2016 is only two weeks away. What better time for a reality check? 🙂
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what makes a voice talent successful. I believe (and I’ve felt this way for a long time) that Systems of Thought are everything. The way you think about life has a massive influence over how you live it.
With that in mind, here are four words that are a part of most aspiring voice talents’ Systems of Thought that can be quite damaging:
Break
Connections
Competition
Luck
Ready for your reality check? Here we goooo…!
Break, “I hope I get my big break soon”
For a long time I thought that’s how it’s supposed to work. It just isn’t. There are no “breaks”. There is just the work. My first audio book was a Danielle Steel novel, the best-selling author alive. Did that break me into the audio book industry and give me consistent, high-paying work & accolades? Nope. Yes, it lead to other books but nothing as prominent.
Connections, “You need connections to get the big jobs”
This one annoys me so. Remember my connection story from a few years ago? Potential clients are everywhere. Finding the right ones for you, and I mean You you, is a challenge. Nobody can tell you where they are or how to find them. This is why P2P sites like Voice123 are so attractive. I got my clients via a myriad of ways over a very long period of time. If you do exactly what I did to land those clients, there is no guarantee the results will be the same.
Competition, “There’s too much competition”
No, there isn’t. I truly believe there is no competition in the voiceover industry. I’ve written about this subject, as well. To quote myself (and this feels strangely narcissistic),
“The only person that you’re competing with is yourself. To audition better, to listen better, to understand the industry better. You can be the best voice talent at the audition and give the best read and you STILL may not get the part! For all you know, you may remind the casting director of their ex or some other ridiculous factor that you have absolutely no control over.”
Luck, “You have to be lucky to make it in this industry”
I wrote about voiceovers & luck recently in this here blog entry. If you think you need to be lucky to be successful as a voice talent, find another profession. To quote myself yet again (get over yourself Tom),
“You achieve success by preparing yourself for whatever opportunities that may come your way. If you think you’re going to be successful in any endeavor by waiting to be discovered, get comfortable. You’ll be waiting a while…”
TIP OF THE WEEK
Getting your big break, having connections, and getting lucky is the stuff of old musicals and bad after-school specials. It is not reality. This is why the vast majority of aspiring voice talents fail. Notice that breaks, connections, and luck have absolutely nothing to do with you? Those are external. The keys to success are internal.
Being talented, developing your skills, listening, learning, growing, and working your ass off are what will make you a successful talent. If you can’t or won’t look inward and come face-to-face to what is preventing you from succeeding, then the voiceover industry is not for you.
Tough love, baby! That’s how I roll…
HAPPY HAPPYS!
Happy Monkey Day and Cat Herders Day! I’ve experienced cat herding first-hand. It happens every time more than one voice talent wants to go out to dinner…
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
If you look at someone long enough, you discover their humanity.
from “As Good As It Gets”
From my village to yours; this is Tom Dheere, GKN News…
Tom Dheere is a 19-year veteran of the voice over industry who has narrated thousands of projects for clients in over a dozen countries. He is also a coach at Edge Studio, voiceover business consultant known as the Voice Over Strategist, and is currently writing & producing the comic book “Agent 1.22”.