Bret Shuford 0:00
Okay, yesterday it was the Tony Awards and I have moved on, I have rebranded, I don't talk about Broadway as much anymore because I now serve a larger audience. But I will never get away from my theatre community. I absolutely miss it. I love it, I continued to audition. And so of course, I had to watch the Tony Awards. And if you didn't watch it, it was really, really exciting. It was probably one of the best Tony Awards they've had in decades, because it just didn't feel like the same old regime of people who've been running the show for so long. Ariana DeVos. And that's what we're going to talk about today for today's creative Tuesdays was so stellar in hosting the show, and she is a Afro Latina, queer identifying Oscar winning actor who I have known for decades and watched work her way to where she is. And I want to talk a little bit about how she was able over those years to use social media to do just that. I find social media has always been such a great outlet. And she since I've known her has been one of the people that embrace social media and really use it to your advantage. And I hope in talking about this today, you can start to look at how you yourself can use your social media, particularly Instagram at this point to move yourself forward, maybe even win an Oscar or host the Tony Awards. So when I knew Ariana DeBose, she was a dancer making the rounds auditioning she had done when I met her, I think she had already done the Hamilton show down at the public that hadn't moved to Broadway yet. And we were in an on camera acting class together. And we actually get to sing together in Connecticut at a country club, it was so random by her friend and a friend of mine, Benro Hala, and I have this awesome photo of us, we had so much fun that day, I never would have thought then that she would be where she is now. And what I witnessed as she started to climb is her real embracing of her vision. If you've taken the credit visibility course, we talk about your vision being so important, knowing where it is you want to go and then broadcasting that into the world. Now some people you know aren't gonna like it, right. And that's one of the most important things I think you can learn is that along your path, not everyone's going to like your vision for you. That's why it's so important that you have one that's really clear and specific, because it won't matter what other people think. And for Ariana, I really saw that for her she had one so you're thinking dancer and competed on So You Think dance had been making the rounds in the Broadway community was working on her on camera skills was trying to get more auditions. But what was most important that I saw was she started to create a following on Instagram. And it wasn't even that her following was huge. It was that she was so consistent and creating quality content that her brand became known she would do. What I talked about in the programme as well is she would do this branding photoshoots she would find up and coming photographers in and around New York City, she would meet them maybe at shows or parties or she would reach out to people who were in the New York theatre or New York community who were photographers and say, Hey, I'd love to do a photo shoot, and she would share those photos and tag them and that would help them grow their following right. It's
tit for tat, you know, would help her have content. And I remember she would just have beautiful photos Roberto Arapaho, I mean, there's Curtis Brown, you know, she would go do these photo shoots, and I was so inspired by it, I started to do the same thing, right. And this is the thing I really loved about Ariana and the way she hosted the Tonys as she continues to advocate for others. And she did at that time as well. Even though it was in her benefit. She always gave credit to the photographer's she always give credit to people who help style her. And I remember when she got Hamilton, she, I'm sure in rehearsals worked very hard with the creative team as that whole ensemble did. And she created the this idea of the bullet through her movement, right and she played quote unquote, the bullet in Hamilton if you've watched on Disney plus, or if you've saw it on Broadway, and because she was able to really create this sort of standout idea in the show, she hashtagged herself, the bullet and all through Hamilton, she would hashtag her account the bullet. And I remember that stood out to me so much because she knew that people were going going to see Hamilton and if they looked and saw they would go that's the bullet. They look up the bullet and it was through that branding of herself and through her sort of fearlessness of giving herself credit for what she was doing instead of What a lot of artists do is sort of like, well, I'm going to humbly wait for people to recognise me. She said, No, this is a recognisable moment, I'm going to take credit for it through that she really started to build her following her reputation. And I remember, she was interviewed. And in that interview, there was a publication which you can't find anymore, ironically enough, where she said, I'm no longer going to be in the ensemble. And a lot of people were up in arms about it, and it kind of offended but I also remember thinking good for you broadcast it to the world broadcast it say like I say this all the time, the more you say what it is you want, the more likely that is to happen. And she is living proof that she was able to take this vision for herself and manifest it into reality. So I want you to think through for yourself, the things that you've done, the things that stand out, you know, if you are, for instance, something I'm sort of working on right now is people know me as the reels guy because I post so many reels, but how am I different from other reels people? Well, my reels aren't very polished, my reels are very on the fly, I'm able to do it very consistently, twice a day. And I tend to be really good at telling stories in my reels. So how do I become the real storyteller? Right? How do I become the guy who teaches you how to stay consistent without going crazy? I have to look at that. Right? But that's something that I've built success around. What about you? Is there something that you know people know you for? They recognise your work in some way it could have been last month it could have been 10 years ago. How do you capitalise on that? How do you say okay, people know me for this? Is there a hashtag I can create? Right? I could I could create a hashtag hashtag real storyteller, ar e l, right? And that to me gives you this chance to build a brand other thing I want to challenge you to do is start to look at how you can broadcast out to the world your vision, what it is you want, can you say out loud in a caption in an Instagram real in your stories? I want to have this many clients or I want to make this much money from brand deals and sponsorships in next year. Or I want to grow my following to this amount. The more you can say it out to the world in as many ways as possible even at dinner with your parents, the more likely the universe is going to conspire to meet that vision. So Ariana Bravo, bravo, bravo. I love her. I will probably have her on the podcast at some point because we do text and I adore her. But she's very busy. Now. However, we're going to take a look, go into her Instagram and look back five, maybe even 10 years ago on her Instagram and see the kind of content that she was making and and know that's where we are right if you're just now starting experiment, get out there. Make a community with photographers that you use with the videographers that you use the editors that you use, make sure you know that you're not alone, that it's okay to reach out and I promise you that if you're consistent, whatever it takes, you're going to achieve the vision that you have for yourself.
