From Boca Raton to New York City, former Mickey Mouse Club hopeful Alycia Kaback always believed she’d have a seat awaiting her in the entertainment industry. Until four years ago, that seat was keeping itself warm just for Alycia, as the one-time mortgage broker joined hands with entrepreneur Michael and began making the right connections.
Alycia Kaback realized early on that connections were the key to making it in this business. That is why she used her connections to produceVIP Talent Connect Summits to help young industry hopefuls have a chance of breaking in and achieving their dreams.
Alycia’s connections brought her the opportunity to create The IT Factor on CBS Digital Radio. The show is designed to give young women and men the ‘industry friend’ and role model they need. The show featured hot, young, celebrity guests, topical issues, beauty and fashion, current “IT” topics and advice along with open discussion on socially important matters. The show led to The IT Factor productions, a broader term encompassing all of Alycia’s projects.
“After meeting my partner, Michael, I realized I didn’t have to do the corporate 9-to-5 thing. I am a free spirit; I want to be out there in the world and interacting with people,” Alycia candidly told NotAnotherApplicant. “I decided I wanted to do more and do things that make me happy. I also want to help others achieve their dreams as well.”
For Alycia Kaback, her road to The IT Factor was quite interesting — Of course, as anyone in the entertainment industry can attest to, the path she embarked upon was not at all direct. She found herself out in the field, pounding the pavement, going to every industry event to meet people who could help her get where she was dead set on going. It was in the course of her travels that she met the proverbial contacts who would allow her path to become a tad more linear.
“I met Ed about 3 years ago, as I was busy flying around to different charity events, screenings, after parties, and gallery openings, just trying to find my in,” Alycia, told NotAnotherApplicant in an exclusive interview. Ed, as she familiarly calls him, is none other than Ed Bennett- former Senior VP of Viacom and President and Founder of Vh1. Obviously this meeting was one of the turning points for Alycia.
Things started to come into focus, even if ever so slightly, for the former mortgage broker who started to believe she was destined for quite a unique career. Mr. Bennett later agreed to host Alycia’s networking events in his own home—a five story TreBeCa apartment. Participating in Mr. Bennett’s social circle, Alycia found sufficient adventures in the entertainment industry to keep her going for eons.
“I had always had this desire that I wanted to help people, and I wondered to myself why I wasn’t doing it more?” Alycia rhetorically asked in her chat with NotAnotherApplicant. The answer was obvious—“I needed to know more of the right people—there’s no such thing as too connected.” After meeting Mr. Bennett doors were a little more open for Alycia and the vital connections started rolling in.
These connections put her in a position to continue on beyond her Florida roots, where she grew up near Disney and the entertainment industry was just a fantasy world.
“I am a Disney girl at heart, but I wanted to be in NYC, where things were really happening. My first year in the North East was kind of interesting because it was such a different atmosphere,” she quirkily recalled. “It made me a little tougher; I had to be sharper to keep up with the pace.”
“Stepping up the pace paid off,” Alycia reminisced about her adventures in NYC, “I realized I was making the right career choice– I was really making things happen.” Alycia’s networking summits hit the city one after another with breakneck speed and it did not take long for Alycia to find herself in another whirlwind of activity in the entertainment world.
Of course, the summits are a program she is thrilled to have begun. Every six weeks she tackles the roadblocks that are holding so many talented models, actors, musicians back from achieving successful careers in the industry.
“It is very natural. The talent have a chance to mesh with the industry leaders at the summit. The talent are approached like equals,” she humbly stated, adding how the speakers are similar to the talent in that they have been exactly in the talent’s situation before, “The speakers understand the learning process the talent are going through.”
In talking amongst each other and the many celebrities and casting directors who attend the summits, the talent will take away something of substantive significance, more important even than the jobs they may get after that day. The talent leave with many friends and mentors, who will help them throughout their career in the industry. Talent from years ago still stay in touch with the people they met at their first summit.
“We are trying to get across the idea that the most essential ingredient in developing a successful career in the entertainment industry, is to have a network of established connections that can help you to have a voice and a presence,” Alycia intelligibly pointed out. “We try to have as many celebrities at the summit as possible because people like that, but we mostly focus on people who work behind the scenes, the people who make the decisions—Casting Directors, Agents, Producers, etc.—These are the people who really create the VIP success stories.”
To find out whether you can become one of Alycia’s success stories check out her website http://www.alyciakaback.com, and then give the office a call to set up an appointment.
There are plenty of legitimate ways to get into acting and modeling, and Alycia Kaback has made it her mission to educate aspiring actors and models about staying smart as they pursue their careers. Before you jump into the first opportunity that presents itself, you need to do your research and make sure you know what you are getting into. 