My Son Hates When I Say Journey
I realized this year when my son had to do a rather grueling elimination diet that he hates when I say journey. Whether it is related to food, weight loss, his college search… it doesn’t matter. He hates if I say journey. I think it doesn’t resonate with him. He still thinks that where he is going, the end result, is the most important thing. As a mom of twins, I can say that I have learned I seldom end up where I thought I would. As a professional voice actor, I can say that this career path is for sure a voice over journey. The opportunities that have unfolded since I started my career never cease to amaze me. The combination of passion and hard work seems to result in a delightful array of unexpected options, many of which I never anticipated.
A New Career
When I was in my mid-30s I decided to start my voice over business. I had to work with coaches all over the world to build my credentials. I needed tech training to learn to edit my audio. I had to build my studio. When I say I started then, I came to the industry with no experience. I never did school plays. I never did on-camera work. I took a leap of faith and invested in myself. I plunged in whole heartedly and the only option was to succeed. For six months before my business launched, I spent all day, every day, practicing and preparing. That is how my journey began. You might think that this was an easy choice? While my husband was extremely supportive, many in my family seemed to question my choices. Whether they outwardly remarked about my shift from a career in education to voice over or my snide remarks about how I could so easily “not use my degrees,” I understood the message. They questioned my choice to segue into voice over. Fortunately, the voice in my head propelling me towards VO was substantially louder than the many voices of doubt that surrounded me.
Solopreneur
When I began my business, I understood that it was just that: a business. As a working creative, I wear many hats: mom, voice actor, voice over coach, demo producer, but always the business owner. Over the years I’ve had to think a lot about my practices and policies. I’ve had to think about how the business choices I make inform the relationships I’m building. As I had a liberal arts education that focuses on Political Science and History, I really knew very little about business when I launched. Even though I am surrounded by a family of lawyers, I did not want to constantly rely on others for guidance. I have taken multiple classes to bolster my business and marketing knowledge. This has been very fulfilling. I enjoy all ongoing professional development, but my learning in this area has been very valuable. Whether from a class, a conference, or a webinar, I am proud of the confidence I have in my choices. I also try to read continually about business released topics. This part of my journey has been a true joy.
Opportunity as Working Mom
I will say, that as a working mom, I am extremely thankful to be in voice over. Even as I write this blog, my dogs are sitting on either side of me. Often, I am able to take breaks from recording to have snacks with my kids or go for walks. Some days I schedule my coaching so that I can go to pick them up from school, other days my husband does it. As a working mom, voice over seems like the perfect fit.
New Ventures Within VO
There have been many surprises for me in voiceover. First, I work in many genres I never knew existed when I started. This includes telephony, eLearning, and radio imaging. I never heard of any of those and learned about all of them from online webinars. I have been able to really build those areas of practice over the years.
Another big surprise for me has been voice over coaching and demo production. If you had asked me even three years ago if I’d be doing this, I would never have guessed. But the truth is, the voice over coaching seems like the perfect fit for me as a former teacher. And most of those students need demos, so teaming up with All Systems Go AV to provide my students with what they need just makes sense.
Reflections on the Voice Over Journey
So why do they need to share these thoughts and feelings about my journey? Since I started coaching, quite a few students have asked for reassurance that they are not getting into VO too late. Hearing my story, how old I was, and that it was a second career for me too, has been comforting to them. Do I know where this journey will take me? No. But I sure am thankful for the opportunity to be on it.
I also recommend having practical hooks in your book. I have a hook for my cans and a hook for my wires. It helps keep things neat and organized.
I also do love having Source Connect. So many clients and agents require it. I occasionally need to have support sessions, and they do offer great support from Source Connect. Again, like with Zancastr, there are no latency issues. There are, though, sometimes quirks connecting. Sometimes people are confused with how to use it. If you are not both connecting with the same sample rate, for example, you won’t connect smoothly and it will be an issue, so that all needs to be decided ahead of time.
I wish I know how important a good travel rig is. It took me five years to get my travel rig to sound as good as my home set up. That is WAY too long. If you are just starting in voice over during the pandemic, I realize it is hard to imagine actually packing up and leaving home, but when we do, the rig matters.
Let me share two experiences that happened in the past week. Last week, I heard from an Indie Video Game producer that I worked with in 2016. They were offering me the same role I played then. I had detailed notes in my CRM that they needed a discount as they were trying to launch the game with a kickstarter campaign. When I quoted them this time a normal, mid-range rate, they came back to me saying they were shocked that my rated had gone up. They went on to say that the five other talents had agreed to the rate they offered and they wanted to pay everyone the same. I referred them to the GVAA rate guide, which I will discuss later, and reminded them of the terms of 2016. They came up to my rate for me and for the other talents.
Imagine a scenario where we all just stopped negotiating. Let’s say a client offers $200 for two TV commercials with no mention of the length of usage, and instead of trying to negotiate, sort out the details, and explain why buy outs don’t work for us, we all just said “sure.” The implications would be staggering. The clients, then, would assume there is nothing wrong with this sweat shop pay, and would assume that our years of coaching and on-going professional development, that our expensive studio equipment, that the service we provide, that none of it has value, and that the can continue to lower and lower the rates. Where will it end? How low will they go? I shudder at the thought, and fear that if we are not willing to walk away, these bargain basement rates will become more and more common. You must know your worth and be willing to stand up for it.
For me, my journey started in the mid-1990s. I was a student at Columbia University in New York City. I was studying political science. My younger sister Julie also went to school at Columbia, and we went out to eat off campus often. If you know anything about New York, you know that lots of waiters and waitresses are also actors who have to pay the bills. Well my sister and I have always sounded young, but when we were young we really sounded young. We also had a habit of speaking in unison and saying the same thing at the same time. It became a pattern that we would got to places like Ocean Grill or Isabella’s and every single time our server would comment on our voices. It wouldn’t just happen there, it would happen at Bergdorf’s or wherever we shopped. It even happened in taxi cabs. Often the follow up to asking if we are twins, and we are not, is that we should be in voice over.
I remember the day clearly. It was winter during my sophomore year and I went to the famous Drama Book Shop in Times Square to research how to become a voice over actor. One of the perks of being a student in NYC is that all of this was right at my fingertips. I was able to learn so much just be talking to the people who worked at the book shop, and I left with some books and a copy of Variety in hand. What I quickly discovered was that while I was in the right city to pursue voice over, at that time everything happened in person. I would have to take my tape cassettes around, show up in person for auditions, and actually go to studios for gigs. Being a student at Columbia and doing VO seemed mutually exclusive at that moment. My studies were intense and they were my primary concern, so voice over was put on the back burner.
My chat with Marie gave me the impetus to get started in voice over. I began researching coaches, writing a business plan, and researching how to build a studio. In the coming months, I started to lay the foundations for my VO business. I began working with Anne Ganguzza, my first coach. I started planning for my VO website, and I started having my studio built. I also had tech training to learn how to record and edit. I also began taking advanced acting and improv classes at Papermill Playhouse, our local theater. Over the years I have worked with many coaches, many of the best in the industry. I continue to push and hone my skills, update my demos, attend conferences, and build. A voice over career does not happen over night. I am so thankful for the work that I have had, and I have big dreams for what is to come!
