5 Ways Acting School Prepared Me for a Career in Marketing
Acting school might not seem like a direct route to marketing. But in some unexpected ways, it was the best training I could have had.
When I say I went to acting school, I don’t mean a weekend workshop or a drop-in improv class. I mean full-time, conservatory-level training—scene study, movement, voice, script analysis, all of it.
But now, as a marketer and content strategist, those lessons show up every day—in ways that are surprisingly aligned with the work of building great content and great brands.
Here are five lessons from acting school that still shape how I approach my work today:
1.Audience-Centricity: Seeing Yourself Through Their Eyes
About a month after graduating from acting school, I stumbled across a blog by a casting director that unexpectedly shifted my trajectory from performing arts to brand storytelling.
Her blog wasn’t just about audition tips. Looking back, it read like a crash course in brand strategy.
She was asking actors to shift their focus—to start seeing themselves through the eyes of their perspective buyers. In the actors case, this was the casting directors.
What are they looking for? What do they expect? What language do they speak? How do you show them, quickly and clearly, that you get it?
That framing struck a chord with me. At the time, I didn’t know it, but it was the first real lesson in audience-centricity I’d ever received—and it’s shaped how I approach marketing ever since.
Because brand strategy, at its core, isn’t about self-expression. It’s about alignment. It’s about your audience’s perception. Not just who you are, but how you're received.
It can be wake-up call for many actors. It reminded me of something that we learned about acting: it doesn’t matter how connected you feel to a performance if it doesn’t land with the audience. You can be fully in character, entirely “authentic”—but if you’re out of sync, you lose them.
Strong branding, like strong performance, begins with radical self-awareness.
If your brand identity isn’t grounded in how your audience perceives you—you’ll ends up making decisions that don't quite fit, confusing your audience and losing their trust.
It’s a lesson I’ve never forgotten: whether on stage or in the market, success comes down to this—
The ability to step outside your own head, see yourself through your audience’s eyes, and shape your choices accordingly.
2. Marketing and Acting Begins with Empathy, Not Assumptions
In acting school, we were taught techniques to go to dig deep into a character. It wasn’t enough to know their occupation or their age or where they grew up. We had to go deeper than that.
What drives them? What keeps them up at night? What do they want—and what’s standing in the way?
You had to set aside your own instincts, your worldview, your assumptions—and step fully into someone else’s shoes. The goal wasn’t to invent a character. It was to uncover them. To build an inner life that made their choices feel honest and believable, even if they were nothing like you.
The goal wasn’t to decide who they were. The goal was to discover it.
It turns out, that’s the exact same muscle you need in marketing.
Good marketing doesn’t start with job titles or personas filled with surface-level traits. It starts with empathy. With a genuine effort to understand the emotional logic behind your audience’s decisions.
An audience persona is only useful if it’s built on insight, not guesswork. The kind of insight that comes from research, listening, and curiosity.
In both acting and marketing, the goal isn’t to project a narrative onto your audience. It’s to understand theirs.
Every time I see an empathy map or persona framework in a business setting, I’m struck by how similar it is to the work we did in acting class. The questions are the same. So is the process of discovery.
And when you begin there—with empathy instead of assumption—what you build becomes exponentially more effective, relevant, and real.
Acting school taught me that to reach your audience, you have to do the character work.
3. Great Acting and Content Writing Have a Lot in Common
In acting school, we were taught that your talent shows up in your choices. When you paused, when you raised your voice, when you looked away instead of leaning in. What you chose to do—or not do—shaped the entire scene.
Both actors and writers make choices like this. There are a million ways to play a scene, just as there are countless ways to write a sentence. When I read a strong piece of copy or a well-crafted blog post, it feels like watching a great performance. It hits the right emotional notes. It avoids the obvious. And nothing feels accidental.
That’s what makes it resonate. Not just because it’s well “word-smithed”—but because it feels honest. Intentional. Specific.
Writing for a brand has always felt a lot like acting to me. Because in a way, you’re not just writing—you’re stepping into a character. You’re adopting a perspective that isn’t entirely your own. And just like acting, that has to feel consistent and real.
My background in acting or performing arts also gave me a built-in advantage when it comes to brand voice.
Not just vaguely knowing that a brand is “friendly” or “bold” or “professional.” But understanding how that actually shows up on the page. What words they’d reach for—and which ones they’d never say.Making choices that reflect who the brand really is—and how it moves through the world.
Acting trained me to be specific. To notice tone. To stay in character. And that’s the mindset I bring to every piece of content I write.
4. Every Actor Eventually Becomes a Marketer
When actors graduate and leave the safety of the theater behind, they take on a new role—entrepreneurs.
Suddenly, it’s not just about craft. It’s about branding and self-promotion.
The truth is, most acting programs don’t prepare you for this part. Maybe there’s a short elective or a last-minute seminar on “The Business of Acting,” but it’s rarely enough. But for the most part, you’re left to figure it out yourself: how to build a website, how to create content that reflects your type, how to write a cold pitch email, how to present yourself on social media.
In other words, every actor becomes a marketer by necessity.
You learn by doing—and failing. Before you even realize it, you’re marketing across multiple channels—Instagram, Backstage, casting platforms, personal newsletters. A/B testing your headshot.
It’s not always intuitive. Especially for creatives. Some actors take to it naturally. Others learn it the hard way. But either way, it becomes part of the job.
Because in a crowded field, talent isn’t enough. You need a brand. A point of view. You have to know who you are and how to communicate that—across every touchpoint.
And once you’ve had to build a brand around yourself, managing your own marketing, and showing up across platforms—it’s not hard to translate that skill to a business.
5.Creativity Is a Team Sport—In Theater and Marketing
There’s that myth of the lone genius—some brilliant creative holed up in a cabin, banging out a screenplay in three days. But in the real world, storytelling is rarely a solo act.
In acting school, we worked closely with scene partners—writing, brainstorming characters through improvisation, and troubleshooting technical challenges to bring performances to life.
Similarly, in marketing teams, we gather around, armed with caffeine and creativity, (and hopefully a brave project manager!) to leverage the diverse skills of designers, copywriters, strategists, analysts, stakeholders, and clients.
But collaboration in both acting and marketing is a bit like walking a tightrope—a delicate balance between individual vision and collective insight. It's not always easy, with a variety of ideas, opinions, and personalities.
Yet, it's this delicate balance that elevates storytelling from good to great.
Acting school taught me how to be part of a team in a creative environment—how to listen, adapt, contribute, and let go when needed. Those are the same muscles I use every day in marketing.
And maybe that’s the real throughline here: Acting school doesn’t just teach performance. It teaches you how to collaborate, how to communicate, how to shape a story with others.
It turns out, those skills travel pretty far.
Acting School Can Lead to Many Paths
I didn’t set out to be a marketer. But over time, I realized that what I loved most about performance—getting into character, making creative choices, moving an audience—wasn’t limited to the stage. It’s what I do now, every day, through words.
At first glance, going to acting school might seem like a narrow path. But what I’ve found is that the training goes far beyond that. It teaches you how to listen deeply, think critically, have empathy, and communicate with clarity and emotional truth.
That’s the thing about storytelling—the core skill that links both the performing arts and business. When you learn how to do it well, it opens doors. Often to places you never expected. It certainly did for me.