Mastery requires balance: Inner-Game & Outer-Game Explained

I watched a video from serial entrepreneur, Eben Pagan, who is pretty well known in the online marketing world. He has fantastic courses and lectures with guests that really impress me with their ability to communicate their wealth of knowledge. When I was feeling like I was in a rut sometime during the 7-year winter of my acting career, I came across a guest speaker named Wyatt Woodsmall. This is when I learned about the inner-game and outer-game frameworks. Essentially, you can use this framework in any industry and it will make sense and encourage the listener to open their perspectives and find holes in their approach to succeeding in a particular field. You can use carpentry, writing, or car sales but for this example let’s stick to acting since it’s relevant to me. The framework begins. In order to become a successful actor, you must possess a consistent balance of the inner game and outer-game of acting. You can’t rely on only one area alone and the scales if tipped heavily on one side, you are likely going to hit a plateau or eventually burn out or rust out.

The inner game of acting is the craft. The study of performance and deep work to be able to access emotion and fluidity. There are many various approaches when it comes to the craft of acting, including Meisner (aka Method), Stanislovski, etc.. [find all top types]. There are also notable acting class in the major cities - specifically in LA, there’s Lesly Kahn, Warner Loughlin, Howard Fine, Margie Haber, BCG Acting, Stan Kirsch, Joseph Pearlman, and John Rosenfeld to name a few. They each have varying approaches for their actors to perform a scene and eventually win the audition room. After all, these classes heavily rely on their Rolodex of working actors to sell their boot camps and workshops. They aren’t cheap but they do provide insights you won’t figure out on your own. A very small percentage of actors can wing it and book a job which will then by a series of fortunate events provide a roadmap for a continuously successful career in acting. These people are anomalies. Even so, the greats who have lasting careers tend to have their go-to coach or came from a background in theatre with years of study in a conservatory. They “nerd out” on acting. Those people still have acting coaches and hone their craft. I have met actors who can easily tick the box of doing their due diligence when it comes to craft. They have this area worked out systematically put in their 10 thousand hours and can whip out a monologue faster than you can name your top 5 favorite movies. Those same actors are people you’ve never heard of. Why is that? While they are indeed talented, they typically neglect the outer game of acting.

The outer game of acting encompasses everything outside of the craft. It’s the business and marketing side. Some people will also call it by the dreadful word, “Networking”

Many scoff at the idea of networking in almost any field. While some embrace this aspect of business life because it’s an excuse to chat up, make new connections and feel like we are actually doing something productive. I remember watching a TED Talk from [insert name & title / maybe even a clip] which discuss a study done on test subjects where people who talked about their goals and shared them with everyone, subconsciously they thought they were actually accomplishing their goals and wouldn’t feel the need to do more work. Negative connotations aside, marketing yourself and networking are necessary aspects to level up in the world of acting. If you don’t have representation, that’s how you get it. You do a showcase or you get a referral from a colleague. I’ve legit tried helping fellow actors in classes who didn’t have an agent and said to email me so I can forward a referral - crickets. I had a good reputation at the time and my agent was willing to take on developing talent. By either being afraid of possible rejection or holding out for one of the big 5, I’ve met countless actors who said no to a good thing because they lacked solid outer-game when it came to taking action. It’s called show-business not show-acting for a reason. Good outer game also includes what you do with your free time. You want to put yourself in the best financial situation or have the mental fortitude to be willing to pass up on money jobs - which are jobs you would only do for the money. There’s a laundry list of actors who ruined their careers because they took a “money job” or maybe even needed to feed their ego and took a chance on an indie film that was so bad that their reputation went down with the film. They couldn’t get that impression off of them. Audiences can be forgiving to an actor if their performance is solid even if a movie or show flops - after all there are many factors out of an actor’s control. But if the writing sucks and you do nothing to try to improve or just too afraid to pass up on a job - then your play with fire.

Now on the flip side, I’ve met some actors who crush it when it comes to their vibe, their connections, and their ability to befriend industry people who can have a major impact on a career. But this very person, though trained to act, doesn’t have enough of the inner-game to “win-the-room” as they say aka bring to life a performance that makes the casting team want to hire them for something. Winning the room doesn’t guarantee anything, I’ve auditioned for NCIS Los Angeles around 15 times over the course of the shows run and didn’t book a single job. I had a few callbacks and got pinned for two of them. Getting pinned is practically seen as getting the job in terms of talent - you just don’t get paid or a credit. The frequency of getting in the room that many times for a single show was frustrating at times - but I had good friends and coaches in my corner reminding me that you don’t get called into the same office that many times if you are bad. A perfect example of a good combo of good inner and outer game. Preparation for the audition and having a good network of friends and colleagues you keep you encourage to keep going.

Some highly trained actors would freeze up in a room due to the stakes being higher, not wanting to let down their reps, or they simply didn’t work on audition technique enough. Audition technique would lend to a whole video if not a series in itself but the short of it is, that there are things you can do when auditioning for a role that might seem counter-intuitive that when compared to stage acting. More so if there’s a camera in the room taping you for the director. Your awareness of the camera, pacing, and tone of the show, eyelines, emotions, and technical movements all come into play. You get this from good inner game and learning from actors who book work consistently. Some casting directors even transition to coaching and will tell you what works and what doesn’t.

The formula for success as an actor is different for everyone. There’s no magic wand that someone successful can wave to make you a star or more importantly achieve the goal you should have which is to become a working actor. There’s a small percentage of SAG-AFTRA aka union members who make enough money to qualify for healthcare and can rely on just that income alone. And yes, there’s nepotism in this business but it doesn’t work to the level of longevity like many people assume it does. The smart ones enroll in classes - since the outer game is solved for them, the work on the inner game. Without it, you end up like a big-name actor starring in a major flop because he teamed up with his son - who might of had passions outside of acting.

Success if it can be summed up is a solid balance of inner-game, and outer game, sprinkled with patience and the willingness to try and fail as many times until you can build flow in your craft to the point that people will start to take notice and want to pay you what you’re worth. You’ll be able to go to sleep at night knowing you didn’t give up on a dream or you’ll die giving it your all. Sometimes giving your all includes being able to take breaks to have a life outside of your passion, at the very least to gain some perspective that we are not alone in our endeavors and we long to do what we love so we can make our time on this earth matter.