Hello Gregg and Friends,

Asst Head Coach Barbara here with your Friday morning post.  Last night I started a new session of my television hosting class at TVI Studios in New York and the start of a new class always gets me thinking about Intention.   Most people come in thinking they’ll learn to read host copy — which they will — but  few come in realizing how much time we’ll focus on the mental game — what I call The Oprah part of class.

As you once mentioned to me, paraphrasing Woody Allen, showing up is half the battle.  And it’s true.  It’s only half.  Signing up to take my class is  only half.   You can sleepwalk through the excercises and nod politely when given notes and if you’re lucky you’re halfway there.  But if you want to achieve your goals you have to start Thinking.    As Zac Effron sang in High School Musical, you gotta get your head in the game.

The people who take my class want to be on television so I always ask the first night who thought consciously about first impressions and the fact they’d be meeting a casting director?  I’ve got a strong, savvy group this time so the majority were way ahead of me, but more often than not I have students who admit the thought never occurred to them.   In their fuzzy thinking they thought just showing up was enough and the rest would be handed to them.  There’s no intention in their first –or second — impressions.

When you go into an audition, a meeting or a job interview don’t let it be a passive process.   Don’t just get dolled up and hope for the best.  Think about what you want people to know about you as well as your lasting impression.  Whether you nail it or you’re right for the job, if you  go in with intention then you have the confidence of knowing you are professional and you have integrity.  To stretch the metaphor, now you have weapons in your arsenal to win the second half of the battle.

Go for it!

–Barbara Barna/Asst’ Head Coach