I’d like to chat about something I’ve been thinking about a lot these days.
It’s about doing the footwork.
We all take steps every day to advance our careers, enhance our relationships and make a better life for ourselves and our loved ones. Here’s the thing though….you don’t really know how it’s all going to turn out. Sure, you want it to turn out in your favor. You want that happy ending, but sometimes you never know what action you take will make that ripple and ultimately have that positive (or negative) impact.
Sure, a new voiceover demo is great. A new website? Fabulous! But sometimes it’s about sending an email thanking someone for writing a book that made you laugh….which can lead to a wonderful friendship. Or attending a business conference where you meet someone who becomes your best friend….or even the love of your life.
Just keep doing the footwork, and as someone once told me: “Stay out of the results.”
Be true to yourself, and you’ll be surprised at where you’ll be led. I know I have been.
When I became a full time voice talent (or actor, or “-over” or artist, or faffer…whatever you want to call it these days! ;-), one of the statements that I heard over & over again was “Oh forget it, it’s always the same 10 people that get booked for those jobs.”
In today’s day and age of social network-meetup-hi-look-at-me-ing you never really know who’s out there peeking in your website-blog-twitter-facebook-window.
OK! So it’s “that” time of year again…Resolution-time!
When you’re a voice talent, as you progress in your chosen profession, you will probably find yourself doing more of one type of work than another:
Those of us that are full-time voice talent do a lot of different types of work. TV and radio commercials, E-learning, and a lot of Message on hold and Interactive voice response work.
I’ve said it before in this blog, but I’ll say it again, there really is no competition in VO. Either you’re right for as gig, or your not. And I love that.
A while back I got a call from a potential new client. It was a very pleasant call, asking about my rates and availability. And then, as is often the case in IVR/MOH work they asked how long I’d been doing this work, and basically whether I planned on being around to complete any updates they may requires months, or years down the line. I told them that this is what I do.
OK…as freelance VO talent, we are very often sitting in our own studios…our own “padded rooms” if you will.