← Everyday VOpreneur® with Marc Scott
Everyday VOpreneur® with Marc Scott
Don't Get Burned by a VO Demo Producer; Look For These 5 Things
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They're not making a demo for you, they're just making a demo. The $5,000 that they had worked really, really hard to put aside to get their voiceover business started ends up being almost wasted. Their name and their brand is on the line. There's never been a time when it's been harder to discern who can I trust? And you're working with the wrong person. There's a reason why my Instagram and YouTube feeds are filled with live fire cooking and barbecue. And there's a reason why my X feed is filled with financial tips, stock advice, and general economic discussion. Because the algorithms of those different platforms know me. Instagram knows when I get out, I'm starting to look at barbecue, I'm starting to look at live fire cooking, and it's gonna feed me more of it. X knows that when I jump on the platform, I'm looking for some what's going on in the stock market or what's going on economically? What's the latest inflation data, what's the latest jobless report? You know, X knows that this is what I'm looking for. It's going to feed me more of that. Teach the algorithm that you love. The everyday Veopreneur podcast. If you would do me a favor, subscribe. Like, drop a comment, let the algorithm know that you enjoy the everyday Veopreneur podcast so that the algorithm can give you more of the everyday Veopreneur podcast. Let's talk about demos. So far in 2026, I have done two different voiceover demos. So I've had two different experiences working with two different demo producers. And I want to get into this a little bit because I'll tell you, one of the hardest things that I have ever had to do as a coach is have a conversation with a voice actor who has sunk a lot of money, multi thousands of dollars into a demo that ultimately I don't believe is marketable. They have gone to the wrong person or the wrong company or they've done a demo before, they weren't ready. And the end result is that the $5,000 that they had worked really, really hard to put aside to get their voiceover business started ends up being almost wasted. And I hate being the guy that tells people that. And I've had to have that conversation more times than I ever care to have to have that conversation. And so what I want to talk about today are some of the things that you need to be looking for in order to make better decisions about who you're going to work with. On your demo. One of the beauties of the Internet is that it gives us access to just an abundance of information and access to people that we may not have otherwise had access to in the past. And so I can go back to the very, very early days of my voiceover career. There wasn't nearly the number of resources online to try to figure out who's good or who's not good or who should I work with or who shouldn't I work with? And so there was a lot of trial and error involved at that time. Now there are more resources that help us. But at the same time, the Internet has also made it even easier for predatory coaches and predatory producers to build a following, build a name for themselves, build brand recognition, and draw in unsuspecting voice actors. And so there's never been a time when it's been harder to discern who can I trust? And I think that is one of the scary parts about this. And I think that's why so many people end up spending so much money on demos that they probably should have never spent money on with people that they probably never should have been working with, but they just didn't know any different. And so I want to give you a couple of things that I have picked up from my experiences working on demos in the last couple of months. And hopefully some of these will help you to make a better decision before you put out the money for your next voiceover demo. And so the first thing is this one size does not fit all. One of the instant red flags for me is when you sign up for a program that says X number of demos and you're demo ready. And so they're building this one size fits all approach, where just six lessons and you'll be ready for your next voiceover demo. And that's exactly what you get. You get six lessons, and then they give you a voiceover demo, whether you're ready for it or not. And here's a misconception that I think you have to watch out for. There are 100% legitimate coaches who will sell you a package with a certain number of coaching sessions and then a demo at the end of that. But a reputable coach is going to be completely honest with you throughout that process. And so a reputable coach may say, you know what, actually, I think you're ready to go now. You don't need these last couple sessions. And they may give you a discount. They may give you a break towards another demo. They may offer you a partial refund. A legitimate coach at the same time may also say, you know what, you need two or three more sessions before you're ready. And I think that when somebody tells us we need two or three more sessions before we're ready, our instinct is we're being taken advantage of. But here's the other side of that coin. A reputable demo producer is never going to put out a demo that isn't living up to their expectations and their reputation, right? Their name and their brand is on the line. And so if a reputable producer is saying, I think you need a couple more sessions before you're ready, they're trying to protect you from putting out a bad demo, but they're also trying to protect themselves because they don't want to put out a bad demo. And so I think that we need to get away from this idea that if they're trying to sell us a couple of extra sessions or trying to tell us that we need a couple of extra sessions, that they're just trying to screw us, because I don't think that's the case at all. And case in point for me, several years ago, I. I was working with Ann Gangusa and I was working with her on elearning. And keep in mind, at that point in my career, the vast majority of my income came from elearning, But I wanted to update my elearning demo. And so I did a couple of coaching sessions with Ann in preparation for my demo. And Ann came to me and said, you know what? I think you need a couple more sessions. And so I said, okay, I'm working in the industry. I'm making tens of thousands of dollars in the industry every year. But I also recognized that things were evolving in that industry and I wanted to make sure that I was on top of it. So when and came to me and said, I think you need a couple more before you're ready, I was just like, okay, let's do it. Whatever you need, whatever you say, I trust you. You're the professional. Let's do a couple more sessions. Because I know that she wants me to get the best possible demo, and I know that she wants to be able to put out the best possible demo as well. Because if she puts out a bad demo that reflects poorly on her as much or more, then it reflects poorly on me. So always be really cautious of the one size fits all approach. If you buy a package and it's just six sessions in your demo or whatever, five sessions in your demo or whatever, in more cases than not, I think those packages are often red Flags. And I want to add this as well. I mentioned that a reputable coach might tell you you're ready sooner, or a reputable coach might tell you you need a couple more sessions before you're ready. But you also have to trust your gut as well. And so if you do one of these packages, six sessions and demo ready, but after six sessions, you do not feel demo ready. You should be able to go to that person, that producer, that company, and say, I don't feel ready yet. And they should not be forcing you to. To produce that demo. And if they are trying to force you to produce it, or if they're trying to convince you to produce it again, that may be another red flag. So number one is to always watch out for the one size fits all approach. Which leads us straight into number two, which is you've got to work with someone you trust. I did a demo earlier this year with J. Michael Collins, and there was no question for me, obviously, working with J. Michael Collins. And it was interesting because at one point during a free Advice Friday broadcast, somebody actually asked me point blank, why are you working with him? His demos are so expensive. And my answer was immediate and it was confident, and it was because he's the best. Think about this. You. You're gonna spend what, I don't know, let's call it 2,500 bucks on a demo. Okay, you're gonna spend 2,500 bucks on a demo if that demo lasts you for five years. Okay, if you make $20,000 a year off that demo, totally doable. Like, absolutely, completely doable. You spent $2,500 and turned that into 100,000, 20,000 a year, five years. Where else you get a return on investment like that? But you get the return on investment like that because you worked with an amazing demo producer. You got your money's worth, you get what you pay for. You've got somebody who's on the leading edge of the industry. You've got somebody who's in direct communication with every major reputable agent. You've got somebody who's working daily in the industry himself and knows exactly what's going on, exactly what's trending, where the trends are going. And so you're not just getting a demo, you're getting access to all of that information. So you have to work with someone that you trust. And because that person is ultimately going to be guiding your career directly or indirectly through the demo that they produce for you. I just did a demo this week with the Demo Dream Team. This is My first opportunity to work with the Demo Dream Team, they were incredible to work with. And I literally said in the session, go back, listen to it. It was recorded. I said, look, mold me. I am here. Mold me. Because I know that the Demo Dream Team knows what's up. I know Michelle is working in the corporate space every single day. I know Melissa Disney is an incredibly gifted voice actor. I know Steve is a brilliant engineer. And I could very tell, or tell very quickly, that Ryan wrote brilliant scripts. I had nothing to worry about. So I'm working with people that I trust because then I can just relax, right? My job is just to show up as the voice actor and ideally deliver killer reads in my demo session. And so if you're working with someone that you can trust, all you have to worry about is showing up and doing the session. You don't have to sweat all of the other stuff. You don't have to sweat all of the other details. There shouldn't be any doubts in the back of your mind because you're working with great people who know the industry, who know what's going on. Some of these people specialize in different genres, which makes it even easier. That's why you might choose certain people for certain genres, because you're buying into that experience, but you're working with somebody who you can trust completely, who will not steer you in the wrong direction. And part of the reason, going back to what we just talked about a few minutes ago, part of the reason why they won't steer you in the wrong direction is the last thing that the Demo Dream Team wants is to put out a bad demo. Who's going to want to work with you if you put out a bad demo? The last thing that J. Michael wants is to put out a bad demo and risk his reputation. And so I know that I can trust these people implicitly to guide me through that entire process from start to finish. And in the end, I'm going to have an amazing demo that I could ideally shop around to pretty much any agent that I want to be able to shop it around to, you know, provided that I've got the goods and I can. And I can back it up. So that's number two on the list, is you have to work with someone that you trust. And if you're working with someone that gives you a feeling like you're not sure, what. What do they say? Trust your gut. Because more often than not, it. It's. It's right. And so if you have that feeling, if you have any doubts at all listen to that before you get too far down the line in the process. Don't just follow through with it because you feel like, well, I'm stuck or I've already committed or whatever. There's always an opportunity for you to get out, but always try to work with someone that you can trust. And if you're new to the industry or if you're young in the industry and you're trying to figure out who some of these people are, talk to some of the veteran voice actors, look in some of the communities that exist on Facebook or on LinkedIn and find out who people are talking about. Go to Sovis and look at the Voice Arts Awards and look at all the demo producers who are nominated for demos. Go to One Voice. Same thing, go to the One Voice Awards. Look at demo producers who are nominated for demos. That's going to tell you pretty quickly who some of the good ones are and who some of the people are that you can trust. Are you looking to register a new domain to set up your voiceover website on or are you looking for a reliable place where you can host your voiceover website? I trust that. Upper levelhosting.com it's where I get my domains, it's where I get my hosting, because it works. Check it out for yourself and get signed up at Upper level hosting. Com. Now back to our show. Number three on the list is you've got to work with someone collaborative. From the very beginning, working on my commercial demo with jmc, it was a completely collaborative process. One of the very first questions that he asked me was what are some of the sectors that you would want to, you think you want to be in and what are some of the brands that you would like to have reflected on your demo? And when I signed on to do the demo with the Demo Dream Team, same thing. First question, we actually had a zoom call and we walked through that stuff. We walked through specifically and Michelle was great about asking questions, Ryan was asking questions, Melissa was asking questions. They're trying to get a sense of who I am and what I want to see in my demo. If you're working with a one size fits all demo mill type approach, chances are they're just going to feed you generic scripts, scripts that have come from auditions or whatever. They're not going to ask you what you want on your demo. Let me tell you something. In this session that I did with the Demo Dream Team, we're working on corporate narration demo and there was a spot that we did on this demo for the Fallen Firefighters Foundation. And we were laughing and joking in the session. We were having a whole lot of fun. And then all of a sudden, we got to go and do this really serious spot, right? And so I go from this really fun spot that we had just done to totally completely shifting gears into a PSA type spot or the Fallen Firefighters Foundation. Complete 180 on where we were in the session. And when I finished the spot, it was quiet for a second after I finished, and I was like, did I do something wrong or is something not working or whatever? And then Michelle comes on and she's like, yeah, I'm literally tearing up. The reason why she was tearing up was because I was the guy in that spot when I had the opportunity to meet with them in the very beginning and talking a little bit about, you know, who I am, what's important to me, what are the brands that I want to work with, whatever. I talked about the fact that I was a firefighter for 17 years. They knew that I have four daughters. And in this spot, it talks about a dad who's a firefighter who's, you know, always there to read bedtime stories to his kids. But then the call comes and, you know, the dad doesn't come home, and I'm like, I'm getting goosebumps now and talking about it, because I remember what that felt like, right? As a firefighter at the time, I remember what that felt like. There's always that question in the back of your mind, is this the call type deal? I connected with that spot on such a personal level, and I really do think on that one that I really hit it out of the park on that read. But the whole reason why we got there was because of the collaborative process. In the beginning, the demo Dream Team did not just hand me some spots and say, here we think you should do this, or here we think you would be a good fit for this or whatever. They said, what do you want to talk about? What sectors do you want to be in? What brands matter to you? What causes are important to you? And they asked me all of these questions, and that's how we get to these spots where I have this deep personal connection. That's why on my commercial demo, there's a Dr. Pepper spot, and it's one of my favorite spots. That's why the Siri spot that is on my commercial demo is actually a really funny spot for me because she actually does run my house. I don't want to say her name right now because she'll start talking in the middle of this podcast, but she actually does run my house. That spot could be about me. And we got there because of the collaboration that happened in the early stages. And so you want to make sure when you are working with a demo producer that that level of collaboration is happening from the very beginning, that they are wanting to get your feedback so that you can be a part of that process. You are going to connect with the scripts, you're going to deliver a better read, you're going to produce a better demo when you have that sort of connection. Now, tied to that is number four on the list, which is letting yourself be directable. When I was doing the commercial demo with JMC, we did the spot for 1Password, and I had a certain idea in my head of what that spot was going to sound like. And I had kind of delivered that read in. In the session. And then J. J Michael says, I want you to do it like this. And he says, you know, I want you to channel your inner Ben Stein and just go completely dry and, you know, just kind of flat. And I just. I want to see what that feels like on this spot and on this script. And so I did it. When I was done, in the back of my mind, I was like, what the heck was that? Why did we do that? Like, it made no sense to me. Okay? It made no sense to me. But I'm working with someone that I trust. Number two on the list. I know that he knows what's going on. I know that he knows what's booking. I know he knows what's trending. And so I was allowing myself to be directable. I was trusting the process. When the demo was produced and that demo was released, the very first commercial booking that I got after that demo came out was directly tied Back to the 1Password spot, which was the one that he had me read in this very dry, deadpan, Ben Stein kind of way that I would have never done in a million years because it made no sense to me. But I trust the process. So allow yourself to be directable. If you're in the middle of that session and the director says, I want you to do this and you do it, and then after you're done, the director says, you know what? Let's try it this way, then go ahead and try it this way, because you know what? That's life in the real world, too. I was in a commercial session not that long ago in studio in Toronto, and the director, who was in charge of the session went through the series of spots with me, and we Knocked out all the spots, and I thought they sounded awesome, and he thought they sounded awesome. And the team that was there thought they sounded awesome. And then they sent the spots to the client for approval. And the client came back and said, you know what? We've been thinking about it and we're wondering if you could go in this direction. And it was a totally different vibe from what we had originally set out to do and what we originally thought that they wanted based on what they were asking for. So the director calls me back into the booth and says, here's what the client said, so we're going to try this. And I'm like, hey, you know, I'm here for you, whatever you need. So we did those spots in a completely different style, in a completely different direction. Went through and redid the whole session. And when we listened to the back, I was like, this is really good. Like, these sound really good. And so this is the real world. When you're in these directed sessions, you never know where you're going to end up, but the only way you're going to get to the end product is if you allow yourself to be completely directable. And it doesn't matter if you've been in the industry for five minutes or five years or 25 years, you've got to let yourself be directable. Don't just assume that you know how it should go. Don't ever walk in with the attitude of, I'm the professional voice actor and I know exactly how. Shut up. No, that's not how it works. So be directable. Same thing in my session with the demo Dream Team. We had done one spot, and Steve said, what if we did it this way? And I had had a. We had done a spot with a really fun kind of bubbly, kind of read or whatever. And Steve said, I want you to do it again, but I want you to pretend like you're sitting in a recliner with a beer. And I'm like, okay, well, first of all, I don't drink, so I'm going to pretend that I'm sitting in a Recliner with my Dr. Pepper. And so then I did the spot again, and we called it the Dr. Pepper read. And it was a totally, completely different vibe that still worked perfectly with the spirit of the script. But we got there because I was allowing myself to be directable. So when you get in that session, let yourself be directable. Remember that one of the primary goals of your demo is to showcase your range. You don't want six spots that sound exactly the same. You want six spots that sound completely unique. You want to be able to show six different styles or six different personalities, or six different approaches, six different types of directions, whatever. So you have to allow yourself to be directable to get there. And so that's number four on the list. Just go in like I went in with the demo Dream team. Mold me, tell me what you want me to do, I'm here to do what you want me to do. And the fifth one and the final one on this list is you want to work with somebody who's going to let you have feedback. When I was doing my commercial demo with jmc, we had agreed on all of the scripts and we went into the session. Actually, there was one script before we went into the session that I didn't love. And I went back to him and I said, look, I don't love this script. He's like, okay, no problem, let's figure it out. And so we rewrote the script, tweaked it in a totally different direction, Right? So that was an opportunity for feedback and collaboration before we even got started. But then after the final demo camera, I had a couple of notes and gave them to jmc. Yeah, no problem. And he goes back, makes a couple edits, sends me the thing, sign it off, check done. But he was willing to let me give that feedback. If you're working with a demo producer who says, this is the demo, here you go, and that's it, and the communication stops. If they won't let you go back and make a revision, you're working with the wrong person. And you should never settle for that. You should never accept that. Remember, you're the paying customer. You're the one who's putting your credit card on the line here. So you deserve to have a little bit more say in that process. And so I love the fact, I know that when I was working with jmc, there was never going to be a problem. I was going to be able to have my feedback. When I did my demo with Ann a couple of years ago, no problem giving her feedback. When we were in the session with the demo Dream Team, we just did the recording session. So I don't have the final demo yet, but I was able to give feedback a couple of times. And I'm sure that when the final demo is sent, or when the first edit we'll call it is sent, um, I'll have an opportunity to give them feedback as well before ultimately I. I sign off on it, because it should be going back to number Three, a collaborative process, not just from the beginning when you're trying to come up with the scripts, but before you get that final sign off as well. Your demo is really probably your number one marketing tool. It's probably one of the most important things that you have to work with. You've got to have a great website to put it up on. You've got to have a marketing strategy to get it out there right. You've got to have a plan for, whether it's email marketing, social media marketing, you know, whatever, combination of all of those things, a strategy for agents that you're going to send it to or whatever. But it all comes back to having a great demo. It all starts with having a great demo. Don't ever settle on this process. You get what you pay for. I think that's really important to remember. You get what you pay for. And if I can spend 2,500 or 3,000 or you know, whatever the price of a going rate of a demo is, I'm going to say between two and three thousand bucks. Now for a professional demo, depending on who you're working with, we'll call it between 2 and 3,000. I know that I'm going to get something in the end that is going to make me back my return on investment. Many X over that, no question about it. Could I go out and find somebody who could do a demo for less? Yeah, of course. Do I think it's going to be as good and that I'm going to be able to make the return on investment off of it? No, I'm not as confident. Could I go out and produce a demo myself? I mean, yeah, at this point I probably could. Could I use Claude or ChatGPT to write a bunch of scripts and you know, could I use some stock video or stock photography or stock music rather and try to self produce a demo? I mean it's an option but even at this point in my career I don't feel confident to do something like that. Certainly not with a major demo like a commercial demo or a corporate narration demo or you know, any broadcast demo by any stretch of the imagination. I want to have the right tools in place so that I can set myself up with the greatest potential to succeed. And one of the best things that I have ever done over the course of my entire career in order to give myself the potential to succeed is working with the right people from the very beginning. Working with the right coaches, working with the right producers, trying to get connected to the right agents, working with the people who can guide my career in the direction that sets me up for the greatest success. If you have fallen victim to a demo mill in the past, I'm sorry, I genuinely am sorry that that happened. I've said this before. One of the reasons why I started offering 15 minute consultations for free, it wasn't because I had such an overabundance of time and I just felt like I should just give all this time away. It was because I would get so incredibly frustrated with hearing stories of voice actors who got connected with the wrong people early in their career. And it cost them, it cost them financially and it costs them time because it set them back, right? It takes them another year to be able to save up money to get another demo, and that's a year that they've just lost in their career journey. And I hated hearing those stories and it made me so angry. And so I thought, if I can offer these 15 minute consultations and even catch a couple of people before they get connected to the wrong person, then that is absolutely worth 15 minutes of my time all day, every day. And so that's why I do something like this. That's why an episode like this exists. Because if you can listen to this episode, if you could take half an hour listen to this episode, and it keeps you from making the wrong decision with the demo producer and that saves you a couple of thousand dollars in a demo that you can't even use, that isn't even marketable and gets you instead pointed in the right direction to an investment that can create a return for you and that you are going to be able to make make money off of, or that will get you signed by a great agent or will get you on a bunch of production company rosters, then it's worth it for me to sit down for 30 minutes and talk about my experience. And I've done stuff like this in the past, but it's been a few years since I did a demo. You know, a number of years ago, I actually got in a lot of trouble because I made a list of I called vetted demo producers and I put that list of vetted demo producers on my website. And it actually got me in a lot of trouble with some people because who are you to make that list, first of all? And then obviously there were people that got left off that list and there were people that got left off that list for a reason. And some people didn't like the fact that I did that. But I'm like, I'm here to guide people in the right direction. And I will always refer people to people that I have personally worked with that I personally trust that I can personally vet. And I'm only working with the best people. That's been one of my objectives from the very beginning. So having the opportunity to do this commercial demo with jmc, I mean, I'm already, I've only had it for a few weeks and it's already had an impact, right? It's already made an impact. And a couple weeks from now, I'll have this new corporate narration demo from the demo Dream team. And I am so excited for that demo because I know that that's going to have a huge impact as well. Non broadcast is such a big part of what I do in my voiceover career. And having a new tool to work with that reflects where corporate reeds are today and what is going on in that space. I mean, I can't wait to get that demo. And I'm so excited to have had the opportunity, so grateful to have had the opportunity to work with the demo Dream team. And so I will point you to people that I trust. I will point you to people that I've personally worked with, because then I can personally vouch for them. And so that's why I do stuff like this, to shine a light on people who deserve to have that light shown upon them. And I want to talk about some of the experiences that I have so that you guys can understand, hey, I'm still trying to figure out some of this stuff just like you are and going through it just, just like you are. And so those are the things that I want you to take away from this. Remember, one size doesn't fit all. And as soon as somebody tries to sell you a one size fits all package and stays very firm on that one size fits all package, to me that is absolutely a red flag. You need to work with someone that you can trust. And if you're not sure who you can trust, talk to someone who you trust, who can guide you to someone who they trust. And so asking the questions, getting referrals, you know, don't be afraid to do a little bit of research. Don't just assume that because somebody's on the Internet, somebody's got a YouTube channel, somebody's running some Facebook ads or whatever, don't just assume that they're the ones. Do a little bit of research before you drop that kind of money and make sure that you're getting connected to the right people. Make sure that you have someone who is collaborative. If somebody is just trying to feed you generic scripts or they're not giving you any sort of feedback or, or they're not trying to get to know you at all as you're heading into the process. They're not making a demo for you, they're just making a demo and you want somebody who is going to make a demo for you. Once you get into that process, let yourself be directable. Maybe the director is going to take you in a direction that doesn't make sense to you. Maybe the director is trying to stretch you into a new place or a new type of read that you haven't done before or aren't as comfortable with. That's the whole point, is to get your range and to find out what you are really, truly capable of. So make sure that you are allowing yourself to be directable. And finally make sure that you are working with someone who will allow you to have feedback in the process along the way, that they won't just send you the final demo and say, this is it, this is your final demo. You should be able to go back within reason, right? I'm not saying that you should be able to go back and like redo the whole thing or blow the whole thing up and start over, but you should be able to have some feedback. You should be able to make some tweaks if you, if you feel like that's what you need to do, while also going back to making sure that you're trusting the producer and the process. But if you do those things and take those things into consideration, I know you're going to have a much better experience with your demo production process and you're going to end up with a much better demo in the end. That is going to help you to make some serious money for your voiceover business. I hope this has been helpful for you. Thanks for checking out another episode of the Everyday Veopreneur podcast.