VC Radio
Voice Coaches Radio Episode 706 “Hard Truths For Beginners”
John: [00:00:00] All right. I'm John.
Tina: And I'm Tina.
John: And it's Voice Coaches Radio. It's, it's, and it is, uh, today's Friday.
Tina: Yes, it is.
John: Yeah. Yeah. I don't know why, you know, for me, uh, you know, Friday is, uh. My day off sort of. Yeah. But I'm doing this so it still feels like a day off, but you know,
Tina: yeah. This isn't work.
John: No, no, definitely not.
Definitely not. So, so, uh, today we're gonna do hard truths, voice actors, uh, Nope. Hard truths. New voice actors need to know. Okay. Yeah. And I don't think this is gonna be a super long episode, but, you know, um. Yeah. What do you think, what do you have, like, uh, something that a new voice actor should know right away that, that maybe they didn't think of that may be discouraging or maybe they would be like, what in the world?
What do you think?
Tina: I think [00:01:00] the, the biggest that I get from a lot of students who go through the program and, um. You know, have him doing it for a little bit and sending out, sending out and sending out. It is they're sending out and sending out and sending out their demo and just not getting work just yet.
It will come.
John: Yeah,
Tina: it will definitely come. That's I think, the biggest thing, but you gotta keep at it.
John: Yes.
Tina: You keep at it. That's, that is, it does get discouraging. I get it. I completely understand that. Mm-hmm. You know, and I just, because you feel like you're just, oh, but I'm, I'm, I did, I, you know, I've sat down today and, and I auditioned for, you know, 10 different voice acting, and it's a week later I haven't heard anything from anybody, you know, so it, you just gotta keep going.
Keep going.
John: Yeah.
Tina: There will be somebody where your voice is exactly what they're looking for. Yeah.
John: So recognizing that it could take a while. You know, I get it. We all, we're a society of now. We all want it now.
Tina: Yes. Yep.
John: And so I think people do get [00:02:00] discouraged and like, oh, it's been, I've had people say, oh, you know, I've, I've been sending demos out.
Tina: Mm-hmm.
John: And I've been following up and I have not gotten anything. And I say, well, how long? Three months. That's, listen, I get it.
Tina: Yeah.
John: Three months feels like a long time. I understand. Mm-hmm. But listen, I know someone that took him nine and a half months to get his first voiceover job.
Tina: Yeah.
John: And he makes a ton of money right now.
Mm-hmm. But imagine if he was like everybody else and he quit.
Tina: Yeah. You
John: know, they knocked after, after three months or so. Right. So yeah, just recognize that. Yeah. Like you said, it, it could take, uh, it could take a while. Yeah. But just keep plugging away. Yeah. You'll get, you'll get the work.
Tina: You will get the work.
You'll get it. Yeah.
John: Um, the, the thing I would say, uh, is, is also, um. I would also recognize that you're not right for everything.
Tina: Mm-hmm.
John: Even if you think you are.
Tina: Yeah.
John: You know, uh, I get it. Like, listen, I've been that person where I go, I'm perfect for this. Yeah. I'm perfect for this. And then you don't, you don't get hired and you're like, what in the world?
Listen, just don't I get it. Don't get discouraged. You [00:03:00] will. Like we said, you'll get the work, but. Even, and you listen for some other producer. Mm-hmm. You may have been perfect for that.
Tina: Yeah.
John: You can't, you can't predict what different producers, different clients want. So, so just don't I get it? Don't get discouraged.
Tina: Oh, absolutely not. 'cause there will be a job that will surprise you. I, I had that with Microsoft. I was just like, you want my voice? You're Microsoft. You want my voice? Are you sure? I even went into and like. Because the client was there at where when I was doing my read, and I just, it was afterwards telling him, I really wanna thank you for choosing my voice.
You sure? She's like, yeah, well you're already recorded, so, yeah,
John: yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Tina: So you just never know. You might go for one, you know, direction or think, you know, but then another opportunity opens up that you would've never thought of.
John: Speaking of direction. There you go. That's a good one. Yeah. I'm glad you said that because it brings me to this too.
I have people who. [00:04:00] They have a preconceived notion of the type of work mm-hmm. They think they're going to do. Like, I, Hey, you know what I want in my voiceover career, um, I wanna do documentaries. That's the direction I'm heading. Mm-hmm. And all of a sudden. And by the way, this is a great problem to have.
Yeah. But I I, but I don't And but I want you to look at it that way. Not as discouraging.
Tina: Yeah.
John: All of a sudden they start getting a ton of corporate training.
Tina: Yeah.
John: Like just a ton of it. And my advice in that case is to embrace that. Mm-hmm. Right? Because I get it. It is not the niche you thought you were going to get, right?
Yeah. You thought you were gonna do a bunch of documentaries, but all of a sudden. All these clients think your voice is absolutely perfect for their corporate training.
Tina: Yes.
John: And, and, and if you get steady work doing that, again, this is voice of work, it's fantastic. Mm-hmm. So my advice there would be embrace it.
Tina: Yes.
John: Don't fight it. And I, I, I, I think this with everyone, um, and this happened to me in my career. Even if you, you have a preconceived notion or you have an idea of the type of [00:05:00] work that you think, this is where my career is going. Mm-hmm. Go with the flow.
Tina: Yes.
John: Now, because it, it will, it, all of a sudden you'll start getting work and, and it'll take you, it happened to me.
I, I, when I started off as a voice actor, I did not, I was not a character voice actor. Mm-hmm. It's not something I, I was like, oh, I'm gonna do animation or video games or, yeah. And, and all of a sudden I had a bunch of clients, and these are clients that I would use me all the time for just voiceover work.
Mm-hmm. By voice. Yeah. Which is typical. That's usually you're gonna hire for your voice. Um. All of a sudden I had a bunch of clients at once, seemed to want me to do character voices and, and so I went out and listen in the kind of, in the middle of my career, I went out and got some more coaching, voiceover coaching.
Okay. And to learn how to use my voice properly. 'cause I would do character voices, uh, like everyone does. Which is just changing the picture of your voice. Yeah. Not changing your speech pattern, not changing the way you pause, you know, which is what you really wanna do in character voices. And so. And that, so it just came to me and it wasn't a direction I thought I was heading at all.
Tina: Yeah.
John: And, um, and so I just [00:06:00] embraced it and so, you know, uh, okay, I'm gonna do some of this. And so I did a bunch of it and I do other, the other stuff too. Mm-hmm. But just learn to not, not fight it.
Tina: Yes.
John: You know, the voice every, listen, be, be thankful. Yeah. What the voiceover work you get is the voiceover work you get, and that's awesome.
Tina: Yeah, yeah. Yeah. It, it is. That's funny because there was, I really thought I would be doing more commercial work. Mm-hmm. Only because of my background. Yeah. Doing more corporate trainings than anything.
John: There you go.
Tina: See? Yeah. And that, that was, that was getting in there. I'm like, and I'm thinking, yeah. Do commercial work.
I'll you, I'll be the next ad for, you know, next voice for a grocery store. No, no, no. You're doing corporate training.
John: That's how things happen like that. Yeah. Um, the other thing I think that people don't know, um, newer voice actors, um, now you've been through our program. Mm-hmm. You probably do know this and that's good.
Uh, but I think also, um, a hard truth would be. Even if you become what we call a full service provider, okay? Mm-hmm. And that's someone who can record from home at a [00:07:00] national quality or broadcast quality. Yes. Uh, when you first start off as a voice actor on a local and regional level, which is where you will start.
You're not gonna do all the work from home. I, I, yeah. To be very clear, you wanna develop clients.
Tina: Mm-hmm.
John: You wanna develop a clientele and when you first start out, no one knows who you are. Yeah. They don't know if you're capable of doing that.
Tina: Yeah.
John: They have no idea if you can record at at broadcast quality and they don't know.
Plus if you record from home, they won't be there to direct you. Yeah. And so. In the beginning you will go to recording studios. Mm-hmm. Just know that, and that is, I think that's, I guess that's a hard truth for some people because they think, I dunno if they've Googled it, I don't have no idea what they did, but they think, Hey, I'm gonna start off voiceovers and I'm just gonna sit home and do voiceover work.
Tina: Yes.
John: I'm just gonna sit home and do this. It's not really how it works. Especially starting out now, once you develop a clientele, people who trust you.
Tina: Yes.
John: Some of them, not all of them by the way, but some of them will. Allow you to do voiceover work from home if you are capable of that.
Tina: Yes. Yeah. Okay.
John: Yeah.
And again, I, when, when I, whenever I bring up [00:08:00] home recording mm-hmm. I bring a full service provider, I always want. Make this. 'cause there's people right now listening, getting nervous going, oh God, I don't wanna do that. Yeah. I don't want to be, this is personal preference. You can absolutely be a voice actor.
Tina: Mm-hmm.
John: And, uh, go to recording studios your entire voice of a career and make good money doing it. But I also do want to be clear. And does being a full service provider may make more work available to you? Absolutely. Yeah. 'cause you're tapping into a side of the industry that you wouldn't normally. If you weren't capable of recording from home.
So, uh, you know, again, personal preference, but I encourage it if you'd like to do that. Of course. Mm-hmm. And, uh, but no, even if you do become a full service provider, you are going to go to recording a studio. Just know that.
Tina: Yeah. I actually like going to a recording studio because all you really, at least on from my experience, is you walk in, they hand you the script, they give you some time.
That's one thing that people do. Oh my goodness. I gotta go, they'll hand me the script and I gotta go [00:09:00] record it right then and there. They let you read it, they let you go over it, they let you ask questions. So I, that's a probably a whole nother, you know, thing that we would talk about. But that's one thing, that's one that people, yeah, no.
So you, I, I like the fact of just walking into the booth, throwing the headphones on, and I got the script right there. I don't have to worry about press and play. I don't have to worry about my volumes. There's somebody else doing that for me.
John: Exactly. Because keep in mind, when you become a. A full service provider.
Mm-hmm. That's a whole nother side of the job.
Tina: It, it really is. Yeah. You are now kind of the engineer now. Yep. You know, so, and you've gotta be able to make sure all levels are correct and everything else that, along with your reading at the same time. So yes, it has its plus and minuses of, you know, doing it from home and going to.
Studio. Oh, I gotta meant me, I gotta dress up
John: and it's convenient. I
Tina: gotta put pants on today. Yes you do. Please do not show up at the studio without pants on.
John: Or a shirt for that matter. Yeah. Or
Tina: a shirt. Yes.
John: Yeah. Yeah. So, um, yeah. Yeah. So there you go. I mean, that's, I think those are some [00:10:00] good ones. It's, I think there's a lot of misconceptions about the industry and so, I mean, um.
Hard truth. This seems like a harsh term, but
Tina: Yeah.
John: But you know, I
Tina: mean, you can't handle the truth.
John: You can't handle the truth. Yeah. You know, just, just know that like everything else in life.
Tina: Mm-hmm.
John: And I guess this would be general, like everything else in life, when you get into voiceovers, things might go a little differently than you expect.
Yeah. And my advice is to enjoy it and just, mm-hmm. Go with the flow
Tina: and keep at it. Keep at it, keep at it. Do not. Alright. Uh, two months. I'm done. I haven't gotten anything. Yeah, that's, no, no. It
John: drives me crazy when people do that and so many people do it.
Tina: Yeah.
John: So many people. If it is like, here's here, here's how I would keep yourself in this.
Okay. There's the you with us right now. Mm-hmm. Right. And so there's the you that is, is sending demos out, following up.
Tina: Mm-hmm.
John: Being [00:11:00] consistent. Right. And then you get discouraged. Okay. And you're thinking, why am I doing this? It just doesn't seem to be lead to anything. Okay. Yeah. Now picture the U in two years, if you continue doing that
Tina: mm-hmm.
John: You're gonna be a working voice actor.
Tina: Yes, you are.
John: Right. But picture the you if you stop.
Tina: Mm-hmm.
John: That's it. You're where you were. Yeah. Right. You're not doing anything. Right. Yeah. Just remember, I get it. Everything's temporary. Mm-hmm. If, if things seem like. It taking longer than you expected. Still it's temporary picture the you and a year or two from now.
Mm-hmm. And how happy you are going to be. Yes. When you are a working voice actor making steady money mm-hmm. Doing this. Mm-hmm.
Tina: Yep. Because you kept at it.
John: Right. That, just think of that when you get discouraged, yeah's what I always say because people get discouraged. They just quit. And, and, and by the way, you're not gonna, that's when you fail.
You fail when you quit.
Tina: Yep.
John: And so just continue plugging away. You know?
Tina: Absolutely.
John: That was, that's what I would tell people. I and I, I may have told [00:12:00] this story before, I may not have. I, I have a friend who started in voiceovers the same time as me. He had a much better voice, in my opinion, and probably most people's opinion, and he quit, just started selling insurance.
He, to this day, own insurance. Oh my goodness. And he absolutely hates it. Mm-hmm. And he said to me not too long ago, man, I, you know, I wish I kept at it like you did. I really wish I continued doing it like you. And he's looking back 30 years now. Yeah. And wishing he was doing what I could because he sells insurance.
He hates it. Mm-hmm. I make more, more money than he does doing something I absolutely love.
Tina: I love. Yep.
John: And so just think of that. Don't let yourself down. That's what you're doing. Yeah. You're letting yourself. Down. Live the life you wanna live, do the job, get into the business you wanna get into. Mm-hmm.
Tina: Right? Yes. Absolutely.
John: Don't look back and be mad at yourself.
Tina: Did you tell him to take your webinar?
John: He's, he's, he's like [00:13:00] too into his career now. He's like, really? He, he's got kids and he's, you know
Tina: Yeah. All that other
John: stuff, and which is never, it's never too late. He could absolutely get into this.
Tina: It is never too late.
And
John: that's the thing. He could, but some people don't have the personality for it.
Tina: No, I know. You
John: know, they don't.
Tina: Yeah.
John: You know, I think if you're someone who's, he's quit once already and you know mm-hmm. He did say, by the way, he did kind of. He did probe a little bit. He said, he said, you know, how's the competition?
I said, what do you care? You're not in it. I said, I'm not, I'm not doing that with you, because I don't believe in that. I don't. Yeah. You know, people, people ask me, what's the competition like? You're your biggest competition. Yeah. I don't believe in that. I don't look at other voice actors. I don't look at what they're doing.
I don't care. I don't care about that. Because if you, if you start concerning yourself with others Yes. And what they're doing and how much work they're doing. That's a disservice to yourself. All I think about is what am I doing? Yes. To get more work. What am I doing to develop clients? So. You know, as soon as you come at me with what's the competition like, you're already kind of for me in the wrong mindset.
Tina: Yeah, yeah.
John: You know, and so he already quit and he's already in the wrong mindset, so I'm like, eh,
Tina: [00:14:00] I, that the biggest is just concentrate on yourself and just do this, do it as, you know. Keep at it. But do it at your pace if you need to. Mm-hmm. Which is fine. Absolutely. There's no timeline, there's no, I ha you have to follow this, this, and this.
Yes. You know, we're giving you pointers on how to get there and how to be successful with it. Yeah. But you can do it at your own pace and that thing
John: Absolutely.
Tina: Thing. Yeah.
John: Yeah. And the fir, you know, the, the thing that people do, the, the first thing is take that first step, right?
Tina: Mm-hmm.
John: But then just to continue on, I think that's the thing that people also, people will take that first step and then they get nervous.
And then they don't cont take the first step, but then just keep moving forward. Yes. And it'll work out. It'll work out. It
Tina: will, it'll definitely work out.
John: So, uh, yeah. There we go tho. Those are the hard truths. Although I don't know how hard tr you know, that seems like a
Tina: we could, we could handle it. Could we tweak?
They
John: can handle it. They can handle hard the hard truth of voiceovers. Alright, well again, thank you very much for listening in. Watching. I keep know, you know, I forget know as we're talking that people are watching. I don't look at the camera. I just look at you. Uh, so I don't know. Uh,
Tina: you're doing good.
John: Yeah. [00:15:00] So I, I'm not a camera person. I don't, I don't put myself on camera. I mean,
Tina: that's why we do voiceover. Yeah, that's exactly
John: what I, I, social media, I do sometimes. My wife teases me about that, by the way. I said to her, oh, we're making the podcast, uh, visual now. And, and, and I said, I don't wanna do that.
She goes. You do videos all the time on your social media. I'm like, fine.
Tina: It's different. No, it's different. It's definitely different. Yeah. I get it.
John: Well, thank you very much everyone. Again, John [email protected]. Again, questions, comments, also ideas for episodes. We love that. Yes. But John [email protected]
Tina: or [email protected].
John: Thank you so much everybody. We out.
Tina: And I'm Tina.
John: And it's Voice Coaches Radio. It's, it's, and it is, uh, today's Friday.
Tina: Yes, it is.
John: Yeah. Yeah. I don't know why, you know, for me, uh, you know, Friday is, uh. My day off sort of. Yeah. But I'm doing this so it still feels like a day off, but you know,
Tina: yeah. This isn't work.
John: No, no, definitely not.
Definitely not. So, so, uh, today we're gonna do hard truths, voice actors, uh, Nope. Hard truths. New voice actors need to know. Okay. Yeah. And I don't think this is gonna be a super long episode, but, you know, um. Yeah. What do you think, what do you have, like, uh, something that a new voice actor should know right away that, that maybe they didn't think of that may be discouraging or maybe they would be like, what in the world?
What do you think?
Tina: I think [00:01:00] the, the biggest that I get from a lot of students who go through the program and, um. You know, have him doing it for a little bit and sending out, sending out and sending out. It is they're sending out and sending out and sending out their demo and just not getting work just yet.
It will come.
John: Yeah,
Tina: it will definitely come. That's I think, the biggest thing, but you gotta keep at it.
John: Yes.
Tina: You keep at it. That's, that is, it does get discouraging. I get it. I completely understand that. Mm-hmm. You know, and I just, because you feel like you're just, oh, but I'm, I'm, I did, I, you know, I've sat down today and, and I auditioned for, you know, 10 different voice acting, and it's a week later I haven't heard anything from anybody, you know, so it, you just gotta keep going.
Keep going.
John: Yeah.
Tina: There will be somebody where your voice is exactly what they're looking for. Yeah.
John: So recognizing that it could take a while. You know, I get it. We all, we're a society of now. We all want it now.
Tina: Yes. Yep.
John: And so I think people do get [00:02:00] discouraged and like, oh, it's been, I've had people say, oh, you know, I've, I've been sending demos out.
Tina: Mm-hmm.
John: And I've been following up and I have not gotten anything. And I say, well, how long? Three months. That's, listen, I get it.
Tina: Yeah.
John: Three months feels like a long time. I understand. Mm-hmm. But listen, I know someone that took him nine and a half months to get his first voiceover job.
Tina: Yeah.
John: And he makes a ton of money right now.
Mm-hmm. But imagine if he was like everybody else and he quit.
Tina: Yeah. You
John: know, they knocked after, after three months or so. Right. So yeah, just recognize that. Yeah. Like you said, it, it could take, uh, it could take a while. Yeah. But just keep plugging away. Yeah. You'll get, you'll get the work.
Tina: You will get the work.
You'll get it. Yeah.
John: Um, the, the thing I would say, uh, is, is also, um. I would also recognize that you're not right for everything.
Tina: Mm-hmm.
John: Even if you think you are.
Tina: Yeah.
John: You know, uh, I get it. Like, listen, I've been that person where I go, I'm perfect for this. Yeah. I'm perfect for this. And then you don't, you don't get hired and you're like, what in the world?
Listen, just don't I get it. Don't get discouraged. You [00:03:00] will. Like we said, you'll get the work, but. Even, and you listen for some other producer. Mm-hmm. You may have been perfect for that.
Tina: Yeah.
John: You can't, you can't predict what different producers, different clients want. So, so just don't I get it? Don't get discouraged.
Tina: Oh, absolutely not. 'cause there will be a job that will surprise you. I, I had that with Microsoft. I was just like, you want my voice? You're Microsoft. You want my voice? Are you sure? I even went into and like. Because the client was there at where when I was doing my read, and I just, it was afterwards telling him, I really wanna thank you for choosing my voice.
You sure? She's like, yeah, well you're already recorded, so, yeah,
John: yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Tina: So you just never know. You might go for one, you know, direction or think, you know, but then another opportunity opens up that you would've never thought of.
John: Speaking of direction. There you go. That's a good one. Yeah. I'm glad you said that because it brings me to this too.
I have people who. [00:04:00] They have a preconceived notion of the type of work mm-hmm. They think they're going to do. Like, I, Hey, you know what I want in my voiceover career, um, I wanna do documentaries. That's the direction I'm heading. Mm-hmm. And all of a sudden. And by the way, this is a great problem to have.
Yeah. But I I, but I don't And but I want you to look at it that way. Not as discouraging.
Tina: Yeah.
John: All of a sudden they start getting a ton of corporate training.
Tina: Yeah.
John: Like just a ton of it. And my advice in that case is to embrace that. Mm-hmm. Right? Because I get it. It is not the niche you thought you were going to get, right?
Yeah. You thought you were gonna do a bunch of documentaries, but all of a sudden. All these clients think your voice is absolutely perfect for their corporate training.
Tina: Yes.
John: And, and, and if you get steady work doing that, again, this is voice of work, it's fantastic. Mm-hmm. So my advice there would be embrace it.
Tina: Yes.
John: Don't fight it. And I, I, I, I think this with everyone, um, and this happened to me in my career. Even if you, you have a preconceived notion or you have an idea of the type of [00:05:00] work that you think, this is where my career is going. Mm-hmm. Go with the flow.
Tina: Yes.
John: Now, because it, it will, it, all of a sudden you'll start getting work and, and it'll take you, it happened to me.
I, I, when I started off as a voice actor, I did not, I was not a character voice actor. Mm-hmm. It's not something I, I was like, oh, I'm gonna do animation or video games or, yeah. And, and all of a sudden I had a bunch of clients, and these are clients that I would use me all the time for just voiceover work.
Mm-hmm. By voice. Yeah. Which is typical. That's usually you're gonna hire for your voice. Um. All of a sudden I had a bunch of clients at once, seemed to want me to do character voices and, and so I went out and listen in the kind of, in the middle of my career, I went out and got some more coaching, voiceover coaching.
Okay. And to learn how to use my voice properly. 'cause I would do character voices, uh, like everyone does. Which is just changing the picture of your voice. Yeah. Not changing your speech pattern, not changing the way you pause, you know, which is what you really wanna do in character voices. And so. And that, so it just came to me and it wasn't a direction I thought I was heading at all.
Tina: Yeah.
John: And, um, and so I just [00:06:00] embraced it and so, you know, uh, okay, I'm gonna do some of this. And so I did a bunch of it and I do other, the other stuff too. Mm-hmm. But just learn to not, not fight it.
Tina: Yes.
John: You know, the voice every, listen, be, be thankful. Yeah. What the voiceover work you get is the voiceover work you get, and that's awesome.
Tina: Yeah, yeah. Yeah. It, it is. That's funny because there was, I really thought I would be doing more commercial work. Mm-hmm. Only because of my background. Yeah. Doing more corporate trainings than anything.
John: There you go.
Tina: See? Yeah. And that, that was, that was getting in there. I'm like, and I'm thinking, yeah. Do commercial work.
I'll you, I'll be the next ad for, you know, next voice for a grocery store. No, no, no. You're doing corporate training.
John: That's how things happen like that. Yeah. Um, the other thing I think that people don't know, um, newer voice actors, um, now you've been through our program. Mm-hmm. You probably do know this and that's good.
Uh, but I think also, um, a hard truth would be. Even if you become what we call a full service provider, okay? Mm-hmm. And that's someone who can record from home at a [00:07:00] national quality or broadcast quality. Yes. Uh, when you first start off as a voice actor on a local and regional level, which is where you will start.
You're not gonna do all the work from home. I, I, yeah. To be very clear, you wanna develop clients.
Tina: Mm-hmm.
John: You wanna develop a clientele and when you first start out, no one knows who you are. Yeah. They don't know if you're capable of doing that.
Tina: Yeah.
John: They have no idea if you can record at at broadcast quality and they don't know.
Plus if you record from home, they won't be there to direct you. Yeah. And so. In the beginning you will go to recording studios. Mm-hmm. Just know that, and that is, I think that's, I guess that's a hard truth for some people because they think, I dunno if they've Googled it, I don't have no idea what they did, but they think, Hey, I'm gonna start off voiceovers and I'm just gonna sit home and do voiceover work.
Tina: Yes.
John: I'm just gonna sit home and do this. It's not really how it works. Especially starting out now, once you develop a clientele, people who trust you.
Tina: Yes.
John: Some of them, not all of them by the way, but some of them will. Allow you to do voiceover work from home if you are capable of that.
Tina: Yes. Yeah. Okay.
John: Yeah.
And again, I, when, when I, whenever I bring up [00:08:00] home recording mm-hmm. I bring a full service provider, I always want. Make this. 'cause there's people right now listening, getting nervous going, oh God, I don't wanna do that. Yeah. I don't want to be, this is personal preference. You can absolutely be a voice actor.
Tina: Mm-hmm.
John: And, uh, go to recording studios your entire voice of a career and make good money doing it. But I also do want to be clear. And does being a full service provider may make more work available to you? Absolutely. Yeah. 'cause you're tapping into a side of the industry that you wouldn't normally. If you weren't capable of recording from home.
So, uh, you know, again, personal preference, but I encourage it if you'd like to do that. Of course. Mm-hmm. And, uh, but no, even if you do become a full service provider, you are going to go to recording a studio. Just know that.
Tina: Yeah. I actually like going to a recording studio because all you really, at least on from my experience, is you walk in, they hand you the script, they give you some time.
That's one thing that people do. Oh my goodness. I gotta go, they'll hand me the script and I gotta go [00:09:00] record it right then and there. They let you read it, they let you go over it, they let you ask questions. So I, that's a probably a whole nother, you know, thing that we would talk about. But that's one thing, that's one that people, yeah, no.
So you, I, I like the fact of just walking into the booth, throwing the headphones on, and I got the script right there. I don't have to worry about press and play. I don't have to worry about my volumes. There's somebody else doing that for me.
John: Exactly. Because keep in mind, when you become a. A full service provider.
Mm-hmm. That's a whole nother side of the job.
Tina: It, it really is. Yeah. You are now kind of the engineer now. Yep. You know, so, and you've gotta be able to make sure all levels are correct and everything else that, along with your reading at the same time. So yes, it has its plus and minuses of, you know, doing it from home and going to.
Studio. Oh, I gotta meant me, I gotta dress up
John: and it's convenient. I
Tina: gotta put pants on today. Yes you do. Please do not show up at the studio without pants on.
John: Or a shirt for that matter. Yeah. Or
Tina: a shirt. Yes.
John: Yeah. Yeah. So, um, yeah. Yeah. So there you go. I mean, that's, I think those are some [00:10:00] good ones. It's, I think there's a lot of misconceptions about the industry and so, I mean, um.
Hard truth. This seems like a harsh term, but
Tina: Yeah.
John: But you know, I
Tina: mean, you can't handle the truth.
John: You can't handle the truth. Yeah. You know, just, just know that like everything else in life.
Tina: Mm-hmm.
John: And I guess this would be general, like everything else in life, when you get into voiceovers, things might go a little differently than you expect.
Yeah. And my advice is to enjoy it and just, mm-hmm. Go with the flow
Tina: and keep at it. Keep at it, keep at it. Do not. Alright. Uh, two months. I'm done. I haven't gotten anything. Yeah, that's, no, no. It
John: drives me crazy when people do that and so many people do it.
Tina: Yeah.
John: So many people. If it is like, here's here, here's how I would keep yourself in this.
Okay. There's the you with us right now. Mm-hmm. Right. And so there's the you that is, is sending demos out, following up.
Tina: Mm-hmm.
John: Being [00:11:00] consistent. Right. And then you get discouraged. Okay. And you're thinking, why am I doing this? It just doesn't seem to be lead to anything. Okay. Yeah. Now picture the U in two years, if you continue doing that
Tina: mm-hmm.
John: You're gonna be a working voice actor.
Tina: Yes, you are.
John: Right. But picture the you if you stop.
Tina: Mm-hmm.
John: That's it. You're where you were. Yeah. Right. You're not doing anything. Right. Yeah. Just remember, I get it. Everything's temporary. Mm-hmm. If, if things seem like. It taking longer than you expected. Still it's temporary picture the you and a year or two from now.
Mm-hmm. And how happy you are going to be. Yes. When you are a working voice actor making steady money mm-hmm. Doing this. Mm-hmm.
Tina: Yep. Because you kept at it.
John: Right. That, just think of that when you get discouraged, yeah's what I always say because people get discouraged. They just quit. And, and, and by the way, you're not gonna, that's when you fail.
You fail when you quit.
Tina: Yep.
John: And so just continue plugging away. You know?
Tina: Absolutely.
John: That was, that's what I would tell people. I and I, I may have told [00:12:00] this story before, I may not have. I, I have a friend who started in voiceovers the same time as me. He had a much better voice, in my opinion, and probably most people's opinion, and he quit, just started selling insurance.
He, to this day, own insurance. Oh my goodness. And he absolutely hates it. Mm-hmm. And he said to me not too long ago, man, I, you know, I wish I kept at it like you did. I really wish I continued doing it like you. And he's looking back 30 years now. Yeah. And wishing he was doing what I could because he sells insurance.
He hates it. Mm-hmm. I make more, more money than he does doing something I absolutely love.
Tina: I love. Yep.
John: And so just think of that. Don't let yourself down. That's what you're doing. Yeah. You're letting yourself. Down. Live the life you wanna live, do the job, get into the business you wanna get into. Mm-hmm.
Tina: Right? Yes. Absolutely.
John: Don't look back and be mad at yourself.
Tina: Did you tell him to take your webinar?
John: He's, he's, he's like [00:13:00] too into his career now. He's like, really? He, he's got kids and he's, you know
Tina: Yeah. All that other
John: stuff, and which is never, it's never too late. He could absolutely get into this.
Tina: It is never too late.
And
John: that's the thing. He could, but some people don't have the personality for it.
Tina: No, I know. You
John: know, they don't.
Tina: Yeah.
John: You know, I think if you're someone who's, he's quit once already and you know mm-hmm. He did say, by the way, he did kind of. He did probe a little bit. He said, he said, you know, how's the competition?
I said, what do you care? You're not in it. I said, I'm not, I'm not doing that with you, because I don't believe in that. I don't. Yeah. You know, people, people ask me, what's the competition like? You're your biggest competition. Yeah. I don't believe in that. I don't look at other voice actors. I don't look at what they're doing.
I don't care. I don't care about that. Because if you, if you start concerning yourself with others Yes. And what they're doing and how much work they're doing. That's a disservice to yourself. All I think about is what am I doing? Yes. To get more work. What am I doing to develop clients? So. You know, as soon as you come at me with what's the competition like, you're already kind of for me in the wrong mindset.
Tina: Yeah, yeah.
John: You know, and so he already quit and he's already in the wrong mindset, so I'm like, eh,
Tina: [00:14:00] I, that the biggest is just concentrate on yourself and just do this, do it as, you know. Keep at it. But do it at your pace if you need to. Mm-hmm. Which is fine. Absolutely. There's no timeline, there's no, I ha you have to follow this, this, and this.
Yes. You know, we're giving you pointers on how to get there and how to be successful with it. Yeah. But you can do it at your own pace and that thing
John: Absolutely.
Tina: Thing. Yeah.
John: Yeah. And the fir, you know, the, the thing that people do, the, the first thing is take that first step, right?
Tina: Mm-hmm.
John: But then just to continue on, I think that's the thing that people also, people will take that first step and then they get nervous.
And then they don't cont take the first step, but then just keep moving forward. Yes. And it'll work out. It'll work out. It
Tina: will, it'll definitely work out.
John: So, uh, yeah. There we go tho. Those are the hard truths. Although I don't know how hard tr you know, that seems like a
Tina: we could, we could handle it. Could we tweak?
They
John: can handle it. They can handle hard the hard truth of voiceovers. Alright, well again, thank you very much for listening in. Watching. I keep know, you know, I forget know as we're talking that people are watching. I don't look at the camera. I just look at you. Uh, so I don't know. Uh,
Tina: you're doing good.
John: Yeah. [00:15:00] So I, I'm not a camera person. I don't, I don't put myself on camera. I mean,
Tina: that's why we do voiceover. Yeah, that's exactly
John: what I, I, social media, I do sometimes. My wife teases me about that, by the way. I said to her, oh, we're making the podcast, uh, visual now. And, and, and I said, I don't wanna do that.
She goes. You do videos all the time on your social media. I'm like, fine.
Tina: It's different. No, it's different. It's definitely different. Yeah. I get it.
John: Well, thank you very much everyone. Again, John [email protected]. Again, questions, comments, also ideas for episodes. We love that. Yes. But John [email protected]
Tina: or [email protected].
John: Thank you so much everybody. We out.
Tina and John talk about truths beginners should accept.
