The insider’s guide to getting discovered, (finally).

F I N D I N G

F A M E

As co-founder and CEO, I wanted to personally say Thank You for downloading this guide.

We consider it a privilege to play a small role today

in helping you learn from real people in the indus-

try, if you are interested in modeling, acting, song-

writing, performing all of it. Please Enjoy!

To your success,

A LY C I A K A B A C K ,

C O - FO U N D ER A N D C EO

To make it in show business you need drive

and talent. Few people have the talent, and

even fewer have the drive, that fire-in-the

guts yearning to succeed no matter what it

takes.

Say you have that desire, say you work hard

at your craft, and shape yourself into the

best you can be—what next? For a new

talent striving just to get that first job, it can

feel like the only way into the industry is to

be born into it, or to be discovered in a drug-

store like Lana Turner was rumored to have

done. The thing those two scenarios have in

common, of course, is that they are abso-

lutely out of your control. So the question is:

what can you do? What do you control?

Walk into a bar in Times Square, and you are

likely to find a bartender who studied acting,

or music, or who aspires to be a model.

Some of these people went to the best

schools, places like Julliard and Berkley,

where just getting accepted is hard enough,

let alone following through and taking the

classes, and paying the tuition. Now they’re

bartending. It’s not fair; show business is just

not fair.

Show business is a risk-everything business,

and if you decide to take that risk you are

going to be living a very di�erent life from

your family and friends who might be

accountants, or dental hygienists, or baris-

tas. You have to be so quick, as in “jump o�

a bridge and build a plane on the way down.”

Being seen, being heard, and being discovered.

“Show business is not fair.”

Nothing in school can ever prepare you for the

entertainment industry; it is unlike any business out

there.

The problem is, people desperately want to make it,

and at the same time have no idea what to do. Fre-

quently hopeful young people are pushed into

buying marketing materials, even though they have

no one to market to. Kids will tell me they have spent

all of their money, and it turns out that money has

gone to glamour photography that agents don’t

want to see, to acting classes or modeling classes

taught by people with no real connections in the

industry, or to websites no one will ever visit. No one

is coming to find you. I think of it as like sharpening

crayons: these kids spend all of their time sharpen-

ing crayons, but they never get the chance to use

them. They are using up all of their own resources,

and they are not marketing themselves to anyone

who can actually help them.

“Building a career in this industry starts long before you get your big break.”

When casting directors and people who work

with new talent talk about what they are looking

for, they often speak about an almost indefin-

able quality. It’s been called “star quality,” or

“stage presence,” and it’s even been called the

“it” factor. For someone looking to break into

the industry, it can be hard to know what exactly

the “it” factor is. New talent can often feel lost in

the crowd, and long for a way to set them apart,

and make someone important take notice.

But breaking into the industry is not just about

inborn talent or a special quality—it’s about

having done the work to get to a point where

you walk into an audition, and the casting direc-

tor can tell just by looking that you have what it

takes. It’s about honing and polishing your craft

until a producer can tell from your demo tape

that you’ve got a hit song, or learning to be so

comfortable in front of a camera that a model-

ing agent picks you right out of an open call.

Building a career in the industry starts long

before you get your big break—it starts with

you, working every day to be ready when that

big break comes.

Getting Discovered:

Personality really overrides ev-erything else, and in an audition you have two or three minutes, tops.

Your job as an actor is to come in there and

blow us away, not only with your talent, but

with your personality. What I always say is:

we have to love you as soon as you walk in

the room. Before you even open your

mouth we have to love you—that’s big per-

sonality. You can’t come in shy, or fumbling

your words; you really have to have that big

personality. I have met some actors along

the way, in my journey, with astonishing

personalities, and I know actors that have

booked auditions, booked feature films, just based on personality alone. So, that overrides every-

thing, absolutely.

With technology, and how fast the world is moving, everybody wants it yesterday, everybody

wants it today, but guess what? Being discovered is not instant co�ee. It’s not something you just

brew up. I am working with a very famous male model right now, and he is wonderful, and he is

talented, and he brings everything he has learned from modeling to the world. But he is in a rush,

he wants everything to happen tomorrow, and while he does have tremendous instincts, he has

101

to develop further, because he is in a tremen-

dously competitive world, he is working with

people from Stella Adler, and Yale, and from

Julliard, and he has no idea how competitive

the world is out there, and he is going to get

lost if he rushes it, he is really going to get

lost.

If someone come to me and says “I really

want to sing,” I can’t make you an artist: you

have to be an artist and come to me. Nobody

could make me a record executive; if you are

an artist, then you will make yourself, every-

thing you do will contribute that. You have to

come to me fully-formed, you have to come to

me as an artist. I am the facilitator, you are the

artist. I can’t throw pixie dust on you and make

people love you: I need to hear music that is

ready. Even if you’re a DJ, I need to feel your

sweat and your DNA in the work that I am

listening to, the equity. When everybody else

is out and partying and getting high, you are

in the studio. I want somebody who is commit-

ted to being an artist. Come back when that is

the only thing you can do. It is a bumpy road,

and it is not a sprint, it is a marathon.

You have all these YouTube and Vine sensa-

tions, to where these people have millions of

followers. And most of the time it’s because

they’re very talented. Case in point, this kid

King Bach. He is so funny, and he has all these

little compilations, and they’re all like fifteen

second clips, and they’re all funny, and this kid

has millions of followers. He gets paid some-

thing like $10,000 a month, just to feature

products. That’s where marketing is going

these days. These people who have these

huge social media footprints, that’s power.

Having the drive and passion is so very impor-

tant, if you do not have the fire in your heart.

You are just wasting your time and need to

find another field to work in.

Before deciding if you want our help, think about the following words:

Imagine that tomorrow, you could be

face-to-face with an Academy

Award-winning director, talking about your

ambitions and hearing his advice. Imagine

you could talk directly with a casting

director who works with some of the

biggest names in Hollywood, and get his

tips on auditioning. Imagine you could

play your demo tape to the producer for a

major record label, and get her immediate

feedback. Imagine the casting agent for

major make-up and clothing lines could

look at your face, and tell you in that

moment what kind of modeling you are

best suited for. Would you do it? Would

you be ready?

If you’re serious about this business, we can help.

Before deciding if you want our help, think about the following words:

Imagine that tomorrow, you could be

face-to-face with an Academy

Award-winning director, talking about your

ambitions and hearing his advice. Imagine

you could talk directly with a casting

director who works with some of the

biggest names in Hollywood, and get his

tips on auditioning. Imagine you could

play your demo tape to the producer for a

major record label, and get her immediate

feedback. Imagine the casting agent for

major make-up and clothing lines could

look at your face, and tell you in that

moment what kind of modeling you are

best suited for. Would you do it? Would

you be ready?

Build relationships withpeople who matter

H O W T O{Anyone can meet people; the

question is how you meet some-

one who can help you.

When we first started we had to

go out and build relationships.

VIP Talent Connect was started

back in 2006 with just a simple

idea to help talent meet people

in the industry.

We would have never imagined

in six years our events would have such

an amazing lineup of experts such as

“Demi Lovato” or ‘LL Cool J’ or the Vice

President of Universal Records. Major

agents and casting directors choose to

come to VIP because we allow only 125 of

the top talent to meet with them. Each and

every talent goes through an interview

process, to make sure this is something

they are serious about – this is not

“Comic-Con.”

“Players and Haters – How being the Best can Bring the Worst out in People”

Did we have individuals who didn’t

believe in us, of course, even a star like

Demi Lovato have people online who will

criticize her music or weight almost every

day. Take a look at any celebrities twitter

account or a video they post on “You-

Tube” or “Vine” and you will see what we

mean.

“Some people when they are insecure about them-selves need to attack those people or items they want or to be like.”

We have had our haters and always will

just like any one who finds success. The

di�erence is I think is for us we always

looked for the perfect talent in the begin-

ning and when someone was not the right

fit we did not invest the time and

resources to educate those people, to

explain them what they could do to

improve their talents.

Ice T’s favorite line is “Haters are going to

hate on you, no matter what”

When you have an opportunity of a

lifetime it is di�cult to lose it and not walk

away feeling depressed or upset and

some people cannot take the blame

themselves so they lash out – “It is them,

not me! I will be famous” – the issue with

that idea is wanting something and doing

something to make your “dream” happen

are two di�erent sides of the solution.

“Never worry about bad press: All that matters is if they spell your name right.” – Kate Hudson

So when you decide to travel down this

road -always understand that is your duty

to be above these comments and to edu-

cate those around you, pass the advice

on, that is why all talent who interview

with us: are given the chance to have

access to our online learning guides

about breaking into the business. We give

everyone a checklist of what to do; we

find out where you are headed and help

provide the “roadmap” to get you there.

“See no two people in this business are alike. So you really need to know where you want to go – before anyone could help you.”

Our company was created for talent to

connect with some of the most powerful

people in the industry; to meet with

agents, casting directors, producers,

Grammy Award-Winning artists & Acad-

emy Award-Winning directors, literally the

top 35 people who can change your life.

Ready to start?O UR IN T ER V IE W P R O CES S

V IP IN T ER V IE W CHECK LIST

V I N D I E S E L

We will follow-up via email: once we have availability for interviews: we do have a

tremendous amount of applicants – so please allow a few days. If we do not contact you,

you may contact the o�ce to check on when we might have openings.

Once you are scheduled:

We hope this guide provided you with some good information to help you find a starting point

or at least a direction, feel free to start your own roadmap and if there is anyone in your life you

feel could benefit from the information we provided please pass it on.

We will host a Video Interview and chat for 30 to 45 minutes

We’ll uncover your biggest struggles and what exactly is getting you

stuck

We’ll identify your most pressing needs and define some goals

After learning more about you, we will schedule an additional follow-up inter-

view and we will make a final decision on that day if you are accepted or not.

If you are ready… You’re in for the adventure ride of a lifetime!

If you’re the type of person who has to fulfill

your dreams, you’ve gotta be resourceful to

make sure you can do it.“