Dec 10, 2024
In our
next episode. of the BOSS Money Talks series, the BOSSES talk about
how to set and achieve financial goals like a pro by transforming
daunting yearly objectives into achievable, bite-sized milestones.
Anne and Danielle guide you through the process of reverse
engineering your target income, allowing you to create efficient
tracking systems for auditions, marketing, and follow-ups. This
ultimately can help you to manage the unpredictable nature of
freelance work with confidence. The BOSSES share personal stories
and insights on analyzing past successes, pinpointing what truly
works, and making informed adjustments to your approach, fostering
a mindset of steady, systematic growth.
00:01 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Hello amazing bosses and voiceover talents out there. Hey, amazing
voiceover talents. Do you ever wish boss marketing was as fun as it
was being behind the mic? Well, check out my Vio Boss Blast. It's
designed to automate and make your marketing simpler. You'll
benefit from your very own target marketed list, tailored to meet
your goals and your brand the VO Boss Blast. Find out more at
voboss com.
00:32 - 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.
00:51 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Hey hey everyone, Welcome to the VO Boss Podcast and the Boss Money
Talk Series. I'm your host, Anne Ganguzza, and I am so excited to
bring back to the show Danielle Famble. Danielle, yay, hey, thanks
for having me back. How are you? I'm so excited to talk money with
you this morning.
01:09 - Danielle Famble (Host)
I'm good. I'm always up for a money conversation, so very happy to
be here Cool.
01:14 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
And you know why? Because I actually just started taking and you
know I've taken these courses before. But you know I always love to
take goal setting classes because even though you kind of know,
like I've set goals before, I do it every year, I do it
periodically. I think that it's important to just kind of get your
motivation and inspiration going and I thought it would be a great
time to talk about setting financial goals and how we can
successfully reach them as entrepreneurs.
01:41 - Danielle Famble (Host)
Yeah, I think that's really important because in business you
always talk about goals like business goals, or the point of a
business is to make a profit, and so financial goals are kind of
tied into that. So it is good to be intentional about your goals,
even if you don't hit that goal. Absolutely being able to track
where your progress is is really important, so I love that you're
doing that. It's something I try to do every year. I think it
usually happens for most people around like the end of the year
sort of a New Year's resolution, but doing it in the middle of the
year is really pretty great. I love that.
02:14 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Well, I think one thing that I'm learning that is important is to
set realistic goals. I mean, it's all well and good to want a
million dollars, but I want to be able to set a realistic financial
goal for myself and I think how important is that actual number,
like I know you just said, if you don't make it? But what if we
create a more realistic goal? And then, I don't know, maybe reverse
engineer, is that a thing?
02:39 - Danielle Famble (Host)
Is that something that you do? Yeah, totally. I read this book, the
12 Week Year, a couple of months ago. It's a really good book and
it really is about like breaking your year down into almost like
quarters, really breaking them down into 12-week years themselves
so that the goal doesn't take the length of time like a full year
for example.
02:58
And then you're able to break it down further from those 12 weeks
to individual weeks. So that is sort of reverse engineering your
goals. So, for example, if your goal was to make, let's say,
$10,000 in the 12 week time, then you can go and say, okay, well,
what do I need to do incrementally to get myself there? Is it going
to be marketing more? Is it going to be increasing the number of
auditions that you do? Is it going to be figuring out which genre
that you want to go into, because maybe a certain genre may get you
to that 10,000 quicker? I think actually, reverse engineering your
goal makes it so that the goal itself is not so big and all you're
working toward they're little sprints. So you're working toward the
next milestone in that bigger goal sphere.
03:42 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Well, I think there's something to be said for breaking it down
into smaller parts, because I think number one of the fact that our
business is so volatile, right, we don't know where our next job is
coming from. And that is a completely different mindset and pathway
to making money than maybe some people are used to if they come out
of the corporate world. Right, because there's a set amount of
money we're getting paid every so often. Now, all of a sudden,
we've got to be everybody and everything and we have to go out,
generate the leads, follow up on those leads, get the job, do the
job and then charge the money and then collect the money. So
there's all these steps and we don't necessarily know where the
second job is coming or the next job is coming.
04:26 - Danielle Famble (Host)
Yeah.
04:27
And I think also, you can think about creating systems, right. So a
lot of the things that you just said are repeatable processes. So
if you can create a system where it's I'm going to audition for X
number of jobs, that's not guaranteeing that you will book all of
those jobs, but it's sort of a numbers game, right? Sometimes,
especially with commercials, for example, it's sort of a numbers
game. So if you can increase the inputs, then the output may be
more bookings. Perhaps. Same thing with like leads If you are
sending out maybe a few more emails or phone calls, then that
potentially could mean that you're going to possibly book more
jobs.
05:07
So how can you create systems or templates for each individual
section of that process that you're reverse engineering for your
goal? So then you don't have to get stuck in the weeds when it's
time to go to the next step. And the next step Did I follow up this
person? Did I do this? Did I send out this contract? Did I sign
this thing? Making sure that you have a template or a system for it
really can help.
05:28 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
I love that and I think that it's important to make sure that
you're dedicating the time for those steps to happen, because it's
all well and good when you're like I've got the job right and the
money's coming in and that's something I can account for. But yet
now there's all these unknowns in the equation, and especially when
we're talking numbers like I like numbers to be concrete right, I
like to say I've got this coming in, you know, I've got this going
out. But then there's that uncertainty of like okay, I don't have
that job yet, so I need to put that system in place in order to try
to make the goal that I want to achieve. And again, I think it's
important for bosses out there to again set realistic goals. But
again, there's nothing wrong with saying, hey, I'm currently making
X amount of dollars per month, or I like to look at it on a monthly
basis as opposed to, I mean, yearly too.
06:19
I'm like, yes, it's great to have a six-figure, seven-figure,
whatever income you're looking for, but then break that down into
months and then those months back into weeks, because one week
maybe I won't make any money, right? And I have to make sure that
that doesn't necessarily stop me from trying to reach my goal or
create a mental point where I'm just like, oh well, I can't do this
right. I think goal setting a lot of what I'm learning, as well
well as writing it down, putting it concrete on the paper here's
what I want. And then you're talking about setting up the template
and the steps to get there, going back and reviewing those steps
and making sure that if you didn't achieve a step, that's okay,
because maybe next week you can achieve that step even more so, so
that you're not getting upset or depressed and then just giving up
on that goal.
07:04 - Danielle Famble (Host)
Yeah, I also really love what you said about like dedicating the
time to it. One of the things that I implemented in my own life, in
my own business, about a year or two ago and, admittedly, I've sort
of slipped in it it's something this conversation is reminding me
to go back and do is implementing office hours or implementing the
time dedicated to make the system run.
07:25
So if it's implementing an hour every single day, or Monday,
wednesday, friday, for example, to make sure that you've got your
auditions, or to follow up with clients that have not paid, or to
do whatever it is in your system that needs to be done. Really
setting the time aside to actually do it will ensure that your
system does actually work, because it If you kind of sometimes
arbitrarily go through the process of trying to hit your financial
goals then you may not actually be consistent in hitting those
goals.
07:55
Another thing that, when you were talking about it, I was thinking
about is, yes, thinking about things in a monthly 30-day window. I
think that's great because it's that short sprint like we were
talking about earlier.
08:06
One thing is, maybe consider a percentage Like maybe I want to
increase my revenue by 1% or 2%, so you can actually check and see
did I do that? Is there a way to say I did hit this goal or I
didn't hit this goal? Because a lot of times with goals they can be
vague, it feels good but you can't really check and see did I
actually hit it or not?
08:27
That's the thing about numbers. Is it this number or no? You know
if you hit it or not. That's the thing about numbers, is it this
number or no.
08:32 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
You know if you hit it or you didn't. Right, right, it's very black
and white. You're right, I love that checking and being accountable
and that also has an effect again, and it's so funny because
there's hardcore numbers, right, there's here's what I made last
month, here's what I made the month before, and what did it take to
get to those numbers? Going back and being accountable and seeing,
was there a system that worked? And again, if something's not
working or you're having a slow month, again I want to reiterate
that manifestation of abundance and faith, right, faith that you
can achieve the goal right. And so if you can kind of manifest and
see that, have that vision, see it's written down and then see the
systems that were put in place that help to make that work, when
you maybe have a week where nothing happened or a couple of weeks
and you start to doubt yourself, go back and take a look at those
accomplishments.
09:21
Go look at what you've achieved and the systems you use to achieve
them and see if maybe you didn't implement that in quite the same
way or maybe there's a way to take what you did that was successful
and increase it. Maybe I would say, reach out to that repeat
client, right? Or go ahead and maybe increase if you did a hundred
auditions and you're not really seeing anything, well, maybe. What
type of auditions did you do? Were they all commercial auditions,
were they corporate auditions, were they e-learning auditions and
find out which one's booked. And then maybe, if you're like I seem
to be booking a lot of e-learning lately, then maybe increase your
percentage of e-learning auditions.
10:01 - Danielle Famble (Host)
Yeah, and the only way to know everything, what you just said is to
make sure that you're tracking.
10:06
If you're not tracking that information, the dollars are in the
data and if you are not tracking your data, you may not be able to
track your dollars as specifically, to be able to get to the next
step, that next 1%, because if you increase your revenue by 1%
every month over the course of the year, it's exponential growth of
your business. And then you can go back and look and say, okay,
look at what I did, how can I repeat those steps to get even
greater returns the next year? Or to do that in a different genre
that maybe you don't work in, because you know that what you did
works. How can you take what you know and move it to a different
genre?
10:44 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
I love that. You said if you increase your revenue 1%, right every
month, which gives you 12% over a course of a year. And I just want
to bring that back to bosses by saying most jobs don't give a 12%
increase like at all anymore. As a matter of my husband just got
like an 8%, which was incredible. I mean that took years and I
remember back in the day when I was working in education I got a 3%
every year and that was great. So, 1%, bosses don't think, oh,
that's nothing. And I can tell Danielle that you are a money girl
because you know, oh, just 1% and that's realistic, right. And so
that's something like oh, I want to increase my revenue 100% or 50%
or even 20% is I'm not saying it can't be done, I'm just saying
that you want to take a look at how can I like literally
systematically increase that income by 1%, 2%, and that's
incredible.
11:36 - Danielle Famble (Host)
And then, year after year after year, the compounding of that
incremental increase is really where, like, it'll make your eyes
pop because it is amazing and it can be life changing.
11:47 - Intro (Announcement)
Oh yeah. And so when you say like reverse engineering your
goal.
11:51 - Danielle Famble (Host)
That's really where it is. It's not in these big leaps and bounds.
It's how can you grow? Just a little bit more, and a little bit
more, and a little bit more. And then when you look back over time
because this takes time when you look back over time you can say,
oh, wow, like look what this did, look what I grew, look what we've
made. It's really amazing. It's like any financial investment. It's
really amazing.
12:09 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
It's like any financial investment. It's funny because you know,
back in the day when I did work for a company, I remember I
invested some spare change that I had like $500 in a stock in the
company that I worked for, and then I just didn't look at
it.
12:24
I just let it sit there for about 20 years. And I'll tell you what
over time, when you look at a stock, if it's a decent stock and
it's not like a company that's in and out and out of business, a
company that's been around for a long time, I mean that grew over
time even though, like, one month it went way down, another month
it went way up, and then it was like, and if you looked at those
numbers and you got crazy about it, it would make you insane, and
so I just left it alone. I said you know what that was? Money, that
it's kind of like.
12:47
I feel like if I go to Vegas and I'm going to spend money on
gambling which I'm not a big gambler, but I always say, well,
that's my spare change, right, and then I just don't worry about
it. When it's done, it's done. So I invested that money and then I
didn't look at it until 20 years later, when I went to buy a house,
and then all of a sudden I cashed in on it and well, over the years
and of course I didn't like completely ignored it I did look at it
like on a yearly basis, but it wasn't like every day. I was not
looking at it and freaking out if I wasn't getting a return on my
investment. And so I think maybe if you kind of look at your
business like that right, step back from it and look a little more
long term and you can't do that unless you've been tracking it
right and see how you grow, like that tiny little growth spurt over
time makes a humongous difference.
13:38 - Danielle Famble (Host)
Absolutely.
13:39 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
So then let me ask you how, like in terms of I know we talked about
this a little bit in other podcast episodes so in terms of tracking
this right, what's the best resource for tracking this? I mean, I
know we talked about, like I use QuickBooks so I can do a profit
and loss statement. I can generate any length of time. I could say
give me a monthly profit and loss statement. What other things
would you suggest to track? Because that's just the financial part
of it. How are we tracking like marketing, how are we tracking
those types of things?
14:09 - Danielle Famble (Host)
I think that can be done in several different ways. When I first
started my business, I was tracking everything in an Excel
spreadsheet down to every job that I booked, the details about that
job, how much I was paid, how much do I need to set aside for
taxes, and keeping that set aside separated by month. That's one
way to do it Currently. Now I have a Notion database where I
actually will put in every single audition that I did and it turns
into a pipeline. So it's. Did the audition turn into a booking? Did
I get an avail check for that even though I didn't book it? I want
to know the details about that. What were the specs in that
audition? So it's like a whole sales funnel.
14:46 - Intro (Announcement)
It's an entire sales funnel, I love that An entire sales
funnel.
14:49 - Danielle Famble (Host)
That's what I'm doing, that's amazing.
14:51 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
I'm again sort of a nerd. Yeah, no, no, no, I'm right there with
you.
14:54 - Danielle Famble (Host)
That's wonderful, but I want to know everything about the jobs that
are coming my way and then the jobs that turn into actual bookings,
because there's information in that data for me and it's important
for me to take a look and see. I even want to see maybe I
auditioned for something a year ago and the rate was X.
15:13 - Intro (Announcement)
What is it today?
15:14 - Danielle Famble (Host)
I want to know what is the market overall doing? So there are ways
to look at it, like that, crms that you can take a look at and put
your data in.
15:23
However you do it, do it and that's where your data is and then
have a way to go back and take a look at and put your data in.
However you do, it, do it and that's where your data is and then
have a way to go back and take a look and take the time to go back
and look at the data and see comprehensively, maybe by quarter how
did I do? At the end of the year how was this year and what did we
learn and what can we do a little differently? I love
that.
15:45 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Yeah, I think tracking your goals not just here's what I want to
make right but tracking your business and tracking the progress of
your business will really help you to get a great view of your
business over time, and so it will help you to make more educated
decisions as well. Right? So not only are we setting financial
goals and we're manifesting right, and we're having faith in the
fact that we can achieve these goals right, and we're creating
small little pieces, small little segments of those goals that are
achievable right, and then we can look back on our success and be
encouraged and gain confidence from that success. And again, when
you do that, that can just exponentially grow your business and
grow your success. And to me, you've got to take the time to track
that. So how much time. For me sometimes it's like, oh God, I've
been auditioning all day, I've been coaching all day, I've been
doing this. I don't have time to track this. What is your method of
tracking? Do you track on a day-to-day basis or weekly? Or what do
you do?
16:40 - Danielle Famble (Host)
I track, like I said, with the inputs in my sales funnel or my
system. I do that every single day, really like inputting it as
it's happening and how much time does that take?
16:51 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Do you know what I mean? Are you spending like 10 minutes, half an
hour, an hour?
16:54 - Danielle Famble (Host)
Every input is maybe a minute or two, so it adds up to a few
minutes a day, maybe an hour a day.
17:00 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Wow, think of that boss. It's just not even an hour a day right,
yeah, not even I day.
17:05
Wow, think of that boss. It's just not even an hour a day, right?
Yeah, not even. I say that for my students too, who want to pursue
this as a career is that you need to spend, you need to dedicate a
certain amount of time per day on your business, and that tells
your brain, it tells your body, it tells your being that you are
serious about this business and you are manifesting along the way
as you do that. And plus, I think it's a critical part of again
that tracking system that helps us to understand where are we,
where do we want to go and how are we going to achieve that?
Absolutely, yeah, fantastic, wow, I love that.
17:33
So what sort of goals would you say for, let's say, a beginning
talent? What sort of financial goals should they have? Because I
know there's a lot of people that are like quick, they're like I
want to make the money now, right, and I know, as a coach,
sometimes that is something that just doesn't happen right away. I
mean, they're not making thousands upon thousands of dollars right
away, and I think that's where most people get the most discouraged
right in the beginning of their career. So, in terms of financial
goals, what would you say are realistic financial goals for new
talent that are starting out.
18:06 - Danielle Famble (Host)
I think the first thing that a new talent should take a look at is
where are they currently at, to look realistically and then I think
really like the percentage that maybe 1% or 2% maybe not per month
but per quarter might be a really great target to hit. So where are
you at currently and how can you do just a little bit better per
quarter to get you to that 4% per year? And I would also take a
look and see things outside of the returns. But what are you doing
today? Is it that you need to coach with someone else? Do you need
to invest in yourself and your business? Do you need to learn how
to use your DAW a little bit better for editing your auditions?
Those kinds of things can really help with your bottom line because
once you have a little bit more skills in your business, then
you're able to use those skills to generate income. But I think,
looking at it from where you're currently at, then looking at maybe
a one or 2% increase from where you currently are, is incredibly
realistic. Yeah.
19:06 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Yeah, and I think also, when you're starting out, you have to be
realistic in terms of, like, financial success, what you consider
to be financial success and what you're considering to be
investment in growing the business, because there are lots of
businesses that need to take that time to grow. They need to invest
in their product, they need to invest in their marketing, they need
to invest in their storefront, right, which? These are all things
like what is your product? It's your voice, right? Well, that's
your coaching. It's your demos. What is your storefront? That is
your website, what is your marketing? All of these things. Have you
taken a marketing course? Do you have a mail service? That kind of
a thing.
19:49
So, what are you investing? And a lot of it might take more
investing than you're getting back in the beginning, and longer
time it takes, longer it does, it does. And so I feel as though
your financial goals at this point need to be realistic thinking. I
have some people saying, well, I want to make $5,000 a month and
they're just getting out in voiceover, and I'm not saying that you
can't do that, but I'm just saying that until you really start to
grow and make those investments.
20:08
I think marketing is a big, big part of that, because you can be a
new talent and you can be amazing, but if nobody knows that you
exist, right, they can't pay you and so you can't meet those
financial goals. And so you've got to really get out there in front
of people, and that requires your marketing efforts either direct
mails, creating content out there. The quality of your auditions is
marketing Exactly, exactly the quality of your studio out there. So
there's a lot of things that will go into this in order to help
meet your financial goals. And the better you are, the more skilled
you are right, the better your product is right, the better you're
able to market that product. Then I think the more skilled you are
right. The better your product is right, the better you're able to
market that product, then I think, the more able you're going to be
to meet those financial goals in the end.
20:51
Yeah, absolutely so, for, let's say, talent that have been out
there for a while. Is it realistic, do you think, for them to
think, oh okay, well, I made six figures last year, I'm going to
make six figures this year, year, I'm going to make six figures
this year, or I want to increase that by 12% this year. How
realistic do you feel that is?
21:08 - Danielle Famble (Host)
Oh yeah, I think that's incredibly realistic. I think that really
taking a look at where you currently are, or what happened last
year versus what you're attempting to do this year, I think that's
incredibly realistic and you can go back and you can look at your
systems and say, all right, this is what I did. What of it worked?
You can look at your systems and say, all right, this is what I
did. What have it worked? What things do I need to improve? What
maybe should I invest in my business to help get me to that 12% or
more return? I think that's incredibly realistic. Also, it does
mean that you need to look at the genres that you're working in,
yeah, and the market the market that you're working in as
well.
21:43 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Yeah, so important. Yeah, don't leave out the fact that you could
be. You know, I want to do animation or I want to do character
work, whatever that is Right, and you can be an amazing character
animation, you know, have a great demo, have a great product out
there. However, you've got to figure out where's the market, right?
Where's the market at this time? Are there trends in that market?
Am I able to reach that market and how am I able to get in front of
the eyeballs that can hire for that market and what are they
willing to pay Like? That's the part where I think most people they
forget. Oh, so now there's a money, right, there's a value put on
that on the market. Not that you're not worth a million
dollars.
22:23
However, there's a term for it, danielle, and I don't know if I
know what it is, but there is a rate out there that is the going
rate, right, it's a competitive rate for people that want voices
for animation or people that need a commercial voice. There are
rates all over the place. Of course, we always say go to the GVAA
rate guide, right. But I mean, sometimes the market can't pay that
rate, right. That particular client just can't pay it. They don't
have the budget for it, and sometimes that's the truth, right? A
lot of times we want to say, oh no, I can't do that job. I know
what I'm worth and I can't do it for that rate and that's OK,
that's your business decision.
22:58
But don't dismiss that sometimes clients literally don't have it in
their budget to pay that value, and then that's a decision that you
make, right? Whether you want to accept that, to do that maybe
below your rate or not. And I'm not saying you should do that for
everything. But there is a value. There is a value that the
companies put on it and they will have budgets. I mean, people have
budgets for a reason. So you have to be considerate of the company
and not just be angry at the company if they can't meet your
budget.
23:28
You know, I think a lot of times we tend to so quickly dismiss and
say, well, they're not paying me what I'm worth, and so therefore
and yeah, I say, if that's your decision, that gives you time to go
find somebody who will pay you what you're worth. But sometimes
understand that it is possible that the company doesn't have the
budget at this moment Doesn't mean that they won't have the budget
in the future, or that you can't work on that in the future. So
yeah, just a thought Wow, good stuff, danielle, wow.
23:54 - Danielle Famble (Host)
Yeah, that's a really good discussion. I think that talking about
goals is incredibly important, not just about the financial goals,
but the inputs to your goals as well, because that can just be
general business goals, life goals. Once you learn how to do this
in one aspect of your life, you can really move it to other aspects
of your life. Oh yeah absolutely, absolutely.
24:14 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
All right. Bosses Love this conversation. Danielle Can't wait for
our next one. I'm going to give a great big shout out to our
sponsor, ipdtl. You, too, can connect and network and make money
like bosses like Danielle and myself. Find out more at IPDTLcom.
You guys have an amazing week and go out there and let's set some
financial goals and meet them. We will see you guys next week. Bye,
bye.
24:38 - Intro (Announcement)
Join us next week for another edition of VO Boss with your host,
Anne 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.