Why the “Training vs Networking” Debate Is a Scam
I am so tired of seeing actors wonder whether they should spend their last $500 on a scene study class or a networking mixer.
It sounds like a smart question. It’s not.
It’s a trick question designed to keep you broke and invisible.
If you choose training, you’re sharpening a sword you never get to swing. If you choose networking, you’re one face in a crowded room at a sweaty mixer hoping for a miracle. And most actors just keep going back and forth between those two, thinking the problem is they haven’t picked the right one yet.
But that’s not what’s going on.
Why Choosing Between Training and Networking Doesn’t Work
Look, the industry debate itself isn’t wrong. Training matters. Relationships matter. Of course they do.
The trap is treating it like you have to choose between them.
Pick training on its own, and you’re building skills with nowhere to use them. Pick networking on its own, and you’re meeting people without anything real connecting you to them. Neither half works without the other, and yet that’s exactly how most actors are building their careers.
So they keep doing more. More classes. More mixers. More “putting themselves out there.” And then they sit there wondering why nothing is actually changing.
At a certain point you have to stop trying to get better at choosing between two options that don’t work on their own.
You have to look at what’s actually missing.
What’s Actually Missing in Most Acting Careers
Because it always comes back to the same few things.
Skills
Skills for the kind of work you want to be doing. And I’m not just talking about your talent. If all you’ve ever done is one type of role but your goal is something very different, those are two completely different languages. If you don’t know how to speak the one you want, you don’t get invited into those rooms.
Industry Proof
Your reel, your headshots, the materials that show people where you fit. If they only show where you’ve been, you keep getting called in for more of the same. Or nothing at all.
Connections
Not just knowing more people, but knowing the right people for the work you actually want.
Knowledge
Every market, every genre, every format has its own rules. If you don’t understand them, you end up chasing things that were never right for you in the first place.
Most actors don’t need more effort. They need to understand which one of those is actually costing them right now.
How to Build Training and Networking at the Same Time
Once you know that, the next part is pretty straightforward.
You find someone who already has what you need. You build something around what they teach. A workshop, a lab, something specific. And then you invite a handful of other actors who need the same thing.
Their enrollment covers the cost.
So instead of paying for training and hoping it leads somewhere, or going to networking events and hoping something sticks, you’re building both at the same time in a way that actually connects.
And no, you don’t need a huge group to make this work. You don’t need 100 actors. You don’t need 20. A handful is enough when it’s the right thing.
Is there work involved? Of course. But it’s work that actually gives something back. Training, relationships, and money instead of just more expense and more guessing.
A Real Example: Building Opportunities Instead of Waiting
I had a student, Arriella, who’s based in the Hudson Valley.
There are a lot of serious actors up there, but nowhere for advanced actors to really train. If you want that level, everyone tells you to go into the city. Which means leaving your community every time you want to grow.
Her bigger goal is to build a theater there. Which means she needs strong work, real relationships, and a presence in that space.
She knew what she needed. She just didn’t have a way to build it yet.
So she reached out to a director with real credits. Broadway, Steppenwolf, the whole thing. Was she nervous about being ignored? Of course. She did it anyway.
And he said yes.
But the interesting part isn’t even the workshop itself. It’s everything that happened before it. The emails, the conversations, the logistics. By the time he walked into that room, he already knew who she was. Not as someone asking for a favor, but as someone who had put something real together.
Afterward, he was still sending notes to the actors days later. He started talking to his network about what she’s building. People began reaching out wanting to be part of it. She got a seat on the Arts Commission. The venue wants her future theater to live there. She’s already planning the next workshop.
That’s what this actually looks like when it starts working.
She said it best: we are at the same level. We are not beneath anybody. We can make opportunity for ourselves.
So What Should You Actually Do?
So when actors ask me which is more important, training or networking, the answer is both.
You need both.
But not in the way you’ve been told to do it.
If you want help figuring out what your version of this looks like, I walk you through it step by step inside the Side Door Challenge.
