Apr 9, 2024
Today's voiceover landscape is brimming with untapped potential, and we're here to map it out for you. From acing live Zoom auditions to nailing in-person meetings, we've got you covered with all the preparation and adaptability tips you'll need. Join us as we delve into diversifying your voiceover skillset and why leaning into a variety of genres, like e-learning and corporate narration, could be your ticket to consistent work. Plus, don't miss our candid discussion on the art of evolution in the voice acting world, emphasizing the importance of ongoing training and a measured approach to carving out your niche. Whether you're a newbie to the mic or a vocal veteran, this dialogue is tuned to resonate with your voiceover aspirations.
00:01 - Intro (Announcement)
It's time to take your business to the next level, the boss level.
These are the premier business owner strategies and successes being
utilized by the industry's top talent today. Rock your business
like a boss a VO Boss. Now let's welcome your host, Anne
Ganguzza.
00:20 - Anne (Host)
Hello everyone, welcome to the VO Boss podcast and the Boss
Superpower series. I'm your host, Anne Ganguzza, and I'm here with
my super special boss guest co-host Lau Lapitas.
00:33 - Lau (Guest)
And it's great to be back, as always, yay awesome, all right
Lau.
00:39 - Anne (Host)
We've got a topic that I know is probably pretty common that you
hear. I've been hearing it quite a bit lately and it's all about
and I have been at this for a year now and I just am not booking.
What can I do? I don't know what to do at this point. I don't know
if I should just give up voiceover, or how do I get more bookings?
So there's a good question, Lau.
01:09 - Lau (Guest)
It's a great question and it's a common question. I know you and I
have fielded that one for years and continue to do so, and I just
had a client in a coaching session who the entire session was about
that. Right, she was angry, frustrated, she was frustrated, she was
hitting a wall, depressed, yeah, but just kind of like at a loss.
Really like what am I doing wrong? Or at a loss. And I'll say one
of the first things on our hit list that I'd like to talk about is
redirecting the energy. So the first thing I did was and I know her
very well for many years I wanted to redirect the energy towards
her, not in the sense that she's doing anything wrong.
01:48
It's not about right or wrong here. It's about how am I moving
forward in my marketing plan? Do I have a marketing plan? Is this
something that is a real part of my day? And going into a time
management, looking at a time management organizational tool of
some kind and really, really making it real. Because she kept
saying to me Lau, you know me, I'm a realist, I'm a realist. I said
I'm a realist and I'll tell you for real you got to have a calendar
in front of you For real.
02:16
Every day, every day. What am I doing in this day to put myself
into the universe? That's really on me, that's on you, that's on
me.
02:26 - Anne (Host)
Right? Well, first of all, amen, applause, applause, applause. And
so I want to just say the word that I think is so important, that
so many people miss, and that is marketing, marketing, marketing,
marketing. When you are not getting work right, you can have the
best voice in the world. How many times do I say this
Lau?
02:44
And it doesn't go good if nobody knows about it, okay, and so
nobody can hire you. Like, nobody can hire you if they don't know
you exist. And so if you're not booking, the first thing I say to
look at is marketing. And I again will say to you companies hire
departments full of people who are marketers, and those marketers,
their only job is to go out and get leads, send emails, create
marketing campaigns, do social media, do all of that stuff just to
get a lead. And I can just tell you, like my husband who works in
event management, right, they go to conferences, they sponsor
booths, they talk, they present and they spend thousands upon
thousands of dollars in their marketing efforts just to get
business right and to stay afloat and to keep that business
thriving or build the business, no matter what they're
doing.
03:35
So I think that voice actors tend to really miss the mark when it
comes to thinking about how important their marketing is, or their
marketing because they're not familiar with it. They're not
marketers, they didn't go to school for marketing. They kind of
just go oh yeah, I got a market. And so then they think maybe a
post on social media is marketing. Or they think I sent an email,
nobody responded and you have not tried hard enough. I'm just
saying Lau. What are your thoughts on that? Because I think most
people have to put like a thousand percent more effort into their
marketing than they do.
04:07 - Lau (Guest)
I really think that when people come into this profession and I'll
call them actors because it could be any kind of performer yeah, I
don't think it's specific to voiceover the marketing element is
something that we're just oftentimes not trained in, we're not
aware of. It isn't like business 101. I didn't get an MBA, so what
am I doing? Kind of thing. Well, it's just kind of the coach throws
it at you and you go what? Wait a second, I thought I was becoming
a voiceover talent. Now you're telling me I have to be my own
production team, I have to be my own talent, I have to be a
producer, I have to be a marketer, I have to brand myself. Yeah,
you really do. So. I see it step by step.
04:45
I think it's important to understand your schedule first. A lot of
folks that I work with come in and they literally don't know what
they're doing. They don't know their schedule. I say how many hours
in a week are you dedicated to putting your business out in the
world? They say I don't know. Maybe a couple hours in a week or
maybe six hours. I said not enough, not even close to marketing
departments.
05:05 - Anne (Host)
eight hours a day and more Eight hours a day.
05:07 - Lau (Guest)
You got to go into it every single day and have a. It doesn't need
to be constant, it needs to be consistent. So the consistency is
really what you're looking for. You don't have to be marketing all
day long, because you may be auditioning all day long, but you have
to be able to multitask as you're editing, as you're delivering, as
you're talking with a client, as you're auditioning. You have to be
able to multitask. And here is the homework assignment I gave to
her. I said I want you, once you understand your calendar and you
have your schedule in front of you. Thank you too. Pull three leads
for me every single day. Three, right. So if you do it five days a
week, that's 15 leads in a week. That's pretty sturdy. If they're
leads, they could be cold, they could be warm, you could be
connected to them, they could be out there in the universe. But I
want you to do that because every potential lead you have, every
suspect that turns into a prospect, opens up potentially a door to
a whole world that you don't have right now.
06:10 - Anne (Host)
And I want to now kind of tack on to that and say that now that
you've got leads you did three leads a day, you've done five days
and 15 leads. Now understand that those leads are just that. They
are leads. Right, those are people that you want to be able to
market to. However, you also have to assess are they at a point,
right at this time in space, to hire? Right? Do they have a need
for you? Do they have a need for your particular animated character
voice that is female and is high-pitched and young sounding? Do
they have a need for it at this precise moment? Probably
not.
06:45
I'm just going to say right, More than likely, the lead that you
have chosen, if you're really choosing lead after lead after lead,
right. They more than likely do not need it at this moment.
However, they may need it down the road, and so that's where the
consistency has to come in consistent, consistent, consistent. You
have to revisit that lead, right, and you have to revisit that lead
because they may not need you today, but they might need you
tomorrow, they might need you six months from now, and you have to
really be consistent with that and then keep good track of those
leads so that you know when you last contacted them. So you're not
contacting them every day and you're not Anneoying them, because,
God only knows, I have had Anneoying people contact me over and
over and over again.
07:26 - Lau (Guest)
You have the stalkers.
07:28 - Anne (Host)
Literally trying to sell me SEO services or web services or
whatever it is that they're trying to sell to me. And I can tell
because I see the thread in my email right. There's like oh,
there's the sixth time they've tried.
07:40
Sorry to bother you, but not really so you do need to understand
that those leads that you get more than likely aren't ready at this
precise moment to purchase your voice, unless, of course, your
leads are hot leads right. Then we talk about cold leads, warm
leads and hot leads right. Hot leads you already have knowledge
that they need a voice that fits your particular description.
Right, and that would be something that is timely. You want to make
sure you're timely and that you address that at the time.
Otherwise, you've got cold leads, which is what most of us right,
because we don't wear.
08:14
We just want anything. Right? We want any kind of job, right? I
need a commercial, or I need a corporate narration, or I need an
e-learning from this company, right? Well, there could be a
multitude of things that the company needs, but maybe they don't
need a commercial voice right away, maybe they are not doing any
training because there's no new products. So just understand
everything involved with that, with the marketing, which is again
why companies hire entire departments with lots of people to do
this, because the more leads they secure, the more chances, right
of making a sale.
08:46 - Lau (Guest)
I love that. I think it's terrific and I think too here's the
second thing, technical tip I want to put out there as well that I
said to this particular client I would suggest that you go out into
the world. It's up to you how often you can do that, depending on
your life and your transportation, but you should be going out into
the world to a live event Now. We should be able to find them
around, okay, whether it's a Chamber of Commerce, a BNI, a
Toastmasters or whatever a women in business, there's a billion
groups out there. All you have to do is make Google or DuckDuckGo
your best friends and then you can find your lists of live groups
that most of the time they're gonna be hybrid on Zoom and live if
they're doing live.
09:30
I love the energy and the feel of meeting people in person and
oftentimes you'll find that when you do meet people in person,
there's no one in that room that does what you do, because what we
do is very unique and a lot of times we have to educate the people
on what a voiceover talent actually is. They don't even know what a
VO really does. So it gives you an opportunity to practice a pitch,
to practice a handshake, to practice a live networking in a room,
to practice putting on your face, your clothing, your whatever
right.
10:03 - Anne (Host)
It's different than being in a booth Very very different and it's
also different from sending an email, because you get that physical
presence, that energy, there's a synergy to it and you're gonna be
a lot more memorable.
10:15
And again, I think it's a combination of all of these things that
we're talking about that can be effective marketing.
10:19
But absolutely I don't think there's any dispute over the fact that
face-to-face networking can really generate relationships that can
get you hired. I was thinking about relationships the other day
because I just had headshots taken by my photographer, who I've
worked with for 10 years, and I realized that we have such a great
relationship. Like she knows me so well, she's able to capture my
very best so that I can actually promote my business and I can
promote myself in the very best light. And I feel as though your
relationship building in those face-to-face networking can really
help you to become memorable to someone and while they may not need
your services, they might know somebody that will, and then you can
come highly recommended. And word of mouth I think there's no
better marketing than word of mouth. Oh, I have this wonderful
talent here that I think will be perfect for your next campaign.
You should hire them and a lot of times those are the best types of
referrals to get, because then you don't have to audition your butt
off for them.
11:18
And essentially, that's just a wonderful way to acquire
work.
11:22 - Lau (Guest)
I think that's terrific and listen, call it old school, but I'm a
big fan of live. I think when you live whether you're on Zoom in
real time or whether you're in a room with someone it has a whole
different stress level and pressure that we need to perform. That
you're just not gonna get in crafting an email, you're not gonna
get in submitting your website, you're just not gonna get it.
That's much more at your leisure, right. But when you're in person
with someone, you have to think about what. If I only have five
minutes with that person, what do I want to do for them? What is it
about their business? How can I help them?
11:58
Okay, so, I have to educate them on what I do oftentimes, but how
does it benefit them? Because that's why they're standing there.
They're standing there to meet you, not because you're so fabulous,
but because what you do is potentially what they need. So it's up
to us to figure out well, how do I apply what I do to your
particular industry? Therefore, you have to do your research,
right? You gotta go on your websites. You gotta go on the YouTube
chAnnel, look at the advertising campaigns. You gotta go in their
literature and take a look at what they're doing. I also wAnnea
suggest that you open up you were saying this earlier and I loved
it open up your possibilities of the kinds of work that you can do,
the genres of work you can do?
12:41 - Anne (Host)
Oh, absolutely. You just segued so nicely into that, Because the
other thing was that I just had a student who said you know, I've
been doing this for a year and I can't seem to get anything booked.
I can't get any work. And I said what have you been auditioning
for? And they said commercials. And I went well, tell me, do you
have other demos? Do you have other places, other things you're
auditioning for? No, just commercials. And I said well, that's part
of it.
13:05
You have to understand that the market for commercials well, it's
probably one of the most popular market for new people to get into
or want to get into. What you don't understand is that the
commercial markets maybe only 5 to 10% of what's out there. Right,
there's a big part of that which is narration, it's corporate
narration, it's e-learning, it's medical narration. It's like 80%
of the market, is that? And so if you're only restricting yourself
to one specialty, to one genre, then yeah, Also, we just did an
episode on transformation, right? This is where you might want to
now expand your offerings, right, Get yourself coaching in a genre
in a market space that is plentiful, such as corporate or corporate
training, and that can really open up your possibilities.
13:51 - Lau (Guest)
It's also one of the most highly sought after and competitive
varies of the industry, the commercial industry, you know like 100%
of the people that are swimming with you are out for commercial and
want to do commercial work. So you just have to be realistic about
that.
14:08 - Anne (Host)
I'm going to just say, bosses, get over the fact that corporate
narration or e-learning isn't glamorous. Just get over that,
because, honestly, you've got a business to run. And I'm just going
to say that most people are like, well, I want the national spot,
or I want to do the next animated series, or I want to do that
video game. But here's the deal. Probably everybody I know, whether
they're an animation specialist or do promos they also do corporate
narration, they also do e-learning. They just don't talk about it.
It's not as glamorous, but I'll tell you what it's the bread and
butter for a lot of people out there in the industry.
14:42 - Lau (Guest)
Absolutely it is. And remember, I mean I can speak as an agent
having a base and I'll tell you that I don't know anyone in that
roster that only does commercial work. I mean, I think it's a
little delicious part of the toast on the bread, but they have a
lot of other spreads they're putting on that bread and not just for
the money's sake, but also they're multi-talented. They have a lot
to offer. They have a lot of different. They might be producing an
animation pilot and doing audio book.
15:11 - Anne (Host)
Right, exactly, e-learning thing, exactly. And how many people Lau?
May I ask as a talent agent and I know as a casting director, how
many people do you know book a national spot every day or book a
commercial, even a commercial every day?
15:24 - Lau (Guest)
No, not at all. Some won't book for six months to a year Exactly,
and those could be super talented people too that get national
spots.
15:32 - Anne (Host)
They're not going to book a national spot every day. They might
book one a month, one every two months, once every six months, and
the rest of what they do is a smattering of other genres and a
smattering of other projects. So really try to expand. And again,
this is not where, oh, I want to do everything. I am the voice
talent that is doing everything. However, the other options that
you offer for clients should be well thought out. You should be
trained in the genres so that you can really understand the most
effective way, the most effective read, the most effective
techniques, and that includes not just performance but also
marketing for the market it does.
16:09 - Lau (Guest)
It does, and diversifying what you're doing is a really, really
smart thing. I hear a lot of newer talent what I call newer talent
in the first three years of their business, talking about niching
in and niching down and choosing something specific, and I said you
don't even know what your business is, yet you don't even know what
you like. You don't even know how people hear you, yet They've not
even explored the other genres.
16:32 - Anne (Host)
And that's another thing. When you talk about brand evolution and
how you evolve, or how do you find out, like, what you're good at
right? Unless you try it, unless you audition for it, unless you
train a little bit in it, and you can. I mean, I found a passion in
medical. Now, of course, I worked in the medical industry, but did
I think about going into medical narration right away? No, I
didn't.
16:52
I was all enamored with commercial and I thought, oh, I'm just
going to do a bunch of commercial work. And that was just me being
new way back when, not understanding right, not understanding the
business and all the different genres. But ultimately I started
saying, well, I can't, I'm not getting any work commercially right
away, or I only get very few jobs. So I need to do something else,
otherwise I'm going to have to go back to work, I'm going to have
to go back to corporate and I did not want to do that. So really
thinking about how you can expand your offering, so marketing
number one, and then expand your offering.
17:27
And then I'm going to talk about, I think, the third thing, and
that would be performance skills, right, and we even had a whole
episode dedicated to this bosses about how sometimes talent think
they're actually better than they are and they really could use
some performance coaching to make their reads more competitive. No
doubt about it. You know this is an agent Lau, probably every
single day, right, and I do it when I cast and when we do our
audition demolitions. We hear a lot of people auditioning and I
think to myself there's a lot of people who could really utilize
some specific one-on-one coaching or more workshops.
18:07 - Lau (Guest)
No doubt, Anneie, no doubt, and I'll tell you what I'm hearing over
and over again with submissions that are coming in that are looking
for representation in the roster, is the fact that they sound like
the tool of their voice is strong and it's beautiful and they seem
like very nice people, at least on paper, but they either do not
have the skill set just yet to where they would need to be
competitive in a commercial market.
18:31
Yes, absolutely, and I'm really speaking about a real read,
understanding what a real read is, how that happens the mechanics
of how that happened.
18:40
I've even been sending out notices to people. Instead of saying,
ok, you're not a good fit right now and they're sending me demos, I
said, can you just send me a couple, just a couple dry reads of you
doing your most natural read and they'll send it to me and it's
authentically a Anneouncer, authentically, absolutely and
authentically all of that stuff. So already I know they don't
really know what it is, they're not sure what it is.
19:05 - Anne (Host)
And you know right away as a casting director, as a talent agent
and so yeah, also, guys, we don't need to hear that over and over
again If we listen to it and we say, oh, you don't have it yet we
know you don't have it and we're probably not going to ask you,
we're not going to refer you, you're probably not going to get it
until you do have those skills. And it's so interesting to me the
students that come to me that just, they want to hurry up and get
their demo done and they don't want to do the work they don't want
to do a rush.
19:31
They're in a big rush. They don't want to do the work to figure
out. What does it take to be an actor? And especially, I see it all
the time with corporate e-learning and what people typically assume
to be like I just want to teach e-learning or I just want to speak
corporate. I hear the corporate this way all the time and again,
you need to be the actor, and even more so with longer format
stuff. You just do.
19:54 - Lau (Guest)
Yeah, and inevitably yeah when you hear someone say how much money
will I make? Or I'm quitting my job and I'm coming into this so
that I can make money and do what I love, and yet, and
yet.
20:07 - Anne (Host)
The first question is you don't want to put the work in.
20:09 - Lau (Guest)
Yeah, and ironically, the first question is will I make money and
when will that happen? Yeah, well, if it's something you really
love, the first question will be I'm excited about what you're
providing here. Can you talk to me more about what the process is
like or what the clients are like or no? If it's money first, I say
you know you're asking the wrong question. I have to tell you
you're not in a position yet to ask that question.
20:31 - Anne (Host)
I'm not in a position to answer that question and I'll tell you
that I offer consults to people and I will have so many people and
I know that there are many people, many coaches, that offer
consults, that offer the free consults and people will just say,
yeah, well, I'm a singer and I'm a theater actor and I already have
a studio at home and I can make my own demo. So you'll get those
people that are not aware and you know, it's just one of those
things I will always say look, I'm not going to put on any rose
colored glasses here and I'm going to tell you exactly. Here's the
story. It's difficult.
21:01
Even though you already do theater acting, even though you're a
singer, even though you've got the equipment already, you've got
the studio competitively, it takes some time because there is a
difference. Obviously there's a big difference between theater
acting, on-camera acting and voice acting, and most the time it's
assumed that voice acting oh, it's just simple, I can read pretty,
I've got a great voice, and again, it's just the same old story.
But yep, literally it's. You don't know what, you don't know, you
don't know. It's okay, I mean, I think this is a journey of
education, but if you are really frustrated, if you have not been
booking for a year or however long, if you're frustrated.
21:42
I want you to look at these three things, right marketing, look at
your marketing. Look at your offerings. What you're offering, make
sure that it's something that people want out there. Right, you can
be a great character actor, but your market is smaller than, let's
say, a corporate narration specialist right, and it's a whole lot
more competitive. Your national market commercial is a whole lot
more competitive than an e-learning module. So, understand your
markets, understand who you're selling to and then, of course, take
a hard look.
22:14 - Lau (Guest)
Take an honest, honest look at your performance and how can you
improve that yes, yes, be honest with yourself and develop what we
call the hustle muscle. You need a hustle muscle so that you
understand I'm not waiting for work. The newer ideology is don't
work harder, work smarter. And I say, okay, work smarter, but work
harder, yeah. Yeah. Smarter doesn't take the place of
harder.
22:38 - Anne (Host)
You have to grind and working smarter means you realize that you
probably need more skills right. And working smarter means, oh, you
probably need to expand your offerings. Working smarter means yes
you understand marketing better right and you understand what
people are looking for, and why didn't you get picked? Or why
didn't that person respond? Well, that's just. They don't have a
need for you, right?
23:01 - Lau (Guest)
now, right right and look at, look at some of your idols. If you
have an idol the gurus that are out there in the world pick someone
that you really respect, that you follow. Maybe you read their
books, maybe you go to their webinars, maybe you follow them. You
know, just popped into my head I saw him on a network tv last night
was tony robin. Some people adore him and some people don't follow
him, but the one thing about him and his brand that's last at a
hundred thousand years.
23:27 - Anne (Host)
Right, he's been around forever is.
23:29 - Lau (Guest)
He's a grinder, he is a hard-working person and he's had his
tentacles in everything. He was in Hollywood, he had little bit
parts in movies, he was on the conference circuit, he did a. What
didn't he do? And now I don't know how old he is. He's got to be
60. At least he looks fantastic, by the way, he looks amazing and
he's out there. He's got a new summit and he's got a new book and
he's got it and he's very wealthy. Let's be honest, he's a
multi-millionaire. But it's really the joy, the excitement, the
challenge and the energy of moving forward.
24:05 - Anne (Host)
That's what he sells his motivation right, he sells, he's
motivating, he's motivating, he's inspiring and so, yeah, you
better believe he's got that muscle developed. So absolutely, and
people want that, right, but it's what you were saying.
24:17 - Lau (Guest)
Anneie, it's exactly what you were saying. If I'm not moving, if
I'm not doing, then I'm static, I'm stagnating. And I always have
to bring it back to myself and saying well, if I'm not getting
enough work or if I'm not booking, what can I do? Don't ask the
question what am I doing wrong? That's not the right question to
ask. Ask the question what can I be doing to strategize, work
harder and smarter and make better use of my work days so that I
can be putting myself into new leads, into new situations? And also
here's another one for you. I got a bonus one for you you should be
producing, you should be self-producing projects at all times,
whether it's a little whatever, a little web series or a little
YouTube commercial.
25:01
For your business or an adult Sure that'll help you to market,
right, I mean, and it's exciting because you can get your friends
and colleagues involved you can maybe pay someone a couple bucks to
help you edit it or whatever. Incorporate work, work breeds work,
at all times so that you feel like, wow, I'm creating, I'm creating
to be creative and also to breed work.
25:21 - Anne (Host)
Absolutely good advice. Wow, all right, yet another, I think, very
empowering episode for the bosses out there and bosses so just
really sit down, take a hard look at what you're doing now and, if
the bosses can be of any assistance, we are here to help you guys.
Also, take a moment to imagine a world full of passionate,
empowered, diverse individuals such as yourself giving collectively
and intentionally to create the world that they want to see. Find
out more at visiting 100voiceswhocareorg. And our shout out to our
sponsor, ipdtl you too can connect and network like a boss. Find
out more at IPDTLcom. Thanks so much, guys. Have a wonderful week
and we'll see you next week. See you next week.
26:10 - Intro (Anneouncement)
Bye. Join us next week for another edition of VO Boss with your
host and Ganguzza, and take your business to the next level. Sign
up for our mailing list at vobosscom and receive exclusive content,
industry revolutionizing tips and strategies and new ways to rock
your business like a boss. Redistribution with permission. Coast to
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26:38 - Anne (Host)
Hey La, do you know what time of year it is? It is time for the
audition demolition holiday Bosses. We are so excited for this
episode. Why can't I just do this? Sorry, let's try that one, okay,
movers.