Sep 10, 2024
Learn how to transform money aspirations into concrete financial plans in our next episode of the Boss Money Talks series with Danielle Famble. The BOSSES guide you through setting precise financial goals, breaking down larger targets into manageable segments, and preparing for the variable and unpredictable income streams that are so common in the voiceover industry. The BOSSES dive deep into strategies for creating financial freedom through strategic growth. They discuss the powerful impact of investing in yourself and your business, whether that means hiring help, taking breaks for self-care, or seeking out coaching and training. Tune in to discover how financial stability can lead to better business decisions, higher quality work, and long-term success in the competitive world of voiceover.
00:01 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
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00:28 - 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, nne
Ganguza.
00:47 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Hey everyone, welcome to the VO Boss Podcast and the Boss Money
Talks series. I'm your host, Anne Ganguza, and I'm here again with
the lovely Danielle Famble to talk money today. Hey Danielle, hey
Anne, it's good to be back with you. Yes, I love talking money, me
too.
01:05
Money money, money. So, speaking of money, we were just having a
conversation where we love to. Well, I love to shop online. I will
readily admit that, and I think it's important that we think about
do I have the money to spend on this? Do I have financial goals for
my business? Do I have the money to spend on this? Do I have
financial goals for my business?
01:24
Because another thing that I will also do with my students is when
they first start working with me, they have to fill out a goal
sheet, and I think that a lot of times, we know what performance
goals I want to get work. I want to work in this genre, I want to
get an agent. We have all the performance goals and, oh, I want to
have a business, or I want to have a thriving business, but I don't
think many of us get very specific about financial goals. Again,
it's one of those things where I think people think if they don't
look at it it's kind of like don't look at my credit card
statements that maybe they'll go away. But no, we've got to really
keep our eyes open and look to the future, and I think it's a good
time to talk about how to set financial goals for your
business.
02:04 - Danielle Famble (Host)
Yeah, no. That's really important because for me in the past I've
always just said with a financial goal, I just want more. I want to
make more money, I want to have more, and it's not specific at all,
it's just more or mentality. What you're lacking in that
specificity tells you what is enough and how you know when you've
reached your goal, so that you can either make more goals or become
more targeted on that goal. So more usually was my goal and I never
felt like I hit it.
02:39 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Or for me it would be like oh well, I want to make a six-figure
income, and so I don't think that's specific enough. Right, right,
like how do I get to that six-figure income from day one right and
day 30 and day 60, like on a monthly basis or on a weekly basis?
How am I achieving those goals?
02:58 - Danielle Famble (Host)
Yeah, and I think what you could do then is say, okay, if you want
to make a six-figure income, okay, what is six figures? Is it
specifically $100,000? Is it $ Five hundred thousand? Five hundred
thousand dollars? All of these things are absolutely possible, but
what is the specific six figure For me? If I were saying you know I
want a six figure income, I would want to say, all right, is it one
hundred thousand dollars? If it's one hundred thousand dollars,
then you can divide that by 12. Yeah, just round numbers and then
figure out that you need to make that number per month and you'll
know monthly if you're on target to hit that amount or not, also
considering things like expenses and taxes and things like that. So
it's a question of are you wanting to just bring in that amount of
money? Are you trying to bring in that amount of money after
expenses? Like, getting specific about these financial goals really
helps. You know when you've hit your target or not.
03:54 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Right, right. And the more specific I think you can get, I think,
the more achievable it may seem to you. Because it's all well and
good to say I want to make I don't know. $8,000 a month, right? So
$8,000 a month times 12, right, that doesn't quite get you to 100,
right. So $8,000 a month times 12, right, that doesn't quite get
you to 100, right? Or $12,000 a month will get you $120. I'm
pulling out my calculator because now that we started.
04:14 - Danielle Famble (Host)
As much as I love talking about money, math is not my.
04:17 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
No, we need calculators.
04:19 - Danielle Famble (Host)
Math is not my ministry, so sometimes I have to just pull out a
calculator.
04:24 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
I got it, I got you. But let's just say I have that money goal on a
monthly basis, right? What is it going to take for me to achieve
that? And that is especially difficult, and I think this is why
most voice actors it's so hard for them to set these financial
goals, because our industry I mean we are entrepreneurs, I mean we
have highs, we have lows.
04:45
There's no expected income coming in, which makes this so much
different than my corporate job where I made a salary per year and
you divide that by the amount of times I get paid, I know exactly
what I'm going to get on my paycheck, right? And that takes away
that uncertainty, all that risk, right? Because it's a stable kind
of an income that's coming in every month and so we could count on
that if we're working a job and working in corporate. But now, all
of a a sudden, we're entrepreneurs and so that monthly achievable
goal, or weekly or whatever you want to set it to, becomes like
what I mean there's no guarantee. So what do we do? What do we do?
We have that goal, how do we get there? There's the question of the
day.
05:30 - Danielle Famble (Host)
So you can take a look at what you're currently doing now. I think
looking at where you are and then making your goal achievable
within where you're currently at will help you, hopefully, get
closer to that goal than if you are at making $1,000 a month and
you're saying I want to make $10,000 a month next month or next
year. There are things that you're going to need to do. So if you
can look at where you are now and see where you are in relationship
to that goal, that will help you understand the time frame that it
will take, how long it will take you to hit that goal.
06:03
What else do you need to do? Do you need to study more? Do you need
to have different kinds of demos? Do you need to take a look at
what genres are you auditioning for? Maybe you're not going to make
that kind of money doing a certain kind of genre. Maybe that money
comes from a different genre that maybe you don't work in as much.
So do you have the demos and the training that you need to make
that amount of money? Once you start getting specific, it actually
starts to add more questions so that you can figure out how to get
to that financial goal that you have.
06:36 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Yeah, I like that because it really brings in all the other
elements into play. Right, because, all right, in order for me to
make and I'm just giving it a number, in order for me to make
$10,000 a month, right, that's four weeks, right? So how many
auditions do I need to do? Right? How many times do I need to book?
And you're right, absolutely Like, what kind of genres I mean, what
kind of money are you making? Especially because we never know,
like necessarily from job to job, what that money is. We can have a
baseline, right, and we can say, well, I'd like to charge this for
the job. It may make us rethink what we're charging people
right?
07:14 - Danielle Famble (Host)
Absolutely. That's a huge part of it too are your rates. If your
rates are completely out of alignment with what your goal is, then
that tells you. Maybe you need to take a look at your rates. Maybe
you need to take a look at the types of jobs that you are
auditioning for what you are saying yes to, because when you say
yes to something, that inherently means you're saying no to
something else, because you only have a certain amount of time to
do what needs to get done.
07:38
That's actually something that I've had to take a look at in my own
business is, if I say yes to certain things, is that actually
getting me closer to my goal, or is it getting me closer to more,
and more is not specific. So sometimes you're going to need to say
no so that you are available for the jobs that will get you closer
to your financial goals your financial income goals, if that's what
your financial goals are.
08:03 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Yeah, the power of no, it is a thing, it is an absolute, tangible
thing, the power of no.
08:09
And I think also you've got to be aware of the market, right, it's
all well and good to say I want to make six figures, you know, and
I'm going to charge this amount, so there's also the other side of
the coin, where you're going to be, let's say, maybe pricing
yourself out of the market. And so education I feel like this whole
series, like we need to start off by saying educate, educate,
educate, educate. It's so important because now, all of a sudden,
there's market price, right, we're dealing with the dark side of
synthetic voices coming on the horizon. And so what are consumers
willing to pay? Right, and you know you do have to take that into
account, right, and so sometimes you can be price undercut by
another talent or somebody else on a roster who will do it cheaper,
and it's unfortunate, but I mean that's the way the cookie
crumbles, or there's got to be some sort of money analogy for that,
danielle, that you might know, that's the way the dollar gets
spent.
09:02
There you go, yeah, I mean, there's all these variables, danielle,
and it's so intimidating, which is why I think most people don't
really set those financial goals.
09:11 - Danielle Famble (Host)
And also adding in negotiation. Being comfortable negotiating your
rates and negotiating what a company or client is willing to pay is
really important as well, and getting comfortable and competent in
how to negotiate is actually a lever that you can pull as well.
There are so many things that are in your control when it comes to
bringing in the income for your business that just saying okay, I
want to make six figures, that's all well and good. Now what can I
do? What's in my control? What are the levers that I can pull?
Maybe it's negotiating. Maybe it's making sure that I'm quoting
industry standard rates, educating myself on what industry standard
rates are, maybe going to a GVAA rate guide or looking at what is
the industry charging.
09:58 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Marketing more yeah.
09:59 - Danielle Famble (Host)
You can also say no and say hey, listen, this is below what I'm
willing to accept for my time, because this is not going to get me
closer to my goal. There's so many things that you can do not going
to get me closer to my goal. There's so many things that you can
do. Just saying this is the goal and I'm just going to continue
doing what I'm doing really takes away the agency that you have in
getting to this goal.
10:17 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
You know, one thing that I will say that allows me to be bolder in
moving forward in my business is having and I've said this in
numerous other podcasts, but I think it bears repeating is having
that financial cushion. That means having money in the bank that
allows me to be bold with my saying no if I need to right, maybe
delving out into a different genre or getting more coaching or
whatever it is, making another investment in my business so that I
can move forward Again. I wish it was all like oh, this is the
absolute path I must go in order to achieve this. But there's so
many variables that you say and I love it because it's so positive
that we have in our control to do it, and I like to really think
about it like a challenge. I mean, I'm a girl who loves a
challenge, right, I mean so for me. I've always said that I love
voice acting and I love coaching, but I love the business I love
the business of making money right.
11:13
I love trying to figure out how can I make more money and if I
treat it as a challenge and I treat it like a game right, as long
as I have that financial cushion right in the bank, I have some
leeway. I have a little bit of play where I can actually go out on
a limb and take a chance and take a risk, actually go out on a limb
and take a chance and take a risk, and if that pays off for me, yes
then that can be something that catapults me into the next tax
bracket.
11:39 - Danielle Famble (Host)
Absolutely, it's so empowering to be able to walk away and say no
or to go for a different genre or whatever your goal is or your
challenge, as you're saying, would be. It's so empowering to be
able to back that up in your mind of saying, if this doesn't work
out, I'm still okay. For me, that goes for financial savings goals.
So I want to make sure that I have a certain amount of money in the
bank, in savings, so that I'm not destitute. Yep, you can pay the
bills.
12:05
Desperation is palpable and if you are operating from a place of,
this has to work or else it may not work out as well for you. But
the confidence in the back of your mind of saying, if not me,
that's totally fine, I'm still okay, that's you taking the power
and the agency of your future, of your financial future, your
business's future. So, going from I need to make a certain amount
of money to I need to have a certain amount of money so that I can
feel safe and confident in being able to say no. Is it really
important financial goal? That has taken me a long time to
understand that it's as important, if not more important than just
revenue goals.
12:48 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Absolutely, absolutely. And you know, your strategy to get there
doesn't have to always revolve around jobs that you do. It can
revolve around, like for me everybody knows I've been on a health
journey, right, I worked myself to the bone, to the point where I
was unhealthy, right, and then that was also taking away from my
product. Actually, do you know what I mean? I wasn't at my 100%
best, and so for me I was like I can't stop, I can't stop, I can't
stop, I want to continue. Like I had a nice financial cushion but
the workaholic in me said, well, let's just keep putting money in
there. But at one point it became a little bit detrimental to me,
right, because it affected my health. And now I'm okay with saying
you know what, I can take that hour, that maybe hour and a half, to
do some self-care, because if I am healthier, I'm going to have a
better product and I'm going to be able to serve my clients better,
I'm going to run my business better. And so the goal goals there,
you know, in strategizing are not just like okay, this is what I
want to make and these are how many auditions I'm going to have to
do to get there, or this is how much marketing I'm going to have to
do. It also can encompass whatever it is that affects your product
right, to make your product better.
13:56
I think that's an avenue we need to look at, including coaching
right, including new demos, which is why I feel that that part of
the strategy in your financial goals. They're hand in hand Because
it's all about the product really, right. I mean, we are a company.
I always tell people like, especially when I'm teaching corporate
narration, I'm like look, you can't just be an information
deliverer when you talk about corporate narration, because the word
corporate in and of itself says we need to sell something, right?
There's no other reason why companies are formed. Can you think of
any reason?
14:28
that companies are formed outside of to make a profit and they have
a product and a service to sell. There's no other reason. So that
means that you exist to make a profit, right.
14:39 - Intro (Announcement)
You exist to make a profit.
14:40 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Your product needs to make a profit. And if your product is not
making a profit, then you need to look at improving that product.
And how are you going to do that? Or how are you going to make sure
that you have a good product and that you're maintaining it, but
not just maintaining it, but evolving it and growing it and making
it better so that it's competitive?
14:59 - Danielle Famble (Host)
I appreciate you saying that, because where you were when you
realized that it was time to make a change is quite literally where
I am right now.
15:08
I've said to myself recently I would love to be that person who
goes to the gym at four o'clock in the afternoon. Well, normally
I'd be doing auditions or trying to make sure I have a session at
that time, or it's during the day. I need to be in this booth
making money. I must be here, because if I'm not here working
towards these financial goals, then what am I doing? But I need to
pour into the instrument that is, the product, and to be able to do
that I need money. So I need to be able to strategize that I'm
making money enough to be able to take that four o'clock hour or
whatever hour and go and take a workout class or go to the gym or
just go outside and get some vitamin D, because sometimes I don't
do that. So that's where you can take your financial goals and make
them applicable to your daily life, not just as the person that you
are, but the product of your business, which is how your business
makes money. It's cyclical.
16:09 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Yeah, I mean, if we had a physical product, it would be a different
story. You know what I mean, like if I was like I'm selling pens,
oh, I'm selling my Nganguza pens, right? So that's a different
thing. I mean, you've got physical inventory here. Here we're
talking about your voice, right, and so it encompasses that's what
makes it so unique.
16:25
It encompasses so many different things in order to put out a great
product and those goals whether you think so or not, I mean those
goals that you set, financial goals. There's so many ways to get
there that don't include just how much money do I invest? It can be
how much do I invest in my product to make it better so that I can
ultimately charge more or ultimately get more income coming in? So
I didn't want to miss out on saying how important that was in terms
of strategizing and goal setting, because I didn't realize it. Do
you know what I mean? I just kept thinking, oh my God, I just have
to work, I have to be at the desk, I have to work, I have to work,
and then I realized that ultimately, my product was suffering, and
so you don't want that to happen.
17:09
So, always being on the lookout of how can I be better? How can I
and for me it's always been like the challenge and how can I grow?
And growing takes. Growing is scary. You know what I mean. Oh yeah,
growing your business is scary. I mean, okay, all of a sudden, now
I might need an assistant. Oh, that means I've got to put more
money out. That's scary when I don't feel like I have control over
that. Income is not steady anymore. So all of a sudden it's like
well, I don't know if I can afford right, which is what a lot of
students can't afford. There's only so much they've allowed in
order to develop their product. But in reality, taking it all in
and understanding what's involved in putting out a great product, I
mean, at least you don't have a storefront, that you're leasing a
building.
17:55 - Danielle Famble (Host)
Yeah. And the question that you can ask yourself, instead of saying
I can't afford, is how can I afford?
18:01 - Intro (Announcement)
to have an assistant, because then that starts to open up a lot
more questions.
18:07 - Danielle Famble (Host)
How much does an assistant cost? How much time commitment would I
need for this assistant? Maybe it's a part-time assistant, a
certain number of hours a week, Okay. So it's going to be 20 hours
a week at, let's say, $15 an hour, Okay. So now that I know it's
this amount of money, how can I afford this additional amount of
money? And then you reverse engineer the problem.
18:31
Yeah, I love that so if it's, how can I take off at 4 o'clock in
the afternoon to go to the gym? All right, that means that I need
to make sure that I'm making a certain amount of money per week or
per month, however I want to view it. Per week or per month,
however I want to view it, and I'll know if I'm maybe negotiating a
certain rate and I hit that target. Anything else for the week is
gravy, because I know that I've made my target amount of money,
I've hit my goal, I know the enough number and anything else on top
of that to me is pure profit, which I love profit.
19:03 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
We love profit.
19:04 - Danielle Famble (Host)
I love profit, and so I think that's really how you can look at it.
Instead of saying what you cannot do, ask yourself the creative in
you how can you do it?
19:13 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
I was absolutely just going to say you know what I love about you,
danielle, because you're always about what you can do right Versus
I can't afford, I can't do this to grow. You're always like you're
reversing it, like literally everything that we've talked about in
this series is you with the positive manifestation right of how you
can. Let's reverse, engineer, let's see what we, what here are our
goals, here's what we can do to get there. And I absolutely love
that about you and I believe that it's instrumental in your
success. I think it can be instrumental in every boss's success
that instead of what you can't do, what can you do and just
manifest from abundance that whole mentality.
19:53 - Danielle Famble (Host)
Thank you. I believe in that. We are creatives. That's what we are
doing. We are actors. We are creating worlds and stories out of
someone else's words, sometimes our own and we're creating
something that didn't really exist before we breathe the life, the
voice into it. That's what we do.
20:13
So if that is what we do in our business, how can that be that we
don't do it in creating the abundance in our business? It's really
important to me. When I get negative and I do often when I do get
negative I want to try to get out of that by flipping to where is
my power, what can I do about it? And if I need help, then that
means that I need to figure out the resource to help me. If I don't
know, then I need to get a coach or get someone else's perspective.
But there's something that you can do, and it's probably in
business. It's going to cost you some money, which is why talking
about money and finances is so important, because it is the vehicle
for how we get what we want in life and in business.
20:57 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Right, it is so true, and I think there's a lot of creators that
may not want to believe that, like, I'm going to do it for the love
of it and that's okay. I mean, I think every day, we should be
doing something we love if we absolutely can, and if it can help us
pay the bills, I mean, my gosh, how fortunate and how wonderful is
that. And I always say how lucky am I? Am I lucky? I manifested it.
Just saying, I mean, I manifested something that I love, right, and
turned it into something that I can make a profit with.
21:21
And so how much luck was involved in that? Well, maybe a little
bit, but there was an awful lot of hard work and there was awful
lot of manifestation and saying what can I do? Right? And I
believe, bosses out there, that you need to again educate yourself.
Right, take that real world, look at your finances, set some goals
that are realistic goals and do it working backwards, right,
because it's not enough to just say I want to make a six-figure
income, right. Well, okay, give me a number and then work backwards
from that, right. And what are you going to have to do to get to
that number? And maybe, guys, maybe it's not about how many
auditions you do. Maybe you need to go outside. I mean, I hate to
say that, but I don't hate to say that there's nothing wrong with
going outside and getting a supplemental income while you're
building your business Absolutely nothing.
22:08 - Danielle Famble (Host)
Oh, for sure it can be actually one of the best things that you do
for your business, because it's less work that you'll have to do in
bringing in income in your business, because you've already got
additional income kind of helping you out and that keeps you afloat
and that buoys you.
22:25 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Yeah, that's your cushion, that's your cushion, that's your cushion
so that it makes you confident to move forward. So go deliver
Instacart. I mean. I mean, why not? I mean I've thought of all
these other things that I would love to do. I mean there's all
these things that I find joy in that I'm like you know what, if I
ever had to change my career, I could do that. I'm always thinking.
I'm always thinking, and I'm not saying I'm getting out of voice,
acting at all or what I'm doing, but I'm always evolving and always
thinking about what is it that's going to help me to be joyful and
bring money in. It's like joy and money, and I'm not afraid or
ashamed to say joy and money in the same sentence.
23:03 - Danielle Famble (Host)
Oh no, making money can be quite joyful. I've also made money in a
way that has not been completely joyful to me, but spending that
money was a little bit more joyful. And that's how I got my joy
Spending money is joyful to me.
23:15 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Yes, absolutely, and making it, of course, because you got to have
it to spend it Absolutely. Oh man, what a great conversation. So I
believe financial goals take it work backwards right. Figure out
what your goal is, what you need to do to get there, and always as
Danielle has so eloquently and wonderfully demonstrated in all of
these podcast series episodes that we've talked about is be
positive. What can you do right and not that you can't do it
because of right, no excuses, what you can do and bosses. There's
no shame in strategizing and coming up with ideas outside of the
box to get there and give yourself that financial cushion to push
even further to those financial goals. So I love talking to you,
danielle. I love it. Thank you, anne.
23:58 - Danielle Famble (Host)
This is fun, you get me all charged up.
24:00 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Not charged up. I might go charge something now. Oh, I'm going to
go manifest my next level.
24:07 - Danielle Famble (Host)
Yeah, I'm going to go set some more goals, some financial
goals.
24:10 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Manifest the next level of bossness setting some financial goals.
All right, guys. Big shout out to our sponsor, ipdtl. You too can
network and be a boss. Find out more at IPDTLcom. Guys, have an
amazing week and manifest those awesome financial goals. You guys
can do it. We believe in you. All right, have a good one. Bye,
guys, thanks everybody, bye.
24:33 - Intro (Announcement)
Join us next week for another edition of VO boss with your host and
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