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Just about every week, I receive email from someone who is interested in starting a career in voiceover. Lately, I've noticed that more and more people are writing to me and asking for a mentor to help them get started.
While it's certainly a flattering request, whenever the word mentor is mentioned in an introductory email, I am flooded with a torrent of not-so-kind thoughts:
- It's all about their wants and not at all about me.
- They haven't read the advice page on my web site. or a single one of my blog articles (2 good places to start would be So you want to get into voiceovers? and Thinking about starting a voiceover career?).
- I'm not sure why they think I am the right person to help them.
- I don't know why they think I should want to help them.
- The person has no clue about what is involved in working as a voice talent.
- They want me to tell them everything I know about working in voiceover as quickly as possible.
- They expect me to invest my time in furthering their career, with my only form of compensation being my joy in helping them succeed.
- They want me to introduce or refer them to my contacts and launch their successful career, similar to how a debutante is presented to society.
- They want validation that they are doing the right thing, and all their dreams really will come true.
In short, the word mentor is so loaded with connotations that it makes me want to run in the opposite direction!
Of course, everybody needs help sometimes. It feels good to be able to help someone along the way and make a difference in their lives. I also know first-hand how fantastic it feels to receive key advice from someone whom you admire and respect. However, people are approaching the mentor question way too soon and in the wrong way.
1) You first must assess the kind of help that you need.
In his excellent article for the Huffington Post, Steve Blank points out this important distinction between teachers, coaches, and mentors:
- If you want to learn a specific subject, find a teacher.
- If you want to hone specific skills or reach an exact goal, hire a coach.
- If you want to get smarter and better over your career, find someone who cares about you enough to be a mentor [my emphasis].
When newcomers write to me saying they are looking for a mentor, they really should be looking for a teacher.
My friend Bob Souer is one person in the voiceover world who is universally admired and respected. He is an exceptional voice talent who is unfailingly kind and generous to each person he meets. Since I knew he occasionally has chosen to mentor some people, I asked him how and why he decided to become a mentor. He quickly responded and graciously gave me permission to quote him here. His comments illustrate Blank's 3rd point:
The people I've chosen to mentor have each had their own story.Some have been people with whom I had an established friendship, then (when I saw them struggling and thought I might be able to help) I've offered that help. For a few others, they've approached me with a specific question and after answering that question and after some further conversation, I've chosen to continue the relationship in a mentoring capacity for a season.Maybe the best way to describe the process for me is that right about the time someone reaches the point that they don't need my help as much, someone else will come along who does. I have no formally established pattern and don't plan to make one.In the 25+ years that I've been doing voiceovers professionally, I've been offered help more times than I can count. I feel a strong sense of obligation to provide help to others I encounter along the way, who need it.However, it does very little good to approach me and ask me to be a mentor because I turn down most of the people who ask.
Blank states that "a mentor relationship is a two-way street. To make it work, you have to bring something to the party... [be] "prepared to give as good as you get."
2) You must identify your weaknesses and then research potential mentors in order to determine the person who is best able to provide the help you seek.
Steven K. Scott includes a terrific chapter about recruiting mentors in his book Simple Steps to Impossible Dreams: The 15 Power Secrets of the World's Most Successful People. He gives a detailed, 10-step strategy for identifying and recruiting mentors. The strategy requires that you thoroughly research the potential mentors and be able to pinpoint qualities that you admire. When you approach the person, you will want to be able to explain how you would like to make their admired qualities a part of your life.
Yes, finding a good mentor in the traditional sense can be a very time-consuming proposition. However, you can be mentored by many people in a more passive sense. Often, a voiceover teacher or coach may provide informal and occasional mentoring by listening to a demo or answering questions.
3) You don't have to meet or have a conversation with your mentor(s) in order to learn from them.
This thought may surprise you at first. Scott illustrated this point in a story about a woman who wanted to improve her marriage. She identified family counselor and best-selling author Gary Smalley at the top of her list of perfect mentors:
She recruited him by reading his books and viewing his tapes...Reading Gary's books and viewing his tapes was in some ways even better than meeting with him because she could do them at her own pace, taking as much time as she wanted.
We live in the Information Age. No matter what your interest, at least one on-line forum exists to discuss it. Voice talent can join a plethora of on-line communities dedicated to voice-over, segments of voice work like audiobook narration or character acting, audio engineering, etc. These forums are populated with people having all levels of experience and are great places to sit at the virtual feet of masters.
If sitting at their virtual feet is good, listening to them is even better. Whatever category of voiceover work (audiobooks, video games, cartoons, telephony, documentary, etc.) mosts interests you, you need to be a listener of that category.
In her excellent article The Company You Keep, Barbara Winter points out that you should "study those who have done what you want to do" in order to meet with the greatest success. I had an epiphany when reading her wise words and wrote in my journal:
With that in mind, I realize I need and want to be an active audiobook listener. I think the last one I heard was in Hawaii last year. [I immediately downloaded a book from the library and] will be listening to the phrasing and pauses as much or more than the accent.I will listen to an audiobook every day...It's another good way to prepare for the audiobook success and constant work that is coming to me.
Since that day in May 2011, I have listened to audiobooks while I walk my dog or swim. I have heard 14 audiobooks and substantial parts of several more. Not only have I been studying and learning from the technical aspects of each narrator and production, but the avid reader in me is thrilled to be even more immersed in books!
Whether you're new to voiceover or have been in the industry for years, I hope these 3 tips will help you find the people who can help you move toward your destiny! I'd love to get your thoughts about the mentors you have had, so please leave a comment on the blog.
Photo: iStockPhoto/Shane O'Brien
Many new audiobook publishers are only offering a royalty-share model of payment. In this model, the narrator is not paid anything up front and is instead paid a percentage of royalties based on the sales of the audiobook.
She goes on to offer 8 ways to increase your productivity. While her tips are aimed at writers, voice talent can extrapolate from them and apply the ideas to our businesses.
In his wonderful autobiography Up Till Now, William Shatner wasn't talking about audiobooks when he wrote these compelling words, yet his wisdom about taking risks certainly applies to this situation:
Two footnotes on Shatner's story:
Is a 50-50 split on royalties right for you?
Some people would get irate at the very idea of doing any work without guaranteed payment. They would rant and rave that taking a royalty-share deal makes one a low-baller, someone who is selfishly going to destroy the whole voiceover industry by not charging the appropriate rate.
I've seen these kinds of arguments in on-line voiceover forums so many times, and I'm not looking to start one here! It's my intention to present reasons on both sides of the table to help you make an informed decision.
Many voice talent are understandably reluctant to undertake this kind of work due to the tremendous amount of time required to produce a quality audiobook.
I can think of 4 other big reasons not to accept a royalty-share agreement:
1) The material doesn't interest me.
I am very selective about the scripts I perform, especially when it comes to an audiobook. Since you aren't guaranteed to make any money, the book can truly be considered a labor of love. Still, I want my audiobooks to emphasize the LOVE part and not the LABOR!
Although I didn't know it when I accepted the projects, the first 2 audiobooks I performed were thinly veiled religious sermons. They also contained about 80% dialogue with a lot of "walk-on" characters whose sole purpose was to advance the plot. I truly struggled in my motivation to finish the books.
After those experiences, I know to use the "Look Inside" feature on Amazon to see how the book flows. If the book looks unappealing, it's not worth it to me to spend my time on it, regardless of whether I'm paid per finished hour or on a royalty-share basis.
2) The material is not suited for audio.
Point number 3 in this article will give you an idea of the kinds of books that wouldn't make good audiobooks.
3) The audio publisher has limited distribution methods.
I have accepted royalty-share agreements on ACX.com because Audible.com is the undisputed leader of audiobook distribution. I know my audiobooks will be distributed on Amazon, Audible, and iTunes. I also can have faith in Audible's accounting and payment processes.
I have passed on royalty-share agreements offered by new publishers with no track record.
4) You have responsibility for all of the roles: narrator, audio engineer, producer, director, pronunciation researcher, quality control listener, and marketer. If you can't outsource some of the functions, do you have the time and are you comfortable in performing all of them?
On the other hand, I can also think of 5 good reasons to accept a royalty-share narration:
1) You can create something of permanence that will be enjoyed for years to come.
Not only are the listeners able to enjoy your audiobook, but you may find that you enjoy a recurring, passive income stream from its sales.
2) It's a great way to improve your workflow and become a specialist.
I loved Kym Dakin's article about undertaking some royalty-share projects toward her goal of achieving technical mastery in audio production.
You also can explore new genres to see how well you like the material.
3) Productivity equals success.
According to Lee Tobin McClain in her article The Key to Success: Write More!: Artistic and scientific achievers from Picasso to Da Vinci didn't succeed more, percentage-wise, than other now-unknown creators of their eras; they simply produced more, and thus had more successes.
She goes on to offer 8 ways to increase your productivity. While her tips are aimed at writers, voice talent can extrapolate from them and apply the ideas to our businesses.
For instance, you can build an expectant audience (i.e., a fan base) with a royalty-share book. I actually did this with a book I performed for LibriVox. I've seen reviews of the book and even received fan mail!
4) What you put out in the world comes back to you.
I gave that LibriVox audiobook to the world after reading the advice of Eckhart Tolle. I've decided that I would rather get a commercial credit on a royalty-share audiobook than produce another book for the public domain. I have seen my LibriVox audiobook for sale on eBay, but that point doesn't trouble me.
The commercial credits are important so that I can become an Audible Approved Producer and meet membership requirements for The Recording Academy. Nobody cares how or when I was paid for my commercial credits.
5) You're planting seeds for a future harvest. You never know where the decision will lead.
In 1968 Decca Records asked me if I was interested in doing an album. I hesitated, I wasn't a singer -- but then it was pointed out to me that the first note in the musical scale is do...What I decided to was find a selection of beautiful writing and use that as a lead-in to a song that complemented it...Apparently it was a bit obtuse...for most people....I'd taken a creative risk. I'd tried to do something unique, something very different. And I'd learned very early in my acting career that you can't improve without taking risks...Decades later, my debut album "The Transformed Man" would lead directly to one of the most successful commercial ventures of my career -- and another album!...It turned out that the copywriter on the [Priceline] account, Ernest Lupinacci, was a big fan of my 1968 album "The Transformed Man".I am absolutely fascinated as I look over my shoulder at my past at how the simplest decisions I've made have had the most complex reactions. A career is a series of connected events. So when I turned down an offer, I wasn't simply rejecting a job and paycheck, I was completely eliminating the possibility that it might lead to something else. When you turn down an opportunity to work, you're also turning down an experience, maybe even an adventure, and a universe of possibilities.
- I recommend that you listen to his audiobook rather than read the book. Hearing him tell his story in his often-imitated but imcomparable style is a true pleasure!
- That fabulous gig as Priceline's spokesperson is about to end, but it lasted for 14 YEARS! Think how much money he made just from that one enterprise! And he never would have had it if he hadn't taken a risk.
I'm not saying that people shouldn't expect payment up-front for an audiobook. I am simply encouraging you to explore the possibility of narrating a book on a royalty-share agreement. Only you can decide how best to build your business. You may find that doing one or more royalty-share audiobooks is a better building block than you had imagined!
Have you done any audiobooks on royalty-share agreements? I'd love to get your comments on the blog!
Photo: iStockPhoto/LockieCurrie
At the end of each year, I review my journals to see what I accomplished. In doing this exercise for 2011, I found some comments that I want to share with you.
Just over a year ago, the media was in a feeding frenzy with news about a voiceover talent who seemingly became an overnight success.
You may remember the story of Ted Williams. In one day, he went from being a homeless person to someone who was overwhelmed with lucrative offers from the Cleveland Cavaliers, the NFL, MTV, Kraft, and other companies.
I might have been the only voice talent in America who didn't write publicly about this story at the time, with the exception of this comment I left on fellow voice talent David Houston's blog:
I am sooo glad to see you make the point that we shouldn't spend time worrying about any voiceover career outside of our own!I haven't commented on anything to do with this story until now. I am amazed at the time and energy that some voice talent have used this week in all the blog posts, forum comments, social media updates, etc. that they have devoted to this one topic.The reaction in the v-o community has become like the people who sit around and endlessly discuss any TV contest reality show, particularly American Idol.I choose to put my spare time and energy into the pursuit of my own goals and dreams rather than waste it thinking and talking about those of someone else.
However, I did write about the story in my journal. I was extremely irritated that so many companies wanted to attach their names to the story AFTER Ted's balloon soared. Of course, they all had to send out a press release to tout their benevolence in making offers of voiceover work to Ted.
More importantly, and the reason for this post today, is that my journal entry included 8 positive things I learned from watching the video of Ted and witnessing the reaction:
1. You have to believe in yourself and your talent before anyone else will.
2. You have to ask for what you want.
3. You have to persist and persevere through the bad times.
4. Chance or luck is when preparation meets opportunity.
5. You can't be denied the good things that are meant for you.
6. The power of video is an incredible tool for reaching your prospects.
7. People who are labeled as an overnight success generally have been working diligently for years to achieve their new success.
8. You can't sit on your past accomplishments and expect to continue receiving offers.
Although celebrated voiceover coach Marice Tobias did not mention Ted Williams in her recent blog entry titled Moving Forward, her words seem like a fitting postscript to this entry:
Good grief.Enough railing about the business. It is what it is.Concentrate on what you can actually do something about.Your delivery.Too many reads just don't hit the mark. Make sure what you are turning in will indeed stop people in their tracks.
Every script I've voiced, from the shortest audition to the longest audiobook...
Every call I've made...
Every email I've sent...
Every postcard I've mailed...
Every marketing campaign I've devised...
Every web site I've launched...
Every blog post I've written...
Every social media update I've made...
Every voiceover class or conference in which I've participated...
Every professional association meeting that I've attended...
...occurred while I worked a demanding, 40-hour-and-sometimes-more-a-week job.
After 12 years of concurrently working in a full-time job and a part-time voiceover business, it's time for a change.
I'm thrilled to announce that I was offered an early retirement from my day job and will be doing voiceover work full-time beginning 1 January 2012! YAY!!
However, as excited as I am to start a wonderful new phase in my life, this post isn't about me and my career plans. It's about you.
I want to encourage you to follow your dreams and give you 5 quick tips to help you do it.
1) Make a list of what you WANT.
A list helps you stay focused and fight discouragement. It also is the foundation to manifesting your desires. If you don't know what you want, how do you expect to get it?
If you don't do anything else, I advise you to RUN, do not walk, to buy the IT WORKS booklet and then follow Brad Jensen's extensive, amazing, and generous advice about using it.
As an example from my life, I made a list with attributes that I wanted in a job, like a certain income level, the ability to do voiceover work, and a private office with a door and window. I deliberately made the attributes a little more generic so that the list would cover my day job and my voiceover business. I reviewed this list frequently and added criteria over time, especially as I checked off attributes that were met.
Your results when working your list probably will turn out better than you could imagine. When I wrote that I wanted a private office with a door and window, I envisioned an office cubicle facing a window with tall walls on the other 3 sides. Of course, I would still be able to hear everyone around me in an open office concept.
What I got, though, was the ability to work in my gorgeous home office, which happens to have a solid wood door and 2 windows. It also has a TV, an iPod stereo, and a reasonable proximity to the refrigerator downstairs.
In another example, I wrote a new life list in September and included the fact that I want to be contracted at least once a month to voice an audiobook. I faithfully have reviewed my list, taken the actions suggested by the creative genie, and received 3 audiobook contracts since then, almost as if on schedule!
2) Think about WHY you want it.
I worked for the IRS for over 30 years. I always knew that I was trading short-term creativity and gratification for long-term security.
However, having the day job didn't mean I should put my dreams on hold....and neither should you.
So many people say things like "I'll travel when I'm retired" or "I'll start that business once the kids are out of school."
If it's your calling -- as voiceover is to me -- you want and need to do it to feed your soul. The only moment you know you have is this one, so why not be doing something because it makes you happy?
Yes, working full-time for an employer and part-time as an entrepreneur has its challenges. I would say it's a challenge to pursue any calling when you don't have unlimited time, money, and opportunity for it. The joy you get in pursuing your passion spills over into every other aspect of your life. Note that every passion does not lead to a career choice.
Also, since I mentioned the day job, let me just reiterate that having one can bankroll many of your dreams. You just have to change your perspective about it and know why you do what you do.
Knowing why you want something also helps you to prioritize the time, money, and opportunities that you have.
3) Don't think about HOW you're going to fulfill your dreams.
If you read any material on the Law of Attraction, the first thing you learn is to forget the HOWs. The forces of the Universe will conspire to bring about the changes you want when the time is right.
The only HOW to remember is this HOWEVER -- the root word of Attraction is ACT. You can't just think things and have them come true. You have to do your part to take ACTION. The forces of the Universe need your consistent thought and action, or no change is possible.
By constantly thinking of what you want and why you want it, the actions you need to take will be revealed to you over time.
4) Find a role model, and follow in their footsteps.
At the beginning of this article, I listed 10 things I consistently did for 12 years to build my voiceover business while still employed at a full-time job. I'm not saying I'm a role model, but think about it this way: If I did it, so can you.
Whatever your dream is, chances are good that someone else has done it. We live in the Information Age, with much of the world's knowledge just a few keystrokes away. You can read about success stories and get ideas to advance your own dream.
5) Help other people achieve their dreams.
Your reality is the mirror of the thoughts and words you've been saying and the actions you've been taking.
To paraphrase Wayne Dyer, if you only focus on what you want, you're essentially saying to the Universe "gimme, gimme, gimme". The Universe then mirrors that line back to you, making you feel that you are, using Dyer's words, always striving and never arriving.
On the other hand, if your thoughts, words, and actions are saying "how may I serve?", the Universe mirrors that line back to you.
What you put out in the world comes back to you, in a way and from a source that you probably wouldn't expect. If you are giving of time, attention, energy, and money to help other people, those things will come back to you.
As an example of this logic, a big reason that I write this blog is because I have a true desire to help other people. Because I write this blog, the Universe has sent that help back to me in the form of clients who find me because of my blog.
Retiring over 4 years early from my day job and working as a full-time voice talent is definitely a dream come true! And yes....it was actually on my list!
Have you started writing your list? I'd love to get your comments on the blog!
Photo: iStockPhoto/ErikReis
When I wrote the article 5 pieces of e-mail marketing advice, I was referring to those times when you send a personal message rather than a general newsletter to your voiceover clients and prospects.
As you might expect, an e-mail newsletter has its own considerations. Since newsletters can be a great way to unobtrusively remind people that I am a voice talent, I have just started publishing a monthly newsletter. I want to share 3 things I learned in this process in case you want to create one, too.
1. Automated software is a must.
Lately, I've been hearing radio ads from ConstantContact -- yes, RADIO ads about email marketing! I've also been seeing banner ads for multiple email solutions on numerous other sites. Email marketing systems have obviously become a big business since people continue to have success in using email as part of their marketing plan.
You could send mail to your list using your own database and email client like Outlook. Another, more popular approach is to upload your database to an on-line service. Since on-line email services are so prevalent and offer an array of built-in features including templates and tracked statistics, it makes a lot of sense to use one if your finances can accommodate it. You can try the systems at no cost for a limited time or number of users in order to decide the best one for you.
Here's some research that may help you decide which one to use.
Earlier in the year, I saw a question in a LinkedIn group in which the participants were asked for pros and cons about email marketing systems. An assistant started compiling the results for me and got through 254 of the hundreds of responses. I had no idea so many email systems exist! If you're interested, here's the full list from those 254 comments.
Of the 84 companies found in those first 254 responses, the top 5 companies, representing 73% of the total votes in my list, were:
ConstantContact 41 votes
iContact 23 votes
MailChimp 22 votes
AWeber 18 votes
MyEmma 11 votes
Aside from this list, you can do a Google search and quickly find a chart like this one that compares numerous features across multiple systems.
2. Permission-based marketing is a BIG deal. A VERY BIG DEAL.
You've probably noticed that most emails from companies include a link to unsubscribe to mailings. That feature is mandated in the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003.
Beyond that law, though, people have extremely strong feelings about being added to mailings without their permission. In fact, adding someone to your mailing list without asking them first is quite the polarizing issue.
I can make this assertion after reading questions about creating mailing lists in multiple LinkedIn forums. Each time, the question elicited extremely passionate responses. I decided to create a LinkedIn Poll in which I asked the question:
"When is it okay with you if someone adds
your e-mail address to their e-mail newsletter?"
- You're connected on LinkedIn or other sites
- They gave you their business card
- You have exchanged e-mail messages
- All of the above
- None of the above -- they need permission
Of the 14 respondents, 9 voted NONE OF THE ABOVE, with ALL OF THE ABOVE being the choice of the other 5 participants.
The comments on the poll page linked above and in a similar question I asked in 2008 when I first considered a newsletter give you a good snapshot of opinions on both sides.
I decided to use iContact for my newsletter host, and I felt they went overboard on ensuring that you have permission to send the message to each contact. You have to click a checkbox in several places to validate that you have the reader's permission.
Here's what happened to me when I set up my contact list in the system:
- I removed from my database a number of voiceover clients that I've dropped and prospects with whom I hadn't established a relationship. In some cases, I had been out of touch with a person for 2-3 years, so I removed their names, too.
- I uploaded my list of solid contacts from my stand-alone database.
- I couldn't add a name to my iContact mailing until the person confirms I have their permission, so I decided to let my contacts confirm their mailing addresses could be added to the newsletter list before sending them the newsletter.
- iContact made me initial that I could contact the person even when I was sending the pre-addition confirmation letter! That's a Catch-22 if ever there was one!
3. Timing is [not] everything.
Voice talent live by the clock. Radio and tv ads need to be 15, 30, or 60 seconds. Agents need auditions at a certain time, and clients expect a fast-turnaround for recordings.
Email has its own timing. I've read that the best time to send your message is on a Tuesday morning. I planned for my first issue of Success Leaves Tracks to be distributed on Tuesday, 5 July.
The only problem was that I didn't realize that I was going to hit the permission-based wall.
I thought I could add my database during the July 4th holiday weekend and have the newsletter appear in mailboxes when people returned to work on Tuesday. Nope. I needed their permission. I ended up sending out the "please confirm it's okay to mail to you" messages on Friday, 1 July.
Let's just say that I didn't get quite the enthusiastic response I had hoped for!
In hindsight, I wouldn't have sent my confirmation notices on any Friday, particularly one before a holiday weekend! I'm sure that many people deleted the message and moved on, which limits my potential to send them messages through iContact.
Even though my timing in setting up the database could have been better, I'm confident that the newsletter will find the right audience. After all, in the words of Buddha:
is more important than an idea that exists only as an idea.
For years, I have wanted to produce a newsletter as a gentle way to keep in touch with clients and prospects. When I started writing this blog 5 years ago, I thought it might take the place of a newsletter. However, I see now that my voiceover business can benefit from both tools.
This blog focuses primarily on topics dealing with voiceover, audiobooks, and marketing. Many of the articles are prompted from specific questions that I receive about working as a voice talent. I also have started a discussion board on Facebook where people may wish to pose these kinds of questions.
Long-time subscribers of this blog probably know that I draw inspiration from reading lots of biographies. I often find myself repeating things I've read while in meaningful conversation with people who are looking to make positive changes in their lives. I didn't want to change the focus of my blog, but I still wanted some way to share inspirational stories with others.
I wasn't sure that a newsletter would fit the bill. Most marketers would probably say that the purpose of a newsletter is to keep readers informed about your product and services. To me, this viewpoint seems self-indulgent when marketing myself and my services as a voice talent. Just as I don't fill my blog with entries about my voiceover projects, I don't want to create a newsletter with that kind of content, either.
Instead, I want to offer something that people would want to read, something they would actually look forward to receiving each month, like they did when I sent postcards in the mail.
You see, I would would highlight a successful, famous person who had nothing to do with voiceover. I loved picking a person and doing some research about them. Then, I would write about their accomplishments and include some of their best quotations on the postcard. People actually called and emailed me to tell me they appreciated the mailing. I stopped the postcard mailings due to the ever-increasing printing and postage costs associated with mailing to a large database.
I don't know why it took me so long, but the lightbulb finally went on -- why not publish a monthly newsletter using the same general idea so that it serves as a virtual postcard?!
And so I am, starting with the inaugural issue of Success Leaves Tracks, to be published today.
In addition to a short biography, the newsletter will include a Success Track that may help you on your path to success. If it sounds interesting to you, I invite you to sign up for the mailing list from my Facebook page. If you don't receive the July issue, you'll be able to find it in the newsletter archives.
Now that I've told you about my newsletter, my next post will provide some info I learned that may be useful to you if you intend to include a newsletter in your marketing mix.
My email inbox continues to provide fodder for blog articles. Last week, someone sent me this question:
I've been asked to record a 200 page audiobook. I'm not in a union or guild. I do have some voiceover experience. What do you recommend I charge?
Original Answer
While the question you asked seems simple, the answer requires more explanation, as found in this blog post and the one from Paul Strikwerda linked within it.As basic info, you need to know the WORD count, not the page count, of the book you would narrate. You can figure out the finished run-time based on the word count. For instance, Audible uses an average rate of speed of 155 words a minute, or 9300 words per finished hour.Paul's article shows you a formula to calculate finished time. My article shows you how to calculate the real time required for editing to produce the book. As Paul points out in his comment to my article, you also need to add time for preliminary research.You'll have to consider all of these factors about the time commitment along with your experience, relationship with the client, training, and studio equipment to determine a rate that is fair compensation. Small publishers only pay $50-100 per finished hour. I would only perform an audiobook at that very low rate if I wanted to build commercial credits.I hope these thoughts are helpful. Best wishes for your continued success!PS. I have just started a discussion board on my Facebook page. Would you be comfortable if I re-posted this Q&A in that venue? Other people could benefit from the discussion and chime in with their own good suggestions.
Apparently, I overwhelmed this person with good information that would require her to actually do some research because she re-posted her question on a voiceover forum within an hour of receiving my reply.
Here's the simple mathematical formula for solving this problem:
1. Divide the word count of the book by your rate of speech per hour to get the number of finished hours. If you don't know your rate of speech, Audible uses 9400 words per hour, or 157 words per minute, in its calculation for books posted on ACX.
2. Multiply the number of finished hours by 6. This number is a very conservative estimate of the number of real-time hours you will spend in preparing to read (pre-reading the book, looking up pronunciations, etc.), recording, editing, and transmitting your book. For instance, a 10-hour book may require 60 hours of your life from the time you read the first word until the last byte is uploaded or mailed to the client.
3. Multiply the real-time hours by the hourly rate of pay you need to survive. Chances are very good that you will come up with a pay rate for this audiobook that is $1000s MORE than your client wishes to pay. You have to decide how to negotiate a rate acceptable to both of you.
Even with this formula in hand, you still will want to research current audiobook rates. Just enter "audiobook rates" into Google, and you'll get a wealth of information. If you want tips for negotiating a higher price, check out my article Cruising for a competitive advantage.
Once you know the amount of time you'll invest in the project and the amount of money you need to get for your time, you'll know whether to accept an audiobook project. For instance, I would voice a royalty-share book only if I were passionate about the topic and had the time available for the project. It's always good to be working and gaining credits if your survival needs are being met.
If you have more thoughts on this topic, I'd love to get your comments on the blog! If you have questions on other topics related to voiceover, marketing, or just living your best life, I invite you to post them on my new Facebook discussion board.
Photo: iStockPhoto.com/STEVECOLEccs
updated 9/1/11 to change Audible's word count per hour from 9300 to 9400
Suddenly, I am receiving a rash of emails with the question: "can you direct me to some Atlanta voiceover agents?"
Many people think that the key to voiceover success lies with an agent. Once you get an agent, you just have to sit back and let the lucrative offers come in, right? Ah, if only it were so easy to make money at your microphone!
This week, someone wrote to me about getting an agent while still enjoying the flush of success from working his first paid gig. He lives in another city and was ready to get on a plane to Atlanta to meet agents. In responding, I explained that I was offering this information in the same spirit of helpfulness that I write my blog.
If you've only booked one job, it's doubtful that you're ready for a voice-over agent to want to represent you.
I guess my answer above is just another case where I tell people what they need to know, not what they want to hear.In order to land a voice-over agent, you have to show that you are a marketable commodity and can offer them something that they don't already have among the people they represent. You should listen to the reels of their talent to determine whether and how you might fit on their roster.Most reputable agents have listings on Voicebank. You can sort the listings by city to find the agents' contact info and hear reels of their talent.You also want to compare the professional sound of your demo against those you hear on-line. Those professionals are your competition for booking jobs. If your demo is homemade, you'll want to invest in any necessary training with a coach before getting a professionally produced demo.Hard work, initiative, and knocking on doors does indeed pay off. I just think you need to knock on some other doors to establish yourself before you approach an agent. You can get work without an agent; agents are just one avenue, not the only avenue, of obtaining work.Check out the advice page on my site and look in the archives of my blog for more in-depth advice and resources on finding and marketing yourself to people who might hire you right where you are. To quote Teddy Roosevelt: do what you can, where you are, with what you have.
A few other thoughts about agents:
- Far too many organizations are ready to prey on people's dreams by taking their money and giving them unfilled promises in return. Modeling/talent agencies that set up in malls, organizations that hold "open casting calls" or regular searches for new talent, and places that run radio ads are probably some sort of school that makes their money from selling classes and pictures, not from booking talent. A legitimate voiceover agent doesn't need to solicit more talent, and they only charge you when you book a gig through them, usually 10-15% of the gig!
- If the agency doesn't have a voiceover department, I doubt they could really help you.
- You probably don't want to sign an exclusive agreement with one agent. Many voice actors have numerous agents located across the country and in other parts of the world. To reduce potential conflicts of interest among your agents and clients, it's best if you only have one agent per city or geographic region. Also, the relationship gets tricky when you receive the same copy from multiple agents. In those cases, I send the audition to whomever sent it to me first.
- If you are active with your marketing, be sure any prospective agents are not threatened by your efforts. One agent asked to represent me because she loved my clever pieces of direct mail and then dropped me a year later (after rarely sending me an audition), telling me that she felt my marketing competed with her. I have booked most of my work as a result of my own marketing, so I would not sign with another agent who discourages it.
- For thoughts from an agent, you will want to read the helpful article that Voices.com ran just a few days ago titled How to Get An Agent Dos and Don'ts.
If you still worry that you don't have an agent, you are focusing on what you perceive you lack in your life. Instead, look at and be grateful for all you have. Keep a list of your accomplishments ready for review so that you can maintain your confidence and positive outlook.
A good talent agent can send you auditions and open doors that were previously closed to you. With polished skills, research, and patience, you will be able to attract the right agent representation at just the right time.
Photo: iStockphoto / Talaj
Attendees at the original FaffCon had nothing but glowing things to say about it. After all, how often do voiceover actors get to spend an entire weekend in the company of other working professional voice talent, much less actually sharing ways to improve our performances and business operations to get more work?
In order to encourage everyone to reveal their secret formulas to success, what happens at FaffCon is supposed to stay at FaffCon. Some of the session highlights for me were:
I was unable to attend the first FaffCon, held last September in Portland, OR. To be perfectly honest, I don't know that I would have attended the second one if travel had been involved. However, to my great delight, FaffCon2 was held this weekend in Atlanta. Add me to the list of the glowing FaffCon alumni! Not only that, but I'm already making plans to attend the next one! And yes -- there WILL BE a next one, so keep reading!
Let me start by saying that this or any other blog post cannot do justice to the event! I have pages of notes and a head full of great ideas about tactics to take my voiceover business to an even higher level. I finally met people in person whom I've known on-line for years, and I also made new friends. Most exciting of all, another participant had an amazing idea as a result of one of the sessions and asked me to collaborate on a new project!
FaffCon Founder Amy Snively guides participants in Atlanta.
FaffCon is the brain child of the vivacious and indefatigable Amy Snively. While FaffCon might seem like a big voice talent meet-up where people just schmooze with each other, it actually is a potentially life-changing educational event that requires tremendous planning and organizational skills. I am extremely impressed with how smoothly everything ran, and I don't know how Amy possibly had time to sit and enjoy the sessions.
In terms of voiceover training, FaffCon is unique because it:
- is entirely participant-driven
- fosters cooperation and camaraderie rather than competition as egos are left at home
- doesn't have sales booths in the back -- or in any part -- of the meeting rooms
- gives participants unparalleled access to go "behind the curtains" to learn success strategies from other professional voice talent and industry leaders
Participants jockey to post topics and decide sessions to attend.
Amy explained that we should think of FaffCon as a field of golden nuggets. You have golden nuggets to share with others, and you'll get some in return. However, no one knows when and how those nuggets might turn up. You may not even know you received a nugget until you're away from FaffCon and review your notes.
- 3 sessions with the charming and extremely knowledgeable David Goldberg from Edge Studio in which he discussed and demonstrated why the vast majority of demos are rejected along with other marketing Q&As
- Numerous methods to attract repeat clients from the creative and clever Mercedes Rose
- Inspiration to "invite the avalanche" from the highly esteemed yet incredibly humble Bob Souer
- Positive energy and synergy generated in the session that I led, "The Power of Your Words Away From the Mic".
I need to decompress, think carefully about what I heard, and develop an action plan to use the armful of golden nuggets that I received. As I said to a number of people over the weekend, everything about my voiceover business is an evolution. FaffCon was a much-needed jolt to help my business evolve exponentially instead of incrementally!
If you're a working voice-over talent who wants to improve your business, make plans NOW to attend FaffCon3 this fall! I hope to see you there!
FaffCon logo for event scheduled 23-25 September 2011 in Hershey, PA.
With so much information freely available, you may find it difficult to believe that one of the biggest ways to make money on-line is through information marketing. However, people are always looking for shortcuts to success, so they gladly pay a perceived expert to guide them through the process. Just for grins, check out the number of hits when you Google "how to be an information marketer". The number of hits is staggering, to say the least.
I believe in obtaining coaching and mentoring from a more experienced person in order to attain the next level of success. I don't believe in predatory marketing practices from people who offer those kinds of services. If you're looking for a coach or mentor in voiceover or any other facet in your life, you should do your own research to determine the best fit for your needs and budget.
Since information marketing on the Internet is viewed and heavily promoted as the quick path to wealth, many, if not most, information marketers are preying on people's emotions and seek only to line their own pockets. I am growing increasingly concerned about these practices in the voiceover industry as more and more people flock to this field and look for the magic secret to success.
I was thinking about this topic today after attending 2 webinars this past week. One was aimed at a group from multiple industries, while the other was specifically targeted to voice talent. Each lasted about 1.5 hours, but I ended each with widely varying thoughts about the host. I decided to point out a few of their sales techniques in hopes that I can save someone from making a serious financial mistake. (Note that I deliberately will be vague in describing each marketer's approach and offer.)
1. Like a drug dealer approaching potential junkies, the first sample is always free. They hope to get you hooked so that you'll shell out money for their program and/or products.
How many offers of "free reports" have you seen on-line? How many free webinars have you seen or attended? You never know how useful they will be to you until you actually commit the time to view the material.
Sometimes these "free" offers contain some very good information. For instance, the first of 2 free webinars that I attended this week showed me all the steps needed to create a particular thing. I now have the confidence to create one on my own, and I had an inspired idea about how I might use the thing in my life. The marketer provided solid content and then explained the benefits of the paid program.
Other times, the webinar is a poorly-concealed and aggressive attempt to market the host's paid program or product. Such was the case in the second webinar I attended this week. It started with the marketer offering some useful tidbits but progressively degenerated into testimonials from hand-picked participants.
Dont get me wrong -- testimonials are vital for your voiceover business. Comments from satisfied clients can help to convince a prospect to hire you to voice their project. You should include testimonials on your voiceover web site, as well as on your profiles on LinkedIn and the voiceover pay-to-play sites. My point is that a webinar should provide some sort of useful content for those viewing it. It shouldn't be an infomercial for the host's products and services.
2. The sales pitch or copy is overflowing with adjectives designed to tap into your emotional response.
People make buying decisions based on how they feel. Who wouldn't want to achieve success, have whiter teeth, be able to retire sooner, win fame and fortune, and exceed their fondest dream? How would it feel to have all the money, fame, and jobs you could imagine? Wouldn't you like to know this oh-so-easy method of living your dream life in the shortest amount of time possible?
An experienced copywriter can create such enticing text that it makes you salivate and WANT the product. Once you fall in the trap of imagining all the great and wonderful things the marketer is talking about, you are extremely vulnerable to buy whatever they are selling.
3. They always make the offer seem very limited or exclusive. If you don't ACT NOW, you may miss out!
This technique surfaces in several different ways:
- Only a limited number of products remain at this price. It will either sell out FOREVER or be available for a much higher price later.
- Only a certain number of seats are available for this event.
- We only accept a certain number or type of people into this program.
4. A higher-priced paid program or service often has a salutary effect on the minds of would-be buyers.
I tend to think that information offered as a report or webinar to a group of people is meant to ensnare many unsuspecting people into buying something they previously had not considered. The same is often true when you attend a free seminar in-person, such as when Drew and I went to an event promoted as an Internet marketing seminar.
On the other hand, a complimentary, private, one-on-one consultation with an expert about your specific business needs can be a smart business move. Many advisors provide a free, 30-minute meeting, You need to interview someone to see how well their product or service meshes with your needs, so I'm not talking about that situation in this post.
In Webinar #1 this week where I obtained some good info, I thought the cost of the paid program was reasonable for the time involved. In Webinar #2 which contained all of the testimonials, I was shocked and appalled by the prices of the paid program. I wondered who in their right mind would actually pay those prices.
Sadly, I think a number of people will make undue sacrifices in order to buy that program if they perceive the marketer to be expert. A higher price can indicate to people that the marketer is in such extreme demand that they can command any price. A high price tag is also another way of making the program seem available to only a chosen few. We all like to feel (there's that word again) that we know things or have opportunities that aren't available to all.
I'm sure the participants in such a program would obtain some value, but would the program really fulfill all of the amazing promises made about it?
5. If someone is really trying to sell you something, look for the PS at the end of the sales copy.
The sales copy is often several pages long so that every possible benefit can be explored in depth, and testimonials can be seen in every other paragraph. When this copy is sent through the mail in a letter, the common thought is that people may skip all of the sales copy and go right to end to see who sent the offer. On-line information marketers continue to use this ploy and add some final glorious adjectives with a call to action as a postscript.
If you're considering buying any type of program or service to gain the advantages promised by the expert, I suggest these steps:
In this Information Age, continue to sign up for free webinars and reports. You never know where that next sparkling idea for building your voiceover business will appear! Just be aware that free webinars and reports usually come with a hidden agenda to sell you something. By considering the points outlined in this article, you can make an objective and informed buying decision.A) Don't make any decision for at least a 3-day cooling off period. Get away from the emotion of the sales pitch to think logically and clearly about the offer and its usefulness in your life.B) Do some simple math. Figure out how much money you have available for this program or service. Look at the offer and assign some sort of monetary value to each part of it: materials, time with the expert, and other resources provided. Does it require additional costs, such as travel? How does the sum of the parts compare to the price as a whole?C) Do some research for similar products and services. If it's something targeted only to voice talent, ask your colleagues on your favorite voiceover chat board whether they have experience with the provider or can recommend other options. Do a Google search for info about the expert and their products. Subscribe to their blog; you'll get a good feel for how they present information.
Do you have any thoughts about the methods used to market products and services to voice talent? Please leave a comment on the blog!
Photo: Greg Grieco
The title of this article is a saying I heard early in my IRS career. Sorry if it offends you, but it really gets to the heart of stellar customer service. No matter how many great and wonderful things you do for your clients, the thing they will remember most -- and tell the most people about -- is the thing that got screwed up.
As Drew and I continue to repair and renovate our house, I'm finding no shortage of contractor stories to share with you that illustrate this principle. By observing other business operators, we can determine how to better service our clients in our voice-over businesses....and hopefully avoid some of those "Oh s****" moments.
We decided to install some recessed lighting in Drew's man cave. Drew called his friend Tommy Dunaway, an electrician who owns a business named Tommy's Lighting and Electric. Tommy came out to discuss options and give us an estimate. When he came back to install the lights, he exceeded our expectations because:
Today, I actually have 2 contractor stories. First, I have an example of fantastic customer service from start to finish.
We decided to install some recessed lighting in Drew's man cave. Drew called his friend Tommy Dunaway, an electrician who owns a business named Tommy's Lighting and Electric. Tommy came out to discuss options and give us an estimate. When he came back to install the lights, he exceeded our expectations because:
1) He arrived exactly on time, which is a rarity for service provider at one's home. Punctuality is key in voiceover as well. When I started my voiceover business, I assumed that all voiceover talent were punctual. Over the years, I've been surprised to read about people who didn't show up or were late to sessions, didn't return phone calls, etc.2) He suggested features we hadn't considered, like a dimmer for the recessed lights and a remote control for the ceiling fan. I do the same thing with my clients. For instance, if I was hired to narrate a marketing video for a trade show, I'll also let the client know that they may want to use the same voice on their phone system, e-learning modules, and web site to enhance and solidify their brand. It may seem like a self-serving piece of advice, but it's really about helping my clients achieve consistency in all of their communications.3) He finished the job in LESS time than he estimated, so our bill was less than expected. He told me he always builds in enough time in the estimate to troubleshoot any problems -- a tactic that voice talent would do well to emulate.4) He cleaned up after the job was finished. (Remember this point because I'm coming back to it in the next story!)
Tommy told me that his business is mostly through repeat business and referrals; I don't think he even has a web site. In my voiceover business, I always want to make it easy for my clients to refer me. With his terrific attention to detail and exemplary customer service, it's truly a pleasure to refer Tommy to other people.
My second story is about my new roof. We learned about Everdry Roofing because someone there follows Drew on Twitter, which just goes to show you the growing importance of social networking in attracting clients.
I thought Everdry was going to be a second success story of stellar customer service. After all, they showed up when promised, explained shingle options, worked with our insurance company on our claim, and did a great job of cleaning up the nails and other debris from the yard.
They were providing exceptional customer service -- that is, until the "Oh s***" moment.
In the picture below, your eyes are not drawn to my new roof, with its lovely architectural shingles and new ridge vent. No, instead you see the massive steel container stretching over half of my driveway. In fact, Everdry's sign in my yard points directly to it.
The "Oh s***" moment from the roof installation has lasted all weekend.
The roofers were here Thursday and part of Friday. I wasn't at all happy about the container staying overnight on Thursday since it blocks the garage. The project manager assured me at 6pm Thursday that the container would be removed Friday. Today is Sunday, and the container is still here. I haven't heard from Everdry about their plans to remove it.
If Drew and I had 2 cars like every other household in Atlanta, one of those cars would be trapped in the garage or parked on the street all weekend. As it is, we have to cautiously back out over our grass to clear the side of the container.
To make matters worse, the smell of 23-year-old shingles removed from the roof and the other materials in the container is akin to the putrid stench of animals killed in the road. Every time I walk out of my house, that nasty smell hits me in the face. We're still having 90-degree days, so you can just imagine how the smell grows as the day progresses.
As a voiceover talent, I always think of how to provide the best level of service to exceed my clients' expectations. I certainly don't want them to incur any inconvenience as a result of my actions!
For instance, it may seem like a small thing, but the manner in which you name and transmit your recordings to your agents and clients can be either an "Oh s***" or an "Attagirl!" moment:
- If they have given you a file naming convention, use it.
- If not, be very descriptive with your file names so that the purpose or script for each file is immediately evident.
- If you have to revise a file, add a revision number to the file name so that you don't inadvertently write over an existing file. Sometimes, the client may decide the original file was best after all or wants to make some other change to it.
- Compress multiple files into a zip file so that the client only has to download one file.
By being organized and forward-thinking, you can rack up the "Attaboys!" and "Attagirls!" in providing stellar service to your voiceover clients. If you have other examples of stellar service, please leave a comment on the blog!
Since Drew now is a Divemaster in the Dive Immersion Program at the Georgia Aquarium -- a job, by the way, which seems to beat out voiceover talent for the coolness factor in the minds of other people -- he no longer needs a home office. We are converting his office to a man cave, and we need some additional storage space.
We decided we could accomplish our storage needs by adding one more cabinet to our garage. A few years ago, in our ongoing quest for beautiful organization, we hired Premier Garage to renovate our garage. As repeat clients, we thought it would be a quick, easy, and painless process for them to install the new cabinet, especially since the company has an office and manufacturing facility about 2 miles from our house.
What could be simpler than installing a new cabinet
in a beautifully organized garage of a repeat client?
To date, Premier Garage has been to my house an astonishing 4 times over multiple days, with a 5th trip scheduled next week, for this cabinet installation! Yes, the job should be simple, but this company is too disorganized to plan and execute it.
1) The tech arrived with the wrong size of cabinet and no door handles. What happened to the adage of "measure twice, cut once"?
2) The tech came back another day with a replacement cabinet, which was STILL the wrong size. I wondered why they didn't bother to check it before they left the office.
3) On the third attempt, the tech came with the right size of the cabinet shell, but the doors were the wrong size. He also didn't have the interior shelves.
4) This morning, the guy was were here to install the correct doors. Again, we have no handles and no shelves! In addition, the cabinet has holes in the back wall caused by incorrect drilling that must now be filled. "Measure twice, cut once" is definitely a foreign concept to these folks.
In addition to the various screw-ups with the actual cabinet installation, the techs have irritated me in 2 other ways that demonstrated a lack of respect and concern for their customer:
- On 3 of the 4 visits, we were given an arrival window of a 30-minute time period, yet the techs still showed up late without even a courtesy call.
- Today, the tech backed into the driveway up to the garage threshold and left his truck running while he worked, which filled my garage with the lovely smells of gas fumes and truck exhaust on a day that promises to be quite hot.
The easiest and most gratifying voiceover job for me is one with a repeat client. I look at the last session for that client and copy the same Pro Tools settings to the new session. I know the type of file transmission that the client prefers. I communicate about the turn-around time at the project outset and then work to beat the deadline. The client has no concerns about the quality of my recordings or my speed and efficiency in completing the job for them because I proved myself to them the first time and pride myself on maintaining a consistent high level of service.
In short, a job with a repeat client is an opportunity to exhibit consistency and reliability. If you are reliable and consistent, a client will turn to you automatically when they need voice talent. What's more, they are happy to refer you to other people who could utilize your services.
In his excellent and highly recommended book titled Work Like You're Showing Off: The Joy, Jazz, and Kick of Being Better Tomorrow Than You Were Today, Joe Calloway refers to consistency as the gold standard:
You can count on me. You can believe in me. If I say I'll do something, I'll do it. Put it in the bank. Bet the farm on it. It doesn't matter whether or not I'm in a good mood, have a headache, forgot to pick up my clothes from the cleaners, had a fight with my daughter, lost my keys, or didn't sleep last night. If I said I'll do it, then I'll do it.
What's more, I'll do it every time.
If you can say all of that, and back it up, that's more than showing off. That's delivering the goods. That's the gold standard. If you consistently do what you say you'll do over a long period of time, the world will beat a path to your door. Nothing demonstrates the essence of showing off, in the most positive sense of the phrase, than rock solid consistency. There's an old saying that goes, "Amateurs work until they get it right. Professionals work until they can't get it wrong."
We love people who do what they say they will do. Consistency is the foundation of success and the great business builder. Consistency is the definition of integrity.
I told the tech on-site today that Premier Garage is not making it easy for us to want to refer them due to their inconsistent, unreliable, and sloppy approach on this job. Hopefully, you can learn from their many mistakes and make it easy for your clients to want to refer you! If you have other tips about gaining referrals, please leave a comment on the blog!
A recent episode with the Chipper LLC Tree Service painfully reminded me of 4 important customer service principles that should be embodied by every business, including your voiceover business. First, though, I've give you a brief synopsis of the situation.
BEFORE: Two well-established Bradford pear trees with full foliage
rose high above the roofline on the left side of my house.
One of the Bradford pear trees in my front yard had a dead branch that needed to be removed, so we called a tree company based on their positive reviews on Kudzu.com. We decided that we'd also like to have the highest limbs of the trees trimmed down; they had never been pruned, were extremely tall, and overhung the roof. These trees are 15-20 years old and very well-established, but the limbs can become brittle and break in an Atlanta snowstorm.
The estimator came out last month. After Drew discussed our expectations of the work to be performed, the estimator wrote this information on the ticket:
Trim + top out + Remove debris
2 Bradfords in front -- just top out a little higher than gutters
Remove 2 Bradford saplings in front
AFTER: I still have 2 Bradford pear trees on the left side of my house,
only with no limbs or leaves to provide shade in this sultry Atlanta summer.
Naturally, we were quite upset that A) our beautiful trees were demolished, and B) the work was not done to our specifications. The trees not only look terrible, but we're concerned that they may have incurred irreparable damage and would need to be removed. Since the work was performed on one of the hottest, 95-degree July days, the trees could have endured a shock from which they may not recover.
We called the owner of the tree service to ask for the remedy of removal of our trees at no additional cost to us. As calmly as possible, I explained that the "trimming" was far more extensive and destructive than we ever imagined it could be. We had never planned or wanted to remove the trees, but now we thought we would be forced into that action.
In addition, the trees were now an eyesore to us and all residents in the 200+ houses in our subdivision since all of them must pass my house every time they enter or leave. Finally, I stated that we have a very active neighborhood email list in which homeowners are constantly requesting referrals for various services.
Here comes the part where voice talent and other business owners can learn how NOT to run your business!
The owner said he had told his estimator countless times that the estimator needed to explain to a customer how Bradford pears would look when they are 'topped out". In fact, he continued, they had a page on their web site that showed customers what to expect, not that anyone had pointed it out to us. When I finally saw that page, I learned that the phrase "top out" has a very special connotation to the tree cutter holding the chainsaw -- cut off everything! We learned too late that "topping out" is actually a last-resort measure to save trees before you remove them.
Okay, BUT....we never intended for our trees to be "topped out"! How were we supposed to know the common phrase meant something very specific to them? Obviously, if the owner has had this conversation more than once with the estimator, the company has an existing communications problem.
He flatly stated it would cost an additional $300 for them to come back out and remove the trees. The call quickly turned ugly, making my attempts to find an acceptable compromise futile. The guy completely insulted me with his terrible attitude. He was arrogant, angry, and abusive; I should have hung up on him.
He rudely demanded that Drew "needed to own up, be a man, admit that he lied [to me], and call the estimator a liar." If Drew did all of those things, they would come back for $200. It would a loss to him if he had to send a crew back to my house without pay. He then made a comment about not wanting to take the customer's word over that of his estimator!
Say WHAT??!!!
My problem with the trees is unresolved, but I wanted to tell you this story today so you'll keep these 4 tips in mind as you solve problems for your voiceover clients.
1. Communicate clearly and agree on expectations at the outset of the project.
The tree service owner had encountered my exact situation so many times that he had a web page devoted to the subject. The estimator should have shown that page to Drew and asked, 'is this the level of work you expect?".
By the same token, I want to ensure that the client and I both are using the same terms and have the same idea for the kind of audio that the client will receive. On those rare times when someone asks me for "raw" audio, they still want audio that is edited so that it is free of mistakes and re-takes.
As another example, I have had clients asking for 8 kHz, 8-bit mono files for their telephone systems. Before sending the final recordings to them, I prepare them at the project outset by giving them a sample of that kind of file. They need to know that it won't sound like a CD; it may not even sound good due to the hisses and buzzes that are inherent in such low resolution files.
2. Only take an irreversible action with your client's full understanding and consent.
The tree company crew chief had a second chance to show Drew the web page before they ever made the first cut. He also could have checked in with Drew periodically as the work progressed to ensure that they trimmed the trees to match our vision.
In voiceover, you have to protect the raw audio that you have recorded. If you delete a section and then save the file, that section could be gone forever depending on your software.
One reason that I like Pro Tools is because of its non-destructive editing features. It actually creates a new file with every change, and effects are not applied to the original file. I could change or remove the compression or any other effect, bounce the file again, and have a new file as output -- all while keeping the original recording intact. If your software doesn't offer this functionality, it's a good idea to save your original recording to a different name before you do any editing.
3. Expect that you won't make money on every transaction.
While the overall goal of a business is to make a profit, you shouldn't expect to make money on every single transaction. The goal of each transaction is to pursue cement a harmonious relationship.
The tree service owner didn't want to come back to fix the mess his crew made unless we paid for it. He caused a problem for me, so I shouldn't have to pay more for him resolve it. He should realize that he is actually going to lose a lot of money based on my negative reviews of his company to anyone who will listen!
In contrast, I offer unlimited free re-recordings if I have made an error in pronunciation or inflection if my client notifies me of the errors within a week of receiving the audio. I also outline my policy about charges for script revisions before accepting the project. However, in many cases, the client only needs something simple, like a sentence changed. Whenever possible, I am happy to quickly record and send these kinds of small changes at no charge.
4. Do whatever it takes to ensure your client's satisfaction.
This one seems like a no-brainer, but as evidenced by my conversation with the tree service owner, some people just don't get it!
It's my mission to exceed my clients' expectations! If I ever encountered a situation where a voiceover client was as upset with me as I was with the tree service owner, I would have offered to re-record their project at no cost. I even would be willing to refund part or all of the money if I could not meet the client expectations. I also would refer another voice talent in order to keep the client's project on schedule.
When your communications with your client overflow with respect, honesty, and integrity, you won't even have to think about providing quality customer service -- you will BE the definition of it!
Edited 9/12/10 to include name and link of tree service in response to questions about it
First, let me say that I'm a voice talent who only markets myself. I don't teach, mentor, coach, or hire other voice talent. Since I am a firm believer in the mindset that it is better to give than receive, I write this blog specifically to answer questions and help others achieve their dream of working as a voiceover talent.
This article contains numerous links to my other articles to give you an organized pathway through the blog and structured approach to investigating and planning your career. I encourage you to read all of the articles in the archives.
Then, after you have developed some skills and are ready to market yourself, you can set up a home recording system. Pat Fraley outlines an economical setup in his The Gypsy's Guide to Professional Home Recording Workbook and Companion CD. You may also want to read Harlan Hogan and Jeffrey Fisher's excellent book The Voice Actor's Guide to Home Recording.
A voice-over actor must market herself and perform auditions continuously in order to get attention and jobs from others. To gain experience, you can:
No one can tell you the exact path you must follow, but just know that the dictionary is the only place where SUCCESS comes before WORK! :)
Career Overview
Many people become interested in voiceover because they've been told they have a nice voice. Most people have nice-enough voices; it's what you DO with it that matters.
Declaring your intention is the first step toward changing your reality, so I applaud you for realizing what you want in life and having the courage to go after it! Like any other dream, success in voice-over requires continuous, deliberate action. I described how I got started on this page of my web site.
A voice-over artist needs to be able to be transparent when interpreting the author's words and intent of any script so that you are the best service provider to the client. I think anyone who "evaluates your voice" would tell you that you have potential and then would be more than willing to take your money. A voice talent must be able to create their own characters rather than mimic someone else.
Read, Read, Read.....then Read Some More
You can't be successful in voiceover if you don't like to read. Therefore, I refer you to the wealth of information I have written on my web site and blog, especially this entry titled A plan to break into voice-over.
Note that it includes a link to my recommended reading list. I always recommend that people start first with a book to get a broad overview of the industry. I continue to read voice-over books even though I've been working in this industry for over 12 years.
I also read a lot of blogs from my fellow voice talent. I've listed several I like on the lower right panel on my blog under the Links heading, but a quick search on-line will show you plenty more. The Vox Daily blog from Voices.com is one of the best in the business. I also listed numerous on-line voice-over forums that you can join.
Take Classes and Develop Skills
As I explain in this post about mentors, people often ask me to be their mentor when they really need a teacher. If you decide to take a class, this post has 10 questions you should ask a prospective voice-over teacher. When researching teachers, beware of 5 techniques of the "information marketer".
Listed on the right panel of my blog are some national teachers with whom I've studied. Nancy Wolfson is an excellent coach who does offer coaching via telephone. If you work with Nancy, please tell her that I referred you as I would get a free session. :)
Some teachers in Atlanta are listed on this page of my web site.
The Edge Studio Career Center contains practice scripts, podcasts with experts, and helpful tools like a word calculator and rate card.
Create a Demo
Voice-over is a business that is built on self-promotion and marketing. As with any business, you can expect it to have start-up costs. Before you can market yourself, you need to have a demo. Separate demos are needed for each target market (commercials, narrations, games, audiobooks, etc.). Before spending time and money to make a demo, you need appropriate training.
A good coach will tell help you select material for your demo that matches your voice and your style. You don't want to be in a rush to make a demo because:
1) You only have 1 chance to make a first impression
2) You need to be able to instantly perform like the person on your demo.
3) Your demo is competing with those of professionals who have been working for decades.
Establish Your Home Studio
Although you will want to record auditions from home, I wouldn't rush out to buy equipment immediately. I would first buy a digital voice recorder for daily practice. It's important to read everything ALOUD and practice every chance you can! I have and can recommend the Olympus WS-300M or the Zoom H4N.
Then, after you have developed some skills and are ready to market yourself, you can set up a home recording system. Pat Fraley outlines an economical setup in his The Gypsy's Guide to Professional Home Recording Workbook and Companion CD. You may also want to read Harlan Hogan and Jeffrey Fisher's excellent book The Voice Actor's Guide to Home Recording.
Market Yourself
Once you've taken classes, created a demo, and established your home studio, you're ready to develop a marketing plan. The books and resources listed in this post will help you start marketing yourself.
Also, I know that it seems like voice-over is not work, but you should realize that it takes a lot of work to generate jobs and a steady client base!
A voice-over actor must market herself and perform auditions continuously in order to get attention and jobs from others. To gain experience, you can:
- Sign up with an on-line casting service (called a pay-to-play, or P2P, site within the industry) site like Voice123.com or Voices.com (This article contains more information about these sites.)
- Perform voiceover for presentations (e-learning, marketing, etc.) on your day job for no additional pay
- Volunteer to read for the blind
- Contact production companies and radio stations
- Network with professional associations
You also can create your own recordings. Practicing in this manner has a lot of value in terms of artistry, improvement and self-esteem. These recordings may or may not be used for promotion or payment.
You'll find many more ideas for marketing yourself and your business in my blog archives.
Only after you gain some professional experience will you be ready to look for an agent. At that point, you will want to read the article Trying to get a voiceover agent?
Final Advice
No one can tell you the exact path you must follow, but just know that the dictionary is the only place where SUCCESS comes before WORK! :)
However, taking continual steps on your dream -- whatever you decide to do -- will bring fulfillment to your life! In any case, you must be the one to put forth action to MAKE THINGS HAPPEN!
As I don't get paid to write and dispense so much helpful advice, I'd be grateful for a donation to my PayPal tip jar.
Best wishes for your success in all of your pursuits!
Edited 12/6/10 to add info about Edge Studio and Voices.com resources
Edited 4/30/11 to add link about agents
Edited 9/8/11 to add link to Atlanta teachers
Edited 2/16/12 to add new first paragraph
Edited 3/13/12 to add links to articles about:
- practice
- mentors
- the need to be giving
- a passion for reading
- information marketers
- creating your own recordings
Also updated/removed links and significantly reformatted and re-arranged info to provide greater clarity and structure.
The following message was left as a comment to my post The feel-good voiceover blog of the summer! I copied the message exactly as I received it because I felt the answers to the questions deserved to be their own entry.
I've been considering launching into this field---and really want to know what it takes and what to expect. The best way to find out the pros and cons of any occupation is to talk to others who actually do it.....So, I'm open to whatever info you think would help me so I don't invest a lot of money and energy needlessly. My first question is, "Do you like voiceover work?" and "How difficult is it to break into this business?" I'm thinking it may take a few years...Is there really that much work out there for new talent?
-- Elizabeth
-- Elizabeth
Do I like voiceover work?
I don't know of any person who would say they didn't like the voiceover part of the job.
Voiceover is like any career in that you like some parts of it better than others. Of course, I love the actual act of reading the words on the page, interpreting the author's meaning, and recording the author's words with my voice. I love employing all sorts of marketing tactics that do not require me to make cold calls. I love writing articles on my blog and responding to reader comments (hint, hint!). I love connecting with other voice talent and clients in person and on-line. I love the immense satisfaction of hearing my voice at work in different media for various companies, and, yes, the coolness factor of this occupation is pretty hard to beat.
Perhaps a better question is: "Are there things that you don't like about being a voice talent?"
Editing the recordings is not my favorite task, especially since editing takes far more of my time than recording. Auditioning for countless projects and not even getting a response can be very depressing. Chasing down payment from clients who are at least a month late in paying for completed work is downright annoying. The situation with late-paying clients is even more stressful when that money is needed to pay one's own obligations.
Also, you've probably read about voice actors who brag about recording in their pajamas. What they didn't tell you is that they are wearing their pajamas because they are working early or late hours or on the weekend in order to meet a client deadline. If you want a structured, 40-hour-a-week job, you will want some other career choice than being a voiceover talent.
How difficult is it to break into this business?
How difficult is it to start any career that inherently means you are a self-employed business person? Becoming a voice talent necessarily demands that you will spend time, energy, and money as part of the start-up and continuing operational costs of your business. There are NO shortcuts!
I actually have a couple of mathematical formulas for figuring the method to become a voice-over success story. I wrote about the first one here, and the second one is below.
Take your age
Add to it the number of car payments you have left
Subtract the number of pillows on your bed
Divide by the square root of Pi
The answer is the number of seconds you'll spend figuring out any logic in this formula.
My feeble attempt at humor merely illustrates that the question can't be answered because every person's path into and through a voiceover career is different.
So, how does any start-up business become a thriving enterprise? Obviously, the business' chance for survival -- much less prosperity -- depends on the people who work there and the product they are selling. The time, energy, and money you invest in developing your technique, demo(s), web site, and marketing plan will be the deciding factors in your chances for success in starting and maintaining your voiceover business.
My questions for you
Anyone contemplating any career -- whether as a voice talent, computer programmer, or Sherpa on the mountainside -- should ask themselves as many or more questions than they ask other people. Whatever career you pick will require substantial amounts of time and energy; chunks of money are also required when you are considering starting a business. Spend some introspective time determining your answers to the kinds of questions I list below, and your answers will help you decide if voiceover is a good career choice for you.
- What are your values? Values are different than goals. For instance, if you value security as highly as I do, you'll probably want to have a day job with healthcare benefits and a 401K plan at least until your voiceover income consistently exceeds that of the day job and you're able to insure yourself and plan your retirement.
- What is your passion? If you don't know, what activities make you happy? When you were a child, what did you want to be when you grew up? (If you want to see some great books that will help you find your passion, check out this page on my web site.)
- What about voiceover work is appealing to you? Do you think it's an easy and glamorous way to make money? Do you love to read? Do you love to learn things? Is technology your friend? Do you have a desire to help people? Do you work well in isolation? Do you work well on multiple projects at one time and under multiple deadlines? Do you have an inner calling to do a certain kind of voiceover work? Have you ever actually recorded your voice and listened to it?
For an excellent reality check about starting a voiceover business, I highly encourage you to read Peter O'Connell's Voiceover Entrance Exam. Peter is a veteran voice talent and savvy marketer who gives you the straight scoop on this business in a free e-book.
A final question on my list
Whatever happened to saying "thank you"?
People frequently fire off questions to me without including the simplest acknowledgement that my valuable time will be needed to answer them. I don't expect compensation -- not that any is offered in most inquiries I receive. I supply my advice as a service out of a true desire to help others. However, I'm constantly amazed by the number of people who overlook the small courtesy of saying "thank you".
Therefore, my parting advice is to develop an attitude of gratitude, starting with every communication you have with another person about your career choices.
Recently, the talented voice actor Paul Strikwerda asked a question on the highly active discussion board of the LinkedIn Working Voice Actor group about using an e-reader in his recording booth. I decided to re-purpose my answers to Paul's question into this post.
My iMac computer is outside of my WhisperRoom recording booth. I have longed to have a paperless studio and perform my scripts straight off a computer. I can't place a computer in my booth because my microphone would pick up the sound of even the quietest computer fan. My Macbook Pro laptop is very quiet but not quiet enough, and any computer fan could rev up at unexpected times.
The Apple iPad has solved the problem for me. I use the Wi-Fi on it to connect to my wireless LAN in my house. I've been able to read scripts from agents' and clients' web sites, as well as long e-learning Word files sent in e-mail.
I saw a note on the Yahoo Voiceovers list that someone did an audition with an app called PureAudio ($2.99 in the Apps Store) and thought it came out well. When I originally posted about it, I saw only a handful of reviews were available for that app, and most were reporting various problems. Since the iPad is in its infancy, I know that more and better apps will be available over time.
I originally wanted a second monitor in my booth. I could either stretch cable 10' or more across the center of the studio floor or wind it a greater distance around the baseboards and corners to reach my computer desk. Due to the size of my WhisperRoom and the door placement in my studio, reconfiguring the studio isn't really an option. I don't like seeing cables everywhere, especially when my stunning soundproof studio is so incredibly beautiful that WhisperRoom features it on their brochure. Therefore, a second monitor is not an option. Wireless monitors seem to be on the horizon, so maybe a second monitor will be workable for me in the future.
The Apple iPad has solved the problem for me. I use the Wi-Fi on it to connect to my wireless LAN in my house. I've been able to read scripts from agents' and clients' web sites, as well as long e-learning Word files sent in e-mail.
My view of the world when I'm recording voiceover scripts and audiobooks --
my Neumann TLM 103 mic and Apple iPad
I had an Amazon Kindle, but it didn't work well for me in the studio. It was cumbersome to load a Word or PDF document to it. Scrolling the screen required a click, which could be audible and/or disrupt my flow of narration. I can endlessly and quietly scroll the screen on the iPad while continuing to perform.
I typed my original response to Paul on my iPad, which reminded me of another advantage to it. I was recording a job, and the client sent me some changes in e-mail. I was able to read the e-mail and record the changes without leaving the booth.
My husband is my director, and he also has an iPad. He can keep the script in front of him while maintaining full-screen view and control of Pro Tools on the iMac. When Drew isn't available to help me, I use a Frontier Design Tranzport to control Pro Tools from within the booth, so that's another reason the iPad is a good solution for me.
The only downside I have discovered is that I can't mark the text while recording, like when I want to take notes on direction. I could mark text in Word on my computer before recording. The method is not perfect, but it's superior to printing.
I typed my original response to Paul on my iPad, which reminded me of another advantage to it. I was recording a job, and the client sent me some changes in e-mail. I was able to read the e-mail and record the changes without leaving the booth.
My husband is my director, and he also has an iPad. He can keep the script in front of him while maintaining full-screen view and control of Pro Tools on the iMac. When Drew isn't available to help me, I use a Frontier Design Tranzport to control Pro Tools from within the booth, so that's another reason the iPad is a good solution for me.
The only downside I have discovered is that I can't mark the text while recording, like when I want to take notes on direction. I could mark text in Word on my computer before recording. The method is not perfect, but it's superior to printing.
The iPad doesn't have a built-in app that lets you edit text in Word. However, as you might guess, "there's an app for that". Apple's Pages app is the most popular. It can be purchased in the App Store for $9.99 and gives you functionality similar to the MS Office suite. This PC World article has more info about viewing and editing Word docs on an iPad.
Your PC can already talk to the iPad with email. If you're using Outlook, you could set up a Gmail or other web e-mail account. You could then send your edited file to yourself and read the attachment in the booth.
I'm recording an audiobook of a public domain book. I was able to find the book in iBooks by searching on the title, and it loaded in that app. Just like on the Kindle, the on-line dictionary is handy. I can also change the font size and highlight characters' lines within the iBooks app.
I saw a note on the Yahoo Voiceovers list that someone did an audition with an app called PureAudio ($2.99 in the Apps Store) and thought it came out well. When I originally posted about it, I saw only a handful of reviews were available for that app, and most were reporting various problems. Since the iPad is in its infancy, I know that more and better apps will be available over time.
Oh, and BTW -- Drew and I have given up our Kindles. I'm a voracious reader, and I loved my Kindle. After getting the iPad, I didn't use the Kindle. I can read my Kindle books on my iPad with an app. The fact that the iPad allows me to carry around a library of videos, books, and music is an added bonus to its tremendous functionality in my studio.
If you're not a member of the Linkedin Working Voice Actor group, you're missing a lot of fantastic and lively discussions that will help your voiceover career! Another talented voice artist and group owner Ed Victor always "whacks the hornet's nest" with a new and interesting topic each week. Just as Paul asked the question about e-readers, you can post your own questions about any topic related to voiceovers. As always, I'd love to have your questions or comments about this post, so please share them on the blog.
VOICE2010, the international conference for voiceover talent held in Los Angeles, has ended, and the participants have gone home. I appreciated reading blog updates from other voice talent all the more since I wasn't there. My travel budget this spring was spent instead on a trip with Drew to Hawaii. However, I was reminded of 7 great lessons that apply to a voice-over career, all courtesy of my surfing instructor.
SURFING? As in the water sport known for "hanging 10"? If you're wondering what my surfing instructor could possibly teach about voiceover, read on!
Voiceover talent and recent surfing student Karen Commins
offers the universal greetings of surfers.
Drew and I went to Honolulu to celebrate his birthday. We make it a point to travel each year for one of our birthdays, and it was his turn to pick the destination this year. He picked Hawaii so he could later say that he had a surfing lesson on Waikiki Beach on his birthday. :)
Drew found our instructor Erik Lillmars at DCX Surfing School by doing a Google search for surfing lessons on Oahu. Since Drew is also a photographer, he liked the fact that Erik's site included photography services. In fact, Drew selected this particular instructor because photography was listed.
Two things are important from this part of the story:
1. Get your own web site, preferably with your own domain. Also, make sure that search engines can you based on your geographic area. People often prefer to deal with someone locally. While it's a global economy, I want to be the voice actor of choice for anyone in the Atlanta area!
2. If you offer extra services outside of voice-over (copywriting, audio editing, marketing consultation, etc.) or have some specialized subject knowledge, be sure to include that information on your site. Lots of people are voice talent. Your value-added services or subject expertise may be the reason you are hired.
Erik taught the lesson in his office on Koa Avenue, a block off of Waikiki Beach. He talked to us a long time before ever getting to the actual mechanics of the lesson. Some of his topics centered around Zen and meditation; he indicated the best surfers practice meditation to quiet their minds and visualize their success.
Erik also repeatedly told us to relax. If you're aren't relaxed on a surfboard, you'll be unsteady on the board and could fall off the side before you ever get to a wave. (Trust me on this one.) If you actually get to the point of being ready to ride a wave, tension in your body could cause you to lose your balance and injure yourself in falling off the surfboard.
3. Relax. If you aren't relaxed in front of a microphone, your throat muscles will constrict, and the tension will be heard in your voice and on the recording. What's worse, people can hear that tension and will want to shy away from your work. You may not think you could get injured doing voiceover work, but the long-term effects of strained vocal cords can lead to damage.
Most surfing instructors probably show you something about standing up on the surfboard using the actual board while on the beach. In our lesson, though, Erik spread a mat on the floor of his office and showed us the moves there.
The surfers you've seen on TV make it look so easy; they get to a standing position as if by magic. (If you want the magic formula to make your voiceover work look easy, skip ahead to lesson number 6.) Erik stressed safety and showed us how to get to our knees, put one foot in front of you, and finally rise to a standing position while turning to a sideways stance for balance. He had us practice this move several times in the office. Erik showed us how to dip down while twisting our body to maintain balance.
Birthday boy Drew Commins demonstrates the first step in standing up on a surfboard:
raise up from lying flat to balancing on your knees.
4) Stand up in stages. Just because you have done something briefly in a class setting doesn't necessarily make you ready and qualified to perform the actual work. I especially worry about those aspiring voice talent who take a 2-hour group class and then jump into making a demo. It's akin to the same level of preparation and expertise you have after practicing a move 3 times on a floor mat and then thinking you can surf in deep water.
Drew and I had to carry a 9-foot surfboards under each of our arms when walking from the office to the beach, which was maybe a fifth of a mile. After toting that load in the Hawaii heat, I was TIRED by the time we got to the spot on the beach!
Once we finally got in the water and on our surfboards, I felt very shaky on the hard, wood surfboard. As I started paddling out to the waves, my neck hurt immensely, and I kept feeling like I would fall off the board. Erik encouraged me to get off the board and float in the water rather than risking injury. I told Erik that it was more important for him to spend his time with Drew, and I would be happy just hanging out in the water for the duration of the lesson.
During the office part of the lesson, our instructor also told us that he had studied the pattern of the waves. Using a traffic analogy, he said that the incoming and outgoing surfers should be in separate lanes. We were impressed that Erik had created a chart that showed us how to use a particular balcony of a hotel and a structure near Diamond Head as a visual guide to our proper lane.
Like the sun over the Hawaiian beach, Erik's research was golden. Waikiki Beach is the world's most famous beach and probably has the greatest concentration of surfers at any given moment. Since Erik had spent hours and hours in studying the patterns and rhythms of the ocean, he knew the best position in the water to catch the wave. He also knew the best place to be if you wanted to hang out in the outgoing surfing "lane" while staying safely out of the way of dozens of incoming surfers. I greatly appreciated that insight since that's where I was while Eric was working with Drew.
Aloha! Drew was a natural surfer, standing up several times during his only surf lesson.
Diamond Head is in the background.
As Drew was riding a wave toward the beach, Erik came back to me. He commented several times about inexperienced surfers who were going out to a spot where no one else was. He said the waves didn't break in those locations, so the stray surfers were wasting their time.
5) Know where the waves are. Once you have decided to pursue a voice-over career, you need to analyze your strengths and gifts to know where your voice fits in the market. With that information, you can define a target market and niche within that market. You then need to study the habits of your target market in order to position yourself and gain work.
Drew made several attempts to ride a wave using the techniques Erik showed us in the office. As you can see in the above picture, Drew was successful in standing up and riding the waves several times! His hang time might not have been very long, but it was great he could stand up and surf!
As soon as the surfers fall off the board, what do they do? They paddle back out and wait for the next wave!
6) Practice! In any creative endeavor, whether it's surfing or voiceover, you have to practice if you ever expect to improve your skills and advance to the next level. Erik was an awesome surfing coach who helped us achieve our goals for the lesson. Consistent practice on your own and lessons under the direction of a good voiceover coach will do the same for your career.
While the surfers are indeed practicing their skills each time they ride a wave, they also do it for another reason -- the sheer joy of the experience. In fact, Erik told us in his office that he had previously worked in the music industry with Neil Diamond but decided to give up that hectic lifestyle to pursue his true calling and passion to teach others about surfing.
7) Do it for the joy, not the money. I often see newspaper articles about introductory voiceover classes that leave the reader with the impression that anyone can take the class and quickly start making megabucks just by "talking". Just know that if it were that easy, everybody would be doing it. The best and most monetarily successful voiceover talent are those who have the passion and true calling for the work. Even professionals with years of experience continue to practice and improve their skills. Since the vast majority of your time in voiceover may be spent in gaining work rather than actually performing it, you will definitely want to feel as much joy as possible!
I'm sure many people are already planning their trips to VOICE2011. As for me, I'm already planning my birthday trip next year! If you can think of a cool idea for me or have thoughts about my surfing story, I hope you'll leave some comments on the blog.
Success leaves clues.
Every day, I see questions on various voice-over boards like:
Yesterday, I analyzed Barry Manilow as a brand to offer clues to voice talent about marketing your personal brand to your clients. He has defined his core product, offers consistent results, and embraces constant improvement.
Today, I realized I forgot the last and most defining C in the branding process. As you can hear toward the end of this clip (1:07), Barry Manilow has a secret weapon that has made him a legend in the music industry and which savvy voiceover folks will want to adopt.
Barry Manilow performs with his back-up singers (Keely Vasquez, foreground)
at Paris Las Vegas, 3/21/10
The 4th C of Branding -- Create Your Own Stuff
- How do I get an agent? (I wrote a little about agents on my advice page for my site.)
- Should I join one of the voiceover casting -- commonly referred to as pay-to-play (P2P) -- sites, and if so, which one is better? (If you're interested, my answer to that question is here.)
- Who actually wins all these auditions? (You do have more on your marketing plan than waiting for auditions, don't you? If you need help in creating a marketing plan, check out this post. Also, this post contains 25+ marketing and publicity ideas to attract clients to you. You'll find other marketing articles in the archives.)
To me, the approaches above cause you to give away your power. I'm not saying you shouldn't do them as part of your marketing mix. However, you'll have far greater power to move your voiceover career in the direction you want it to go by casting yourself in your own projects.
Our friends who act on camera or in the theatre will write a play or show for the web, create the set, design costumes, get their friends to act with them, star in the show, direct it, and publicize their effort -- all WITHOUT pay. Either we professional voiceover people aren't creating our own stuff, or we're not publicizing it too well.
I also think many people resist investing time in such projects when they aren't being paid. Our society tends to attach monetary value to everything, which can make us feel that it's not worth doing something simply for the pleasure of doing it. Creating our own work allows us to develop skills and make us more competitive for those paying jobs. You might consider your own project to be a specialized form of practice. In addition, we can use our own projects in our publicity efforts. If you keep working at it, who knows? Someone may even pay you someday for your creation.
What to Create?
I think the question could be answered by looking at what you like and the category of voice work that you want to obtain. Below are some ideas that may inspire you.
Promos? How about creating your own video with your voice as the promo? If you can't create a video, perhaps you could work with the public access cable channel to develop one. You could post the finished product on your site and others like YouTube.
Audiobooks? How about recording short stories and books for the blind, reading at your library, or recording for LibriVox?
Commercials? How about writing your own copy and setting it to music?
Video games? How about voicing some projects on one of the fan sites?
Podcasts? How about turning an organization's newsletter into a podcast or Internet radio show?
Narrations? How about narrating feature stories from magazines? You could scan pictures or buy stock images and add them to PowerPoint or a video to create a finished presentation. As another idea, you could create audio or video podcasts based on scripts that you write.
I cannot express to you the power and importance of creating your own work in building your personal brand and attaining the level of success you want in voiceover. But -- don't take my word for it.
For years, actor/producer/director Bob Fraser has been advising actors to cast themselves and create their own work.
Author/producer/casting director Bonnie Gillespie is such a strong advocate of self-produced work that she includes someone's self-produced work each week in her popular column The Actor's Voice.
And now, you've heard it directly from Barry Manilow.
Success does leave clues, and 3 famous and highly successful people have all left the same one. Now that you have it, what are you going to do about it? I'd love to get your comments and see examples of your creations on this blog!
Barry Manilow.
Paris.
Both are iconic brands that exude love and romance. Can you sum up your voice-over brand in a few short words?
Since 1993, I've traveled to over a dozen cities from London to Las Vegas just to see Barry Manilow in concert. I've seen him perform 51 times, including his newest show at the spectacular Paris Las Vegas during my recent trip to Las Vegas. The Paris Las Vegas resort is the perfect venue for Barry, and his new show includes images of Impressionists works found in Paris, France. The latest rendition of Barry's show is truly an ideal marriage between 2 romantic brands.
Barry has been creating albums and performing in live concerts for over 35 years. After that last concert, I thought about 3 Cs related to Barry's branding that may help you achieve similar longevity with your voiceover career.
Barry Manilow performing at the Paris Las Vegas, 3/21/10
People are always shocked when I say how many times I've gone to a Manilow concert. They ask me why I would go see the same performer so many times. They incredulously inquire, "Isn't it the same show every time?"
Since I want to answer that question here by talking about his branding, I think it's easier to understand branding when looking at products instead of people. If I said I had bought Tide detergent hundreds of times in my life, no one would find the revelation shocking. At best, they might be curious about the reason for my allegiance to that particular brand of detergent.
Core Product
Tide detergent is a carefully formulated product that will remove stains from clothes. It is a brand to distinguish it from other, similar-looking products that also remove stains from clothes.
Many people don't stop to think of an entertainer as a powerful form of brand promotion. Whether we're talking about a legendary performer with decades of experience like Barry Manilow or the newest voice talent plugging in a microphone today, a voice-over talent is a unique brand just as Barry Manilow is.
What kind of song is Barry known for? Love songs. True, he sings in a wide variety of musical genres -- including jazz, pop, standards, rock, and even Latin (and I'm not just talking about Copacabana) -- but he uses the same signature sound and stays true to his core product line of love songs in most cases.
As a voice talent, I also have worked in multiple genres -- commercials, audiobooks, e-learning modules, games, and phone systems. Although I may employ a different attitude or change my vocal attributes to create a character voice, the vast majority of my work employs my signature sound. I usually stay true to my core product line of factual presentation.
Just as clothes detergents look the same, and a singer's catalog tends to sound the same, you will probably note some similarity among the types of scripts on which you excel. If you stop and determine where that similarity lies, you will have found your core product. When you know your core product, it's easier to target a niche of people who want that product.
Consistent Results
Most people make all purchasing decisions out of habit or, ideally, affinity to a particular brand. We repeat our decisions when we are satisfied with the product and it provides predictable, consistent results. Fans of entertainers and sports teams repeatedly pay big bucks to see their idols perform. What's more, they are only too happy to buy merchandise with their idol's name and logo, etc.
When I buy Tide, I know that my clothes will be clean. When I buy a ticket to a Manilow concert, I know I will hear favorite songs and see a high-energy show for 2 hours. When a client books me for a voice-over job, they know they will receive a well-narrated, pristine recording of their script before their deadline. Since I market my brand as "A Vacation For Your Ears", clients rightfully expect me to be bright, sunny, stress-free, and fun!
Constant Improvement
Going back to my detergent analogy, if Tide had never made a change in the years that I had been buying it, I probably would have switched to another detergent. As it is, Tide has removed chemicals that irritated my skin, changed from powder to liquid, and created new packaging which encourages me to get refills. The basic product stayed the same, but improvements have been made based on customer feedback.
In the years that I've followed Barry, he also has improved. Sure, you know you're going to hear certain songs and some of the same jokes from concert to concert. Mandy, Copacabana, and I Write The Songs are part of his core product line. The production and staging has changed with different tours and venues. Also, Barry has continued to produce new albums, so the music changes over time as well. He has said that he gets bored with the same show, and he knows his fans would, too. Therefore, he even changes elements of the show each night.
My clients have also benefitted from my constant improvement. I have upgraded studio components and continue to take classes to maintain and improve my performance.
When you define and stick with your core product, offer consistent results, and embrace constant improvement, you will find much success in your voice-over career over the years.
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Aside from these thoughts about branding, I've learned some extremely important life's lessons from Barry which may help you live the life of your dreams, specifically:
- Don't take your critics' words to heart; what do they know, anyway?
- Forget about pleasing everybody; concentrate on playing to the people who like what you do.
- Do what you love (in my case, voice-over) not for the money but because you can't NOT do it. Barry has said: "You shouldn't do it for the applause, the money or the ego satisfaction because it doesn't work. You've got to do it because you've got to do it."
- Your job is just what you do, but it doesn't change who you are.
- You can give in, you can give out, but you don't give up.
- The better produced demo you make, the better chance you have.
At the end of his concerts, Barry often urges his audiences:
DO WHAT YOU LOVE!
He closed his autobiography with this passage, and I want to share it with you.
I believe that we are who we choose to be.
Nobody is going to come and save you. You've got to save yourself.
Nobody is going to give you anything. You've got to go out and fight for it.
Nobody knows what you want except you,
and nobody will be as sorry as you if you don't get it.
So don't give up your dreams.
In the last few days, I have enjoyed reading my friend Dave Courvoisier's excellent 3-part series of blog articles about setting rates. When I saw the comments about not leaving money on the table when negotiating the price of a voice-over job, I remembered some unrelated advice given to me by my hair stylist. You might wonder how a hair stylist could help a voice talent, but we're both business owners. I decided to dig up and publish my entries from my journal from that day as her advice is sure to help other voiceover artists.
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Photo: iStockPhoto.com/Gerry Hernandez
Saturday, 25 January 2003
We went to get our hair cut. As I was sitting with wet hair and wearing my lovely vinyl smock, my phone rang. I thought and hoped it might be someone calling about my Prelude harp since I posted ads to sell it just this morning.
Nope. It was [client], calling about the sound files. He was trying to compress them and was getting a hissing sound. I felt bad that I didn't do any file reduction before I sent them to him. I sent him what he asked for -- CD audio. He didn't specify the sampling rate or resolution. I told him I'd try to help him when I got home. By the time I got here, I had an email from him saying that they had converted the files.
Sunday 26 January 2003
I was worrying over [client's] phone call yesterday while Theresa was cutting my hair. She said she understood exactly how I felt. She equated [client's] call to me as being like one of her customers deciding they didn't like the hair color they asked for, which would cause Theresa to have to use more product and spend time she hadn't planned. She wouldn't get any more money for the job, but she would make the customer happy.
Theresa advised me to create a manual that would include my procedures for different types of projects and questions I should ask. She hit the nail on the head when she said my business is in a growth phase. Even though I had been planning for it for quite a while, it's still hard to be fully prepared for every circumstance that crops up.
I feel this whole experience with [client] is a valuable learning experience from an operational standpoint. My manual should help me to remember to ask or do:
1) to see the script before agreeing to a final price
2) ask the client how big the final file size should be
3) if I know the files are going on a phone system, I should create smaller files before sending them to the client
I've also been reminded in the past week:
4) When someone asks me for a quote, I should ask them first if they have a budget and a timeframe in mind.
Even though it's been 7 years since Theresa advised me to devise a manual, I continue to write down numerous operational aspects of my voice-over projects, such as:
- When doing an audition, I scribble the "Moment before" on the script so that I can get back to the same frame of mind if I'm selected for the job.
- I note the method of file transmission that a client prefers. Some people want to receive files in e-mail, while others prefer services like YouSendIt.com and Dropbox.com.
- If I use music from my royalty-free library, I list the disc and cut that I selected. For podcasts, I also include the cues and timing in the music to maintain consistent intro and outro segments.
Writing my procedures allows me to spend more quality time producing my recordings.
As for the rates question that started this trip down memory lane, I want to add one thing. Asking people if they have a budget and timeframe (#4 from my journal entry) immediately weeds out those who are seriously interested in hiring me from those who want me to record for "exposure". In fact, just last week, someone proposed that I do voiceover projects for them in exchange for a link on their web site. After asking them about their budget, it's no surprise to me that I didn't receive a reply.
Karen Commins
Voice Actor
Voice Actor
• Greetings from Karen
• How to Reach Me
• Places I've Been
• Advice for Your Journey
• So You Want to Get Into Voiceovers?
• My Path So Far
• How to Reach Me
• Places I've Been
• Advice for Your Journey
• So You Want to Get Into Voiceovers?
• My Path So Far
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