One Job in Two Years

Frank Cabanski · **Voice Talent** Joined: 12 Dec 2005 Posts: 87

In two years of answering leads on Voice123, I've received one job. It turned into three as I did a cartoon voice in 2006, and then the same producer contacted me to perform two more characters in 2007, but that's it.

I've paid the cost of Voice123, but nothing else.

Since beginning courses with Nancy Wolfson, I've gotten a lot more feedback from producers telling me I was presented to the client, thanks blah blah but someone else was selected, but still no jobs.

I'm working through this course with Nancy and will have her produce a demo, I'm working on issues with the quality of my audio (any suggestions for a home studio?) but don't seem to be impressing anyone and am ready to turn in the microphone.

Scott Pollak · Posted: Wed Dec 12, 2007, 00:36 (GMT) Post subject:

Frank,

I'm truly sorry to hear your story, and I'm not familiar with your demos so I can't even comment on your skills or quality at this point.

But the sad truth is you are a reflection of the vast majority of people who venture into ANY form of the 'entertainment' industry, whether it's voiceover, acting, singing, dancing, rock 'n' roll, etc.

The truth is this: It's a brutally tough industry to succeed at. J.S. Gilbert - one of those few who HAS done well at it - has posted time and again here the stats about the number of people who will fail in v/o, as well as the vast, vast majority who will only make a few pennies here and there.

Of course it takes talent. It also takes relentless perseverance and dogged determination, not to mention a decent equipment set up. But even all of that MAY NOT lead one to success.

Besides having terrific talent, the few who do succeed in this business probably have the right voice at the right time. No matter whether your voice is great or not... if it's not what people are looking for, then there's not much you can do about it. Just as with singers, actors, etc.

The highly successful ones also have really good marketing sense, knowing how to get out and sell themselves. If you're counting on the v/o websites to make your living, then you might as well pack it all in right now.

Nancy is a terrific coach (I've used her myself), with excellent marketing acumen. I wish you all the best and hope for better v/o days ahead for you.

But may your story also be a wake-up call to all the bright-eyed newbies who think this is a lottery ticket to wealth and stardom.

It ain't.

Melba Sibrel · Posted: Wed Dec 12, 2007, 15:45 (GMT) Post subject:

Frank,

I think all who actually make a living at this have been at this point of discouragement. And yes, sometimes we do have to give up and go do something else -- in all kinds of endeavours. I'm sure there are accountants who have to give up their number-crunching dreams, too. Well. Maybe not so much.

Instread of writing Second Lamentations on these boards, go out and market. Forget the internet, hit the streets. You've got some big, busy cities in TX. Go door to door to ad agencies, studios, any local joint for which your voice would be just right for their advertising/training videos/voicemail. Don't worry about equipment. For actual jobs, use a studio. There are tons in your TX market. Build a relationship, get a discount. But before you do that. Look at your personality. It's the personality in the voice that gets the job, most of the time, and the personality in the studio that gets the repeat work. Instead of being dour, be the brightest, most versatile, easiest to work with VO talent anyone ever saw. Get in the door and love them to death. In a non-creepy way, of course. Very Happy

J.S. Gilbert · Posted: Wed Dec 12, 2007, 19:38 (GMT) Post subject: Opinions

Frank,

Two words that I can discuss are expectations and opinions.

With regards to expectations, we are seeing a shift towards talent being expected to be able to nail auditions in many cases. At one time a producer might listen to 20 auditions and establish that someone had great acting chops, etc. Now, I'm afraid in many cases, they'll listed to 100 auditions and try to find that one read that most exactly matches the one they have in their head.

Tough to come up with that from a brief description and a few lines of copy.

This isn't always the case, but more frequently seems to be the way the auditions tend to go.

Expectations are also changing in that talent are setting up home studios and must be somewhat knowledgable in audio recording. Talent must also really be able to direct themselves. Talent must also be able to act, even if that "acting" is to have the audition sound like it was read by someone who has never acted.

The other word I mentioned is "opinion", meaning that in the end, it is merely a person or person's opinion that Voice Talent A should do the job vs. Voice Talent B.

This means that your marketing and selling of yourself needs to directly speak to having that opinion be you should be the voice.

In some cases, the opinion can be easily swayed when the voice talent being selected is a brother, wife, daughter, sister of the client or producer. We also now find copywriters hiring one another to be the v.o. talent on their projects.

I think the other thing to consider is that Voice123 represents the very smallest tip of the iceberg when it comes to v.o. today. Is the concept of online voice casting causing peopole to shift their paradigms? You bet your booties, but eventhose of us who book incredibly well from online services will tell you it's really just a fraction of what a good working talent should make.

Time will tell though. Maybe 5 or 10 years from now online casting will be the norm or maybe as some would suppose in other threads, robot voice talent will take over the industry.

Nobody really knows for sure. The only thiing we do know is that very, very few in this industry ever earn over $5,000 per year. And those figures are generally meant to reflect the efforts of those who pursue v.o. more or less fulltime.

One thing is also for sure, the voice teachers and folks writing books all seem to drive nice cars and live in nice houses.

--j.s.

Joe Rodriguez · Posted: Wed Dec 12, 2007, 20:20 (GMT) Post subject:

Frank,

It appears that your feedback is getting better and you are making positive strides to improve yourself even further. Keep it up.

I've read in many places that you can't count on V123 or Voices or any other online service for 100% of your marketing efforts or income. You have to do as Melba said and go find those all-important voice hirers out there by whatever means necessary. Me too for that matter!

Good luck.