Jerry Cook wants to work as a talent agent at a top talent agency. He plans to represent clients from various entertainment industries including actors, writers, directors, athletes, and more. To be successful in the competitive talent agency business, he will need to relocate to Los Angeles or New York. Cook has 20 years of experience in customer service and wants to complete a talent agent training program to gain industry experience and connections. His goals are to double his client base by 2022 and increase his social media connections by 200% by 2021.

1. z
Science of the
Entertainment
Business
From: Jerry Cook
Date: 2/17/2019
Class: Discover Your Personal Brand
Professor: Gale Newbold
Course: Portfolio Project 2: Developing Your
Personal Brand Canvas

2. z
Arena § I want to work as a Talent Agent at a
top Talent Agency, where I would
represent the entire spectrum of talent
that makes up the entire Entertainment
Business. I plan to have clients that
are: actors, writers, directors,
entertainers, athletes, corporations,
professional sports teams, video game
designers, cameramen, governments,
just to name a few. The fact that the
Entertainment Business’s biggest
markets are in Los Angeles, and New
York, and the best way to be
successful in this competitive business
is to get the best training available by
the best people available, meaning that
I will have to relocate to L.A. or N.Y.C.
to follow my dream.

3. z
z
Identity
z
I was born in Seattle, Washington, and I moved to Anchorage, Alaska when I was 12 years old, where I lived
until I was 30. I used to work in both the Denali National Park, and the Shenandoah National Park, also in
December 2012 I took my first 33 day vacation to Eastern Europe where I visited: Budapest, Vienna, Prague,
Serbia, Bulgaria, Istanbul, and Frankfurt. I appreciate other cultures and I like to see how people live in their
respective countries. I can easily identify, and relate to people from other countries through music, fashion,
work ethic, and ambition.

4. z
Skills
§ I have worked in the customer service industry for over 20 years, so through my work ethics, and being
properly trained, I have gained superior customer service skills. Working in extremely high volume fine
dining restaurants taught me how to deal with stressful situations, how to have empathy with customers,
and I have also mastered the technique of guest recovery.

5. z
P
r
o
f
e
s
s
i
o
n
I approach work knowing that my job is to do whatever it takes to make the customer satisfied, I really
try to go out of my way to make sure people have a good time and remain profitable. I am different than
most people by how I am able to multi-task calmly in a high stress work environment and still give
superior customer service. I am a fast learner, and I always listen to customer complaints, being that is
the only real way to improve your craft of making other people money.

6. zNetworking and Marketingz
§ I think that my superior customer service skills usually
get noticed on the first day of work, so it won’t take
long for me to attract other like minded individuals that
want to work hard for their clients.
§ My audience will grow because I am always authentic,
and I actually care about people and their well-being .
My audience will also like my cool demeanor and how I
can find a way to get along with anybody.
§ I want to give my audience up to the minute sports
updates and highlights, information of the current
political situation, economic news, global financial
market information and mergers.
§ I will attend any event where I have a client involved,
as I plan to work with many different people in many
different industries. I will attend music events,
entertainment award shows and premiers, sporting
events, commercials, auditions.

7. z
Audience
§ I need to become familiar with these top five Talent Agencies in
the world: William Morris Endeavor (WME), Creative Artists
Agency (CAA), International Creative Management (ICM),
United Talent Agency (UTA), Paradigm Talent Agency. Being
accepted to, and completing a Talent Agent training program at
one of these companies would enable me access to all of the
departments, and people within the Agency, giving me industry
leading connections that allow me to quickly grow at a fast pace.
§ I think making money for every single client while remaining
profitable is every Talent Agencies main goal. My main audience
is anybody that enjoys the Entertainment Industry in it’s whole
capacity: from people attending concerts, sporting events,
watching T.V. or movies, reading books, people making
decisions on which brand to buy, car purchases, vacation
decisions, home purchases, and where to buy food are only a
few ways that the Entertainment Business has integrated into
every part of our lives. You must have global ambitions to be
successful as a Talent Agent in the Entertainment Business.

8. z
Goals
§ I want to double my client base by the year 2022
by using my personal branding endeavors to
package together, and represent both the client,
and the buyer in the business transaction.
§ I want to join the Association of Talent Agents to
gain industry connections, and by doing so, I
market myself to the Entertainment Business,
and plan to increase my twitter, Instagram, and
facebook connections by 200%, by the year
2021.

9. z Positioning
§ I think my experience, and my superior
customer service skills stand out from other
people, I also look at the Entertainment industry
as a complete full puzzle that is all
interconnected, it can at times be unpredictable,
but it becomes easy to navigate once you
properly fit the pieces together to complete the
puzzle.
§ I want my audience to think of me as somebody
who started from scratch, and became one of
the most successful Talent Agents in the world,
all with no industry connections, and with no
industry experience. Many Talent Agents start
their career off with industry connections or they
have money behind them, giving them a head
start, so to counter this, I must position myself to
be in the right situations to make my career
successful.
§

10. z
Competitors§ There are many competitors in the entertainment business, especially with talent managers, where sometimes their roles can get
confusing, also I think of Talent Managers more as managing the day to day operations of a client, while the Talent Agent
manages year to year. I will give you an example of the music industry, let’s say that I am a Talent Agent and my client is going on
a world tour to perform in many different countries. Both California and New York’s laws require that anyone who solicits or
procures artistic employment or engagements for artists to obtain a talent agency license. However, issues often arise because
many artist management contracts contain language that the manager will, for example, “advise, counsel, direct, and coordinate
the development of the artist’s career.” Often, the “development of the artist’s career” requires activities that may overlap with
those of a talent agent, such as introducing them to new opportunities by reaching out to their other contacts in the industry. This
usually involves exploring terms and potentially even negotiating contracts, both of which appear to technically be violations of the
New York and California talent agency laws.
§ I also have to worry about celebrities competing for my job, as the sky is the limit on how much money you can make in this
industry. Having industry connections through friends or family definitely gives you an upper hand on your competition.
§ In general Talent Agents don’t have any outside competition, only competition amongst themselves.

11. z
Promise
z
§ I will promise to my future
business associates and
clients that I will always give
them superior customer
service, I would also
promise to put your
interests above even my
own interests. I promise to
work with the same
intensity for any client, no
matter of how much money
they have or how much
influence they may have.
§ I need to master
entertainment contracts and
I will work side by side with
our in house lawyer to
make sure you are properly
represented during contract
negotiations, I also believe
that repetition, and learning
the proper legal terminology
will help you perfect the art
of contracts.

12. z
Professional Development
§ I need to get accepted into the Talent Agent Training program to get a
good start into this industry. Once you complete that program, then you
may be hired on to work as a agent’s assistant, then if your good, then
you will get hired on as Full Time Talent Agent. That entire process can
take up to 2 years, but if you work hard, it should take half of that time.
§ One of the few things that I have to work on is understanding the
contracts, although I will work closely with the talent’s legal
representation, and with our own in house legal team. I think that
understanding exactly how the Entertainment Business operates is
one of the skills that I must obtain to be successful
§ The Talent Agent Training Program allows us to have industry
leaders as mentors during our introduction into the Entertainment
Business, which helps us to properly develop into successful Talent
Agents. The program allows us to learn from different experienced
Agents in different departments within the Talent Agency. It can take
up to 2 years to fully become a licensed Talent Agent, but if you are
ambitious, you should be able to make it in half of that time.

13. z Credentials
§ Photo by rawpixel on Unsplash
§ Photo by Josh Calabrese on Unsplash
§ Photo by Marc Ruaix on Unsplash
§ Photo by Ethan Hu on Unsplash
§ Photo by Benjamin Child on Unsplash
§ Photo by Alex Shutin on Unsplash
§ https://www.unitedtalent.com/
§ https://unitedtalent.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/UTA/job/New-York/Talent-Assistant_R53
§ https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/search/?currentJobId=1121469843&f_C=19321&keywords=talent%20agency%20assistant&location=United%20States&locationId
=us%3A0
§ https://www.onetonline.org/link/summary/13-1011.00#Education
§ Photo by Dan Hadfield on Unsplash
§ Photo by rawpixel on Unsplash
§ https://medium.com/@adamcolefreedman/can-you-be-an-artists-agent-and-manager-at-the-same-time-a-look-at-ca-and-ny-talent-agency-law-699930ac72c
§ Photo by Ishan @seefromthesky on Unsplash
§ https://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/United-Talent-Agent-Trainee-Reviews-EI_IE6773.0,13_KO14,27.htm
§ Photo by Samuel Zeller on Unsplash
§ Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash