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Meet Brooke Byler

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Brooke Byler.

So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
The studio all began as an idea and a flyer. I started as a kids’ private acting coach driving all around the county of San Diego teaching in-home acting lessons. I loved it! I realized that there was an unfulfilled need of working actor kids who auditioned frequently and worked in LA but lived in San Diego, and they needed quality training without having to make yet another drive to LA to also get their acting education.

After a year, I got introduced to Hera Hub, an amazing now-international co-working space, and started to plant myself in one location with people coming to me. Having a singular location, and the business education and resources at my fingertips within Hera Hub, I started expanding my business’s services and building an infrastructure. I added a group class coach to start and continued to grow from there.

Fast forward to now having been in business for almost eight years! My studio location is in a beautiful commercial shopping center, and I have six incredible people on my team. We teach all levels of child and teen actors, and we have a number of students working in the industry ranging from commercials to series regular roles on TV shows to feature films. Working with kids and cultivating their love for acting has been incredibly rewarding!

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I think I would describe the road as “character-building”! Ha! There are great advantages to owning a business, such as the flexibility of schedule to be home with my two small children, and there have also been major stressors.

I’ve had simple struggles from learning that I can’t please everyone (a challenge for me!) to more extensive struggles like unexpectedly losing our location two years ago, finding the right fit for coaches, and making sure we can financially stay afloat with all of the operating costs that come with running a compliant business.

Ultimately, it is, without a doubt, worth it and rewarding to be working in this field, and I’m reminded of that every time I get to interact with our kids and parents. My team and I love what we do, and the hardships are outweighed by the feelings of “this is where we belong”.

I am also reminded daily of how fortunate I am on a personal level. When I started building this business, I worked seven days a week, holidays, missed family birthdays and worked into all hours of the night. If I wasn’t teaching, I was working on the business. There was very little financial pay-off on the business itself for a long time. My income mostly came from teaching, and the business only supported those working for me, and my bigger dream of having a business that would allow me the flexibility of schedule to be home with my kids once we started a family. Now, the infrastructure of the business and my wonderful team can function without me, and I am enjoying the fruits of that past labor. It is the most incredible blessing for which I am beyond grateful!

Please tell us about Brooke Byler Acting Studios.
We specialize in on-camera acting classes for kids and teens from ages 4 – 17. We also offer workshops educating parents on how to safely and effectively pursue the industry, if their child so desires, and workshops on other topics such as filming one’s own self-taped auditions, how to manage nerves during auditions, and many more. We also bring in LA industry professionals for a few workshops a year.

The thing that sets us apart from many studios is our desire to focus on building self-esteem and life skills while teaching the craft. Our kids are booking like crazy in the industry, and I believe that is because we are focused on training REAL kids who should be, and should remain, kids. Though we have several students who could be considered “famous”, we don’t focus on that potentially-fleeting part of them, but on their value as little humans and the many facets they have to offer the world. Acting cultivates so many life skills, and we want our students to take those skills and an enjoyment of the craft with them in life, whether or not they choose a lifelong career in acting.

This industry and craft can be an incredible journey and a blast, if pursued well, but can also be detrimental to developing minds, if pursued in a harmful way, where the child’s value is determined by their successes and “failures”. I’ve written a number of blogs on this (https://brookebyler.com/brookes-blog). We are incredibly fortunate to have so many amazing families within our studio, and our desire is to equip them and walk hand-in-hand with them on this journey.

Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
Both of my parents are from Louisiana, and I always enjoyed going back to visit family, eat some amazing Southern cuisine, and experience that good ol’ Southern hospitality and warmth (not the warmth of their weather, however!). My favorite memories are of sitting around my grandparents’ table playing the board game Scattergories with my aunts, uncles, cousins, and parents. The goal was to get the biggest laugh with the most absurd answer. Always a good time!

Pricing:

  • Skype Sessions: $42 – $75/session
  • In-Person Private Sessions: $55 – $85/session
  • Weekly On-Going Classes: $115 – $180/month
  • Workshops hosted by BBAS (varies: improv intensives, demo reel workshops, self-taped auditioning seminars, resume workshops, mock audition practice & more):  $39 – 99
  • Industry Professional Workshops (casting director intensives, director intensives, etc.):  $125 – $275

Contact Info:


Image Credit:
Nicole Benitez, Steve Whelan, Relentless Filmworks

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