Consistency Matters
As a full-time professional voiceover actor and coach, I think one of the reasons my career has continued to thrive and grow through the years is the consistency of my practice. When I work with my VO coaching students on techniques, whether the are voice over acting methods or the practical steps to running a day to day business, I pass on exactly what I practice in my own business. I encourage what I have found to work and hope to foster good habits in students. Conversely, I also share what has not worked in hope of sparing them what I already know not to be helpful. As solopreneurs, we wear so many hats and juggle so many balls. Setting ourselves up for success and holding ourselves accountable makes life much easier. So yes, this many years in, I practice what I preach as a coach and I do as I say in my lessons. Here awesome aspects I focus on regularly as both a professional talent and a coach:
Goals
Goal setting is pivotal to success in voice over. If you don’t know where you want to go, how can you possibly get there? As part of my business plan, I update my goals at least twice a year, if not quarterly. Anyone who has worked with me can tell you I love to help them flesh out there goals and we typically do this early on. When I do my own personal goals, I always post them in my booth and where I like to work upstairs in my house. This helps a lot with mindset. I think everyone has good days and bad, and just knowing your intentions is useful.
Accountability
I have been saying for years that I would not be where I am today without my accountability buddies! We have even presented together at national conferences. At present I am in several accountability groups. My primary one for all of VO is affectionately called “the VO Powerhouse.” We meet weekly and talk about specific touch points and present in order every week. We also chat about our lives. We tend to talk daily on Facebook as well about everything from rates to pronunciation to our families.
I have a mentor for my audiobook work. We meet monthly. This has been extremely helpful in launching that genre of my business. Again, I don’t think you can quite imagine what the possibilities are without being pushed by those who have already gone there.
I am also in an eLearning ensemble. We meet twice a week. We touch base about our marketing goals specifically. This group is great because we push each other and keep our eyes on the horizon.
I always encourage students to find accountability buddies. I personally think that meeting at least once a week is crucial. I think it helps to keep you going and to keep your eye on the ball. I think everyone in VoiceOver should be in one! If you are not and would like to be, you can look at conferences (which is where I met my buddies), Facebook groups, and at local VO meetups.
Craft
As in other professions, voice actors, regardless of how established we are, are never finished working on our craft or technique. And in truth, as industry trends shift, it is extremely important to stay on top of them. Having one on one coaching is still extremely joyful for me, and the last one I worked with at length was Sean Pratt. I love doing online webinars, like Tina Morasco’s library and Dervla Trainor’s Speaker Series. I also love learning at conferences, and conferences are essential both to being part of the community and to staying on trend in VO. While I am often in attendance as a presenter, I try to soak in as much as I can as there are experts across genres from all over the country and often other countries, so if you can afford to go, you should!
Marketing
Just as I encourage my students, having a consistent in-bound and out-bound marketing strategy, staying on top of marketing is crucial to my business plan. From blogs, to social media, to newsletters, all of it matters, both separately and as a whole, to establish my brand. Everyone who knows me knows I can talk endlessly about branding, but in truth, it all matters, a lot, and being consistent not just about posting content, but the quality and quantity of the content matters. It can be daunting to have to post and keep track of all of these moving parts regularly, while staying on top of auditions and recording booked work, but if you want clients to know you exist, it is crucial.
Daily Routine
Having a consistent daily routine and painting a schedule helps to ensure that important “to do” items don’t fall through the cracks. Whether starts with a warm-up, goes to booked work, then auditions, and cleverly weaving social media in, or whether certain days are time blocked for certain tasks, your routine is important. I tend to leave certain days for certain tasks. I also am passionate about healthy living and fitness, so I weave meal prep and pilates into my routine as well. My voice over career would not be where it is today of those items were not part of my schedule. When I work with coaching students, I try to be realistic with them about their schedule. Working moms with young kids have very different demands on them than empty nesters. Still, regardless of the phase of life, routine helps everyone stay on task.
Takeaways
When I coach, I draw from my experience. If I change what I do, I share it so others can benefit. If I find something no longer works, I share that too. I find the best way to coach is to draw from my years of booking and try to help my students build a solid foundation.
If you’re in voice over, and you’re on Facebook, then you know how many groups there are for voice actors. There are so many. Why do I think voice actors spend time posting, commenting, and chatting on Facebook? Well, when you work alone in a padded foam booth, it’s really nice to have people. There is a really amazing, close knit voiceover industry, and even during covid, we all stayed close by continuing to chat on places like Facebook. In the past two weeks, I had to Facebook anniversary reminders of 
friendiversaries with close friends. Seeing these video reels flash in my feed brought me profound joy. It reminded me of how much I have built. If you have the privilege of working in voiceover, and you are successful, you know that it takes a lot more that years of long days of hard work. Success in voice over also takes the support of awesome industry friends who are there to support you on good days and bad.
If I had to go back to the very beginning, and try to unravel this thread, I’m not really sure how my multitude of VO friendships and connections started. It may have begun with Anne Ganguzza and VO Peeps. I certainly “met” other voice talents that way. It may have begun with taking zoom classes through GVAA and keeping in touch with my classmates. It may also have begun with attending Uncle Roy’s famous BBQ. As a newbie, all of these made me feel part of a community and helped me see where I fit in. When you are just starting out, it is sometimes hard to push yourself to go. You might worry that no one will talk to you. It is so, so important to go and meet people face to face.
Conferences are an AMAZING place to bond. It literally does not matter which conference you pick, they are incredible. Yes, there is lots of learning and sharing of knowledge. But, in truth, as we all learned from doing everything remotely this year, the educational aspect alone is not what gets us to leave our families and hope on a plane. It is for sure the social aspect of the conferences that is worth more than gold. It feeds your soul and builds you up. The interactions are genuine and you will make friendships that endure. The women that I speak to daily I “knew” before I met them in person, but seeing them at WoVo Con and seeing them at VO Atlanta was our time to connect and really get to know each other. We lift each other up in every way possible.
week I co-host a panel with one of my VO besties and fellow VO Coach Diana Birdsall. Our club is called “Ask the VO Coaches” and recent panelists have including Dave Scott from All Systems Go AV, Randy Thomas, George-the-Tech Whittam, Dan Leonard, Shelley Avellino, Bev Standing and more! Lot’s of voice actors come into the room and we chat about topics that matter to us. Clubhouse has given us a space to support each other and have an active and on going dialogue that raises the level of performance of the industry. 
The job of a 
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.
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.
