TALENT SCOUT: CASTING DIRECTORS DESCRIBE SUCCESSFUL TALENT AS HAVING THE “IT FACTOR.” MARC ASSESSES TALENT IN TERMS, THAT DESCRIBES, WHAT THE “IT FACTOR” MEANS. FOR THE MOST PART NO ONE KNOWS WHAT THE “IT FACTOR” REALLY MEANS EXCEPT, “AN OVERWHELMING APPEAL DEMONSTRATED BY A TALENT.” WHEN YOU’RE ABLE TO DEFINE ON CAMERA TALENT, IN LANGUAGE THAT DESCRIBES, WHY THEY HAVE AN “IT FACTOR”, I’M GOING TO RESPECT YOU MORE AS A TRUE TALENT SCOUT. MARC FIRST SHOWCASED THIS SKILL WHEN HE BECAME A BROADCAST MEDIA TV AGENT. LAUNCHED A TALENT AGENCY IN CHICAGO. THEN LATER WAS CHOSEN TO HEAD THE TALENT UNIT AT NFL NETWORK. MARC FINDS THEM OR THEY FIND HIM, AND HE PUTS THEM ON THE AIR.

If you’ve ever talked with him on the phone, emailed with him or spoken face to face with him about your career, he’s activated it. He facilitated your success somehow. I’m not saying you always enjoyed what he had to say, because Marc can be very direct when he critiques people’s reels or work. So biting it can be sometimes, people have even struck back at him. On-air talent get falsely enthralled with themselves from social media posts-followers hyping them making them think they’re all that. Sorry to say, that’s not the standard of approval you want. Let Watts critique your work. He’ll shoot straight with you. To challenge his assessment means you’re in denial. Yet even in denial Marc’s talent assessment has benefitted your career because you’ve set out to prove him wrong, which of course we all know, is a form of motivation and how elite coaches operate. Irony is, if he didn’t feel you had talent in the first place, he would never spend time with you or audition you. I know I’m better than most guys who came from where I came from, who do what I do. One time Marc told me I’m “doing it all wrong.” I hated that but I needed to be told that. His standards are high, very high. If you want to punch your ticket to the elite level at a network, let him whisper to you.

 

Excerpt from “The Artful Safari of a Broadcast Journalist”