← Everyday VOpreneur® with Marc Scott
Everyday VOpreneur® with Marc Scott
Straight Talk about the Challenges of Voice Over Marketing - Episode 100
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It's time for a little straight talk on marketing.
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You're a voice actor, you're an entrepreneur, you're a vopreneur. Welcome to the Everyday Veopreneur podcast, your guide through the business of voiceover.
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Your voiceover demos are your number one marketing tool and you need to display them on your website in a way that works on any device or browser. VoiceCam is the player producers love, plus it offers tools that can improve your email signature Quickly, create a one page website, and much more. Sign up now@voidsam.com markscott and get three months of the bass player for the price of one. That's voidsam.com markscott for full details and.
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To sign up the Veopreneur podcast. Hey, it doesn't suck.
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Not as funny as Conan, not as cute as Seth Meyers, not as smart as Colbert. But he's one of us and that counts for something. Here's Mark Scott, the original everyday Veopreneur.
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Hello and welcome to the Everyday Veopreneur podcast, your guide through the business of voiceover. I'm Mark Scott, the original Everyday Veopeneur, and this is episode 100. I don't know if that's a significant milestone or if it should be a significant milestone, but as I was getting ready to sit down and record this episode, I couldn't help but notice that it was episode 100 and thought, you know what? Maybe that's something worth mentioning. So thank you for sticking around for 100 episodes and for making the podcast last this long. I am truly grateful for it. Of course you can listen wherever. Fine podcasts are given away for free, so you don't have to ever miss an episode. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify, Stitcher, Podbean, Amazon Music. You know, all the spots and you can go through the entire archive. Never miss an episode, go back, listen to every one of them right from episode one. And by heading over to veopreneur.com I was trying to think about what to do for episode 100. I was trying to think if there was a way that I could make this a real milestone episode. You know, maybe there's a guest that I should bring in, or maybe there's a specific topic that we should cover. I just, I was thinking a lot about it and I decided to go with Right back to the roots, right? The entire premise of the Everyday Veopreneur podcast is your guide through the business of voiceover. My entire premise as a coach is to give you actionable, practical advice that you can use on the business and marketing side of voiceover. So what I decided was that what we need in episode 100 is a little bit of marketing straight talk. I had a really eye opening, really powerful coaching session probably about two weeks ago by the time this episode airs. And the individual that reached out to me was just frustrated, like, just completely stinking frustrated and not really sure what to do, not really sure where to go next, not in a position to be able to do much of anything as far as buying programs or hiring coaches and all of that sort of stuff, and just really needed a little bit of guidance on some next steps. And so I sat down with them for, I don't know, half an hour maybe, and we had straight talk conversation on the business and marketing side of voiceover. And there was one thing in particular that this individual had said that really stood out to me. And I think that that was part of what prompted me to want to do this episode in the first place. The general idea of what this individual said was, when you're already making six figures, it's hardly fair to be telling people to invest money when they don't earn what you earn. And there's a couple of things that stood out to me. But one of the things that hit me the most was the fact that he's, you know, like, hey, look, you're making six figures. It's easy for you to sit up there in your six figure high horse and tell me what to do. And I appreciated that statement because it was a good reminder of where I have got to versus where a lot of people are. And maybe you're one of those people, maybe you listen to the podcast every week and maybe sometimes you find some really helpful advice in it, but maybe sometimes you're like, oh, yeah, it's really easy for you to say when you're already where you're at in your business. And so that was one of the things that I wanted to address. I want you guys to understand, and I've talked about this a little bit before, but maybe you're not familiar with my story, maybe you're relatively new to the podcast or whatever the case may be. I want you to understand that when I really started going full time into voiceover, I was an unemployed bum. Okay? That's it. I mean, 2011, I got laid off from my radio job that was around the end of January in 2011. And I was devastated because the job that I got laid off from was actually the job that I thought was going to be where I was going to spend the rest of my career. And I actually ended up only being there for a few months. All kinds of changes at the top, Getting ready to sell the station to a big media conglomerate here in Canada. They needed to downsize because they needed to make room in the budget to make the station look more attractive for the sale and blah, blah, blah, blah. So I got downsized. So for the first few months after that experience, admittedly I sat around in my underwear and felt sorry for myself for a lot of time. And I really wasn't sure what I was going to do next. But I knew that I was absolutely not going back to radio. I had decided that I couldn't do that again. The station that I got downsized from, I had number one ratings across the board. And I thought, you know what, if I can be number one across the board and still not have job security, then this is not a place that I want to be. And I have no doubt that some of you that are listening right now are probably have similar stories from a radio standpoint. I mean, I've gone. These days you haven't really had a radio career until you've been downsized. I think it's like, you know, that's part of the rite of passage of being able to say that you, you've had a radio career, that you're a radio veteran. So admittedly, for the first few months I sat around in my underwear and absolutely felt sorry for myself, trying to figure out what I was going to do, knowing full well that I wasn't going to go back to radio, despite the fact that multiple offers had been there to go back to radio. Voiceover was a thing that I had done for spending money. Obviously those of you that work in radio also understand that there's no money to be made in radio or very little money to be made in radio unless you get into certain stations and in certain day parts and all that sort of stuff. But overall, definitely not a place where you're going to get rich. So I did voiceover to, to try and make a little bit of extra money. I took it seriously, but it certainly wasn't my full time job. Probably around the summer, late summer, maybe early fall in 2011, I started thinking, maybe there's a way that I can make this work. Maybe it would be possible that I could support myself doing this voiceover thing. Maybe I could figure out a way to, to take what I was earning, which was basically a little bit of extra spending money because my radio job basically covered my bills. But maybe I could maybe I could find a way to make it work. Maybe I could find a way to level it up, to actually grow it into something. Now, in the interest of full transparency, at this point in time, I was a single guy. So that certainly played into my favorite, right? No wife, no kids. So that made things a little bit easier. I did have an apartment that I had to pay for, and I had truck payments, and I had insurance payments and hydro and gas and cable and Internet and cell phone and, you know, all of those things. I mean, I still had money going out every month, but I was on my own. So maybe the money going out every month wasn't quite as much. So that was certainly in my favor. And the other thing that was in my favor was at that point in time, we were coming to the end of what I call the glory days of online casting. There was a point right around there, I want to say, like 2008, 9, 10, 11, 12, somewhere in there where you could have a membership on Voice 123 and you could have a membership on voices.com back then, it was still okay to have a membership on that second site and you could make really good money. I mean, if you were just kind of a hobbyist just kind of playing around, you know, you might make an extra ten grand a year. But I knew voice actors that were making almost six figures just exclusively off those casting sites. And so those were the two things that I had going for me. One, I was single. One, there was still lots of opportunities on the casting sites. It wasn't quite as saturated as it is today, and the sites were certainly run more ethically than they are today. So I definitely had that going for me. But the bottom line is I was an unemployed bum starting from nothing. So my first year full time in voiceover was 2012. Like, my first full calendar year of full time voiceover was 2012. Because it wasn't until the late fall in 2011 that I decided that I was going to give it a shot. So that first year, that first full time year in 2012, my daily prayer was, God, give me enough to pay my bills. Like, literally every morning I would wake up and pray that prayer. And every night before I went to bed, I would pray that prayer. And when it came down to it, at the end of the year, that's exactly what I got. I got 100%, exactly what I asked for. I paid my bills in 2012 and had about 12 bucks left over in the end. So that that first year of full time voiceover, I probably Made around, I don't know, it was like 15 grand, maybe 17 grand, something like that. Significantly less than what I was making in radio or what I had made in radio. But like I said, single guy, a little bit easier, you know, didn't have the expense of taking care of a family. So I know that I had ideal circumstances for doing something like that. But the greater point is I want you guys to understand that I didn't start as a six figure talent. I had to work towards that, just like anybody else had to work towards that. I started from unemployed, I started from zero. A lot of folks are working in a day job and the ultimate goal is to transition out of the day job into the full time voiceover thing. And so, you know, you've got money coming in, your bills are being paid, you're doing all right. You're just trying to figure out how do I balance the time, right? How do I spend eight hours a day at the day job, then come home and still try to find time to spend with my family and also to give to my voiceover business. And so I know that there's some of you that are in that position. I know there are folks that are in a position where maybe you're working a couple different part time jobs and you're trying to find a way to make everything go. And I want you to understand that. I understand because I was there at one point, I was unemployed. I was feeling sorry for myself, I was scared. I had no idea whether or not I could make it work. You also have to remember that back then I had no idea what I was doing. Everybody looks to me now as a business and marketing coach and I've built up a reputation within the industry. I've created this platform for myself through the podcast and through my Facebook group and my blog that I used to write and speaking at conferences and all that sort of stuff. So everybody thinks, oh, you know, it's really easy for you, you know everything, you know what you're doing. Yeah. But in 2012, I didn't have a stinking clue what I was doing. If I could show you guys some of the emails that I sent in 2012, I mean, it's embarrassing. It is honestly a wonder that I ever got any work ever, like, ever. I think it's also a testament to the fact that even if you don't know what you're doing, if you reach out to enough people, if you get yourself in front of enough people, inevitably you are going to find someone that will hire you. Because back Then I was not scoring clients because I was marketing in a proper and effective way. I was scoring clients because I was just reaching out to a crap ton of people. And some of them must have felt sorry for me or something. I don't even know. But the point is just I have not always been at this place in my career and I certainly have not always known what I was doing. Part of the reason why I evolved into coaching is because I was so bad at what I did for so long and I worked so hard to learn how to be better, that as I was starting to figure some of those things out, I was sharing them with other voice actors. That's initially what my blog was all about. And I haven't written my blog in a couple years now because I replaced it with the podcast, basically. But at that point, my blog was me sharing everything that I was learning on a daily basis. Things that I was learning because I was reading books on entrepreneurship and sales and marketing, things that I was learning from podcasts that I was listening to on those same subjects. Things that I had learned because I had attended college courses, I did post secondary courses, like night school classes basically in entrepreneurship. And I was trying to figure some of this stuff out, and I was trying to find a better way to do the things that I was doing in order to do them more effectively in order to grow my business. And so I shared that through the blog, and as I was sharing that stuff, people started looking to me. And then that's when people started asking if they could coach with me. That happened in about 2016, which was also the first year that I hit six figures. So it took me four years to go from unemployed bum to a six figure talent. And that was four years of working my hind parts off. I mean, literally working my hind parts off. I, again, single guy, I know I had that going for me. But I was working all day, every day because I had nothing else to do at that point. I didn't have any hobbies. I mean, yes, I was a volunteer firefighter. That certainly took a lot of time as well. But for the most part, if I was home and I was in my apartment, I was marketing in some capacity. I was putting leads into the pipeline, I was working on building relationships. I was auditioning wherever I could find auditions. That was four years of just clawing my way to the top. And so when this particular person that I was in this coaching session with talked about that, I felt like it was really important just to remind them where I came from and not because I wanted to make them feel bad about what they had said, but because I wanted to show them what was possible, I wanted them to understand that, man, I get it. Because I was you not that many years ago, right, in 2012, when I was still an unemployed bum. At that point, I guess 2012, maybe I could call myself a full time voice actor because it's what I did. But I mean, I wasn't making any money. But the point is, I came from nothing and I built it into something and I wanted this person to understand that. And I want you to understand that too. So if you are willing to work your butt off, if you are willing to put in the time, and if you are willing to put in the effort, it is still possible, I think, to grow a successful voiceover business. But what you can't do is be sitting around complaining all the time. You can't be sitting around feeling sorry for yourself all the time. You can't be sitting around expecting other people to do the work for you. You cannot be caught up in all of your excuses and all of your negative narratives because those things are going to sink your ship. That is going to keep you from growing a successful business. You've got to get your head in the game, right? I knew what I was working towards in 2012. That's when I set that six figure goal for myself. I didn't know how long it was going to take me to get there. And to be honest with you, I didn't even have any concept of how much six figures was because I worked in radio. My best paying radio job was $40,000 a year. And that's the job that I got laid off from after just a few months. So I never even actually got a chance to see that money. So I had no concept of what six figures was, but it felt like a good benchmark. It gave me something to work towards. And I was so committed to that goal that I was willing to do whatever it was going to take to get me there. If you have that same kind of drive, if you have that same kind of passion, that same kind of motivation, I still think it's possible to build a great business for yourself. But you can't be caught up in your excuses. You can't be caught up feeling sorry for yourself. I was not doing any of that in 2012. The switch flipped. I was a business owner. I was going to run a business. My business was going to be successful, and I was going to do whatever it took to figure out how to make that happen. That's why I was reading books, that's why I was listening to podcasts. That's why I was taking online courses. That's why I was taking college courses. That's why I was attending conferences that were outside of the sphere of voiceover. Attend a business and marketing conference, you'd be surprised at what you can learn. Attend a class or a workshop or sign up for a course on entrepreneurship. You would be surprised what you can learn that is all relevant to what you are trying to do in voiceover. I wasn't expecting anybody to do it for me. I was investing all the time that I had. I mean, literally, I lived in a one bedroom apartment and when I was sitting on my couch in the evening watching tv, because I was like, oh, it's the evening I'm gonna sit and watch TV. After 20 minutes of watching TV, I would feel guilty about watching TV because my computer was just right over there. And so then I would go and sit down at my computer and I would start sending more emails. I was contacting hundreds of people a day sometimes, and I was doing it all day, every day because what the heck else was I going to do? I was not going to give up until I had grown my business to where I wanted it to be. So for those of you that have been listening to the podcast for a while and you think that it's really easy for me to give all of this advice because of where I am in my career, just remember that the reason why I can give this advice because of where I am in my career is because of where I came from. I came from nothing. I have said before in interviews that it would have been easier for me to come to voiceover with a background in farming than it would have been to come from a background in radio. Because any of you that have worked in radio, you know that we struggle so hard to overcome the announcer voice. We struggle so hard to be conversational. I'm not theater trained. I never took a drama class. I have no acting background. I have basically zero acting ability. I don't do improv. I'm just a guy that talks into a can. And so it was really, really, really, really, really hard for me to learn. So I had to learn the performance side of things and the business side of things at the same time. But I came from nothing and I built it and I did it with hard work and no excuses. And I think that you can do the same. So if you're in the struggle, just know that it is possible. If you're Listening to this episode right now and you are saying, mark Scott, get out of my head. No, I don't want to get out of your head. I like it when I'm in your head because it means you're listening. It means you're paying attention. And I know that I can help you while I am there. But if you're listening to this episode and you are struggling with your marketing, you don't know who to contact, you don't know what to say, you feel like you're talking into an empty void. Nothing seems to be working. You want to grow your business, you're trying, but it's not happening. I want to be able to help you. I believe that I can help you. And that is what the Voice Over Marketing Playbook is all about. It has been designed as a step by step program to help you find your own leads, build your own client base, and become the consistently working voice actor that you want to be. And when you apply the things that you learn in the Playbook, they work. How do I know they work? Because I still apply the principles of Playbook in my business every single day. I practice what I preach and it works. Playbook is coming out again April 6th through the 15th, 2021. This is going to be your last opportunity to sign up for the course until the fall at the earliest. So if you've been thinking about it and you want to level up and you are ready to become a more consistent and effective marketer, then this is your chance to do it. Details will be available@voiceovermarketingplaybook.com again. It's available April 6th through the 15th. Voiceover marketingplaybook.com now back to our show. In a recent post on the Veopreneur Group in Facebook, there's a really, really interesting comment that was shared by a talent who had actually started the thread and they were talking about marketing. But I want to read this comment for you. It says, I guess direct marketing just feels like a daunting task without much direct feedback during the process. It sometimes feels like you're just speaking into an empty space. That is a powerful statement that probably speaks to your heart. As you're listening to this. You're listening to me say those words and probably nodding your head in agreement. I guess direct marketing just feels like a daunting task without much direct feedback during the process. It sometimes feels like you're just speaking into an empty space. You want to know what the most profound thing about that statement is? That it's all absolutely true. Absolutely all of it. It is a daunting task. You will get little to no feedback and more often than not, you will feel like you are speaking into an empty space. This is one of the reasons why so many voice actors just default to casting sites and agents. Casting sites and agents give you instant gratification through auditions on a daily basis or a near daily basis. So every time you get one of those auditions, you feel like you're doing something. You feel like you're moving forward in your business. And even though you're not getting any feedback on those auditions either, at least you got to go into the booth and record something. So it's an instant gratification thing. Whereas when you're doing direct marketing and you're sending out emails or you're making connections on LinkedIn or other forms of social media, if people aren't replying to you, you don't have any kind of instant gratification. There's no dopamine hit in all of that, which is why it is so frustrating, which is why so many voice actors don't want to do it. Because we just need the gratification. We just need the dopamine hit. We need to know that we did something today. I understand everything in that statement. I am a business and marketing coach. I teach voice actors how to do this on a daily basis. On any given day during the week, I usually have six to eight coaching sessions with voice actors that I'm helping to do marketing. I still feel like I am speaking into an empty space sometimes. And I want you to know that. And maybe I've not done a good enough job of communicating that in the past. I try to be so transparent. You know, when I talk about voiceover marketing playbook, I make it very clear to voice actors that it took me four years to build my business and it took me four years of working really, really, really, really hard. And even though I've built that six figure business and I've been doing very well in my voiceover business for years, the marketing side of things can still be a struggle. It doesn't get any easier just because you're making more money. It gets more tolerable because you're making more money. But I'm still sending out emails every day that aren't getting answered. That's just the nature of the game. One of the things that I share, and this is actually a statistic from the playbook. If you reach out to 100 new leads, so you sit down in a week, you send 20 emails a day. By Friday you've sent 100 emails to brand new leads. If 15 of those leads get back to you, you're doing pretty good. If 20 get back to you, you're doing really good. That means literally that 80 to 85% of the emails that you send are going to go unanswered. Let's just think about this for a minute. If 80% of your emails go unanswered, that means you're doing good because 20% of your emails did get answered. So take that perspective and just kind of let that percolate for a minute. It is going to feel like you're speaking into an empty space. It is going to feel like you're not getting a lot of direct feedback. This is a numbers game. It's always been a numbers game and it will probably always be a numbers game. This is why it takes time to build something. This is why if there is a coach that is out there that is selling you some kind of ridiculous pipe dream of set up your microphone, set up your computer, set up your studio space, send some emails, you're going to be making bank in no time. That coach is a con artist. And it ticks me off when I see stuff like that because that is not the way that it works at all. This takes time. It takes time to build because so often you're going to feel like you're speaking in an empty space. So if you're doing your direct marketing right now and you're feeling that way, this is what I want to encourage you with. Try to figure out your numbers. If you're getting about a 15% response rate on the cold emails that you're sending, you're actually doing well. Don't be discouraged. Obviously we want 100% open rate. We want 100% response rate, but that is not realistic. I would actually encourage you to not even worry about tracking your email opens and all of that. At this point. Just pay attention. If I send out 100 emails in a week, did I get about 15 people that responded to me? If you get about 15 people that responded to you, then you're probably doing okay. I know that doesn't feel very productive, but it is. And so if you're around that percentage, be encouraged. You're doing well. It means you're probably sending good emails. You're probably targeting very well. You know, you're hitting the right people with the right messaging and they like what they hear on your website. If you are less than 15 or 20%, then there are areas where we can improve. That's something that I could help you with, but if you're over that, you're not necessarily doing that bad. The fact of the matter is you're going to have to contact 100 people before you even have a shot at making that first booking. You're probably going to have to contact a couple hundred people before you have a shot at making that first booking. Yeah, every once in a while there's going to be that unicorn. You are going to send the exact right email to the exact right person on the exact right day and they're going to book you. But there are a lot of other times when you're going to send an email to somebody and they're going to respond and they're going to say, we like your stuff, we'll add you to our roster, whatever the case may be, and then you're not going to hear anything from them for three months or six months or a year. In the voiceover marketing playbook, I actually share a screenshot from my inbox and I show an email sequence that goes on for three years from the introductory email until the first booking. Most people will not commit to trying for three years. But if I had given up on that particular prospect, I would have missed out ultimately on multi thousands of dollars in voiceover work. Because after that first booking came, so did the second, and the third, and the fourth, and the fifth, and so on. And so I never gave up. This is a numbers game and it is a long game. I can teach you how to do things more effectively. I can work with you on what to put in your emails. I can help you with the content that you put on your website and how your website looks. I can work with you on lead generation, trying to find the right people, how to find the right people, all of that sort of stuff. But there is not a system in the world, at least that I have yet identified. There is not a system in the world that is going to speed this process up. The only way you speed it up is by contacting more people. The more emails that you get out there, the more ears that you get on your demo, the more, the more likely you are to book sooner. Because it's a numbers game. It's a numbers game. It is a daunting task and it's frustrating when you're not getting any responses. It's frustrating when you feel like you're speaking into an empty space. But here's the other side of that coin. I am making many multiples of what I ever could have made in radio and that has changed my life, that has changed my wife's life, that has changed the lives of our kids. And I'm not saying that I'm walking around like a high roller, but look where I live in southern Ontario, you can't even buy a crappy, dilapidated, two bedroom, one bathroom starter home for under $600,000 right now. That's just the nature of where we live. And so that I'm able to afford to put us in a house that feels good to me, that's a win. That I'm able to take us on a vacation every once in a while though, you know, thanks, Covid. Haven't been able to do that. That's a win. That I'm able to buy my kids a new bike because they keep growing and I don't know how to make that stop. That's a win that we're able to have family over on a weekend and have a big barbecue, throw a brisket on the smoker. That's a win. So instead of focusing on this daunting task of direct marketing and instead of focusing your narrative and your emotions towards this feeling that you are speaking into the empty space, that you are just tossing stuff out into the void that is not doing anything for you, focus on what your wins are gonna be. When I was growing my business, I did not spend five minutes thinking about the amount of work that I was gonna have to do. I spent 24 hours a day thinking about what I was gonna be able to do when I got there, what I was gonna be able to do when the money was in the bank, what I was gonna be able to do when I was finally earning what I wanted to be earning. I was focusing on the house that I was going to buy to get me out of my crappy apartment. I was focusing on the truck that I was going to buy because it was the truck that I always wanted to be able to buy. I was focused on the vacations that I was going to take because up until that point, I had never been on a really legit vacation because I worked in radio and I couldn't afford it. Those were the things that I was thinking about in 2012 when I went full time for the first time. Those were the things that I was focusing on. I was focusing on the end game. I wasn't focusing on the challenges. And that doesn't mean that I was oblivious or ignorant. It's just to say I wasn't sitting around every day feeling sorry for myself because it was hard. I wasn't sitting around every day, basking in negativity because not enough people responding to me. I was like, okay, I didn't get as many responses today as I wanted. So what can I do differently tomorrow? How can I fix that? Let me read another book. Let me listen to another podcast, Let me call up a coach, Let me take another course. Let me sign up for this marketing conference and go and see what they have to say. That's what I was doing. I was constantly thinking about how I was going to get to the next level. That's the narrative that I was focused on. How am I going to get to the next level? You know, when I sat down to record this episode, I had two notes. One of them said, and these are direct quotes from my Evernote. It's sitting in front of me right now. This is all I had written down. When you're already making six figures, it's hardly fair to be telling people to invest money when they don't earn what you earn. That was the comment from the earlier part of the episode. And the other thing I had written down was, I guess direct marketing just feels like a daunting task without much direct feedback during the process. It sometimes feels like you're speaking into an empty space. That's all I had written down. I didn't really know where I was going to go with this episode, but I knew that I wanted to encourage you, and I knew that I wanted to communicate to you that I understand that I've been there, that I'm not just sitting up here on this high horse telling you guys what to do. Because it's easy and it's easy for me to say it. I'm telling you because I've been there and I've done that. I invested money that I didn't have in the beginning because I knew that I needed to invest money to grow a business. Right? If I go out tomorrow and decide that I'm going to open up an auto shop and start doing oil changes for all of my neighbors, I better have some wrenches. Like, otherwise it doesn't work right. My good intentions are not going to help me do oil changes. When I was starting out in voiceover, I knew that I was going to need to invest some money to get some things. I did not start out with the best equipment. My first studio microphone was an EV RE20, which is generally believed to be the worst voiceover microphone in the history of voiceover microphones. But it's what I had. It's what I could afford, and I found a Way to make it work, you know. My first website was not pretty. I built it myself. I bought a premium WordPress theme. I couldn't afford to hire Joe and Karen back then, which by the way, voice actor websites does my site now and I love them and they're amazing. But in the beginning I couldn't afford it, but I could afford to spend 100 bucks on a premium theme. So at least my website looked half decent if I was going to build it myself. There are ways to work around some of this stuff, right? You don't got to go out and do it all at once. Don't go out and get every demo at once. Don't go out and build your dream studio at once. I built the studio that I'm in now in 2017, the early part of 2018. It took me that long to to get to this studio where I was finally in a proper space. Up to that point, I was recording in spare bedrooms in my old apartment and a spare bedroom in my house. And they were ugly. My office, when we moved into the house that we live in now, my office had the most butt ugly green wallpaper that you have ever seen in your life with 30 year old green shag carpet. Okay, so look, that was 2017, guys. That was not that long ago. So I don't want you to ever think that I don't understand the struggle. I don't want you to ever think that I don't get where you're at right now because I've been there. I've been in the struggle. I felt the pain, I felt the fear, I felt the frustration, I felt the anxiety, I felt the stress. I get it. Even where I'm at in my business now, I still have bad months. Covid was a tough year. You know, I've talked about it before. I lost $50,000 in voiceover work in 2020. Projects that I had in the books, they were in my CRM. They were projects that were confirmed. There were projects that were going forward and then they were projects that ultimately got canceled for one reason or another. That's a lot of money to lose. In June of 2020, I had the worst income month of my entire voiceover career. So I get it. I've been there. I made like 600 bucks in June of 2020. But on the flip side of that, I also had months where I made like 20 grand. So it doesn't ever stop, right? It doesn't ever get any easier. I'm out there chasing clients just like you guys are. I'm out there emailing, just like I'm teaching you guys to do. I'm out there doing social media just like I'm teaching you guys to do. I just know that when you do it effectively and when you do it consistently, it works. Because if it didn't work, I would still be an unemployed bum sitting around in my underwear feeling sorry for myself in my old apartment. So when you get discouraged, when you get frustrated, when you're feeling overwhelmed, just know that you're not alone in those feelings, those emotions, those thoughts. I've been there, too. I'm here to help you if I can. Whether that's sharing some advice with you on a podcast or answering a question for you on a free Advice Friday broadcast, or whether that's through some of the other services that I offer, a private one on one coaching session or the voiceover marketing playbook. Whatever it is, I'm here to help. And I've tried to create resources across the spectrum, from the free resources that I offer through the ebooks, the podcast, the Facebook group, to premium resources that range from $150 right up to $700. I've tried to put in something for everyone so that I can help you get to the next level because I know what it feels like to be on the lower levels and I know how good it feels when you get to higher levels. And look, I'm still climbing, too. I've still got voice actors that I look up to on a daily basis. You know, I still wake up in the morning and get dressed and think, when I grow up, I want to be like, so and so. I'm still there. It doesn't ever stop, at least not for me anyway. I'm still always trying to improve, still always trying to grow, still always looking for the next big client, still always looking for the next great opportunity. And if I learn some things along the way that help me to do that, hopefully I can share them with you, too. So this is episode 100, a little bit of straight talk, right? Fireside Chat with Mark Scott about the frustrations and challenges and struggles and the wins that can come from marketing. When you do it right, it can change your life. It can change your business and not just your voiceover business. I've actually coached with other voice actors who have side hustles, and we've taken some of the stuff that I teach and we've reapplied it from voiceover to their side hustles. And I've helped them to grow those, too. Marketing is marketing. Learn how to do it well, commit to doing it consistently and there's some money to be made. Absolutely. Thank you for 100 episodes. I still can't believe it. I don't really know. Some days I question what my thought process was in starting this podcast because it certainly ended up being a lot more work than I had ever expected. But it's also been a lot of fun too. And I hope that along the way that you guys are learning some things. I hope that you are feeling encouraged. I hope that you pick up advice and tips and tricks that are helping you to grow your business and helping you to level up. That's why I do it. So I hope that this, that's what's happening. And you know, here's to the next 100 episodes. I was just checking the statistics on the podcast. We've had about 83,000 downloads, which is just crazy to me. That is. I can't even believe it. So here's to the next hundred episodes and the next 83,000 downloads. Thank you so much for listening. Remember, you can subscribe wherever. Fine podcasts are given away for free or check out the archives at vopro. I'll catch you on the next one.
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The Everyday Veopreneur podcast. Available everywhere. Find Podcasts are given away for free. Mostly.
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We think your voiceover demos are your number one marketing tool and you need to display them on your website in a way that works on any device or browser. VoiceCam is the player producers love. Plus it offers tools that can improve your email signature quickly, create a one page website, and much more. Sign up now@voidsam.com markscott and get three months of the bass player for the price of one. That's voicesam.com markscott for full details and to sign up.
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And scene.
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And that's a wrap. Thanks for hanging in. Thanks for hanging out. Want more Veopreneur goodness? Jump online@veopreneur.com.