← A VO's Journey: Voiceover and more voice over
A VO's Journey: Voiceover and more voice over
Ep. 268: Failing Forward In Your Voice Over Journey
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Hello and welcome to Avio's Journey and a video's Journey podcast. It is good to be seeing you guys on this Wednesday, today's episode, we're going to be talking about try failing to be successful. And I think I always love the play on words there because the reality is, is that we, we hate to fail. We do, right? I mean, I do. We all do. We hate to fail. And you know, failure is one of those things that I think from an early age, right, in school, I mean, we were taught that failing's bad. I mean, if you think about. And I personally now in my life, as you know, I've gotten older and I've learned a lot more through, you know, we all say as we grow older, right, we gain, hopefully some wisdom. You learned that that was probably really bad. You know, if we, we. We were taught that failing is wrong and you've got to do everything you can not to fail. And if you fail, you know, you are dead in the water. You know what I mean? You're not going to be able to pass, right? You're. You're screwed, basically. And I, I think that in some ways, right, of course we want to be incentivized to do everything we can and try our best every time, of course. But the idea that trying something and not succeeding at it is, you know, a failure or a, you know, referendum or something on your future prospects, right? And I think that that's the, or, you know, or the outlook of your future. I think that's the biggest downside to, you know, that line of thinking. Because if you were to look at failure in a different way from, you know, a way where we think of failure as a learning tool, right? You know, I've tried to, you know, I've auditioned 10 times, you know, on this platform, and I've not received any work, okay? You might think, well, gosh, I failed 10 times. However, if you look at that, you can learn so much from that, all right? Or I audition 20 times or 30 times. So let's take a look. So let's kind of use that as a real world example, right? So if I think about, I've tried to audition this many times and I've not succeeded in getting a job, okay? What could I learn from that? So first off, I could possibly. There's a bunch of things there that you can learn. One you might find out or you might learn that. Well, it takes. It probably might take more than 10 auditions for me to get a job. So then I try another 10. I don't get a job. Then I try another 10, and all of a sudden I get a job, okay? So then I'm like, okay, well, it took me 30 auditions and I got one job. So let me try another 30 auditions and see if I get one job again in that 30 auditions. So let's say I try another 30 auditions and I get two jobs. Then I try another 30 auditions and I get one job. So I start to find out that I average about one to two jobs for every 30 auditions that I do. Right? And for every 100 auditions I do. You know what I mean? I average about four. Four or five jobs, okay? And you have to. So that's one way so you could look at, okay, well, I failed to get a job in 20 tries, okay? But then I also realized, well, crap, wait a minute. I'm learning that it actually takes 30 tries to get a job. This is all hypothetical. I'm just using this as an example. So all of a sudden, instead of this being some failure, it's been a huge learning opportunity, and it showed me what I needed to do, what I can expect, and what is going to happen for me now. What else could it show me? It could show me that, well, maybe my audition style, the way I'm auditioning, is not getting the responses that I want fast enough. So maybe I need to work on my interpretation of the script. Maybe I need to add. If it's something where you're doing short auditions, maybe I add three different contrasting takes instead of just one and send that to them. Do you know what I mean? You know, maybe I need to name my file a different way. Maybe I'm not following the direct. Like, you start to analyze things, then some platforms you have to understand, too. You look at it and be like, well, I realize that for every 10 I do, I'm only getting four of them, or only four of them are being actually listened to. So I can't even. I have to understand that that's out of my control. So there's also things out of your control. And I think that's. That's. That's another part of this whole failure thing. And even in our business, too, so much is out of our control, and we beat ourselves up over it. Does that make sense? Like, we beat ourselves up over the fact that, you know, we have no control of. Especially through platforms that we work on. All right? Or, for example, anything. Social media is another perfect example. A lot of us will beat ourselves up over trying to get work through social media. We make posts, we Work really hard and in the end we do not control the algorithm, right? You spend all this time, you make a post and three people see it and you're like, well, I failed. Okay, but the reality is, is you did not fail, okay? The algorithm on these social media platforms is built for you to pay them money. And if you do not pay them money, they will not show your, your work because that goes against their business model. And again, it is out of your control, you know, and that's where so you be like, well, what about these people who get a lot of views and stuff like that? So there are people, all right, who go viral or these kind of things like this. But I can guarantee you a couple of things with that. If you study any of that, 99.9% of those people, none of them are businesses, okay? One and two, those people are very, very few and far in between. I mean they're, you know, that's very few and far between. And the algorithm has to do that in order to give people like us some sort of crumb to think that it's going to work for us. It's, it's like, you know what, it's like playing the lottery, right, that someone has to win. You know, it's like the Hunger Games. Someone has to win and in order to give a little bit of hope to keep everyone else in check. I mean, that's what I mean, if you think about it, it's, it kind of gets a little, you know, I mean, I've never been a conspiracy theorist or anything like that, but you know, you, you kind of there, I don't, there's no conspiracy on it. But when you have a bunch of, you know, things happening at once that are like minded, it can, it can create something where the cards are stacked against you and then it forces you, or if you interpret it wrong, you will blame yourself for it. Okay, you'll blame yourself for. Well, I'm not succeeding over here because it's my fault. I'm not succeeding over here because it's my fault. All right, well, all things being equal, there are not all things being equal. And I think that's where you have to consider that. Again, just going back to this idea of failing, that a lot of it is out of your control. So you, you have to then give yourself some slack, give yourself a break. Now I think just as I'm speaking out loud right now to you talking, I think to myself, well, logically, if it's out of my control, what's the point of trying Right. Because you like, if you like. To me, I, my way, my brain works is I logically connect one dot to the next. Right. So if, and then, if, and then if this, then this. So I think if it's out of my control, if these things are stacked against me, how do I succeed? Why do some people succeed? Et cetera, et cetera. So the reality is, is that there are still possibilities within these areas, but you have to make sure that you are clear about what those possibilities are. Right. What you're trying to accomplish. And if what you're doing is actually working with, with what you're trying. So if you are making posts and a couple of people are seeing it, you know that what you're doing at that moment is not working. Okay. Could it work on an, on another perfect world? Sure. And it could be that what you're doing specifically like the information that you're giving. Right. And things like that, that's not bad. It's good information. It's just because of the context and how everything is flowing and the platform and the algorithm and the people that is showing it to. It's not getting reshared or, you know, it's not getting comments, it's not eliciting action. Right. And again, remember, the cards are stacked against you if you're not paying for it. And I. Now listen, just once at least I want you to just take a couple bucks and pay to boost a post or just so you can see what it's like to get a whole bunch of people to see your stuff. All of a sudden you're like, what? This is how I wish it would be okay, but you have to pay for it. So now I just talking about social media, but again, going back to like platform, like we know some platforms, right? Like perfect example on voices.com, if you audition, you know that you, they show you some stats, at least they're decent enough to show you whether or not someone listened to your audition or not. All right. I mean, I mean, I guess it's something, right? But the reality is, is that if they don't listen to your audition, there's nothing you can do about it. You know what I mean? It has to. It's almost like it goes into that waste category, you know? But the point I'm trying to make there is, is that's not a failure on your part. You could also call that the price of doing business. And I want you to look at it that way as well as the price of doing business. And, and these aren't failures. These are the price of doing business. This is learning. All right? But if we go back to the purely failure kind of model, what am I failing at? Let's just take in consideration maybe you are still, you know, dealing with that imposter syndrome, Right? Maybe you're still in that place where, you know, I've got to tell everybody, you know, I'm writing these profile descriptions that I'm a professional and I have a professional home studio and my equipment is professional. You know, when I'm, you know, sitting in a closet with my clothes, you know, to. My, My dog is, is over here. My cats, you know, on my face, you know, my, my, my, my, my face. My cat will get out of my hair. You know, I, I, I, I'm. I got a USB microphone. You know, it's. I paid 40 bucks for it. You know, like, am I an imposter? Right? And then because of that, I'm not. I don't feel confused, meaning. I don't feel confident to audition. I don't feel confident to submit. I don't feel confident to email people. I don't feel confident to do the things that I hear other people doing. That is working for them. Right? But I'm just at that place and I'm afraid to fail. I mean, if you think about what imposter syndrome is or what it says to us is that we have a fear of inadequacy. But where does, what is that fear of inadequacy? Right? What is inadequate? All right, what does that mean? That means we are afraid. Really, in the end, we are just afraid to fail. We're afraid someone's going to be like, B.S. you fail, you lose. We're not going to work with you. And on top of that, we think you suck in the end. What all of that turns into or what all it equates to is our frustration with confidence, our lack of confidence. If we're trying to, at the core, to build confidence. Because if you try something and you're confident about it and it doesn't work out, if you logically think of it that way and you're confident that what you're, that you are going to be successful in what you're doing, and you try one thing and it doesn't work out, well, you just, you would try again, and you would try again, and you would try again. You know, it's, it's kind of like fishing in some ways, right? If I throw a fishing line out in the water and I don't catch a fish, I mean, do I just quit fishing forever and say I suck at it. Some people might, but the reality is, is you might throw your rod out two or three more times, not catch anything, and then the fifth time you throw it out, you catch the biggest fish you've ever caught. We inherently know, right, that there is. And we've. I mean, as a human race, we've made it up, right? But averages, okay? There are things that we need to do over and over again, right? To be in the right place at the right time to hook that fish or whatever. The other times it doesn't pan out, it wasn't ready. The stars didn't align for us at that moment. Okay? But I see a lot of people, especially when they feel like they are not on the same playing field as other people in the group or in the. The sphere of what they know. Like, for example, they might not have the microphone they think they should have, or they might not have the setup that they think they have. They might question their performance, question their audio quality, question this or that, and it's just a constant frustration and struggle, and all of that weight on their shoulders causes them not to move forward, right? Which causes, in their mind, failure. And I suppose it boils down to your philosophy, which is kind of what this all is. This. This show today, right? Is the trying failing. You try to fail to be successful. The quote today from Winston Churchill this morning was, success is stumbling from failure to failure with. Without lack of enthusiasm. I think a lot of us focus on that first part, stumbling from failure to failure. But that last part without lack of enthusiasm, that is paramount because the enthusiasm to continue when, you know, stuff hits the fan, that's. I mean, think about every story of a successful person that you've ever idolized or you've ever enjoyed the. The success, right? Or. Or you've just enjoyed the story. None of them succeeded or got to the end without having to overcome massive obstacles and failures, because if they hadn't, it wouldn't be a story. You know, it's interesting. I mean, if you study the history, right, of storytelling. And I know we can go back to cavemen days, but going back not as far, but still pretty far to Aristotle, right, And the, you know, his book and his teachings on drama and. And storytelling, et cetera. And what are those things? I mean, it's amazing in the end because it all boils down to conflict, right? There's got to be a conflict. And why is that? Because that's. And we can, again, debate the philosophy of it, but conflict defines Us conflict defines us. People that we love, people we respect, people we follow, people we want to be like, have overcome great conflicts, great struggles, right? Strife. And they found a way to keep going, right? They could have stopped, but they didn't. That's. And, and, and I think for us, when we're in our own story, right, it's, we, we have a very difficult time. I mean, I'm telling you this from personal experience as well, right? It is so hard, it's so hard to step back and look at your, your own story, your own journey from a 20,000 foot view and give yourself this advice. You know what I mean? Part of the reason I like these shows is that I do too, over all this time, is because, you know, it allows me to give myself some reassurance too. And we need that. You know, wouldn't it be great, I mean, and go back to a community idea, really nice to have a good community to be a part of, to have that support and to have those people there for you when you're not. When you're still feeling rough or you're feeling beat up and you've been trying and you've been messing up and nothing seems to be working, you know, and it would be nice to have somebody there, right? It just says, you got this, you're doing it. This is actually moving forward. Look at what you've done. You've actually been, look at these things. These numbers actually show you're being successful. You know what I mean? Like, this is the. And that's why being a part of a very supportive, positive community on a side note, is really important. Avo's Journey Elite Academy. But being a part of that helps because you need to understand that, you know, you're in the trenches, right? So it's not easy for you to see all of what you are accomplishing because you're only ever stuck on what you're not accomplishing, what you're failing at. Okay? But to sum all of that up, failure is your way of knowing that you're on the right path. And you say, how can that be? Because if you are trying something and you're failing at it, failure proves that you are taking the action and proving that that particular path that you just tried is not exactly the right one or it's not the right one yet, which means that you are that much closer to getting to where you want to go. I do think I love and I look back up the exact quote because I always, you know, start to paraphrase quotes, but you know, I've said it many times, and I love that quote from Thomas Edison, right, About, you know, I've failed at, right, Making the incandescent light bulb over 2000 sometimes. But I only needed to find one way to make it work, right? He said he found, you know, like, over 2,000 ways to make an incandescent light bulb not work. You only needed to find one way to make it work. I mean, if you think about it that way, right? Honestly, if you can. I hate to use the word trick, but if you can trick your mind, if you can trick yourself into looking at it that way, I know it will change your life. It will change. Now, again, I'm not saying be stupid, right? Like, you know, I'm not saying be stupid, but at the same time, I'm saying that you have to try and take chances and fail in order to find the right path, because you gotta find all the wrong ones first. Sometimes you might get lucky and find the path way sooner, and that's great, but you're inevitably going to come into conflict, and how you overcome that conflict will determine how successful you are. All right, enough of that. I think you get the point. Thank you guys, as always, for watching and listening to me talk about failure and success. It is. Do you notice how life. We've made life becomes so binary, right? It's up, it's down, it's right, it's left. You fail, you succeed. You know, it's. It's. It's daytime, it's nighttime. Every. You know, it's so interesting. I don't know how we came up with that, you know, and then there, of course, there. We know there's a gray area and all this, but it's just. It is interesting. Very reflective today. Very reflective, but it's good to reflect. I think it's very good to reflect. You've got to look at your life more than just, you know, every. You know, what's directly in front of you all the time. You've got to step back and look at the bigger picture. And that takes reflection. It takes time to think. And a lot of us think we don't have time to think. I don't have any time to think about time because there's no time, you know, in the end, we create it, right? It's our choice, no matter what. All right, you guys, you rock. Thank you so much for watching again, as always. Check out Avio's Journey Elite Academy. We'd love to have you. You might not want. Not want to join out to hear me talk so much, but you can hear me every day. All right, you guys, thank you so much. Have a good one. Take it easy. Peace.