Here’s the latest on what’s cooking. You’ll find business thoughts, inspiring ideas and of course castings. Note: Most clients don’t announce their castings publicly, so this is a fraction of actual projects for which Talent are being booked!

Celebrating Freedom and The Right To Pursue Happiness - Happy 4th Everyone

Sunday July 04, 2010 by Chef

There is so much weight in the words of our Declaration of Independence. Just the name of the document is powerful...

Declare - To state with passion and power Independence - Without dependence on another thing, person, entity, government.

We thank God we were born in America and we thank God for each of you reading this. America is the greatest country in the world, and the greatest country ever conceived on this planet. Even in her bad decisions, even in her tragedies, she stands unequaled. We thank God for the framers of our country. For the bold and brave men and women that were determined to leave a legacy of freedom and opportunity. That their sacrifices, wisdom, and determination should lead us to exist in this country, in this time, is surely a gift from God.

• We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. *

Healthcare Products Casting Closed - All talent booked and notified.

Friday July 02, 2010 by Chef

Just a quick update to let our talent know this project is closed for submissions. All talent have been chosen, notified and booked.

Have a great weekend!

Tampa Casting Expanded for Men too! Latino Men 20-50, Pays $250 for 2 hours

Friday July 02, 2010 by Chef

The client is adding a Latino male slot to the Tampa shoot. Same terms as the previous casting notice except the call time will be 7 am, downtown Tampa, Friday, July 9th.

TalentSoup even has some spicy Latin-ness!

Self Marketing For Talent - What Are You Investing In, Really?

Wednesday June 30, 2010 by Chef

We've been around long enough that we rarely get questions anymore, from new talent, about our business model. Every once in a while we'll get a question about how are we different from the million subscription-based talent listing sites out there. You know the ones, big promises for just a little monthly fee...

You know, the sites promising to promote you (but actually you have to promote yourself), or promising fame and stardom (without ever actually doing anything for you or providing proof they can), or the worst, promises of hidden "super-secret" castings that you'll receive in your inbox (no such thing, sorry).

The overwhelming majority of those "casting" or "listing" sites are built to do one thing: Take your money by exploiting your desire to succeed in this business (for fame, or money, or simply because it can be a fun business).

TalentSoup is out to radically change our industry. How? We book (or transact) talent, those other sites list talent. Inside TalentSoup, it's in everyone's best interest that we are successful to that end...booking our talent.

Think about it. Our Clients win with great Talent selection, pricing, service and speed. The booked Talent win because they get paid, get experience, and get tear sheets (the examples of the work) for their Profile, which makes them even more marketable. And finally, our Talent community wins, because both Clients and Talent trust TalentSoup and spread the word, which results in more projects and more bookings for more Talent.

So think about how you spend your Self-Promotion budget in this business. How are you investing in your Talent Brand? With a listing service? To get some Castings in your email box that YOU still HAVE TO GO TO? What could you be spending that money on? What efforts will make you more marketable?

Tampa Casting - Hispanic / Latina Women 20-30, Pays $250 for 2 hours

Tuesday June 29, 2010 by Chef

A national grocery chain is once again using TalentSoup to cast for a print advertising project. Here are the details:

• Payment: Chosen talent are paid $250 for 2 * hours on set. Overtime hours pay $100 per
• Talent: We are casting Latina / Hispanic women, ages 20-30, living within a 30 mile radius of Tampa
• Shoot Date(s): July 9th, 8 pm - 10 pm (we have to work around the store hours)
• Shoot Location: A Tampa Grocery Store
• Set Time: 2 Hours (additional hours are paid $100 an hour)
• Usage: 2 Years Consumer Information, Regional Only, Web Only

How to Get Submitted: All talent must be signed up in TalentSoup at http://www.talentsoup.com/signup (you know, the little words up the right corner of this page that say Sign Up! It’s fast and free for talent. Talent must be in the Soup by Friday, July 2nd at 5 pm to be considered. No emails or phone calls please.

As with all of our projects, if you are already in the Soup and meet the casting criteria and location, you are automatically submitted.

3 Seconds To Judgement - Making Your Visual Brand Say The Right Things

Monday June 28, 2010 by Chef

Before I started TalentSoup, I was in the medical device industry, marketing biologic implants (used to repair people...it was a cool job!) which meant lots of time with surgeons in OR's, hospitals and restaurants. As you might guess, this meant I wore a suit 24/7. While they were nice suits, custom made in Hong Kong and Singapore (not as expensive as you'd think) and very high quality, it was a suit. You know, a suit. I prefer business clothing a bit more utilitarian (jeans, cowboy boots, knit shirt...that's my style). Thinking back on all of those "suit hours" I logged, I remembered an educational moment I had early in my career. A mentor friend, who was what I considered a tycoon, told me about the importance of how I looked and how I could control people's assumptions about through my clothing and grooming. That was profound. I'd never heard anyone layout it so simply for me but what he was talking about was my Visual Brand. Given the talent industry is all about the visual story that our talent convey, I think it's important to throw this out there for those of you that are starting to put the formula together - My visual brand + Images + TalentSoup = More Commercial Bookings. Your mom probably told you how important it is to keep your shoes shined and it turns out, she was right. A great book on the subject, and how irreversible judgements are made about you in the first 3 seconds when you meet someone, is here: http://bit.ly/9AOtN3 It's actually called "You've Only Got 3 Seconds" and it profoundly changed my view of, well, my view. BTW, if you buy the Amazon book from that link TalentSoup makes about $0.32. Given how old this book is, I bet its sitting in your local library so go read it for free!

Talent Motivation - Working for Stardom and Success or Playing the Lottery

Saturday June 26, 2010 by Chef

Our talent are amazing. As we continue to grow, we are reminded of how lucky we are to work with motivated, professional folks that are in it with us for the long haul. We love our jobs because of our great talent.

Having incredible talent across the country is only half of the business equation for TalentSoup, however. Our Clients, the people with the check books, are the other half. We pride ourselves on paying attention to both types of customers but we’ll admit, we pay a lot of attention to serving our Clients. So when they tell us things about our business, about how we can better serve them, we pay close attention. Because acing our service for the Client means we book more talent. That’s a win for our talent and a win for everyone. It’s the proverbial Win-Win-Win. We kinda like that.

With 3 years behind us, serving a ton of great talent to a giant list of projects (from clients like Home Depot, Delta Airlines, Mizuno, Publix, Coca-Cola, Def Jam Records, Philips Medical, Miller Brewing, Aflac, Raymond James...), we’ve built a great talent booking PROCESS. Moving forward, it’s time to invest in building more talent QUALITY into that process.

They know we have high quality talent, that’s not their point. What Clients tell us over and over is they love our selection, speed, technology and service but what they want more of is Quality Talent Profiles. Our Clients want a better idea of talent experience, better images in their Profiles, etc. What we are calling the Talent Brand.

To answer this opportunity, we are developing new ways for our Professional and Developing talent to partner with us to increase their odds of landing more work. It’s an exciting program that does not exist anywhere and we believe it’s the future.

See, we have a range of experience and demographic talent offerings, including every skin tone, ethnicity, age, and even tattoo locations, that you can imagine. But we also have a wide range of motivations within our talent community. We have the casual talent, people with little or no experience (what our industry calls Real People), that signed up on a whim. Like casually playing the lottery, they want to be considered for certain projects but are not interested in investing a lot to make that happen. Thats fine with us, we love having you if that’s your desire, as there are lots of projects that need casual talent. But we also have highly motivated, professional talent who either are in the Soup to grow their careers or they are fully experienced and seasoned talent with lots of commercial work under their belts (and use TalentSoup as a "marketing" service). We have some real superstars in our community that have chosen to make TalentSoup one of their valuable partners in landing some work. It’s these folks that are invested in their career that we are building new offerings for. There is a direct corrollary between talent experience and who lands the most work. It’s time we gave those experienced talent powerful new tools to increase their odds. More to come...

Client Self Service Pricing Converts First Quote To Paid Casting!

Friday June 25, 2010 by Chef

Just a few days after releasing the Client Self Service Quote Engine, TalentSoup received it's first booked project from the feature. So far our Clients love the ability not to wait on pricing for projects they are bidding and they love our pricing transparency.

With a rapidly expanding selection of great talent, from Real People to Professional Models and Actors, and now instant pricing for our Clients, what's not to love?

Outdoor Lifestyle Casting Project Closed. Chosen Talent Have Been Contacted

Friday June 25, 2010 by Chef

Got the final selections in last night and the final 6 talent have been contacted and confirmed booked.

We've had loads of questions from our new talent about the process of being submitted.

• Most of our projects are not publicly announced.
• The client provides the search criteria so we don't always know what excludes, or includes, certain talent.
• We only contact talent that the client is interested in (to check availability or to book). When you are submitted for a project or the client reviews your profile you will not receive any sort of email or phone call.
• Atlanta is the busiest market in the Southeast for advertising production so if you live outside the Atlanta metro area (100 mile radius) then the number of projects you are submitted for is lower.

Be sure to review the Forum for other answers to questions you might have. Of course, email us if you have a question not answered in the site!

Healthcare Products Company - Another Fast Cast!! $300-$500

Thursday June 24, 2010 by Chef

Another quick project. This one is for ladies in the Atlanta metro, 25-40 year olds, and 55+. Ethnicities vary. The pricing variation is based on how long they'll keep you if you are chosen. Likely 2-3 hours so a quick, fun project. This is a Web only usage in the Trade (vs. Consumer or B2B).

Nothing better than some tasty TalentSoup talent...