Coaching
Coach for a job, an audition, or just as a work-out session…
Audition Coaching
You open the email from your agent. You have an audition. The next day. Your heart beats faster. Your breath gets more shallow. You look at the scene and It reads like Portuguese. You haven’t a clue. Or maybe worse, you’ll do exactly what you’ve been doing for awhile- alone- and it’s not enough. Good news – we’re here. We will be your partner. Together, we’ll make sense of the text and mine the gold that’s in there. We’ll deepen your intention and connection in a unique, personal way. We’ll give you the tools to make the most active, specific, and urgent choices so you can summon your most authentic voice and feel confident, loose, and excited to walk into any room, onto any stage or set. Why not walk in with your most connected, powerful work. Why not do the kind of work that will blow them away.
Skype Coaching
Whether you’re a professional actor on set in Willmington or an actor living in Boise who wants the highest quality training, BGB is here to help. Skype coaching with BGB allows working actors on set in some far away land to coach with us in LA and gives dedicated actors all over the world access to the same training enjoyed by actors in Los Angeles. BGB is world-wide with classes and coaching via SKYPE.
Whether you’re in Macon, Georgia, or on set in Budapest, Hungary, save yourself a plane ticket to LA and coach with BGB via SKYPE.
Career Coaching
You’ve been at this awhile and you just don’t know where to turn next. Or you just got into it; you’re right out of school or you just decided that this is it. Either way, you don’t know what the next step is in your career. We get it. We inhabit all areas of the industry, including the working actor and director’s journey. Let us guide you through the steps you can take to jump-start, build or re-build your career, wherever it is.
Pitch Coaching
You’ve got an amazing idea and you’re swimming in it. But when you walk into the room to pitch it, you go blank. They’re all staring at you, waiting to be blown away. Now you have to sell it, convince them that your idea has to be bought and paid for. Your Xanax is kicking in, but you don’t believe for a second that they’ll buy it. Let us help. We’ll take you through your pitch so that the content is strong, clear and engaging. We’ll help you deliver your pitch with confidence, ease, and authority. We’ll show you how to bring yourself to a place where you’re comfortable and empowered. Where it’s fun to pitch. And success is in your hands.
If you don’t blow them away in the pitch meeting, it doesn’t matter that your idea is brilliant. You need to penetrate the hardened exoskeleton they’ve grown as a result of sitting through countless lame pitches and move them on an emotional level. BGB Pitch coaching gives you the practical tools to knock the pitch out of the park.
Communication Coaching
For your company to compete in today’s economy your employees must communicate like champions. Stale, passive, or undisciplined communication will strangle creativity, waste time and cause employees to disengage.
Melding professional acting exercises with the communication techniques Steve honed while working on President Obama’s 2008 campaign for president, Acting The Truth Communication Consulting with Steve Braun and his team will give your employees the tools to think more creatively, express themselves fearlessly, and form deeper bonds with their co-workers. As a result, we will save you money, identify and maximize the skills of each of your team members and create a work environment that overflows with productivity. Each workshop is specifically tailored to your company’s needs and follow-up SKYPE sessions make sure your employees stay on the right track.
Messages from our students, past and present…
“Within a few days after taking Risa’s class I walked into an audition for ONE TREE HILL and booked the job. Risa stresses INTENTION and CONNECTION and whether you are just starting out or have been around for a while, this training is imperative.” -Joe Manganiello. TRUE BLOOD, MAGIC MIKE
“Training with Steve absolutely changed my career. He gives me the practical tools and the confidence to book work. His insight, intuition and passion for the actor’s process make working with him invaluable.” – Daniella Alonso. REVOLUTION
“I have known Risa for nearly thirty years, as casting director, director, teacher, theater co-member, sounding board, friend, and advocate. What continues to inspire me most is her enduring passion for, and support of, actors, and the work that they do. Risa loves the process, she loves the people, and she continues to be devoted to locating, nurturing, and assisting in the growth of each individual’s specific gifts.” Evan Handler. CALIFORNICATION
“Steve is an amazing teacher and coach. I cannot recommend him highly enough. He has helped me find my confidence, and I have grown immensely as an actor thanks to his teaching.” -Ahna O’Reilly. THE HELP, JOBS, CBGB
Is Risa brilliant? Yes. Can she articulate what it takes to perform on a different level- one that provokes and inspires because it chimes with a common humanity that exists in all of us? Yes. But beyond just being an amazing teacher, writer, director, and casting director, Risa was able to make me, an agent-less, essentially credit-less actor at the time, step into a heavy-duty environment, stacked with multiple Academy Award winners and quiet the doubts that plagued me (probably all actors) by teaching me to focus on two powerful truths: one, that it is only about the work (and not the outside stuff) and two (and maybe more importantly) she taught me to ask- Why not me? Someone is going to be in this position, do this part, carve a career, why can’t it be me? If anyone wonders who to study with, I always send them her way. -Donal Logue, TERRIERS, GROUNDED FOR LIFE
Steve’s approach to the work has transformed me as an actor. I know how much I have grown and opened up as a result of his class, and I continually see that same transformation happening to my fellow students.” -Katie Featherston. PARANORMAL ACTIVITY
I was engaged from the start and felt like we could have gone on. I left feeling more confident and really excited to play. thanks for giving us all permission to be ourselves and bring our sense of fun. And to see how much that parrot on my shoulder with those negative beliefs can paralyze and stiffen me. Thanks for your patience, generosity, insight and encouragement. I know what I need to do and I’m really excited about it. – Dendrie Taylor. The Fighter, Jarhead
I cannot express enough the difference his class has made in my abilities as an actor and the impact it has had on my life. Thank you Steve, from the bottom of my heart.” -Anna Silk. LOST GIRL
Risa is a woman saturated with knowledge, history, experience, language, depth… and balls. Mostly her own. I would encourage anyone to take the opportunity to work with this extraordinary woman. My life is richer for the time I’ve spent with her. -Pamela Adlon. CALIFORNICATION
“Steve has such a keen sense of the human experience and is able to convey his observations and relate them to the process of acting in such a sensitive yet point blank way. I have benefited greatly from his coaching.” – Dave Baez. DEXTER
Risa’s class was such a wonderfully invigorating day of exploration. The special thing about Risa is that her attitude and passion gave us as actor’s the freedom, and more importantly the permission, to get out of our own way. To be committed to what we were doing, no matter if it was right or wrong. I will be back!- Aaron Tveit. GOSSIP GIRL