Booking Blueprint

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 coast connectivity via IPDTL. 

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.