← A VO's Journey: Voiceover and more voice over
A VO's Journey: Voiceover and more voice over
Ep. 295: The End-of-Year Sprint: My Biggest November VO Wins (and Losses)
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Hello. Hello. We're back. I'm back. Welcome to the O Journey. Oh, my goodness. We're doing a pod. I'm doing a podcast. I'm doing a podcast. Welcome back. We are going to be talking about the end of November, what you should be working on, the gold mine that is here producing at the end of November, and what you should be targeting so. So you can pick up some of those extra dollars and know how to book some work, and also tell you what's going on with Veo's journey and my life. And as always, don't forget, this show is about helping the new upcoming voiceover artists grow their business and sidestep all the crazy things that this guy seems to step in over and over again. All right, let's do it. This is vo's journ. With your host, the incomparable Anthony Pica. It is a pleasure coming back and talking to you guys. I'm so excited. That's right. I'm so excited. You know, we were doing for a while, you know, and I've always had a problem with this. You guys know that if you listen to my podcast, you know, a lot of people tell me, so Gabby and I do a daily show, and we, you know, it's about 20 minutes long, so it does make a perfect podcast length. And a lot of people have asked, you know, why aren't you just. You just publish your stuff, you know, that you do in YouTube, right through your podcast. And. And I did that a couple times. You know what I mean? And. And. Okay. But I think that, you know me and you know that I. I love that. I love Gabby. It has nothing to do with that. It's just. I've always felt about. The podcast was just this singular thing that was different from everybody. Everything else that I've done or I do, and it was always kind of like just a conversation or a talk between us, me and you. And so it's always been hard for me to try to add stuff to, I think, the podcast lineup when it's not me talking. But as you could tell, you know, it's easy to get away from it because I think early on, you know, with the journey and there are so many dynamic, moving parts, and there was such a drive to go full time, you know, that, you know, when I did go full time and, you know, growing that part of the voiceover business and everything was so, I don't know, so alive and bright and vibrant. And I think when you get to a certain place in your voiceover business, you Start to settle in. And I can tell you that's the worst possible thing you can do is settle in. Because when you start to settle in, you're not as hungry as you were before, and you begin to let opportunities pass you by that you would have taken earlier on because you were so hungry. But the thing is, I always think opportunities beget more opportunities, right? Just like work, you're doing work, you get more work. If you're busy, you're gonna continue to be busy. It's one of those things, again, where it's like an object in motion, stays in motion, right? But it's often as part of. You have to have the energy to start that object in motion. I've often talked about the train analogy, where the bulk of all of the energy exhausted in the train is starting. When a train is going, it needs enough energy to maintain, but the bulk of the energy used in is the beginning of getting the train started from. From. From scratch, from nothing, from not moving. And that's the same with our business, right? And I think that that's something that, you know, I definitely get caught in, right? I always get in that place where I'm stepping in stuff, and I think that's a good thing, right? I think, you know, I want to talk to you guys today about some. Some really cool tips for November, as well as trying to help you sidestep that stuff. I'm stepping in. In my business, right? Because I keep stepping in it. Regardless of how long I have been in this business, I keep stepping in it, you guys. So I'll talk to you about that. So first off, November, I. November is one of those months, right? We're at the end of November here. It's November 24th. It's one of those months where we get, you know, we're really focused, especially now. We've got Thanksgiving. Our family's there. Christmas is coming up next, next month. You know, it's. It's such a. Interesting time of the year because we have spent hopefully, by this point, a lot of time marketing ourselves to businesses who are trying to promote their services for, you know, Thanksgiving and Christmas, right? For the holidays as well as for Halloween. But what happens is, is once we get to this point, we're kind of like, well, what do I do now? Because, you know, I've already done all of that. You know, I've done all that marketing. The marketing's passed. Well, here's a couple things. First off, budgets. So a lot of businesses, right, ending out the year, they still have money in Their budget and they're still going to be promoting and especially getting started for next year. So a good thing for you to do for your business is to set yourself up by promoting, right, that you are available for that end of the year work. You are here to, you know, finish up with, you know, whatever the company's marketing efforts are. You're here to be, you know, ready when needed, quickly. Because I remember, I remember early on, one thing that happened to me was, you know, I was really in the thick of it. I was doing some. I was still teaching, right? And you know, when the holiday comes around, you're really excited, but it's very busy because you get time off. But at the same time, you know, you also have the kids. You've got a lot of stuff going on. And I can remember being contacted by a company who was like, listen, we have a commercial. We're trying to get done, we're trying to finish up. It's the end of the year, but, but we needed ASAP. And it was a big job. It was like $2,000, I think, if I remember correctly. But they needed to turn around in like a day. And at that time, $2,000. I was like, my gosh, that's gonna make the whole entire month, the whole entire quarter, right? At that time, it was very exciting, but they needed it very quickly. And it was one of those situations where how was I going to accomplish that sort of feat with my schedule and what I was doing? And you know, the only answer to that was, is I had to be ready. I had to do what I had to do. Meaning, like, I had to stay up super late. I had to deal with what I had to deal with in order to make it happen. Even though I probably. I was exhausted. I don't think that was the time I fell asleep in my booth. But it was enough of a campaign. It wasn't like a 15 second commercial commercial. I mean, it was a decent. It was a. It was at least five or ten minutes of, you know, whether it was corporate narration or something, I can't remember exactly what it was. But I do remember that it took me some time and effort, especially at that time, because I didn't, you know, I wasn't as fast and efficient as I am now. So it took me a lot more time to get it done. And you know, honestly, it was hard and it was exhausting. And I think another thing too, because I was a theater teacher, we had a play going on then. So there was a lot of time that I couldn't you know, I was spending at the theater. Because if you ever been in part of a theater production, you, you know, during, you know, during the play or during Tech Week and things like that, which is affectionately called Hell Week, and things of this nature, you live in the theater, you live there. I mean, you're there all the time, and there's not much time other than sleeping that you get for those time. But when you're running a business like we are, like our voiceover business, and you have a demand like that, you have to take it. So all I'm saying is making yourself available and understanding that it's an opportunity and opportunities come during this time of the year. Take them, take advantage of them. Don't let them slip away. And again, I'm not telling you to tell your family, sorry, no holiday this year. Anthony told me I can't have Thanksgiving. No, that's not what I'm saying. I'm not saying that. I'm just saying that the opportunities come and they come quickly. And the opportunity you might see might be on a platform you might see, right? There might be an audition. There might be things going on that you're like, oh, I don't think I'm gonna do that, because, you know, it's the holiday and I'm busy. And yes, of course, I understand. We all wanna do that. But at the same time, like I was talking about earlier, how hungry are you? You know what I mean? What's the measure of your resolve? Do you want to do this or not do this? Because I can tell you, everybody I remember in my life, or especially just starting, because no one knew what I was doing. Nobody even knew what it, you know, my family, no one even knew what a voice actor was. Right? What does that mean? And you know, people, I just recall being very shy about telling people what I was doing early on. And also, you know, I was thinking, people are going to be like, what are you doing now? You know, why don't you just do what's your job and stop trying all this other stuff? Anyways, the point I'm trying to make is, is that when you are successful at something, everybody loves to talk about how successful you are, how amazing of a job you did, how hard you worked, you were relentless, you did this, you did that. But before that, or even in the middle of that, it's very easily to get beaten down by people on your back saying, can you just stop for a moment? Can you just get out of that doggone closet? There's people here. You Got stuff to do. You're not booking any work. You suck. Well, they don't say you suck, but that's how we hear it in our head, right? We hear it in our head that we're not making it. And this time of the year, there's a lot of opportunities because other people are not taking them because they're busy. So don't, you know, shy away from opportunities this time of year to get ahead is what I'm saying is. And this is the time now, because people have those end of the year budgets, they're trying to get it over, they're trying to get it out. This is the time to pour on the effort, not to pull back, right? To pour on the effort of your auditions, pour on the effort of your marketing, pour on the effort so that you get that much more work. And it's a lot easier. I always say it's a lot easier to tell people, you know, hey, there's, I'm booked, I can't do it. Than to just sit there and wonder, twiddling your thumbs. I just don't have any work. I wish I had work. You know, it's funny because you have to. You have to take the good and the baddie. It's just not both, you know, and I guess a good with the bad. It's all perspective, you know, I would rather have a ton of work that's sitting there on my shoulders than not having any work and being like, gosh, I don't have any work. This is kind of scary. So again, I think that that's something to note at this time of the year. This is a great time to up your efforts, do more auditions, put more stuff out there. This is another, by the way, another great time to do more audiobook auditions. Get on, because people want to get their audiobooks done. They want to get their books turned into an audiobook. It's the end of 2025, right? People want to get their stuff done. And this is a time where you can be available and show your reliability. And by the way, it's important that you tell people this. I know it feels odd. It does. It feels odd to tell people all of the wonderful things you do because it makes us feel, especially if we grew up in a household where like, you know, hey, you know, you don't go around telling everybody how wonderful you are. That's you're not self centered. Right. Be humble about yourself. You know, we're not those kind of people. But in marketing and what we're doing with our Business. It's important. In fact, it's imperative that we let people know, right, how we're reliable, right? We get work done. We could be the person you need, the, the voice actor you need at the end of the season to finish your work. We're exactly what you're looking for. I am exactly what you're looking for. Right? You have to tell your story in that way, because if you don't, no one is going to even know, one, that you exist. And two, let's be honest. People want to work with people who are confident about services. If I come to you and I'm like, hey, I need you to do this, and you come back to me and say, hey, absolutely, let's get this thing done. I'm going to rock it for you. I'm going to be like, oh, this person's really got a lot of, you know, a lot of faith in themselves. They got. They got a lot of gusto. They've got a lot of excitement. See, I don't look at it as. I think the thing is, is that don't forget, people don't look at you being excited and confident in yourself as you being stuck up. Now, if you were going around just saying, like, I'm better than them, I'm better than them, I'm better than him, I'm better than her. I'm better than all of them. They suck. I'm the greatest. Okay, well, that's when you're using that strong language or something like that, then, yes, that can definitely seem a little over the top. But I'm not telling you to use that language. I'm telling you to talk about yourself, not you being better than others. And I think that's where the. That's where that, that rub comes in, right? Where you're. People are like, well, if I talk about myself, I got to put down others. No, you don't have to put down anybody. In fact, don't talk about anybody else. Just talk about yourself and what you can do for the client, not what other people can do. You know what I mean? And I think you'll. You will eliminate a lot of problems you might run into by doing that. Okay? So. So remember, this time of the year is a great time of the year to get yourself out there, push harder, get more auditions in, get more emails sent out. People are trying to get stuff done, get more marketing done, more social media posts. This is the time of the year to do that, because this is where other people take off, right? This is where other people slow down and you don't have time to slow down. We're trying to build a business. Right. So make sure that you're doing that as well. Second thing, it is very important that we don't sit back, like I said in the beginning of this, the podcast here, and be complacent. Right. You might be in a place where you are, you know, you've gotten work, you've been doing this for a while. Some of you have been following me since we started this journey eight years ago. Maybe, maybe like because we started. I started the podcast. Has it been eight? It's been seven. So seven years. Started the podcast in 2018. So it's going to be eight soon, right? That's like a win. I don't know when actually was it during the. Might have been during the winter months. It might have been in 2018. I started the podcast. So yes, I mean, we're coming up on eight years of doing this podcast. And if you've been following me that long, right. You know, you've been through voiceover for eight years as well, and you've built a business, you've gotten voiceover work. But you might be running through rough patch too. You might be saying, where's the voiceover work? What I did then, or even a couple years ago, what I did over Covid is just not working right now. My account, maybe I had accounts on Fiverr and Upwork or voices and voice123 or voice realm and I'm just not getting the work. And again, part of us will argue, well, there's AI and there's all this stuff and it's the end of V. Voiceover. Well, we know that's a crock of bologna. That's crock of crab. It's not true. And yes, there's competitors out there, but it's no different than, you know, other times. Like I was funny, I was talking to, I was talking to somebody about the.com or not.com, but the housing bubble, you know, 2007, 2008, 2000, when people were in voiceover then and they were like, it's the end of the world. Nobody's marketing, you know, it's never going to recover. It's all like people were dropping out of the business like flies. I mean, you have to remember we go in these cycles, right? And they are pretty crazy. It's 15, 20 year cycles and times do get harder. But here's the thing, when things like that happen, you've got to get harder as well. Meaning we have to go Deeper in and go further. Because remember, when times are good, that's not when you build a successful business. You build a successful business when times are bad. Because when times are bad, people do fail and they do quit and they do leave. It's the people who stick around. It's the people who stay with it. It's the people who refuse to not quit, despite all of the crap that's coming their way. Those are the ones who come out of the storm on the other end, intact and ready to go. Right? It's always that. I mean, yes, you know me, I'm overdramatic, so I'm being dramatic right now, but it's the people, right? When you find yourself in the middle, you know, walking through the middle of hell. Right. Well, keep on walking. That's the only way through hell. Right. The only way to get to the other side of hell is go straight through. Right? So you got to keep going and you can't stop. Right? And sometimes you might feel like you're in that moment. You might feel like, I can't get a damn job. I can't get anything. It's just not working. And these are the moments that you have to keep going. Yes. Should you get training? Of course. As always, love to have you part of a vo'sjourney.com or VO's journey. Absolutely. Vojourney Academy. We want you there, of course. But in the end, no matter what training you get or no matter what you do, it's going to boil down to you. And what is the measure of your resolve? What is the measure of your resolve? How far does it go? And how many times can you get knocked down and get back up? That's it. To quote Rocky for the day. All right? It's not about how many times you get knocked down. It's about how many times you get back up. Okay? That's the truth of it. And I know all of you can do it. I know you can. All right, so listen, this time of the year, this is a great time to really get going and pick up the pace on your auditions, pick up the pace on your marketing efforts, double, triple down on what you're doing and be available, because opportunities will come quickly, and you've got to be ready for them. Okay, here's the. Here's another last tip of the. Of this podcast. You got to be ready for the opportunities when they arise. I know, it's kind of crazy. Or the quote again, another movie from Field of Dreams. Right. If you build it, they will come. The thing Is. Is the reason why I love that. All right. I know that is a movie, but the truth is, is that you have to have something going. You have to have something in the mix already before stuff will come your way. Don't ever forget that. That's really important. So that means you've got to be ready. You've got to be on your toes, ready to go actively getting yourself out there and ready for that opportunity. Okay. Because again, right. An object in motion stays in motion. Keep going. Stay in motion, and it will stay in motion. All right. Hey, you guys. Amazing. Thank you so much for listening to me again, as always. And I know I say this, but I could keep rocking. Trying to get some more podcasts out to you guys. Kind of exciting about what's coming up in Christmas. You know, we're moving in the new semester. I didn't get a chance to talk to you a little bit about what was going on with Academy Voices. What's going on? My voiceover business. So I just tell you, voiceover has definitely, for me, been challenging. I really, you know, to open up a little bit. It's been challenging because I have been putting so much effort into Academy Voices, which is our publishing, you know, our audiobook publishing company. And, you know, we have over 300 plus voice actors on the site now, and we've published almost 450 audiobooks now. And, you know, that's been a lot of work. VO Journey Academy has been amazing. Right? You know, we've brought on Angela Ulfest. We've done a lot in VO Journey Academy. One thing about VO Journey Academy is we're switching back our next semester, which starts in January. We're switching back to our specific weekly classes like acting 101 and 201. And I'm adding back acting 301, which is really excited, which is more of an independent study. So I'm very excited about that, you know, getting all those lesson plans redrawn. So I'm very thrilled to be getting that back to a weekly class as opposed to once a month. So, yeah, so going to be doing that as well. But, you know, voiceover takes effort, you guys, as you know, and it takes effort to market it. And it takes effort. Just like the whole point to the podcast or the podcast today was being available and ready to go. That's. Sometimes that can determine whether or not you're able to build your voice over a business or not. It is the reality of our work, you guys. The reality of our work is we have to be available. You know, what I'm saying we have to be available. That's the reality of it. So you know, when you're not able to be available, when you're doing other stuff, you can lose out on opportunities. And as, again, as the opportunities pass you by, less will come your way. I don't know if it's a law of the universe, like I said with object in motion, stage in motion, all of that stuff, I've just found it to be true. You know what I mean? And so the key is to, when you're ready, when you go back into it, get back in. And you dive full head in first, right? Because remember, this is your story, your journey. You make it what you want to make it. All right? None of that preaching. You guys are awesome. I love you as always. Have a wonderful day, a great Thanksgiving. I might do another podcast this week. I know. It'd be crazy, right? Be like, too much, Anthony. Too much. Although people are always, like, not enough. Either way, you guys are amazing. Have a wonderful rest of your day. Talk to you guys soon. Peace.