Create Your Own “Luck”

I just have to pass along the great story told by Janet Ault, in the latest edition of VoiceOverXtra! Janet is a voice-over professional based in Scottsdale, AZ. If you are not perusing the business sections of your local papers, or reading a Business Journal if you have one in your town, or subscribing to online enewsletters that promote new businesses, account executives moving from agency to agency, etc, then you are missing out on potential new business. 

Janet landed a new account by being pro-active – proving that you create your own luck by having the right tools and finding the opportunity to showcase them. What makes this story a bit more unique is that it happened so quickly. In about a week, she went from finding a “lead” to landing a rather lucrative spokesperson job.

Read the whole article here – http://www.voiceoverxtra.com/article.htm?id=5i15kwkt

2018-02-06T06:48:53+00:00January 5th, 2010|Categories: Business, Marketing|Tags: , , , , |
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You Just Never Know…

After all that ruminating about doing so many auditions and lamenting that most people were not casting off our demos (see prior blog post – http://isdnvoicetalent.wordpress.com/2009/12/02/ruminating-again-about-auditions/), I had a direct hit off one of the P2P sites that will result in an ISDN session this morning.

So, you just have to keep everything honed and at the ready…’cause you just never know the path someone will take to find and hire you. Keep your generic demos fresh!

It’s just one part of any good business plan. Scroll back a few posts to see some great responses from a couple of pros on some of the other business thoughts I’ve had over the past week or so.

http://isdnvoicetalent.wordpress.com/2009/12/22/more-on-the-business-of-vo/

http://isdnvoicetalent.wordpress.com/2009/12/21/tangible-and-intangible-assets-needed-for-voiceover-biz/

2018-02-06T06:48:53+00:00December 23rd, 2009|Categories: Auditioning, Business, Marketing|Tags: , , , , |
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More on the Business of VO

I read a lot of message boards and user groups focused on the voiceover biz. One of them is the Yahoo Voiceover Newsgroup and a recent thread has been about some of the many changes facing the – well, pretty much ANY business these days.

Combine the economy woes with the changes that the Internet brings every day and you have a lot of old-timers scrambling to make the new world of voiceover work for them. You also have more and more who want to break into the business lured by promises of easy money just for talking. It takes a lot more than just talent…

Here are a couple of paragraphs of sage advice from Jennifer Vaughn.

Talent doesn’t take the front seat in any successful business.  A successful business requires a savvy business person who is knowledgeable in all the elements required to make a business profitable.  That […]

2018-02-06T06:48:53+00:00December 22nd, 2009|Categories: Business|Tags: , , , , , |
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Tangible and Intangible Assets Needed for Voiceover Biz

While this is simplified, there are two lists here of things the budding voiceover talent of today might need to make it.

The first is a list of the basic physical hardware and software assets needed to succeed in the business today. The second is more intangible, but even more important if you want to actually work and make a living doing voiceovers.

The Tangible (Physical) Assets

  • Computer for recording
  • Large hard drive (as many Gigs as you can afford)
  • Computer speed (as fast as you can afford)
  • Good sound card (most computers these days come with decent sound card that will work for basic voiceover)
  • Lots of memory (as much as you can afford)
  • DVD/CD drive AND a CD-R/RW Sound
  • Recording Software (Sound Forge, GoldWave, Adobe Audition, ProTools)
  • High-speed Internet Access (cable or DSL)
  • Web Presence – your own web site or your demos posted on a web site
  • Microphone – decent mike – $300 or more that works with your […]
2018-02-06T06:48:53+00:00December 21st, 2009|Categories: Business|Tags: |
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What makes an audition “win?” Am I the “voice in the head” today?

This is a subjective business – this business we are in – the business of recording our voice for sales, marketing, information, entertainment. And it is a mystery for sure sometimes as to why one voice is selected out of all the choices submitted.

I’ve mentioned recently that after many many years in this business, I am starting to have the opportunity to go vocal cord to vocal cord with some of the best most well known talent in the industry. My ear is caught many times a day by the radio or the TV as spots that I have auditioned for fly out of the speakers.

I have heard the Geico Pothole and Parking Column spots. The new Chinet spots. Something for weight loss. And several more. I have returned to my audio files to compare what ended up on the air with what I submitted. And I know that my audition […]

2018-02-06T06:48:54+00:00December 1st, 2009|Categories: Auditioning, Business|Tags: , , , , |
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The Decline of Network TV?

A friend in the advertising biz sent me an article from the New York Times titled “The Decline of Network TV.”

The big three broadcast networks are not so big anymore – and major “stars” are jumping ship over to cable. The networks are having a hard time charging more for ad rates as their ratings sink. This, as the big cable networks (USA, TNT, TBS) get money from advertising AND subscription fees – which translates to more profit.

So my question. With more and more eyeballs moving to cable coupled with the proliferation of niche channels on the cable systems – most of which run the same ads that run on the broadcast networks – do you see this affecting the budgets to make the ads?

It certainly has created more work for the time buyers! But will it affect us, as talent, postively or negatively?

2018-02-06T06:48:54+00:00November 21st, 2009|Categories: Business, Musings, Negotiating|Tags: , , , |
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Plan for your services to sell themselves…

This business is not about your voice. It is about knowing where you fit – what you have to sell. It is about having a demo that showcases this effectively. And it is about finding the people who want to buy what you have to sell. That’s called Marketing!

But in reality, you are not really selling. Your goal with marketing is to know your customer so well that your services sell themselves. Marketing is about understanding what you do and what your potential customer wants. It is about bringing your “product” to this market (in this case your commercial demo to people who make commercials, or your narration demo, or your promo demo, or your animation demo, etc.). It is about finding new products for new markets.

Marketing is your strategy and includes a whole bunch of activities:

  • Business Development – Wikipedia defines this as techniques and responsibilities which aim at gaining new customers […]
2009-11-12T14:10:53+00:00November 12th, 2009|Categories: Business, Marketing|Tags: , , , |
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Nice When the Agent Makes the First Move…

Had a private message through one of the P2P sites on Friday from an agent at a large talent agency asking if I was interested in being represented by them, as they had some auditions that they thought I would be right for.

A quick search on the web pointed to a reputable group with many of my virtual VO buddies already listed on the site. Made a couple of calls (due diligence) and within a couple of hours, the paperwork had been emailed, printed, signed and faxed back.

At a time when it is harder and harder to get agency representation in general, much less by a group that gets national work, this was a very nice email to receive.

So, here’s to a chance to do more – and better auditions – going head to head with some of the best in the business. In this numbers game, we need to audition. […]

2018-02-06T06:48:54+00:00November 7th, 2009|Categories: Auditioning, Business, Musings|Tags: , , |
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What’s Your Business Barometer Doing These Days?

My weather metophors are pretty lame, but after some later summer doldrums, there seems to be some sort of shift in the business climate. New contacts, regular contacts, old contacts – all are surfacing with interesting work.

And on the P2P site that gives you a inkling of if your audition has actually been listened to and if they liked what they heard (presuming the client submits that information), my Considerings and Likelys are outnumbering my Not Likelys. Of course the majority of the auditions don’t have any ranking, but in the grand scheme of things, it appears to be moving from cloudy to partly sunny.

But as regular work increases, it is hard to carve out the time to jump on the auditions before they are either closed (Voice123) or a 100 or so people have already auditioned (Voices.com).

Some of my producer friends/contacts have also been doing the “happy dance” – which is great […]

2018-02-06T06:48:54+00:00October 27th, 2009|Categories: Business|Tags: , |
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Casting Reality in the 00’s

P2P is here to stay. Well, it’s here now and is such a “new” reality that no one really knows where it will evolve. But as with anything new, there are lots of growing pains – for everyone involved.

I’ve linked to the Double Dutch Blog before (Paul Strikwerda) because he pretty much always has something interesting to say and the past few days he has been blogging about P2P sites – low balling rates, etc.

http://nethervoice.com/nethervoice/

One question that he has been asked prompts me to respond here. Here is the question – “How about the unions? Isn’t it their job to deal with remuneration? If you’re so unhappy with the current rates or the lowballing bidders, why not join AFTRA?”

Simple answer? Yes, the unions have established scale rates if you are so lucky as to get a job under a union contract. However, AFTRA has never been able to get you work. That […]

2018-02-06T06:48:54+00:00October 15th, 2009|Categories: Auditioning, Business, Musings, Unions|Tags: , , , , , , |
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