Don't be a Yahoo!
Let's do a test - be honest with yourself. Here's a scenario.
You go to a networking event and meet someone who claims to be a talent agent. You were looking for a talent agent. Great. His name is Michael King and he's claiming he can definitely help you further your career. Then he gives you his email address and asks you to reach out to him when you get home.
Scenario #1: His email is "covfefe69@aol.com"
Scenario #2: His email is "mking@proagency.com"
Which email would you feel more comfortable composing? On one hand you have: Covfefe - Is that a political statement? 69 - is that an immature sense of humor? AOL - is that still around?
On the other hand you can see clearly what his name is - it's King, Michael King. Okay. He works where? Oh, at Pro Agency. How do I get to find out more about this agency? Oh, proagency.com.
See the difference?
To be honest, if your email is yourname@gmail.com or even yourname@yahoo.com, that may not be such a bad deal, but the minute you're telling people to write down dashes, underscores, periods and numbers don't expect them to take you seriously. Would you?
In theory I believe each actor should have at least 3 emails:
- Email for your acting business - best case scenario - contact@yourname.com or cast@yourname.com - this is the email that you put in for your casting websites, on your primary business cards and on your video reels.
- Friends and family email - that can stay as the email you've always had - one of your gmails, yahoos, aols or hotmails will do fine, it's your friends and family, they don't care whether you're professional or not.
- Spam protector email - if you're on gmail, there's a trick for creating these spam protectors - let's say your email is mking@gmail.com, did you know that your email will also work with dots? m.king@gmail.com and mkin.g@gmail.com will also come into your inbox, so why not use one of these variations to protect yourself from spam and then you can filter your emails out in case you get emails you don't really care about. Not a gmail user? Get a separate email address like info@yourname.com or me@yourname.com and use those on social media sites, on your secondary business cards and even on your website. This way if spammers start scanning your website and they find your email - no harm, no foul, block that email and get a new one.
Edit: few of you asked me what I mean by primary and secondary business cards. I've learned that from a good friend of mine who caries the "good" business cards in left back pocket, and the "I don't know you" business cards in the right pocket. The good business cards have all of his contact info including his mobile phone number, while the other business card has his spam protector email, social media and the website. No phone number. Then chose your discretion on who gets what card. If the back of the card looks the same, no one wil be the wiser.
