrad. I asked the kids I'm like, Okay, you guys want to be professional actors? They’re like, "Yeah!" And I'm like, "how many of you have a business plan?" (Silence). Right, yeah. And hilariously, I never made a business plan either as an actor.
So okay, business plan. It doesn't have to be scary. There's a ton of tools out there on the internet...I looked at the sba.gov. And they have a whole thing there. And you can adapt that to yourself, but basically it means: what are you selling? What do you have to offer? How are you going to make money doing it? How are you going to support yourself? And how are you going to let people know? How are you going to market yourself?
I think we're in a place where we can avoid type-casting ourselves. But I do think that...when you're approaching [a] casting director or if you're going to a job interview, it's not their job to tell you who you are. And I think a lot of people go there and say, "I really want to work for you". And they go "Great! How?" And you say "I don't know. You tell me". There's an analogy of like, you go into a cell phone store, and someone tries to sell a phone. They're like "Hey, buy this cell phone" and you're like, "Okay, what's it do?". And they're like "I don't know. You tell me."
You have to come prepared to tell people what you bring to the table. And as a business owner, if you can solve my problems, I will hire you, because I don't want to deal with this stuff. So one of the best things you can do is look at who you're talking to - casting directors - look at the business you're going to and find out what they're trying to do, and how they want to expand or what they're having a problem doing. And then just solve it. That's a really amazing way to stand out.
Audience question: How do I monetize my artistic skill set?
JT: [Within] this concept of designing your life...there's a lot of talk about working for free. You can also design how you make money outside of this, you know, your side hustle, right? You don't have to be a waiter. There's plenty of ways to make money out there that won't suck your soul. Look at your life holistically, not just “I have to sacrifice now and get through this so that I can be an actor or be the performer that I want, but make it all inform that choice.
BC: And I will add onto this for Jackson and Broadway Crew. They're not only doing marketing and events; they also do staffing for them. So if you are tired of the industry … Try and find other opportunities that are parallel, you know, such as what Jackson's doing. He has staff members that are incredible people in the industry … they're building their own brand and marketing themselves through working in the industry in a positive way.
FEBRUARY 4, 2020
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