← A VO's Journey: Voiceover and more voice over
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Anthony Pica
Hello and welcome to avo's Journey Podcast. My name is Anthony Pica. This show is all about helping the new and upcoming voiceover artists go their business sidestep all the crazy things that I seem to step on. It is episode number 236. It is the 2nd of May, 2022 and I am thrilled to be alive. You like that I had to do something crazy like that? I'm an idiot. You know it. But you know what? It's fun. It's very fun. I hope you're doing well. I've got a really cool episode today. We're going to be talking about a question. It's like a three part question. I thought it was pretty cool. Came from a new person joining a VO's Journey Facebook group. The question is, how do I find my voice niche? All right. Market myself and make money. Now that I'm in with both feet, I thought that's an excellent, excellent question. Let's dive in and do it. This is vo's Journey with your host, the incomparable Anthony Pica. All right, so before we get started really quick, I want to tell you about a really cool special we're running on Aveeo's Journey Elite Academy. We're doing half off the first month. It really is a fantastic academy. If you're just starting or trying to grow your voiceover business or you need that boost or you're trying to do everything you can but you just can't seem to get the business going, you're really gonna love the academy. We have classes from marketing to voice acting to business systems to tech and your DAW and how to process your audio to business systems to everything that you could possibly need. And a whole archive full of tutorials, previous sessions, how to's, et cetera to help you on your journey. So check that out. There'll be a link below to that special deal. Half off the first month. All right, so let's get into this. Let's get into this. 3. And of course you can imagine I am talking to you in my brand new booth. I absolutely am over the moon. One thing I didn't show you too is I actually have installed LED lights in the booth as well. Just on a side note. But now here's a quick funny thing. I know I'm going to get to this, I promise what we talked about, but when I have the booth, I'm actually talking to you guys and looking. I literally, when I first started the construction of everything, I was going to make my booth like four by five. Or something 4x4, you know, I didn't need it. I was like, it doesn't need to be that big because I've had it. But when I got into the space, I was like, man, it would be really cool if I just had this really big recording booth. So I split the room in half. So now the booth is actually 4 by 10, 4 by 10ft. That's right. But here's the deal. It's not 4 by 10ft plus treatment. It's 4 by 10ft after treatment. Because remember, the majority of the treatment was built into the studio. So literally, I have an entire like, studio. Like it's this massive booth here. And I'm like looking in the back at it. I'm like, I could dance around in here, lay down, take a nap. The whole idea was to put a chair in here. That was my. That was my thought process. You know, get one of those like plush, comfy chairs and somehow, you know, sit down to do long form narration or something, you know, on the other side. But I don't know. I'm sure I will come up with something else to do with the other half of this big booth, but either way, it's a blast. I love having it. All right, so any hoosers? Let's get back into this three part question today. And I think this is relevant for all of us. So the first part of the question is, how do I find my voice niche? I've been asked this question so many times, and it was on my mind when I first started. I had no clue what I was going to be good at. I thought when I first started what I would never do. Like, for some, somehow I knew what I would never do. I thought when I first started I would never do commercial work, right? Like, that was. I was just not my voice style. It was not who I was. You know, I was a teacher and I thought, you know, nonfiction audiobooks were going to be my big thing, right? That was going to be what I did. That was who I am. You know, it's not, you know, I was like, I'm not dynamic. Which is. Which is funny because, you know, I'm like extremely dynamic and goofy. But I think at the time, it probably had to do with some depression. I was like, I'm not a dynamic person anyways, you know. And by the way, on a side note too, nonfiction audiobook narration is dynamic. It does not have to be not dynamic. But that's what I thought. So anyways, when I first started, I thought I would only do Nonfiction audiobooks. And I thought that was my niche. But as time went on, I realized that I had no clue what my niche was. I mean, there was so many options, right? There's so many voiceover options out there. And I was just doing one thing at the time. And then I. I had this idea because I've always loved to do, you know, voices. And for some reason, you know, I was like, Halloween was coming up and this wasn't on Fiverr yet, but I was like, I, you know, I'll do some. I'll put up a gig that does scary voices, right? So I put up a gig on Fiverr with scary voices. And then all of a sudden, you know, I started getting all this work. You know, I could do scary laughs. You know, I'd be like, you know, like this, like, you know, stuff. Stuff like that, you know, you know, it's the Crypt Keeper. Like, I did all the, you know, I don't know if you guys remember that. Tales from the Crypt. Long times ago, but I did all that. So anyways, the point is, is that I started getting work and I was like, wait a minute, you know, I thought to myself, I was just going to be this, you know, boring nonfiction audiobook narrator. Again, nonfiction audiobook is not boring, but I thought it was, which probably wasn't necessarily that good at it. But anyways, you know, I started getting this other work and then all of a sudden I started thinking, okay, well, you know, if I could do this, why can't I do all kinds of other work? What about, you know, these short, short commercial spots, you know, these radio spots or these tags, Rather that Voice Bunny at the time, you know, I got on Voice Bunny and I was doing all these little tags, you know, auditioning and being paid to do these little tags. And. And I started to get work doing that. And then I put myself out there for E learning and then I put myself out there doing longer form commercials. Then I put myself out there doing explainer videos, more type YouTube videos, and then more character work and voicemail. And IV the point is, is that I realized that I had no idea what niche I was going to be good at or what I was doing until I put myself out there in as many places as I could and let the market tell me where they thought I should be. Now there's. This is kind of a half and half thing, meaning, like, put yourself out there in as many areas as you can, you know, throwing as many kind of fishing nets, fishing poles in the water, if you will, and see you know what? Fish bite where they like you. However, I did get to a point where I wanted to get more. More commercial work, and I wasn't getting more, like, leading male commercial work. And I realized as I did more research that I had to make some changes to the style of voiceovers I was doing for that genre. So I worked on it, worked on it, made those changes, and lo and behold, I started getting work in those genres. And I think what I'm trying to say is that this comes half and half. Part of this is, especially when you're first starting out, you don't know what you don't know. You don't know all of the genres. You don't know how they all work together. You know, you might not be aware of the trends at this moment. You know what I mean? I mean, you know, when I first got in, everything was like, you know, oh, it's gotta be so conversational, right? And it is very, you know, we're still in that conversation. I want the real person. However, I've done ton of work where it's not conversational whatsoever. There's still a need for character announcers, that kind of stuff, because we are the people who are doing all of this. This is our job. So there's funny commercials out there that use announcer work. You hear them, there's character work. There's all this type of different styles that people like, clients like. And if they want it from you, the better that you can do multiple things, the more hireable you're going to be. So, again, you know, it's twofold, the first part. All right, how do you find your voiceover niche? You cast as many fishing lines out there, as many. You try as many different genres as you can. Okay? Put as many out there as well. And as you're doing that, you know, start soaking up what you like and what you don't like. And if there's something that you like that you notice you're not getting hired for, okay, work on it while you're putting everything out there, because just a perfect example, you might be like, man, I really want to do. You know, I really want to be characters in a video, you know, in the. In, like, big video games. You know, that might be what you want to do. And it's like, that's great, but, you know, you're not getting any of those jobs right now. But yet, for some reason, you know, you keep getting hired to do voicemail and ivr. Okay, phone message, you know, jobs. Well, don't shun the Voice message and the phone. The IVR jobs. Do them, do them well, get paid for them. But in the meantime, while you're doing that, also work on how you can do better character work so you can get more jobs. Do you see what I mean? It's a half and half. It's one helps the other. But you won't know how to find the niche, strangely enough, until you put out as many, you know, as many fishing lines as possible. Just like the chicken and the egg. All right, all right. So now that you've, you know, you're putting out as many lines as possible. The second part is market myself. Listen, this is kind of goes with the first part because you're doing multiple things at once by putting yourself out everywhere, okay? And by putting as many genres as you can. So that. So, So I guess, let me back up. So you're putting out as many different voiceover genres as you can by making demos, samples of different styles that you can do or that you're trying to do. Different voiceovers, different, you know, categories, if you will. You know, like we talked about audiobook, fiction, nonfiction, talked about elearning. We talked about explainer videos. You know, we talked about radio, tv. We also talked about meditation. There's character work. We talked about voicemail. So many different types and a million within them. You know, video narration makes up the majority of everything we do. But there are all kinds of different types, right, based on what platform they go on, et cetera. But as you're putting out and making those demos and samples, you also need to market yourself. And by putting yourself on as many platforms as you can, marketing yourself turns into representing yourself. Now, I'm not a. I'm not like. Well, you know, if you've listened to any of this, you know that I'm not. I'm not against any form of marketing. I'm not against agents or agencies. I just don't work with any personally. And honestly, the reason that is is because I've never gone after one or an agency or an agent, and they've never come to me, so I've never used them. And yet, you know, I've made a living from voiceover. So I think we are. Well, I know we are living in the day and age of representing yourself, right? You can represent yourself. You can be your own agent. But, you know, as someone like, you know, for example, I. Bill deweese, right? You know, he always would say, I have like 10 or 15 agents, but they only account for less than 5% of the work. I Get right? So there's nothing wrong with getting the agents. Now I will say, like for example, if you want to be a character voice actor to do bigger games, right, A lot of those companies that are doing the bigger games, they're going to be going through bigger studios, they're going to be going through companies that probably have deals with sag, Aftra or have deals with certain place, even though the majority of work is clearly non union right now. Right? But you could get opportunities through agents that you probably would never get on your own just because there's still, you know, there's still companies and agencies that do work that, you know, that you can't get into unless you have that connection. But you know, I've also always said to me personally, you know, I've never wanted to be Mozart. And I'll explain this. You know, Mozart, you know, brilliant prodigy, amazing. We all know Mozart's music. But you know, if you know his story, right, he died penniless in an unmarked grave, okay? And of course, you know, 500 years later, you know, he's a legend, everyone loves him, but what a crazy life that he had to live. And he died with nothing. I don't want to live that life personally. So I use that as an example to myself when I'm telling you I don't want to be Mozart, I want to live my life and I want to be wealthy while I'm alive and enjoy. So I don't need to. I guess what I'm trying to say is I personally use that as a mantra to where I don't need to die on the hill. I'm willing to do work even if it's for lesser known companies. Do you know what I mean? And again, that's not a price thing. I still want to get paid. But I'm saying it's just, I don't concern myself with where I get my work from. You know what I mean? So marketing yourself in today's day and age is paramount to you making money. And one of the biggest and easiest ways to do that is to get yourself on as many platforms, as many places as you can. Okay? Now the third part of this was make money. Now let him in with both feet. And I think with what I've been talking about, you can kind of see how each one of these that I've talked about leads to you making money. And I think this last little section that I was saying about, you know, not being Mozart, the idea here is to get work and to get paid. I'm not Looking to, you know, now, this is me personally, you might be completely different, and that's okay, but I'm not looking for legendary status. You know, one day when I die, you know, 102 or 300 years down the road, they're gonna look back and say, man, Anthony was one heck of a voice actor. He changed the world. I'm not saying that that isn't something you can do. I'm just saying, me personally, I'm interested right now and. And living with my family and enjoying my life and trying to at least, and living in the moment because I feel like when we're dead, that's it. It's glad that someone else would be talking about you, but, I mean, I want to live now. I don't want to regret not spending time with my family or having the means to enjoy freedom with them. So to me, doing the things that I've mentioned in this will help you make money and make a lot of money. Are you going to need coaching? Yes. Are you going to need to continue to practice to get better? Absolutely. Okay. That is clear. In any craft or trade that you or art that you work in or work on, you have to get better and you have to continuously train. Absolutely. But it's important that you don't or you're not unwilling to work because there is an issue with exactly how much money you're making or who the work is coming from or what platform you're on. Again, the wonderful thing about us running our own businesses, though, is that you can choose all of this. You don't have to listen to anyone. You don't have to listen to me. You don't have to listen to anybody. You can choose to never do a voiceover job for under a million doll. I don't know how much work you get, but all you need to get is one or two jobs and you'll be set. You know what I mean? But, you know, I mean, you could choose to do all your voiceover Work for $5 forever. All right, you get a lot of jobs, but it'll be a pain in the butt because you'll deal with a lot of, you know, people who. Rude people. There's happy mediums within all of this. I mean, I know that's a big medium between a million and five dollars. But you get what I'm trying to say, hopefully, okay, is that this is a process you progress through starting out. Where you start will not be where you are next year or three years or five years from now. I mean, I started, you Guys, five years ago, I think if you started back from the beginning, this podcast. I started in 2019, I believe, I think. Or 2018. 2019. I mean, in 2019, I started this podcast before I left my job in another home in my hobo fort, right? And this is, you know, at this point in 2022, I'm in a brand new 12 acres of land. The reason, a brand new house, studio. I tell you this because you never know where you're going to end up next year, three years, five years, 10 years down the road. But I can tell you this, it won't be the same place you are now, okay? So the best thing that you can do is do what I've said here and get yourself out as many places and work, get work, get those wins under your belt and it will make you feel better, I promise. You will feel accomplished. And when you feel accomplished, you get more confident. And when you get more confident, you're able then to put yourself in positions where you're going to get more work, better work, higher paying work, and people won't even question it because of that confidence. This chicken and the egg thing is annoying, but it's true. Okay? You've got to build it and you've got to build yourself before you're going to get all of that extra high paying stuff, okay? But this is the way that you can do it. I want to thank the person for this question. I'm trying to remember who it is. I apologize. I try not to. And maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I'm an idiot for not mentioning people's name, but sometimes I try not to mention people's names because I don't want to put people on the spot and everything. But I want to thank the person who sent this question because I think it was something really beneficial for a lot of us. If you have any questions that you want me to talk about on the podcast, please feel free to message me. You can send a message through Avio's Journey. You can put it in our Facebook group, Avivo's Journey Facebook Group. Just let me know and I'd love to talk about it. And also, just as a quick reminder, like I said, the beginning, make sure you check out that special for Aveo's Journey Elite Academy. Half off the first month. It really is 2022 is our year to knock this out of the park and the Academy will help you do that. You guys, thank you so much for listening to this episode 236 of Aveeo's Journey podcast. I will talk to you next time. All right, everybody, peace.