We were lucky to catch up with Wendy Wright recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Wendy thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

My name is Wendy Alane Wright, I am an entrepreneur and I help creative entrepreneurs build thriving businesses. One of the traps people often have when starting their businesses is waiting until they feel they have enough expertise to start. That is not how people become successful in my experience. One of the biggest lessons I have learned is you do not have to have everything figured out before you start walking in the direction of your dreams or goals. In fact, when you follow your heart and instincts you can achieve amazing things you didn’t even dream of!

Let me give you an example.

8 years ago I began my YouTube Channel “Secrets of a Hollywood Talent Manager” to share with actors how to start and build their acting businesses from my perspective as a Talent Manager and former Agent. This perspective is not often taught in university drama programs, film schools or acting classes. However, the business side of show business is 50% of the formula for success, so critical information has been missing from the picture for decades. This lack of education has contributed to the failure of tens of thousands of actors and who knows what amazing talents have been lost? There were so many mistakes I was seeing new actors make and it upset me to the core. I did not set out to build a successful YouTube channel. I set out to educate creative people who have big dreams and make sure they have facts and realistic business guidance so they can be successful and grow to next levels of their careers.

My YouTube Channel now has over 107,000 subscribers and I’ve become an influencer by telling the truth and giving wildly helpful information. Today, we have over 6 million views on the channel and I absolutely love my You Tube community!
Yet, I still don’t do it perfectly. I don’t always post videos on time or create the right thumbnails, lol. I even forget to ask people to subscribe. I am still figuring out how to give value to my wonderful community and apply YouTube tools and current trends.

So, you don’t have to something completely figured out before you start. Perfection is an illusion. You will never experience perfection and success does not require it. You simply have to be open to learning as you go.

The YouTube platform has changed my life and given me tremendous opportunity to help other people follow their dreams and become successful.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I find that people also put off their goals because they are afraid they will make mistakes. Guess what? You will always make mistakes, mistakes are guaranteed and that’s ok! They are a part of everything we do in life. If you learn from them, they are not mistakes, they are wins. So if you are reading this and you have a business idea or a goal, I highly recommend you don’t wait until you figure everything out before you start, just start. If you have the passion and the why, the how will be revealed as you go along.

When I started my private Facebook group Talent Managers For Actors, I had zero experience running a successful FB group, I started it, invited 150 of my closest agent, manager and casting director friends to join me in my mission to educate actors and together we have built an amazing platform that educates and provides opportunities for actors to be successful. Today, we have almost 98,000 members in the TMFA and a huge number of industry pros there to give back, share information and steer people in the right direction.

1. Every month we offer Representation Sunday, a monthly talent showcase where agents and managers can scout for new talent and actors can submit for possible representation 100% FREE!

2. On Tuesdays we have FREE acting classes from amazing coaches like Jessica Houde Morris at The Houde School of Acting (Meisner), Sandra K. Horner, Peter Frisch, Mike Pointer of “Hey I Saw Your Commercial” and Jordan Woods Robinson of Book From Tape.

3. On Monologue Mondays actors submit monologues and get feedback from Hollywood coaches like Deryn Warren, Patrick Ferrara, Alyson Croft, George Gallagher and Celebrity Booking Coach Amy Lyndon. Each month a breakthrough actor wins a full scholarship to Hollywood Winners Circle Academy.

The TMFA is led by wonderful moderators that run the group with me, including Talent Agent Sean Perez, Rebekah Kennedy, James Dougherty, Kenzo Lee, Clare Lopez, Arianne Esquire, Emalie Noelani Holmes, Aldalgiza Chemountd, Jenn Marshall, Tony Robinette, Jordan Woods Robinson, James Ciccone and Alex Collins. They do an incredible job fielding questions and sharing their wisdom and experience.

There has never been a platform available to the public where actors can get their industry questions answered by vetted industry professionals, 365 days a year, 24/7. It is groundbreaking. But, I did not start out to have a successful ground-breaking FB group. I started it to help others, educate actors and that is exactly what we do, the success just follows.

If you keep focused on what your heart is telling you to do, you will figure things out as you go along, ideas will come to you and the right people will show up to help you achieve your goals. You won’t see it all ahead of time, so just focus on the steps right in front of you. Everything else will fall into place.

My last example of follow your heart and success will happen is when I created The Hollywood Winners Circle Academy. For years I held small workshops in Hollywood called “The Winners Circle,” which was exactly that, a room on Ventura Boulevard where we an agent, manager, casting director, working actor, headshot photographer and commercial agent all sat in a circle and explained to new actors how the business works from all of our various perspectives. It was an approach that I had never seen before but I felt that actors learning in this holistic manner would dramatically increase their knowledge, understanding of the business and their ability to succeed.

After seeing so many questions from actors in my Youtube Comments and in the TMFA, it became clear to me that there was an endless flood of misinformation and misguidance being given to actors. In order to educate the tens of thousands of new actors every year who want to learn how to work in TV and film, this training needed to be put online. I had no experience creating online courses or running an online school, but I had tremendous passion, work ethic and focus so I figured it out.

I collaborated with a great team to create my online program that completely breaks down the steps required to become a working actor. There are self-guided sections of the course, and weekly live Zoom classes taught by agents, managers, casting directors, headshot photographers and working actors, just like in my live classes, giving them the full holistic picture. It’s so exciting that HWC has big stars teaching like Keith David, Reno Wilson, Eric Roberts and casting directors like Jane Jenkins who cast A Beautiful Mind, Apollo 13, A Few Good Men, Beetlejuice, DaVinci Code, The Lost World: Jurassic Park. Can you imagine sitting in a conversation with Jane for 2 hours what you are going to learn? I love it! I love teaching these actors and being the catalyst that brings so many amazing mentors to them.

Hollywood Winners Circle Academy now has 3,500 actors enrolled from 17 different countries. They are receiving structure, guidance and support unlike anything that has ever been given to actors before. Because of that, they are succeeding in record numbers. HWC Actors are working all over major TV shows, streaming platforms, commercials, feature films and getting signed to top Agents and Managers. We have grown to 14 teachers and 9 team members all led by the incomparable genius of HWC Vice President Jamie Doerschuck. We are all so, so proud of the work we do at HWC.

Everything I have built has come from following my deep drive and purpose to help artists become successful in the entertainment business. I want them to be empowered to create amazing stories, movies, characters, music and magic on the screen. I live for that magic on the screen and artists need a ton of support to do the courageous work that they do. That support and love is what I offer on every single platform I have ever created.

So if you are an entrepreneur with an idea, go run in the direction your heart is telling you to go, follow your guts and creativity, learn from your mistakes as you go along. Know that you are good enough and what you have to offer is more than enough.
Have faith! Believe in yourself.

I believe in you.

#WinnersWin

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

For me, what has helped build my reputation in my market is that I spit facts and have been 1000% authentically me. I do not sugar-coat things, I tell it like it is. I am all about finding solutions to problems, not about living in problems. I have very little tolerance for stupidity or people that want to stay stuck because I see great potential in people and I have high expectations that they are going to rise to the level of who they are capable of being. I am out here kicking their ass to make that happen.

I am not trying to please anyone and I truly believe that what other people think of me is none of my business. I just put my head down and do the work that I am meant to do. I think people get off track when they allow themselves to get distracted by the opinions of others. That’s why my main mantra is “I am independent of the good or bad opinions of others.” The reason I feel that way is that no matter who you are and what you do, there will always be people who love it and others who hate it. So entrepreneurs need to keep their focus on delivering the best versions of themselves and their products and ignore everything else. I think that in order to be highly successful in life that what’s you have to do.

Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?

I am really fortunate in having the VP that I have. Jamie Doerschuck who has worked with Jay Shetty and Jake Paul is an unimaginably brilliant marketing guru and team leader. She is so bright and effective that we have a tremendous amount of success within the efficiency of our company, as well as the support for our clients and students. Every day I feel blessed that we have her at HWC Academy. So I will you that if you are an entrepreneur it is really important to have talented people working with you on your business, people who share your vision and have tremendous expertise at what they do.

For actors it is critical that they align with someone who has the experience and knowledge to get them where they want to go. HWC offers that expertise. It is my goal that actors will realize that studying business is critical to their success. This afterall is a business that generates billions of dollars and actors won’t be successful on a wing and prayer. They need a blueprint, a strategy, a proven game plan that 10x their chances for success and that is what HWC provides.

I would like to give your readers an opportunity to receive a FREE MasterClass for anyone who wants to become an actor. Here is the link https://hollywoodwinnerscircle.com/masterclass-live/

Contact Info:

• Website: hollywoodwinnerscircle.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wendyalane1
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hollywoodwinnerscircle
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheHollywoodTalentManagerWendyAlaneWright

Image Credits
Michael Helm, Fly Girl Photography