How is the business side of your creative practice going? Is it working the way you thought it would? The missing piece may be a Business Plan.

Dates:
Apr 27, 2024 - Apr 27, 2024

Levels: All
Workshop Fee: $125
Workshop Duration: 8 hours on a Saturday (10:30am-6:30pm ET - includes a lunch break)
Workshop Location: Online
Class Size: 10

Note: This class will be held in a live, online format using the Zoom Platform.
Class meets Saturday (select a workshop date above) from 10:30am-6:30pm ET – Includes a lunch break.

Students have called Valerie Landsburg’s classes transformative and life-changing. A director, actor, writer, and coach, Valerie has been on film sets since she was seven. Throughout her long career, she has had to balance the demands of art and business.

Learn why a business plan is a vital instrument in helping you realize your potential. Everything from a movie, a record, a book, a career as a lion tamer, or finding the love of your life. A business plan helps you learn who you are in the middle of what you hope to achieve.

Meet Your Instructor, Valerie Landsburg

Valerie Landsburg, April 2023
Valerie Landsburg has changed the lives of new and existing business owners through her experienced mentoring skills and extensive business planning knowledge across a multitude of industry types.

Why Me?

Somewhere between 1996 and 2001 activity had really slowed down in many areas of my career in the entertainment industry. The industry had changed in so many ways and I wasn’t sure I wanted to stay in that world. It was suggested that I needed a business plan. I am the product of a complete lack of formal education and even the thought of a business plan offended me as an artist. Really, though…it frightened me. 

Why This? 

When the student is ready, or in my case, out of options, the teacher arrives. Mine did after a large dot com company bellied up, leaving its C.F.O. available to be the boy scout leader of my son’s den and my business mentor. Six weeks later after a lot of tears, and work I walked into a large management company meeting with six copies of a business plan for myself as an Actor, Writer, and Director under my arm and handed them out. 

Why Now?

I started teaching this to a group of actresses and that grew to artists of all kinds. I teach because this has been an indispensable tool for me. I love teaching this because I see the amazing results in others. 

A Business Plan

  1. Lets you explore the unlimited expanse of any idea.
  2. Lets you know where you need more information.
  3. Lets others participate in the cultivation of your ideas, your process, and more.
  4. Lets people know you have thought a lot about what you are doing.

Business Plans are living, breathing documents that are always being updated to reflect the movements of the goal.

The Problem

Why do projects or careers stall, de-rail, or not succeed? Because we are afraid to fail.
Because we expect ourselves to be perfect. Because we undervalue or overate our ability. Because we’re too busy or too vague. Because it keeps us small. Because we lack a solid plan.

The Promise

What do you walk away with? The ability to create a business plan for any business, to put in front of potential investors, collaborators, or any entity interested in knowing about your business goals. You have a plan to look at every day as you refine your ideas and a tool that can be applied to anything you want to create. 

The Process

Spend 7 hours in a group limited to 10 participants. Valerie will guide you through each of the six sections of how to create a plan. Everyone will participate, working interactively with me as they bring their goals into focus. As we listen to each other we can notice the gaps and snags in our plans.

Join Valerie for a hands-on experience, creating a map for your journey. Everyone in this intimate class becomes an integral part of the process for others. The work that comes out of this is seldom less than revelatory for all of us. Even if you never write out a plan, most people find by the end of the day there is a big shift in perspective.

Can you arrive with an existing business plan to work with? Yes. You will leave with a clearer map and questions both answered and proposed that will bring you closer to fruition.

Your workshop includes a full set of notes written into a draft of your plan. You have 365 days to send Valerie a draft that she will respond to with notes in 7-10 days.

Testimonials

“In one day, I managed to get down on paper the essence of the business I had been thinking about for the previous year. The opening exercise in particular helped free me of pre-conceptions of what I wanted to do. I’ve already revised the work I did in your seminar and have a clear list of my next moves. Thank you, Valerie.”
Dave Voda – Filmmaker 

“Valerie, I am 300% better off because I have the business plan that I developed as an outcome of your workshop. Even with the economy in tatters, the business plan has kept me on track and I’m achieving many of my goals. In the past, I would have spent my unemployed time freaking out about being unemployed, but this time around I’m able to look for work and get a bunch of other stuff done too. I can’t recommend your workshop more highly.” 
Carole Real – Writer

“I never write this, but I think it’s the thing – OMG!!!!!! Thank you, you are a true gift!!  You know how at sea we can feel as one of so many actors, as independent contractors, etc. This is so fabulous.”
Tessa Auberjonois – Actress (The Affair, Shameless, Modern Family)

“This workshop is brilliantly taught by Valerie and addresses important underlying issues that are pertinent to any business or project. In fact, I feel, for me, the class was one of those life-defining moments we have from time to time that provide insights and perspectives on life’s issues outside of business. I highly recommend her class.”
Paul Marks – Rodeo Realty 

“I always thought business plans were for millionaire CEOs and website startups. I always thought the value of a business plan was to have something to hand investors when you’re trying to raise money for a business. As an actor, I never saw any reason to have a business plan. I mean who’s going to invest in my acting career? Well, I realized no one if I don’t look at it as a business and since you’ve helped me do that, my acting career has gained some serious momentum. And it’s largely in part because now I have a “plan”.”
Jon Brown – Actor, Writer, Producer 

“I’ve been a professional musician for almost twenty years. Though I’ve had success here and there, the workshop was the key that kicked my career into high gear. Valerie helped me put together a business proposal to get investors for my new album. Not only did that get me the funds I needed, but now I have people coming out of the woodwork to help me. It’s been a domino effect that has made me a believer in the law of attraction… and Valerie’s business plan.”
Michael Mulder – Musician, Songwriter, Producer

“Before I took Valerie’s workshop, the thought of working through a business plan was like a huge monster on my shoulders. Valerie took me through the process in a fun and inspiring way that really took the mystery out of something I’d been in the dark about for a long time. I highly recommend this class!”
Tasha Hardy – Writer/Producer

Header image by By Vladislav Babienko.

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Instructor: Valerie Landsburg

Valerie Landsburg is an actor, director, and writer.  Although she has a large body of work, with four decades in film, television, and on stage, she is best known for playing Doris Schwartz on the hit television series Fame.  Her latest film as a director, Love & Debt, was acquired for U.S. release and is currently available on Amazon, Spectrum, Cox, Xfinity, and YouTube Movies. The film features Tom Cavanagh, Bellamy Young, and Bailee Madison.  Her other directing credits include the action-thriller Bound by Lies starring Stephen Baldwin and Kristy Swanson, and Trixie’s Score. Other acting credits include Nip/Tuck, The Unit, Columbo, Empty Nest, Beverly Hills 90210, and Murder, She Wrote.  On Broadway she acted in Neil Simon’s I Ought to Be in Pictures, and appeared off-Broadway in Surviving Grace and Woody Allen’s The Floating Light Bulb.  A long time improviser, she has frequently performed at the Groundlings Theater.