How to 'Break' Into Voice Over (Part III of Many)
Welcome back, my friends!
For anyone just tuning in, PART I was about setting and reframing your mindset, which is the foundation for any successful career.
PART II tackled honing your skills as a voice actor, understanding how important specificity and script analysis are, and breaking your habitual patterns so that you develop more range as a performer.
Today, in Part III, we'll move on to the topics that just about everyone wants to skip straight to: Booking work, staying competitive, and the numbers game. I know that some people want to skip the foundational psychology and "artsy fartsy" topics in order to get straight to the bottom line, but I stubbornly, and persistently, insist that you go back and work (and rework) the foundational elements in the previous posts as often as you can throughout your career.
How many books can you balance on a twig?
Not many, if any. But if you take the time to build a table or a bookshelf, I bet you can stack a hell of a lot more!
Foundations are key.
Mindset and emotions will always rule actions and results. You can drive yourself crazy playing Whac-A-Mole on different actions and strategies (the frantic action of stacking books on a twig) or you can deepen your practice, learn, grow, and find fulfillment with Massive Action from the inside out.
Building your foundation as a performer and solopreneur is more like a spiral that deepens over time, rather than a linear line.
Know Your Job
From June 23, 1975, to July 6, 2023, Jeff's light burned brightly as he lived, performed, and learned to empower more and more actors into confident performance and nuanced creative expression. I am very lucky and beyond grateful that Jeffrey became not only my Shakespeare acting mentor, but also my go-to audition coach, as he really helped me redefine my craft, at a time I was beginning to stagnate. I am honored to share some of his magnificent wisdom with you today, and hope it helps you break free from whatever is holding you back.
Welcome to my f%$king process!
Is what Jeffrey would say to his proverbial casting directors, in his head, before he walked into the auditioning space. Not because he disliked the actual person(s) on the other side of the door, and not to get super P.O'd about having to audition. This was how he, with active, vibrantly colorful humor, would remind himself that the audition WAS the PERFORMANCE and that it was in the juiciest glory ALL HIS!
There's a really insidious problem with viewing auditions as "that thing you have to do to book the job," because it robs you of your power, your creative juice, and your flow.
This IS the job.
For those gorgeous 15-60 seconds of audio (plus however long you spend with the text before recording it and shaping it in post before sending it out), YOU are performing the work. It's yours, and you have to own it.
It isn't semantics or a cute bumper sticker concept. It's a paradigm-shifter.
Don't just take my word for it:
He says it:
These folks are all pretty convinced it's an inside job as well:
So the first major key to staying competitive is treating the audition as the job and to give it quality attention.
Back when I first started freelancing from home, I'd seen so many people on social media reporting that, in order to "beat the numbers game," we needed to turn in 300 auditions every week on casting sites (in a mad-dash race to get to '1000 auditions'.) I gave that strategy my best effort for 3 weeks. I got nowhere near that number, but I did manage to crank out about 100/ week.
You know how many of them booked?------> Not a single one. None. Nada. Zip.
A few got shortlisted... As I said in the last article, if you have a pleasant-sounding and marketable voice, you will luck into some wins even without effort, skill, or authenticity.
But where is the joy or passion in that?
I took a listen to them at the end of the month. There was a whole lotta quantity that was lacking in quality. So I jumped ship on the quantity train, and took my seat on the quality train from that moment forward. Then, the work started coming.
You see, "beating the numbers game," getting to 1000 auditions by cranking out audio isn't my job. ( And neither is it yours #ThankGoodness)
My job is to be an Actor & Voice Talent, it says so on my email signature!
I do need the ability to prep and lay down takes within a quicker timeframe for VO than for any other forms of acting, but I still need to take enough time to uncover the story behind the words in the script, if I am to do the writer's message any justice, and THAT is our job:
Bring writing to life, by connecting with the copy.
[Side note: I chose 'actor & voice talent' because I wanted to be able to communicate that voice over was only one part of my creative endeavors, and at the time that I printed my business cards and published my website, "non-union voice talent' was the top rated key word search that would help people find me... whether you use 'talent, artist, actor, performer, narrator', or whatever other term you love, is your call, your choice, and your preference.]
Share, Don't Show
Another eample of Jefferey's paradigm-shifting wisdom is
"Share, don't show."
Let's say you receive a really juicy side to audition that has killer emotional poignancy:
You might be tempted to ask how you are going to try to cry or "show" how emotional this turn of events is for you. The subtext might sound something like, "I am a performer who has the ability to emote intensely."
And yet, YOU aren't what makes the performance poignant.
It's what happened and what happens next, and how authentically you step through that journey unfolding. The audience is touched because they live that experience THROUGH you.
That's really what Jeffrey did, not only on stage, but also on his couch while coaching actors through their audition text. 100% of Jeff was in the story, and it was magical to witness, and brought out the best in me, and anyone lucky enough to work with him.
Our job is to experience the (fictional) circumstances and then share that authentic happening with the listener. It isn't about method acting, or traumatizing yourself like a martyr for the sake of your art, but it is about shifting your focus from YOU to the STORY.
No human who receives bad or amazing news or is confronted by a painful circumstance wants to cry. Crying is the result of fighting the feeling down, of resisting, being touched, or even overwhelmed by reality.
Acting is living truthfully under imaginary circumstances. ~Sanford Meisner
I opened with examples that had a fair amount of drama to help you understand where we are going with this concept, but I'm out there auditioning for the same awards shows, tech start-up apps, and medical explainers that you are, and so now we'll look at more "every day" applications.
Just about every audition comes with certain style keywords, like:
Confident, believable, warm, approachable, sassy, maternal, authoritative, etc.
Showing a confident style might include things like bottoming out in the lower register, raising volume, and projecting the dialogue in an unwavering fashion, no matter what the script says. "I'll SHOW YOU what a confident character looks and sounds like."
Versus, sharing your confidence involves thinking empowered thoughts, and having certainty that what you are saying is the best course of action. "I've thought a lot about this problem your company is having with your supply chain, and I'll SHARE with you my kick ass plan."
Then you follow the road map that the script offers you on what that kick ass plan entails, and why it is better than sliced bread. You may find that when you are confiding in the listener about how bad the problem really is that you dip down into your lower register, but that when you switch to giving them hope that the future will be better, your voice has a much higher and uplifted quality.
You follow the thoughts, and your vocal qualities (the style) will take care of itself.
Why Not How
In addition to your overall script analysis (Who are you, who are you talking to, what is it about/ in reaction to/ what do you want them to do, think, or feel?)
The other key is to understand the language. How the thoughts or arguments are built. WHY these words, NOW?
Is this a main point? A set-up? A parenthetical? Does the script have a call back moment, that references something said earlier?
Authentic communication has layers and rhythms, like a beautiful composition of music, but with thoughts, rather than musical notes. You can imagine how non-inspiring or lackluster it would be to show up for the symphony, and they simply played a long note. Then, took a breath, and played the same or very similar note again, and repeated it for the entire performance. Sometimes the note is longer or louder, sometimes shorter or softer, but it's a one-note-symphony.
As VO actors, fortunately we don't need to sight-read musical notes and time signatures like musicians, but we do need to sight-read our beats, thought transitions, tactics, subtext, context, and opinions. (#AttitudeIsEverything)
We break down the language beat by beat, and then put it back together in a nuanced and authentic way.
We accomplish that by asking 'why these words now', thinking the thoughts, seeing the scene/listener, and using lead-ins, improv, and paraphrasing.
Take this mouthful of dialogue, for example (for the purpose of this exercise, I've removed the punctuation):
Fueled by Emblem's Practicing Wisely Appropriateness of Care Measures a meticulous compilation of over 250 measures across 20 specialties crafted collaboratively with hundreds of clinical experts national and regional health plans are now harnessing the power of Evidence-Based Goldcarding in modernizing their prior auth systems
What is the main point? Where is the supporting/detracting information? Let's get into the language and break it down.
An example paraphrase might look like this:
Fueled by [our best practices] (because integrity matters to us) - which were created by a multitude of experts across a multitude of fields - and given exhaustive and meticulous feedback reviews until we agreed on what they should entail and gave them an official, capitalized, name - we now have complete confidence that this is the safest, most efficient, and best way to care for patients - and it's time for you to join us.
A postcard version might read: (which even in "a hurry to meet a deadline" you can still do on any & every script)
National and regional health plans are now modernizing their systems with this best-in-industry, intensely-scrutinized, new approach. This powerful process was created by Emblem.
Everything else in that paragraph adds detail as to why and to what level of proof there is in this recommendation.
This isn't just the newest or most innovative solution, nor is it the only one... but it's the absolute best one because of how meticulously it was thought out and tested before hitting the market. THAT is what you have confidence in, and that is the confidence you SHARE.
While it isn't Shakespeare (which is where Jeff's real talent for language and nuance blossomed like a lotus) all language has parts and OUR JOB is to understand them, even if (and especially when) the writing is not masterfully crafted.
Content creation in our modern world moves FAST, and we cannot expect every explainer video's script to be as gripping or thoughtfully patterned as Romeo and Juliet or Othello. ?
Perseverance, Work Ethic, Love of the Craft (+ a little bit of Luck)
When you compare acting to careers that are extremely high stakes, like neurosurgery, or the very physically taxing, like nursing, mining, or fire fighting, it can be an easy fallacy to conclude that acting (especially voice acting, where we don't memorize scripts, and often are not captured on-camera) is a pretty effortless job.
That simply isn't the case.
It's not easy to "break into it" and about 6 out of 10 people who are attracted to doing it, don't make it. They lack the perserverance, the dedication, and sometimes even the work ethic more than they lack the talent. I'd even go so far as to say that these qualities outweigh "natural ability" ten-fold. Even famous actors like Will Smith, Will Ferrell, and Steve Marthin have said as much about their own careers.
"But you're just reading!?" is what I've heard from so many people.
You are not just reading, as every post in this series has tried to expound upon. AI will offer clients the ability to have 'just reading' for dirt cheap, and the results will match. #YouGetWhatYouPayFor
Personally, I've coached a number of folks whose attitudes completely shock me. "I'm here! I've been here! Where is my reward!?!"
领英推荐
That's just a scared amgydala hijacking their system.
Even folks like Jim Carrey and Bryan Cranston didn't just immediately "arrive." They loved this craft, this "job," this vocation, so much that one of them waited tables, parked cars, and did Heaven-Knows-What until he landed his first sitcom, and the other lived out of his van with a daily ritual of looking at a self-addressed check, until he scored In Living Color.
I don't think any person needs to jump off a cliff or suffer major hardship in order to "deserve the work" in an effort to pay dues. But I think we can approch the work with respect. With love, even.
If your voice over career were your spouse, could you imagine saying to this person whom you love, "When is it MY TURN? When are you going to do something for ME after everything I do for YOU??!! What are you even worth?!?!"
What do you imagine their response would be? Do you think they would immediately fall to your feet and give you everything you've ever wanted or dreamed of?
And yet, by the time I get to coaching someone who is overly-frustrated, that's pretty much where we are. The love is gone, and the dashed-expectations have been creating a nagging resentment that poisons every decision they make.
This career isn't meant for everyone. You have to value courage, resilience, perseverance, and determination way more than you value fame, certainty, comfort, and ease. That's a decision you get to make every day. Is it worth it? Is it really worth it to you? (And this harkens back to Part I - WHY are you doing it?) In my experience, you also need to be either a little bit crazy, a little bit stubborn, or both.
There is so much we cannot control in life, but your work ethic and values are always in your control. I see folks all the time on Social Media complaining about how "the client has asked for too much," and other voice actors will pile on saying, "tell them to jump off a cliff" and all this crazy stuff, and I am literally just dumbfounded.
The truth is, there are a million ways to build a career. I believe that your business should be built as an extension of YOU, your personality, your expressive style, and your nature. Yet, I feel like some people have an unexamined belief that clients and projects exist so that we can be actors. But here's the alternative: we actually GET TO BE ACTORS because clients have projects and scripts— content and stories that we can tell, sell, and bring to life.
I personally enjoy it when a client comes to me with a challenge that gives me the opportunity to help them solve it:
These are all billable services, above and beyond your VO work. They are all OPPORTUNITIES to add value, earn a larger project fee, and stay competitive, if you have the skill, work ethic, and mindset to do it. The very same request can create 2 very different stories: "these clients are so difficult" vs "look what I helped them do!" You get to write YOUR OWN version, and unless you want to go the way of the dinosaurs, I suggest you consider adapting to the needs and opportunities you see.
There is, to my mind, a huge difference between "low balling" (that is not valuing your time and service enough to offer a competive rate) and "low offering" (which is not being willing to be a collaborative partner with your clients to help bring their story to life.) The amount of value you want to offer is also always within your control.
If you have the capacity to:
Guess what? That's all the luck you need. You need one person to give you that chance, and your preperation + that opportunity = luck.
Any time opportunity isn't knocking, you knock on your preperation.
That's what it means to truly be competitive. #TheEdge
It might help to think about projects from a non-ego perspective:
You'll find that you are able to earn more by adding more value to the market place, and as Stephen Covey says in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, these are some of the ways that we can shift from our habitual self-orientation, and grow into being relationship-centered, by valuing "win-win" situations.
The Numbers Game
In the healthcare and fitness world, if someone wishes to lose weight or inches, it is recommended that they track and measure their food intake (calories and macros), weight, and body mass, because it gives them more data points to look at over the long haul, and keeps the mind focused on the goal. That person may not hit their goal weight or able to fit into their desired size of clothing, overnight, but they can see the smaller positive changes (trends) that are happening in the body from week to week and over the months, that keeps them on track in their journey.
If the results aren't trending in the desired direction, these measurements can also help with diagnostics of which components to adjust.
But there are some people for whom this system doesn't work. Rather than acting as an impartial tracking system or a motivational guide, it creates obsession and overwhelm. They see the numbers as being one in the same as their identity and worth, and any data points that feel "negative" to them, will send them down a spiral. So, the medical practitioner will pull them off of these practices and find an alternative approach.
Unfortunately, the same thing can be true for actors and their audition tracking spreadsheets.
The reason it is recommended for actors to keep track of their "audition numbers" isn't because it weeds out the "good from the bad." Nor does it exist to inflate or deflate the ego.
"I audition all the time, and I never book any work" or "I am killing it!" are subjective feelings, whereas "out of 300 auditions 25 were liked/ shortlisted and 6 booked" are impartial & objective snapshots of what is currently happening in the auditioning process, there is no wiggle room for licking, biting, or gnashing one's teeth.
Let's say, for example, that on your favorite casting site, you have auditioned 300 times, have 25 likes, and 3 bookings, but only 100 were listened to. What do you do to fix that?
In the above scenario, you have a 3% booking ratio and a 25% shortlist trend out of the ones that made it in front of someone, but you only have 33% of your efforts making it that far.
We know that you can't book or get shortlisted if the audition fails to make it to the casting director, so diagnostically, this is NOT pointing to your audio quality or performance, it's probably pointing to your voice match/SEO, so it can save you valuable time and energy on just focusing your attention and changes to that area.
If, on the other hand, you have 80-90% being listened to, no bookings, and a very small percentage of likes or shortlists, that's when having fresh eyes & ears feedback from a trusted coach, peers, or someone from the casting site, can help you hone in on what you'd like to improve.
We don't yet know exactly what the data means, but we know the audio is not making it past the initial listen. That could mean the performance or techincal quality aren't competitive... or it could also mean you are marketing yourself and demos for a niche that simply doesn't match what people are hearing in your audio. The feedback review will help you hone in on which element to enhance. (And this harkens back to Part II - Breaking your Habitual Patterns & Recalibrating your compass)
Finally, if you have a great percentage of listened to and liked/shortlisted auditions but a low percentage of bookings... this is what we call "the numbers game."
Marketing trends, personal preferences, cultural/ branding shifts, all change what's currently "in" and what is "not". Those changes are the constant in this whackadoodle industry. We all make peace with it. The same actor who booked 10% of the work in one category, will book 0-1% in the next.
You can look at the massive change that the pandemic had on advertising pre, during, and post-lockdown. We shifted from quirky, perky, fun ("Hey the Rock!"), to seasoned, mature authority ("For over 100 years., our organization has been helping humanity..."), and then back to a minimalistic "everyday" sound ("Well.. uh.. we have to find someway to save... so ...say hi to Glen?")
The only parts of the casting we can really contribute to are for our listened-to ratio (in our SEO tagging and script selection strategy) and the shortlisting ratio (performance, including script analysis, and audio quality)
Casting is selective, subjective, and not within our control. The numbers just help us stay objective and scientific about our efforts. That's all they are meant for. The longer and bigger data pool you have, the more you will see a clearer picture; it's a marathon, not a sprint, and in every race, split times vary wildly.
The only place you get this level of ratio detail (listened-to and/or liked) is on casting platforms. Any agency or direct marketing auditions you receive will only ever offer 'booked,' 'not booked,' or '*check avail.'
'*Check avail', generally means you've made the client's shortlist, and now they are checking if your are available to record at the time they prefer, they may even ask you to "hold the time," but this doesn't mean you've booked it. They will either confirm the booking, or "release you" from the hold. Talk about a career with a lot of certainty and predictability! (Now do you understand why I keep harping on psychology and mindset, like a #BrokenRecord ?!?)
For casting platforms, you will sometimes book work that was never officially "liked" or shortlisted. The shortlist category, really only means, the client clicked a button or did not click a button. Some clients are busy and don't need or want to click additional buttons.
Some clients literally click the like button on every audition they listen to.
Why?
I have no idea, and neither will you.
Maybe their cousin is an actor and they know how disheartneing it can be, so they want to be enthusiastically supportive? Maybe they just really like clicking buttons? Doesn't matter. We'll never know.
What matters, is that the numbers point to TRENDS. They are not exact GPS location figures. We want to keep ourselves in the place where we are aware, calm, and open about them. You will occasionally get feedback from clients, "we really loved your audition, but went in a different direction." That's good stuff to keep in your tank, as it certainly beats the usual silent void.
Audition & Move On
Just as some practitioners have to pull patients off of calorie or weight tracking due to adverse reactions to them... some actors need to be pulled off tracking.
I do it once a week. In the past, I used to do it once a month. There is no need to do it daily. Does the watched pot boil any faster? Once you've done YOUR job, and sent in your best performance, with your best quality, it's now THEIR job to cast it. They'll never know your full potential off of one listen, no matter what you do, and that's just part of being an actor. You give them your best interpretation, and then you let them decide which direction they want to go. It really isn't personal, and you need to own that. You have so much to give, but not every script will ask you for all of your sum parts. Not even your best parts in terms of strengths.
We can take a note out of Jeffrey's book and always make sure to have something else scheduled after auditions that will help you transition away from it and LET IT GO.
Read some comics, go for a walk, have a glass of your favorite tea (or Bourbon), spray your favorite scent, call a friend, play with your pet, play with yourself... it doesn't matter what you do, as long as it pulls you away from the space you created in the audition(s) and into something you find joy in. Your job, for now, is over.
Sometimes clients come back any where from same day to 6 months after the audition, sometimes they don't... it's not in your control, and any mental or emotional energy you spend on it, would be guaranteed to be of better use somewhere else.
Fill your life up!
Matthew Hussey, (a very easy-to-listen-to life coach) in his virtual masterclass on building confidence and life-by-design, came up with a great concept here, that I'll close with.
Imagine your life as a table*/ matrix with everything that matters to you on it (everyone's will look a little different and have a different balance):
If one of the legs of this table drops, there's enough left over to keep it stable, even if it gets wobbly in the short term.
[*Table, here, is a call-back reference to where we started. How many books can you balance on a twig? See? All writing has parts!]
But if we get all-consumed and out of balance with any one area:
If this leg takes a hit, the whole table crashes down.
So the last part of YOUR JOB is to make sure you are living LIFE.
Make your own "what I need and want each day to generate happiness" list, and commit to making that part of your daily routine. Because happiness, doesn't just happen... we create it. It's a state of mind and of life.
Mine are:
Moving, Learning, Creating, Laughing, and Connecting.
Have you pinpointed yours yet?
And never forget, that while having a smart, practical financial plan is key, when you run your own business, you'll only ever be able to truly rely on PEOPLE as your emergency life line.
Just follow Seth Godin's plan. Have 1000 true fans who truly value what you offer. You'll be able to face all of life's twists, turns, and uncertainties with the confidence that you can pivot. ? And how do you do that? You do things for the people in your care and charge, listen to them, and treat them with dignity, respect, and concern. That's YOUR JOB!
In the final installments, we'll cover the last 2 components to a healthy and successful career in voice over: Pristine Audio and Solid Business and Marketing strategies.
Thanks for reading! Please let me know if you have questions, and/ or if you have a topic you'd like to hear about. I really do love helping actors and business professionals understand our whackadoodle industry as best as can be done! ?
~Lauren Goode
Lauren Goode is a freelance actor and voice talent, based in Chicago who provides voice-over work for broadcast and digital media. Lauren's voice has been featured on television, radio, online streaming commercials, video games, park tours, cartoons—including the Cartoon Network— and has narrated numerous online video tutorials, phone systems, and eLearning modules. She is a collaborative artist who enjoys working with clients to find the right angle to tell and sell the story.
While she can claim, Walmart, Re/Max, SalesForce, Cigna, United HealthCare, Genpact, Calvin Klein, Microsoft, Animal Planet, Full Metal Alchemist, and Assassin's Creed as a few of her "big name" social credentials, she just really loves meeting people where they are and helping them get to wherever they want to go.
She describes her very fun and weird life as part acting, part fitness adventuring, and part goofy-yet-empowering mentorship.