The Seed Was Planted
Back in 2015 I heard Bill DeWees say something ot the effect of “be elective about who you take advice from” for your voice over business. This stuck with me. I have always solicited advice from Bill, because I think he gives very sound guidance, but there are not many people beyond my husband and a few in my inner circle that I trust for true guidance. With the new addition of Clubhouse on the social media front, I think we have to ask ourselves who is really qualified to advise us about our voice over business, and who do we actually want to take guidance from. There is a slippery slope of participating in the dialogue and identifying as an expert when someone is actually far from it. Yesterday I sat in on some Clubhouse sessions during my lunch hour. As a seasoned professional in voice over with years of experience, I can easily evaluate which information has relevance and value to be and which should be tossed out immediately. My concern, though, is that for those who are knew to the voice over industry, they will look to both Clubhouse or social media in general in lieu of much needed coaching and not know enough to filter out the mis-information. So, this begs the question, who should you be taking advice from in voice over?
Coaches
The job of a voice over coach is to teach voice talents to succeed. Whether a coach is working with you on your craft, or on building your business, a good coach can be trusted to help you build a solid foundation for your business. When I work with students, I always work on both professional development as we work with various scripts, but every session also works on business goals as well. Whether you are working towards a demo, or marketing a new demo, voice actors often need direction to help move their business along. The right coach will help you with your individualized goals.
Agents
There are talent agents who cast voice actors all over the counts, and they, too, are outstanding for career and rates advice in voice over. A good agent not only secures industry leading rates, they also direct you reads and let you know when you are on the mark and when you need improvement. An agent has both business savvy and a good ear, so if you are lucky enough to be on their roster, work with them! Seek their guidance and build a rapport. You can learn so much for a good agent. Both you and the agent benefit from you learning as much as possible, so they would likely want to help as much as they can.
Established Voice Talents
Advice from established voice talents is very valuable. When I say established, this is not necessarily an amount of time. Instead, a good indicator of how a talent is doing is their client list. If they are booking a lot with brands we all know and love, that is a goos sign indicator that they talent knows what they are doing and you can trust them to give sound advice.
I have blogged before about my accountability group, but I cannot stress enough how much this group has helped me daily to grow my business and make better choices. They have pushed me beyond boundaries I would have never thought to challenge, and they have made me look beyond. I am so much better because I am in the company of these women.
I have also blogged about voice over conferences before, but this is another great way to interact with voice actors. Typically you can learn so much from those who present at conferences. You can also meet others and build relationships with many at the conferences, and these bonds endure, even during the pandemic.
Many voice actors offer guidance on social media. On Facebook their are groups for voice actors. For those of us who have been in the industry, we know who is new and who is established, and we can determine who we want to listen to. If you are knew to voiceover, please be discerning while online.
Conclusions
As professional voiceover actors, we put so much of ourselves into our businesses. It is not just the time we spend training and building our booths, but we invest a lot financially too. Between the equipment, the demos, and the websites, starting a voiceover business is no small venture. So please, do not just jump on the bandwagon of every ninny with an iphone. Scrutinize your options and be clear about who you are following and who you take guidance from. As a voice actor and business owner, you have choices. Choose wisely and safely for yourself so that you can build a consistent and sustainable business.
I happened to marry a huge Bill Murray fan, and from Quick Change to Groundhog Day, I think I’ve seen all of his top hits, but Groundhog Day is my favorite. As a working mom, having a system to maintain efficiency is really important but unfortunately that same system often makes every single day feel the same. I go into my booth and warm up. I do my most pressing auditions first. Next I tend to all booked work. I submit more auditions. I stop and walk the dogs. I typically eat an early lunch then work on client outreach. Then I go back in the booth for more work and to submit more auditions. Every day is pretty much the same. I meet with my accountability group on Thursdays and I blog on Sundays. Days are the same and weeks blend together. So, as a full-time voice over professional who is booking work, you might be asking what is wrong with this? The problem is the rut the I feel like I fall in. With no room for self-checks and no room to make sure that I am submitting the best possible reads, the Groundhog day scenario perpetuates itself. The best way to break this cycle and for a voice over professional to submit bookable auditions is to work on their craft regularly and to work with top coaches who give solid feedback! In voice over we are constantly being asked why we are different than other talents and those of us who book work know that the answer is seldom our voice but rather that we need to work on our craft to stand out!
It’s important to pick the right coaches and I’ve been blessed to work with many excellent ones in the years that I’ve been in voice over. Sometimes you want private lessons and sometimes group classes can meet your training needs. Right now I wanted to shake things up. Kim Handysides and her daughter Lisa Suliteanu book a lot of work. They understand what is au courant and have created a curriculum across genres to target bookable reads. Kim has been an industry leader for 30 plus years and her talented daughter Lisa has been working steadily since she was 7 years old and has been full-time since finishing university. In case you’re wondering what the vibe of their class is like, it is upbeat, inspirational, clever, and fun. With so many coaches in the industry at the moment, this class is designed to put voice actors on the path to success and enrolling was a great step for me, even so many years into my career!
In Groundhog Day, we see Phill Conners taking piano lessons and becoming an amazing pianist. This did not happen over night. It took lots and lots of practice. Right now in The Voice Over Study, we work on different scripts and then can use those tools to go back and really work on a script. The more we learn to unravel it, the better our reads become. For me, having fresh feedback on my reads is helpful. It is also just as helpful to pay attention to the reads of the other voice actors in the class, listen to how they approach the scripts, and think about the feedback that they are given. I try to incorporate this approach into both my auditions and my booked work and bring some freshness to it all.
In Groundhog Day, we see Phil’s relationship with others in the town blossom and develop throughout the film as he gets to relive each day. For me, having an opportunity to meet other voice over actors is really valuable. The other talents in the class are from different parts of the United States and Canada. We are at different points in our careers and we all aspire to focus on different genres of voice over. Still, I think knowing other voice actors is essential to our success, and I am so thankful to be getting to know the other actors in this class as we all learn together.
Just as we see Phil repeatedly attempting to cover the story about Punxsutawney Phil, there are countless ways each script can be approached, so wouldn’t it save a lot of time and energy to understand which reads are actually booking right now? That is the point of “The Voice Over Study,” the nuances of the bookable read are not necessarily my go to read, so I am so thankful for the first few sessions already! For example, the words to emphasize or blend may not be what I had thought of, so this valuable feedback, and the reinforcement of it, makes Kim and Lisa’s class outstanding. In class last week, Kim directed me to hit words I never word have that to enunciate, and the overall gestalt of the read was just a million times better. Her instincts are amazing. Kim and Lisa book A LOT of work on their own, and my goal is to be as busy as they are!
In class we have homework. We have scripts to prepare and we are also supposed to work on cold reading. I also love this, as both make me more efficient and more effective in my daily work. These tasks are something that I look forward to, as I feel like I am taking control of my career and determining my own path.