Kurt Yue: Teaching the Business of Acting

Tell us your story. How did you get started with acting?

I didn't grow up dreaming of becoming an actor. I was definitely more of the math and science kid growing up. I went to college for engineering, got my degree in software, and worked in the corporate world as a software developer for almost a decade. But while I was working in the corporate world, I was looking for something fun to do after work and I tried a bunch of stuff, from jujitsu classes to Toastmasters. One of the things I landed on was this acting class and I really liked it. 

After about a year, one of my classmates recommended me to her agent. I started doing little things here and there as an actor, local commercials and things like that. It wasn't until eight years after taking that acting class, and still working full-time as a software developer, that I ended up moving from Cleveland, Ohio to Atlanta, where I currently am, to pursue a career in the film and television industry. Over time, I slowly shifted from being a full-time software developer to a full-time working actor. 

After that, there was a slow gradual process of me finding ways to help up and coming actors that were in my position years ago and are trying to get into the industry. And I tried to share the things that I've learned along the way. I started a YouTube channel and slowly grew that, then I built an email list and started teaching online Zoom workshops and eventually built an online community. The business is still growing to this day and I'm starting to roll out some courses and things like that. All of that has happened over the course of 15 years or so.

‍So many actors focus on the craft, but they struggle on the business side of the industry. What made you realize you could help others navigate the entrepreneurial side of acting?

A lot of actors focus on learning the craft of acting, which is really important and is what most acting schools stress as well. But what often happens is that they learn the craft and then they go into the “real world” and they realize that it's a lot more about the business. 

Yes, you have to be skilled and you have to be a good actor, but you also have to know how to market yourself. You’ve got to be able to sell yourself to talent agents and casting directors and know how to do it in an industry-standard kind of form. And oftentimes, actors aren’t equipped with that knowledge after going through acting school. 

Because of my personal background in the corporate world, I definitely had more of a business education that I could apply to my own career, and I felt like I could share that with others as well.

From working alone to building a multiple six-figure business, what's been the biggest challenge in balancing your acting career and running Acting Career Center?

That really is the crux of it right there because I feel like I'm working two full-time jobs. I want to put as much of my personal effort into my own acting career and try to grow that as much as I can. But at the same time, after I started growing the YouTube channel, I've really fallen in love with being a creator.

Being a creator allows me to feel like I have a lot more control. As an actor, oftentimes we're auditioning and we're waiting for other people's decisions that affect our futures. But when I'm creating on YouTube, when I'm creating my own workshops, and engaging with my community, all of it is on my terms. 

You've grown Acting Career Center into a six-figure business. Which milestone are you most proud of so far?

I would say my favorite milestone has been reaching the 100,000 subscriber mark on YouTube. It's grown way beyond that now, but I think when I first started YouTube, I had no idea where it was gonna go, especially because I was working in a small market. I didn't think it was gonna grow to a very big channel at all, but it blew up in 2020. 

I had been making videos here and there but hadn’t put a ton of focus on it because I was really focusing on my own acting career. But because we were all just sitting at home at the time due to the shutdown I figured, let me just put all my time and energy into this. At the same time, a lot of people were having existential thoughts like, “what should I do with my life?” A lot of people started trying new things, acting being one of them, and that’s how people found me on YouTube.

You’ve built a pretty streamlined system. YouTube leads to a single lead magnet, which leads to your email list and your membership. Can you break down how you built this?

One of the things I did early on in my business when I was first creating YouTube videos was build an email list. I didn't have anything to sell for many years, but that email list became the foundation of my business to this day. Yes, I have a big following on YouTube, but I also have a big email list because that's been built over more than 10 years now. 

The way that has been set up in my business is pretty simple. My YouTube videos are where people discover me. And in almost every video, I talk about my free lead magnet, which is an audition cheat sheet for actors. Viewers download it on my website which leads them to my email list. This went on for years before I even sold my first product, which was a Zoom workshop. But because I’d built that system already, I think I had over 100 people sign up for my first workshop. Had I not had the email list or any sort of audience on YouTube and I had only promoted on my own social media, there would have been a lot less sign-ups. 

There's a lot of new technology and a lot of cool shiny objects that we can add to our businesses these days, but I feel like the basics of growing an audience is by offering value in the beginning, creating an email list, and then having an offer for your email list. 

After you built your email list, can you share some of the key moments and strategies that helped you scale from small workshops to thriving memberships?

After I offered my first Zoom workshop and had over 100 people sign up for it, each subsequent one was around the same number. It felt like I could continue doing that for as long as I wanted every month. But then I figured, instead of having to sell a workshop every single month, what if I just offered a membership?

I was a part of another person's community, and being part of somebody else's membership really helped inform what I thought would work well in mine and gave me somewhat of a blueprint to work off of. What many creators recommend is to launch your offering to your audience before it's even done so that you have some people that can help you shape what that community is going to be, so I launched it to a group of founding members. That group was segmented from the people that had taken workshops from me already. In fact, the people that have been around the longest are the founding members who have been there since the beginning.

I open up the community to new members every quarter. So once every three months, it's open for about a week to new members and if you don't land on my website during that week, then you sign up for a wait list. This system helps me as a community manager in that I don't have to worry about onboarding new members every day if they join. This process has been working well for me over the past couple of years.

Having run the community for so long now, what are some key lessons that you've learned about making a community that people love to be a part of?

One of things that I think is really important about building a community is listening to your customers, because they're the ones that are actually using it to interact with each other. 

From the very beginning I’ve taken input from the founding members to help shape what it is now. And I continuously try to do that over the course of every quarter and every year to try to make it better in that sense. And it’s not necessarily about adding more content, because they're already getting that from my YouTube channel and my email list. I try to figure out what's specifically interesting about a community and the network that's within there.

For creators who are just starting out or struggling to navigate the business side of things, what's the most important piece of advice you can give?

I would say my biggest advice to people just starting out is follow what has worked over time. That's what I've done. I have kind of stuck to the basics. It’s similar to when people talk about investing, right? Instead of looking at the thing that's going to make you a millionaire tomorrow, look at the things that have been proven over a longer period of time, something that has a decades-long track record.

I created an audience before I tried to make a dime and I was sharing information and trying to help people first. In doing that, I also started creating an email list, which is a proven way of growing a business. I've really just followed those basic fundamental business strategies and that has helped sustain me all the way up until now.

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