The Showbiz Clinic: how to turn talent into a fulfilling career on stage and screen

There are thousands of talented actors, singers, dancers and musicians working in the performing arts industry today. But very few of them know how to turn that talent into a fulfilling career on stage and screen, according to dancer, choreographer and founder of online professional development portal The Showbiz Clinic, Xena Gusthart.

“I’ve worked in the West End, on Broadway, and everywhere in between, and everywhere I have been, I was shocked at how little people took themselves seriously – as a service, as a product, as a business and as a brand,” Gusthart says. “That’s why I set up The Showbiz Clinic. To inform, inspire and empower. To empower people to take their career into their own hands and make things happen.”

It is a lesson that Gusthart had to learn for herself. Born and raised in Edinburgh, the daughter of working-class parents who had little to do with the arts, she was forced to find her own way. She trained as a dancer at the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts, founded her own company in her early twenties and built a career first as a dancer, then as a choreographer. 

In recent years, she has worked on stage and screen, choreographing the hit Meat Loaf musical Bat Out of Hell in the West End and on Broadway, as well as designing dances for some of the biggest names in pop music – Rita Ora, Kelly Rowland and David Guetta – and for some of the biggest brands in the world – Adidas, Mitsubishi and Virgin among them.

“I had to forge my own way,” she says. “First in Scotland, then in London, then in New York and beyond. My dad was an entrepreneur, and he was a big inspiration. I watched him build businesses for himself from scratch. My brother is a big inspiration too. He has cerebral palsy and isn’t able to walk. If ever I can’t find the energy to keep going, I think of him.”

Throughout the course of her career, Gusthart has picked up innumerable invaluable tips and tricks on how to succeed, covering everything from how to write the perfect email and introducing yourself to a director, to how to make sure you do not waste your time at a networking event and how to work out your own USP as a creative.

“Take networking, for example,” says Gusthart. “It’s not enough just to be in the room. You have to be active in the room, and the key to that is positioning – literally, where you locate yourself in the room. Don’t just cling to the wall. Physically put yourself next to people you want to build a relationship with. Interject with a compliment. Introduce yourself. Get chatting. It works more often than not.”

Or, continues Gusthart, consider emailing – something all of us do every day, but very few of us get right. Gusthart has developed a strategy that breaks down the best way of introducing yourself to someone online. It’s just one of hundreds of helpful hints members of The Showbiz Clinic can expect.

“People think you have to be very formal when you email someone, but all that does is create a barrier between you,” she says. “The trick is actually to be more conversational. That helps you generate a genuine relationship with someone, and then they are more likely to remember you, and to mention you to someone else as well.”

The Showbiz Clinic started in the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic, when Gusthart ran popular video conferences coaching creative professionals to “pivot through the pandemic”. She soon realised that lots of people working in the industry today could benefit from her hard-earned wisdom.