Review - Breaking In by Evan Farmer

When people try to give advice about breaking into the entertainment industry, be it on the Hollywood side of things, or the music side of things, it’s most often regarding topics like how to get an agent, how to get signed, or how to book your first gig. While that’s all well and good, Evan Farmer points out in his book, Breaking In, that it’s putting the proverbial cart before the horse. The advice Farmer gives, instead, covers what one needs to do in order to get to that point, as Breaking In looks at the mental aspects of what it takes to achieve one’s goals in entertainment.

Farmer speaks from experience when it comes to making it in the entertainment world, and almost every piece of advice he gives is backed up with an example from his life, which has included everything from hosting television shows, to being an internationally touring recording artist, to building his own plane and flying it solo across the US. He also features examples from other celebrities’ lives, so the reader can see exactly how following the advice works.

The sections of Breaking In cover getting oneself into the right mentality to pursue a career in entertainment, the traits one needs to work in entertainment, important skills, including the financial aspects of being a working entertainer, which is a job where paychecks can oftentimes be spaced out with months, or even years, between them, and last, but not least, how one can take action on all of this.

Key points are in bold throughout the book, and there’s a “rule” at the end of every chapter, which is nice for once you’ve finished the book and want an occasional refresher.

Coincidentally, I happened to already be doing a number of the things Farmer suggests, and they’ve been working well for me, so I decided to try one of his ideas that I hadn’t been doing - I wrote down a goal rather than internalizing it - and the results from doing so came about almost exactly how he said they would.

An interesting side note, although the full title of the book is Breaking In - The Formula for Success in Entertainment, this is about setting oneself up for achievement, and the ideas in it can easily be extrapolated past the entertainment world and into other careers. This makes Breaking In a good read for anyone who wants to do better, and a must read for anyone looking to work in entertainment.

You can pick up Breaking In on Amazon.com and through Evan Farmer’s site.