The VO Meter… Measuring Your Voice Over Progress. The VO Meter is brought to you by voiceactorwebsites.com, VocalBoot2Go, podcastdemos.com, Global Voice Acting Academy, and IPDTL.
And now, your hosts, Paul Stefano and Sean Daeley.
Hi, everybody, and welcome to Episode 32 of The VO Meter.
Measuring Your Voice Over Progress. Today, we’ve got a great episode for you guys. We have voice talent and expert marketer, Marc Scott.
He is leader of the VOpreneur Facebook group, and helps talent of all stages of their career just improve their marketing habits and really get them to understand that side of the business. So I learned a lot in our interview with him, and I’m sure you guys will, too.
But before we do that, we actually have the pleasure of introducing a new sponsor. We are so happy to welcome IPDTL to the fold.
Woohoo! Thank you, Kevin Leach.
Yeah, we’re happy to have them on board. And if you don’t know or are unfamiliar with IPDTL, what they are is a cost-effective ISDN replacement. They’re great for interviews, like we’re doing right now, outside broadcasts and voiceover.
And the great part is you don’t need any special hardware or software. It works anywhere with an internet connection. You can actually sign up with either a monthly or annual subscription, and all you really need is the Chrome web browser.
And the best part is, it just works. So once again, thanks to IPDTL for being a sponsor of the VO Meter.
Yes, thank you very much. We are really looking forward to having this wonderful solution and being able to record it both for our podcast and for the interviews we do on it. Up next, we have current events.
So what’s going on in your VO world, Paul?
Actually, quite a bit. I have a couple of really nice weeks. I finished a series of books I was doing for an author I found on one of the freelance sites on recipes.
It was a bit of an interesting topic because unless you’ve had some training in doing this, you might think that that’s really impossible to do, to read a list of ingredients, to read the steps of a recipe. But thanks to my training with the fantastic Sean Pratt, a narration coach, I learned exactly how to do this type of book. So the way it works without giving away too many secrets is you run it like you’re doing a cooking show.
So instead of just saying, take a cup of sugar, a quarter teaspoon of salt, a pinch of pepper. You actually do it like you’re Julia Child or Emeril Lagasse or whoever the popular chef is right now. You can tell I haven’t watched HGTV in a while or the Food Network.
But you pretend you’re hosting a cooking show and say, all right, well, we’re going to get the ingredients together and before we do that, why don’t you make sure you go over the list? And then I just read the list. And then I say, okay, let’s stop the recording here.
And you’ll get those together. And then we come back and say, hey, welcome back. Now I hope you’re ready to get going.
And then you run through the steps of doing the actual cooking of the meal. So if you do it that way, it’s a lot more engaging for the listener. I can see how it might be pretty cool to use that in the kitchen.
I was actually at a party this past weekend with some friends, and I was explaining this job I was doing. And one of the guys said, you know, I can see that being really good, the way personal assistants have really made their inroads into the house, like with Alexa or Google Home. And I thought, you know, I hadn’t thought of that, but yeah, that makes perfect sense.
Load this audio book into the personal assistant, just have them spit it out to you, so you have your hands free while you’re cooking.
Brilliant. It’s funny that you mentioned, because I’ve worked with Sean Pratt before, but not on that kind of material, like that kind of listicles, if you will say, or instructional stuff. And before you said it, I was like, oh, what about Food Network?
They all have voice overs on their shows, right? So that’s the perfect model to use if you ever get a project that you’ve never done a recipe before. And that whole idea of just being a person, trying to teach someone, someone else, or something else that you’re passionate about, works for just about any kind of explainer, e-learning, or instructional content that you might be narrating.
So it’s a wonderful technique to use.
Yeah, I’m having a lot of fun with those. And then last week, I also completed about a nine-hour sci-fi book I was doing, also from the same freelance site. And I was being helped out by the fabulous editor, well, also voice over talent, Andrew Bates.
He and I just completed that over the last week, and that was a decent job as well. And then finally, yesterday, I had another author come into my studio here at the home and record a book for them. Well, really just one chapter, about 45 minutes.
It was a compilation of which they were part of, and they wanted to do just their portion of it. And they got the permission from the rights holder, got the sign off, and she came in yesterday and recorded an audio book chapter for the first time. And I walked her through it and boot directed from the outside, which I’ve done a few times now, and it’s really just a whole different world that I really enjoy doing, because it sort of gets you out of the…
Not that our work is mundane, but it gets you out of the ordinary, and it’s something different that’s kind of fun to do every once in a while.
It was really funny, because I was reading your article, or your VO booth confessionals recently. We talked about it on an earlier episode, but you had mentioned donating your services to talent who might have been, through no fault of their own, might have gotten a bad demo. And so offering your studio and your engineering services, but not your coaching, because you weren’t comfortable with that.
And I was like, you know, I’m the opposite. I will coach someone until the cows come home, because I like to think of myself as a VO motivational speaker, right? Because I’m friendly and enthusiastic, and even if you make a mistake, I’m not going to crush your soul.
But the engineering side? No, I’ll hit record and that’s about it.
Yeah, it just depends on what you’re comfortable with. And I think I mentioned before, I have a degree in production from a four-year institution. So I spent a lot of time behind a board, albeit several years ago.
But as our listeners know, we are very fond of getting to know equipment and trying different equipment, and that’s also helped to get my skill level up.
Absolutely, yeah. Very cool. I know enough to get me in trouble, so I stay away from it.
Yeah, exactly. So the last thing I want to mention is upcoming this week, and I’ll tell you how it goes in the next episode, but I’m going to my daughter’s middle school for career day, and I’m going to present The Life of a Voice Actor, mostly audiobooks, because my daughter was looking at a sign-up sheet, and she said, the lady that filled out is really old. She puts you down as a books-on-CD person.
Oh, my God. Wow.
So my daughter also said the sign-ups weren’t too full on my sheet, so we’ll see if that changes by Friday, because it’s been a few weeks. But I guess I’m going to have to go and talk about mostly audiobooks, because that’s how it was presented to the kids, the sign-up, which will still be fun.
Well, I’d say that’s your specialty, too.
Yeah, I guess out of all things I do, that’s what I’ve done the most, so it makes sense. But it’s going to be fun. I’m going to bring the VOMO from vocalbooth2go.com, and set it up and have kids record a couple different scripts.
Let’s see, I picked Harry Potter, one of the Harry Potter books.
Oh, brilliant, yeah.
And Little Women, and Fahrenheit 451. So pick one of those three scripts, read a couple of paragraphs, and I’ll play it back for them, and they can either laugh or be impressed with how they sound. And who knows, maybe I’ll find some new talent to come to the studio and pay me some time for renting the studio.
Well, they’re already known for providing child talent, so maybe you can increase your roster.
Yeah, I did tell my daughter, don’t sign up, because she’s already doing this with me fairly often, so I mentioned to her it wouldn’t make sense for her, so I think she’s doing real estate and a doctor she’s going to sign up for.
Very cool, very cool.
So what’s going on with you, Sean?
Pretty much the same old same old, but I did have… I’m proud of myself, because I took the initiative in knocking out e-learning modules a little bit quicker this month, and I’ve actually… Like you were saying before, it’s really fun to bring people into your studio.
I’ve been recording some local talent so I can have a little more quality control on the audio and just edit as we go, as opposed to just receiving it and then having to go back and forth. Like, oh, you got to pick this up, la la la la, stuff like that. So that’s been fun.
And speaking of that client, my good friend Drew Badger, the owner of English Anyone, one of my, actually my first voice acting client, I’ve been sort of picking his brain about marketing and how to improve my own business, and he even offered to do some consults with GVAA, with Global Voice Acting Academy, to help us improve that one as well. So he gave us some wonderful ideas, and we’re really looking forward to this being, I definitely think this is going to be our biggest year yet, and I’m really happy about it, because I love GVAA, I love what we’re about, I love what we do, and I just want to share it with as many people as it could benefit. So, really happy about that.
That’s really cool.
Yeah, it was great, and it just seemed appropriate since we are with another marketing expert today.
Yeah, that’s great. I’ve really enjoyed my time so far with the GVAA, at least the new incarnation. I signed up for the promotion over VO Atlanta, but made a full-time member a couple of months ago, and so far I’ve done a few workouts, and they’ve been great so far.
Wonderful, yeah. It’s a really cool month we’ve got. It might as well be character month, because we’ve got several character specialists who are donating their time for workouts this month.
We’ve got, of course, got David Rosenthal. He’s great. He specializes in a number of genres.
And then one of my voice acting celebrity idols, totally starstruck, the wonderful Katie Lee, who’s got a career that spans over 30 years in the voice acting industry. So she was doing cartoons in the 80s and stuff like that, from Muppet Babies to Darkwing Duck, totally spies in the 90s, as well as Dungeons and Dragons. I actually was crushing on a character that she voiced back then.
Like, but anyways, so it’s… And I’ve worked with her in the past, too, and it’s just, like, she’s just a great, joyful spirit, and it’s just so much fun to work with.
Yeah, I put in a request for that one. Hopefully I’ll get to attend. This sounds like fun.
Oh, yeah, I should have sent you an email. Yeah, you’re totally confirmed. You’re good.
Hey, it’s good to know people in low places. Indeed, indeed.
Low places? It’s all… we get more things done down here.
Okay, so that pretty much wraps up current events, and we’ll get to our interview with the VOpreneur, Marc Scott, in just a few minutes, right after we talk about Vocal Booth to Go. They are one of our sponsors, as you know, hopefully by now if you’re a frequent listener. And what they do is create patented acoustic blankets that are an effective alternative to expensive soundproofing.
They’re often used by vocal and voiceover professionals, engineers in the studios as an affordable soundproofing and absorption solution. They make your environment quieter for less.
So thank you very much Vocal Booth to Go. You’ve been an incredible help basically since the podcast inception, if not before.
Speaking of gear, though, it’s time for our questionable gear purchase.
Because I did something stupid again.
Oh yeah? Well, that makes two of us, but you first.
Okay, well I bought a mic, which is not surprising. And probably the next part isn’t surprising either. I bought an Audio Technica AT4073A, which fans of our podcast will know I used to own.
And actually did a video shootout between it and a 416 a few months ago. But because I didn’t want to have two mics, I sold off that one. And then because of the career day thing I was talking about earlier, or at least that’s how I’m justifying it in my head, I wanted a backup mic to bring to the school that was not my 416.
Because as you and I have found, the shotguns worked really well in the portable booth, the BOMO. So I didn’t want to bring the 416 because it’s like carrying your baby and I don’t want to smash it on the road. So I picked up another 4073A at a ridiculous price.
I just couldn’t resist. And that’s going to be the mic I’m taking out on the road. Because the Blue Raspberry I usually use is working now, but I’m worried it’s going to crap out on me again because I did have that problem over the summer.
So this is my backup mic, and I’m going to use it as such for the career day thing, and I think it’ll work out pretty well for that.
Very cool. Well, it’s funny, I mean, a lot of parallel experiences this month. I also bought…
or first off, I just want to say, I’m so happy that you got that AT again, because I thought it sounded really good.
Oh, yeah, it’s amazing for the… it’s an amazing value.
Yeah, especially for what you got it for, which is like a seventh of what it usually goes for new.
I am a savvy shopper.
Yeah, that’s right.
That’s right.
Spend way too much time looking, folks. Don’t get fired from your job. Spend hours Googling gear that you don’t need.
But yeah, I mean, on Paul’s voice, I always thought, because the 416 is incredibly… it’s always described as very forward. A lot of engineers almost say it’s like pre-compressed.
It just is so like this condensed sound that really cuts through a loud music or background mix.
Cuts through the mix, as they say, yeah.
Yeah, yeah, it cuts through the mix. And that can be great, but it can also be very grating on the ears or can cause ear fatigue, and for some voices, it just sounds really harsh. So for me, I mean, I’ve gotten a lot of compliments on my audio from it, but I understand Paul’s voice is a little bit bassier than mine, and it might pick up some unpleasant frequencies and stuff like that.
And the Audio Technica just had this really smooth character to it on his voice that I found really pleasant. So I’m really glad it’s in your arsenal again.
Yeah, it’ll be good. And it’s a perfect backup for the 416 should something go wrong, which I’m not hoping for. But at least if it does, I won’t be stuck without that sound if I have an ongoing project.
Oh, yeah, I think you’ll be fine. But I love that I like your mic more than you do. You’re like, all right, it’s a good backup, I guess.
Always have a backup, guys, always.
Well, if you watched that shootout I did, most of the comments favored the 416. Not that you should crowdsource your studio sound, but in this case, getting a lot of opinions that match my own makes me feel better that I like the 416 better.
Well, yeah, and it’s fine. It’s an industry standard for a reason. There’s only really three, right?
You hear U87, TLM 103, and 416 again and again and again. There’s a reason. They have characteristics that engineers want or are familiar with.
Does that mean it’s the best sound for you? Maybe, maybe not. You have to find out yourself.
But speaking of mics and backup mics, I don’t even know where to start. I feel like I’ve been holding back for so many months that I just kind of fell off the wagon.
That’s a good way to put it.
Yeah, yeah. So I guess I could start with something that I bought five years ago, but finally arrived, and I’m speaking of none other than the Sentronz Mixerface. So let me start off by saying, I admit, I was bitter.
I’m pretty much the most patient guy I know, and even mine was wearing thin, but Michael and Sentronz, you guys knocked it out of the park. You did an amazing job, and I apologize for anything me and I ever said, and this is just a fantastic, one-of-a-kind device, and I understand why it took so long to create. I mean, it’s got two-mic inputs.
It’s smaller than my smallest one-mic input interface, the Audient ID4. It’s a third of the size of my normal two-mic input interface, the SPL CREON, and it sounds incredible. And honestly, for talent who can afford it, as their first interface, or as their travel interface, or as their primary interface, it’s a no-brainer.
It really is. It works with tablets, with iOS and Android devices. It has its own…
Like the one that I got has the built-in recorder, so you can either just record there directly, or you can just have a backup track in case one of your devices goes haywire. It’s insane. And I can even plug it directly into my 416.
So I can be completely cordless. It’s insane.
Wait, it has an XLR female on it? It can go right into the mic?
So for a lot of interfaces, you could plug a mic directly into an interface, but just the shape of the interface would make it really difficult to mount, right? Like, I mean, for like your Apollo, you could have it… You could plug your mic directly into it.
You would just have to like…
That never occurred to me. I didn’t realize I could do that, actually.
Well, I didn’t even think about it until I saw Beau Weaver’s little impromptu review on it. And that’s what he did. He had it on a little tabletop stand, and he had the sentrence plugged right behind the mic while it was still plugged into the shock mount.
And it’s that light. It really is. And another solution that I found is that it does have a little thread on the underside that works with a camera tripod mount.
So if you have that kind of mount, I mean, you can get them for like $5, or if you have any adapters that might hook up to your normal mic stand equipment, like that’s a great place to mount it within your booth. And like I said, there are numerous ways that you can be almost cordless by plugging into a tablet, but without a mic cable, or just be truly cable-less and then just plug it directly into the unit itself. It’s insane.
So I know that’s a lot of features to go over. I’m actually putting together a review video trying to show all of this stuff because it’s amazing what this little thing can do. So like I said, if you can budget for a $300 to $400 interface, it really is a no-brainer.
But then I got, man, I got all this other stuff to talk about now too. So like Paul, I actually also bought a mic that I don’t really need, but it’s one that I’ve been lusting after for a very long time. It’s the Gefele M930, which is basically something that sounds as good or better than the TLM 103, but is the size of the TLM 102, which is something that I’ve always wanted because I’m a pretty portable, compact, modular guy.
And I’ve just… Like I had the 103 for a while.
Are you used to handling small packages?
I’m a late bloomer. No. Oh, man.
I don’t even know where to go with it.
Isn’t that also the mic that Paul Stichveda uses in his studio?
And he’s how I found out about it in the first place. For me, this was just that one aspirational mic that I was just like, the future me wanted in their studio so bad. I don’t even know if anyone else has that kind of relationship with gear where it’s just like, I don’t know, it just seems something that gels with your personality.
But that was the mic that I always envisioned in my studio, and in about a week, it will be here. So I’m really happy about that.
It’s funny to imagine that. I actually have the reverse. I’ve always wanted to use the Elvis mic.
What’s that called? The Shure?
The Shure SH55.
Yes, I’ve always wanted to use that because I just love to look at that. And I had one in here and it sucked.
Well, because it’s a live vocal mic. It’s not for voice over.
Yeah, it’s funny to imagine that because I always pictured that in my studio as being so cool to have pictures of me doing an audiobook with that mic in front of me.
Pretty sure Terry Daniel has one just as a prop in his studio.
Oh, really?
Yeah, yeah. Maybe you can modify it, like just have a nice capsule inside it or something.
That’s not a bad idea.
But yeah, I mean, Paul Strakwerd was actually how I found out about the mic and the shock mount that I’m getting for it as well, the Rycote USML. I had their larger version back when I had a Rode NT1, but I sold that and the Rode itself to David Tobak, my coworker at GVAA. But I loved…
I mean, once you go to that kind of system of shock mount, there’s no going back. I’ve tried numerous shock mounts that come included with different mics, and none of them have been as satisfactory an experience as that. Getting those damn rubber bands to fit and not come out of the spider shock mounts that come with these mics, and some of them are $200, $300.
Some of them are really precariously put in there too, at least in my opinion.
Absolutely. When I had a 103 in the Neumann shock mount that came with that, I never wanted to use it, because I was terrified it would fall.
Yeah, I felt the same way, because we had the same 103.
That’s right. That’s right. You sold it to us.
I was pretty sure it was going to fall down when my kids jumped too hard in the bedroom.
Exactly. It was… I mean, you want to protect that kind of investment.
And as you might know, large diaphragm condensers like the Geffel or the TLM 103 are much more fragile than a shock mount mic, which is meant to… or excuse me, a shotgun mic, which is meant for external use, to be used outside in the elements and stuff like that. So, yeah, that’s just…
I mean, I love the form factor of that kit and that… with that mic. And I’m actually…
It’s going to be very useful for another mic shootout that I have planned. My uncle actually loaned me a couple of mics. So now I literally have ones at every price point that most people would be interested in.
We’ve got the MX-L990 at $100. We’ve got the Blue Bluebird, the original, which was like $169 now, but you can… when it was new, it was $300.
Let’s see, you’ve got the AT4047 from Audio-Technica, which is another mic I’ve wanted to try for a while. And that’s about $700 new. And then, of course, you’ve got the 416, which is about $1,000.
And if the Giffel’s here by the time I want to do that shootout, then it will be featured as well.
Oh, I saw a podcast mic shootout coming on. That might be fun.
I think so. That’s pretty epic.
I have quite a few here that I was kind of recapping to you. Without even realizing it, I had created a locker over the last couple of months. I have an SM58, a Shure.
I’m currently using a Shure SM7B. I have the MKH416, now the Audio-Technica 4073A, and the Blue Raspberry, which is an entry-level USB.
That pretty much knocks out all the categories, doesn’t it?
Yeah, pretty much.
You’ve got several dynamics in there. I’ve got all the condensers. And you’ve got a USB mic in there, too.
But honestly, now that I have Mixerface, I never need a USB mic again. It’s just too easy to… I could literally have the 416 plug directly into that inside the VoMo and have it connected to an IOS device if I want.
Or just, like I said, have the backup recording as a backup. It’s insane. But like you, I do want to take Mixerface into the field, but not necessarily my 416.
Hey, buy another one.
Well, I could. So I have a couple of options. I was thinking of either getting something like the Audio-Technica 875R, which is a much more affordable shotgun microphone.
Or getting something…
Yep, got one of those, twice.
Yep, got one of those. Well, maybe I shouldn’t then if you sold it twice. Doesn’t mean it wasn’t good.
No, that’s true. And one of my regular narrators, Trey Mosley, who you mentioned on the podcast before, actually uses it and sounds great on him. But I mean, he’s got like…
His voice is just so bassy and very white-ish. It’s just… He would sound good on anything.
There’s that. And then another thing I was looking into is actually an omni-directional interview mic, because that’s what I want to take it out in the field for, is going to Comic Con or maybe VO Atlanta and interviewing people like Man on the Street, like that. So far, the cheapest option, but most quality, seems to be the RØDE Reporter mic.
So I like RØDE. I used their NT1 back before it was cool, and I really enjoy it. So it looks nice, looks professional, and I’m hoping to use that to get some really nice voice actor interviews at Emerald City Comic Con in the spring.
So some of my favorite voice actors will be featuring there, like Travis Willingham and Laura Bailey, Matt Mercer and Marisha Ray, and basically the entire cast of Critical Role, just an amazing YouTube show about voice actors playing Dungeons and Dragons together. About the nerdiest thing you can imagine, but I like both, so, and I’m an uber nerd. That’s awesome.
And a gear nerd, too, apparently, in case you hadn’t guessed from the 20-minute rant.
All right, so that wraps up Questionable Gear Purchases, thankfully, for our wallets in your ears. And we’ll get to our interview with Marc Scott in just a moment, right after these words from Sean about podcast demos.
That’s right, guys. Let me tell you about podcast demos. So this is run by a good friend of mine named Tim Page, and Tim and his team has produced over 1,000 podcast intros for some of the biggest podcasts on the planet.
So each of these demos includes custom-written scripts and hand-selected music, and it’s guaranteed to showcase your voice and talent in the best light possible. Tim has definitely got a finger on the pulse of what podcast producers want, and you can be sure that your podcast demo will sound professional, current, and competitive.
So I want to thank Tim and his fine staff for coming on board as a sponsor, and we’ll be right back after these words from the GVAA.
How many times has this happened to you? You’re listening to the radio when this commercial comes on, not unlike this one, and this guy starts talking, not unlike myself.
Or maybe it’s a woman that starts talking, not unlike myself, and you think to yourself, geez, I could do that.
Well, mister, well, missy, you just got one step closer to realizing your dream as a voice over artist, because now there’s Global Voice Acting Academy. All the tools and straight from the hip, honest information you need to get on a fast track to doing this commercial yourself.
Well, not this one exactly.
Classes, private coaching, webinars, home studio setup, marketing and branding help, members-only benefits like workouts, rate and negotiation advice, practice scripts, and more. All without the kind of hype you’re listening to right now. Go ahead, take our jobs from us.
We dare you.
Speak for yourself, buddy. I like what I do.
And you will too when you’re learning your craft at Global Voice Acting Academy. Find us at globalvoiceacademy.com.
Because you like to have fun.
Today, we’re welcoming a special guest all the way from the Great White North. He’s a full-time voice talent, has been practicing, doing work since 1995, and is located just outside Toronto. He’s also an entrepreneur, or as he likes to say, a VOpreneur.
He sells shirts, and last but not least, sadly to me, he’s a Red Sox fan, but we won’t hold that against him. Please help us welcome Marc Scott.
Just remember whose team is in the playoffs right now.
Oh, I know.
That’s all I’ll say about that.
Back down, guys. Back down. This is a peaceful podcast.
Welcome, Marc. It’s so great to have you with us today.
Thank you guys so much. I appreciate the opportunity to hang out.
Yeah, we appreciate it too. So why don’t you go ahead and tell us just a little bit more about yourself and how you got started in VO?
Okay, well, I, like many people, have a radio background. That was kind of how it all began. I did my first radio job in 1995 and did voice over as a result of that by default without actually realizing at the time that I was doing voice over just because part of my regular responsibility with the radio station was to go in every day, half hour, 45 minutes before my shift, and record commercials.
And so did that for a long time. As my network started to grow within radio and within broadcast and started picking up some other connections that were related to the industry, they started coming to me and saying, hey, could you voice this for me? Could you voice that for me?
And all the while, never really realizing that I was doing voice over, just kind of still assuming that I was doing radio. And then one day, very familiar to most people that work in broadcast, got the old heave ho from corporate who decided that it was time to do cutbacks and layoffs. And so I found myself in a position where I was unemployed with zero desire to go back to radio and trying to figure out what I was gonna do.
And that was when I had that aha moment of, well, you know, you’ve kind of been doing voice over all along without even realizing it. Maybe you can turn that into a full-time job. And so my commitment to myself at that point after almost two decades in radio was, from now on, the only idiot I answer to is me.
I am going to be my own boss, and I am going to do that through voice over. And that’s kind of how it all began. So I guess my first year full-time in voice over would have been about 2012.
Wow, that’s great. So what types of VO do you specialize in?
All the unsexy stuff. I leave all the sexy commercial video game to all the people who want to compete for that, and then I just come in behind and just pick up all the stuff that everybody else doesn’t really want to be bothered to do. And so I’m doing the corporates and the unsexy e-learnings and a lot of explainer videos and stuff like that.
A little bit of commercial from time to time, but not a lot. Mostly just some of that other stuff that I consider it to be kind of like a bread and butter. And I think a lot of people don’t realize that you can actually make a ridiculous living doing that stuff.
It’s just that you don’t get the fame and glory and you don’t usually get the five-figure paychecks from it either.
Well, you don’t sound like you mind too much. I mean, you just got this great enthusiasm and pep about it. So are there still any VO types or genres that you’re interested in breaking into?
I actually am trying really hard to get back into commercial. It’s kind of ironic because that’s all I did for 20 years working in radio. That was all I ever voiced was commercial.
But I have been one of those people that has come from a radio background that has suffered from the announcer syndrome. And it has been really freaking hard for me to get over the announcer syndrome because it’s just 20 years of doing what I do. And so it’s not that I’m putting on a voice or putting on a read or anything like that.
It’s just this is 20 years of doing what I do. It’s a habit, right? And so trying to get back into doing commercial has proven to be exceptionally difficult for me.
And I’ve been very open and honest with that about people because everybody thinks that it’s just so easy, right? It’s just talking. So I’ve done coaching just like everybody else does.
I’ve worked with Everett Oliver a lot on commercial coaching. I’ve worked with Uncle Roy. I’ve worked with J.
Michael Collins on some stuff and just working on trying to eliminate that dreaded announcer read while at the same time hoping that eventually it’s like bell bottoms and it comes back again and I’ll be fine.
Yeah, I had that same wish. I keep rubbing the magic lamp every night, but it doesn’t work.
Yeah, so far, not working out at all.
So you mentioned coaching and working with some of the grades we have in the industry. You yourself are also a coach, and one of the reasons we wanted to have you on was to talk about your coaching business. Can you tell us a little bit about how you got started in coaching and how your approach to coaching works with your students?
What I didn’t realize as I was starting to do voiceover full time or what I didn’t fully anticipate was how much business goes into pursuing voiceover. When you are doing it apart from agents. Not that I have any issue with agents, but I live in the middle of nowhere.
Are major US agents going to sign some guy from a hick town in southern Ontario to voice their US commercial campaigns? Probably not.
You’re literally off the radar, yeah.
Yeah, like that’s it. And so what I realized was I was going to have to, if I was going to make this work, I was going to have to go out and I was going to have to find my own clients, and so I started blogging because I read a book by Gary Vaynerchuk a number of years ago. This was kind of when I was all first getting started, and one of the things that Gary Vaynerchuk talked about was blogging, and so I’m like, okay, well, I’ll start blogging and that’ll help build my SEO, which I didn’t even know what SEO was back then, but I thought as long as I’m blogging and getting my name out there and people are starting to figure out who I am and I’m establishing authority and credibility and all this stuff that Gary Vaynerchuk talked about, I’m thinking, okay, well, that’s going to get me more voiceover work, which it didn’t actually get me any more voiceover work.
But the byproduct of that was that I did actually build credibility and authority in a different way. And by blogging that journey of going from unemployed bum to full-time working voice actor and kind of all the different steps that I was taking and everything that I was learning along the way, I realized that I was learning how to kind of grow a voiceover business. And so that ended up translating into opening up doors for coaching, which was not something that I had ever intended.
It’s not something that I ever tried to do. But I got to a point where people started reaching out to me and asking me, you know, can you help me with this or can you help me with this? Or, you know, I was given an opportunity to speak at a conference and I’m like, well, what the crap?
Who do you want me to speak at a conference for? It wasn’t anything that was ever planned. I was a firefighter for 17 years, and when I was on the fire department, I got to a point in my career as a firefighter that I became one of the senior guys.
And so part of my responsibility became teaching some of the guys that were coming up behind me. And so there’s always been this natural bend towards teaching. It’s something that I’ve enjoyed.
I have post-secondary certifications for it. And I guess I just kind of… The pieces of the puzzle just came together without me actually ever knowing that I was putting together a puzzle.
Well, that’s incredible. Actually, that’s how I found out about you in the first place, was from your blog. And I’m like, man, this guy really gets it.
And you’ve got such a wonderful writer’s voice. It’s really just, like you said, it shows who you are and this natural, genuine desire to help people. So I can definitely understand why people gravitated toward you.
So I’m curious, tell us about how you use social media for your business. I know you’re very active in your VOpreneur Facebook group, and you’ve also got a great deal of good video content out there. So how exactly do you use social media for your business?
I have a two-fold approach to social media now, because what I have created for myself as a result of getting into coaching, I basically created two separate businesses. So I have my voice over business where I am the voice actor, and now I have my coaching business, which is something totally separate. And so when I approach social media, there are two different audiences and two different approaches.
And so using YouTube and creating the video tips that I create, that’s part of the voice over coaching side of things. But using YouTube to go through and find all of the projects that I have voiced and adding those to playlists that I can then use to market to potential clients, that’s the voice over side of using YouTube. And using Twitter, for example, I use Twitter to share blog posts that I’ve written and talk about, share voice over tips and stuff like that.
And that’s the voice over side of my social media approach to Twitter. That’s the coaching side of my approach to Twitter. But then on the voice over side of Twitter, I’m using it more to look for leads and see who’s doing what in explainer videos and corporate video and e-learning and getting connected to those people and looking for leads and opportunities to make connections to them.
And so there really is a two-fold approach to all the different social networks that I use.
Well, I love this idea of the two-pronged approach because very often you see voice talent, even experienced ones, trying to market to other voice talent just because they don’t realize where their desired audience is. So I love that you have such this concrete idea of how to use each one for each business. So thanks for that.
I think that that is honestly, if there was probably one major mistake that I see voice actors make throughout social media, regardless of whether it’s YouTube or LinkedIn or Twitter or Instagram or whatever the social network is, we love to connect with each other. We do it very well. Everybody talks about VO Atlanta being a voice over family reunion.
We have this beautiful community, which is unlike anything I’ve ever seen before, but the downside of that is because we are connected with each other everywhere, we become the audience that we are marketing to, and that just isn’t effective. People have talked to me before about, why aren’t you engaged in this group on Facebook or why don’t you engage in this group on LinkedIn or why don’t you do this? And sometimes people think that I’m just avoiding the community or whatever, but my point has always been, well, no, it’s because voice actors are much less likely to hire me.
And so with the finite amount of time that I have in a day to use social media, I need to use it to market to the people who are going to book me. And so that’s one of the things that I always tell anybody that I’m coaching with, is look at your network. If you have 1,000 people that you’re following on Twitter, and 800 of them are other voice actors, that’s the problem.
If you have 1,000 people in your network on LinkedIn, and 800 of them are voice actors, that’s part of your problem.
Yeah, makes a lot of sense. Now we want to ask about other pitfalls you talk to your students about, but one more question about Facebook. About a year ago, you had either a video or a blog post, I honestly can’t remember which, talking about sort of the death of the Facebook page and how individual businesses marketing to the Facebook audiences is sort of a dead market.
Can you explain a little bit more about that and if you still feel like that’s the case?
So what Facebook has done is realize that they need to monetize the platform. That was not a surprise. We knew it was coming.
How they were going to monetize the platform, everybody was waiting to see, and what they have done is because they don’t want your whole entire news feed to be advertisements, they’ve limited the amount of real estate that is available for advertising. And so now you have all of these people with Facebook business pages who have lost all of their organic reach. The only way that you are going to be able to get reach in the feed is if you advertise.
But because they’re limiting the amount of real estate that is available in the news feed for advertising, it’s driving up the price of being able to do those advertisements. So, nine out of ten voice actors are not willing to do sponsored posts on Facebook. And pretty much the only way now from a business page that you are going to get any kind of reach is through doing sponsored posts.
I got to a point where I think I had 1,100 followers on my business page. And if I posted a new status, I would see, you know, like the initial reach of that status would go to, you know, maybe 20 of them. And if one person engaged with it, then maybe it would go to 30 or 35.
And as people engage, the organic reach would grow, but it was so hard to get that initial organic reach that to me, it almost became a waste of time. And for those of you that have followed my Facebook business page, for years, that was my number one connection to the voice actors that I was giving coaching advice to, was through my business page. And when I saw that take a hit and saw that it was going to continue to take a hit and that it wasn’t going to change in my favor anytime soon, that was when I made the switch to a group, and that’s when I made the decision to create the VO Printer group.
I have kept my business page because it has an audience on it, and I do paid advertising from time to time for various things. But for most voice actors at this point, I don’t know that there’s a whole lot of value in having a Facebook business page other than it gives you some visibility on Facebook, I suppose. But in order to get any kind of reach, you would have to be willing to spend money on a regular basis, and most people aren’t willing to do it.
And I’m not convinced that it’s the best place to spend your advertising dollars anyway.
Yeah, I tend to agree. It’s just one of the ways that Facebook, in my opinion, has made it harder to operate a business. Another way, or I guess this might have been Twitter, there used to be a way to integrate what you were posting on Facebook automatically on Twitter.
And I’m pretty sure it’s Facebook. They killed that integration. So where before you could post something on Twitter and have it automatically show up on either your personal page or your business page, that connection was killed sometime over the summer and it really bugged me.
All the social media platforms are actually moving towards stuff like that. I used a third-party service that I had paid a fairly substantial amount of money for. I think I paid a subscription of like $300 US for the year or something.
And the whole point of that service was it allowed me to go through, and I would sit down on Sunday night, and I would spend an hour, and I would write a whole bunch of custom tweets for the week and then schedule them out accordingly. And then I would also plan out some of the posts that I was going to put on to Facebook in the group. So there was a level of automation in that I didn’t have time to sit down every day and come up with this stuff, but I would always make a point of sitting down before the week started and scheduling out a bunch of stuff.
And then as things arose during the week, it still gives me the opportunity to be present in each of the networks. But what has happened is Twitter has basically eliminated the capacity to do that through some of these third-party tools. And it all comes back to, you know, they keep blaming every…
I don’t want to get political here, but the whole situation that happened with Trump and the way that Facebook was manipulated and user data was manipulated in the election, in an attempt to block stuff from that happening, they’re preventing all the different social networks now are preventing some of this scheduled content and things like that to go online and kind of forcing people to do things in real time and even blocking some of the content that you try to share. Prime example, I’m an affiliate for Voice Sam, and I used to tweet out my affiliate link with a special affiliate deal for Voice Sam, and nine out of ten times now, Twitter will block that tweet. They won’t even let me send that tweet.
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with it, but they’ve deemed that it’s content that people aren’t interested in, so they just block the tweet. You can’t even send it out anymore. I’m afraid that we’ll get to a point where we’re trying to sell voiceover services or whatever, and Twitter’s going to start blocking tweets that link to our webpages because they don’t want to risk people being directed to other sites that may be inappropriate, but rather than being able to specifically target, they just kind of blank it.
A few bad seeds ruin the fun for everybody.
It’s true.
We talked about some mistakes people make on their social media as far as marketing their business. What would you say, Marc, is the biggest mistake you see people make when they come to you as a student overall in starting a VO business?
The biggest mistake when they’re starting their business is that they’re not even in a position to start their business yet. Thank you. In all honesty, I had a conversation…
I mean, I sell coaching programs, right? And I sell… one of my programs that I sell, I only release it a couple of times a year, and it’s a bigger ticket item.
And I turn people away from it all the time, because they’ll come to me ready to start marketing and grow their voice over business, and I’ll say, okay, well, I want you to give me an honest assessment of where you’re at, and they’ll kind of… I ask them some very direct questions, and when I read back their responses, I write them back and say, you’re nowhere near ready for this. Please do not waste your money on this program.
I don’t want you to spend money on this. I had a conversation with somebody just this week, actually, who was looking to get together with me to do some marketing help, but they’d never done any professional performance coaching yet. And so it was honestly that situation we’ve all heard before where their family and friends tell them they have a nice voice, and they’re an excellent communicator, and whatever, we’ve all heard it.
And so they just automatically assume, okay, well, I go out, I buy my microphone, I start marketing to some clients, I sign up on a casting site, and I’m a voice actor, and away we go. So I think the biggest mistake that people make in their business is not being ready to start a business. Honestly, so many people come before they’ve even done an assessment with a coach.
You know, people joke about how much I talk about Uncle Roy online. The reality is that I refer more people to that guy for coaching than I ever work with on my own, because I know that until they’ve gone through somebody like him, or like a J. Michael, or an Everett, or Ang Angus, or whatever, until they’ve actually worked with somebody like that, and somebody like that has told them they’re prepared to move forward, there is absolutely no reason for them to spend a dime working with me.
Very cool. I mean, we see people shooting themselves in the foot all the time, and it’s usually because they look at voice over as a way to make money without investment of time or money. And that’s not, like you said, that is the opposite mentality that you need to take.
So kind of moving away from the pitfalls, say you’ve got a student who’s receptive to that feedback and wants to, is actually wants to learn and wants to pursue it like a business. What are some tips that you can give them to help them be successful as a VOpreneur or to change their mindset from that idea of being a voice over artist to a voice over entrepreneur or business person?
I think that agents are fantastic. I think they’re an important piece of the puzzle. I think that casting sites can come with benefit and value if you’re on the right casting site.
But in today’s day and age, I do not think that you can build a thriving, successful business exclusively on the backs of agents and casting sites. And maybe there are exceptions where you live in LA and you’re right there beside all the studios, but most of us don’t live in LA. And so you have to be prepared to put in the time to do the marketing.
And I think a lot of people underestimate how much time that’s actually going to be. One of the lines that I always say is, if you want to be a full-time voice actor, first you are going to have to be prepared to be a full-time marketer. And my first year full-time, I spent 95% of my time marketing and 5% of my time booking.
And over the years, those percentages have shifted, but you still need to put in the time to do the marketing every single day. There are leads that are out there. There are countless opportunities.
I believe that there is enough business for all of us. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t be teaching people how to do this, because I’m basically… educating my competition.
But I believe that there are enough opportunities that are out there. The people that are willing to put in the time and the effort to go get them are the people that are going to succeed, and the people that are looking for the quick and easy money are the ones that are not.
So maybe to put things in perspective, how much time would you say that you dedicate to marketing each day?
In the beginning, I was a full-time marketer. I was legitimately… I was spending eight hours a day finding leads, contacting leads, and admittedly in the beginning, I wasn’t efficient because I didn’t know what I was doing.
That’s one of the reasons why I teach now. Here, look, I did all the stupid things. I made all the stupid mistakes.
If you want to avoid all of that, I can help you type deal. But I tell people that take my courses, you need to be finding a minimum of 50 new leads a week, a minimum of finding and contacting 50 new leads a week. If you really want to build something, you need to be doing 100 leads a week, finding and contacting 100 leads a week.
And that’s what I was doing in the beginning. I was finding and contacting 100 leads a week. It sounds daunting, but it depends on what your goals are.
For me, I was in a position where I was unemployed, but I still had rent to pay, so I needed to start making money. And you can make money if you only reach out to a handful of people each week. You’re just not going to make a lot of money, and it’s going to take you a long time to get there.
I needed to make it in a hurry, so it’s just a simple economy of scale. The more people that you put yourself in front of, the more opportunities you’re probably going to create. But I do legitimately think that you need to be, at the minimum, 50 leads a week, and if you really want to do something, you’re looking at 100.
It’s so great to hear those concrete numbers, too, because a lot of people just don’t have any idea or a misconception about how long it takes to start getting traction. It’s the same with auditions. They’re like, oh, I did 200 auditions last year, and I got nothing.
Well, maybe if you’re doing 200 a week, you might get more results. But you really just have to think larger and increase that volume and just cast a wider, more fine net.
You’ve got to look at the data points, too. Probably the most common thing that I get from people when they first start working with me is, well, I’m contacting two or three people a day. And I’m like, okay, well, let’s look at this then.
You’re contacting two people a day, which means that assuming you take the weekend off, that means you’re contacting 10 people a week. And the numbers on marketing show us that on an average, when you’re doing cold marketing, so you’re reaching out to somebody that you have no previous connection with, when you’re doing cold email marketing, you’re probably gonna get about a 10% conversion rate. So that means if you email 10 people in a week, one of those people might respond to you in some capacity.
Doesn’t mean they’re gonna hire you. It just means they’re gonna respond to you in some capacity. The numbers also show that you’re probably gonna get about a 3% to 5% eventual conversion rate.
So if you’re reaching out to those 10 people, then you’re talking about less than 1% of a booking coming out of those 10 leads. And so you can see why if you just do 10 leads a week, it’s gonna take you a few months before you even get your first job. And if you’re only booking a couple of jobs a year, obviously it’s gonna take you a lot longer to build your business.
Now on the flip side of that, you contact 100 people a week, and maybe 10 or 15 of those people respond to you, and maybe ultimately 3 to 5 of those people will book you. Not saying they’re gonna book you that week, but saying eventually they’re going to book you. That’s just kind of what the numbers show.
So now all of a sudden, if you’re adding 3 to 5 potential clients, 100 contacts, but 3 to 5 potential clients into your database every week, all of a sudden now you’ve got something that can grow.
So let’s talk about marketing as it relates to other businesses. Now, if you’ve only done voice over, you may not realize that what you just said is absolutely true. I, for one, came from a career of selling insurance, where I used to make 100 calls a day, and the conversion rates were largely the same.
But at the end of the week, if I converted that one client to a life insurance policy, that was a good week. So that brings us sort of to the talk about rates and voiceover. Do you feel, or I pretty much know how you feel, but tell our audience that in order to make a living doing this, you actually have to charge the rates that you’re worth, because if you only convert one or two clients a week, it’s the only way you’re going to live.
Would you tend to agree?
Yeah, absolutely. And I’ll tell you that the biggest issue with rates has nothing to do with rates. And this is the conversation that doesn’t happen very often.
It has absolutely nothing to do with rates, and it has nothing to do with the GVAA rate guide, and it has absolutely nothing to do with scale and union and blah, blah, blah. The biggest single issue with rates in the voiceover industry and just in freelance industries in general is mindset. Nine out of ten times, probably like 9.8 out of ten times, the issue has to do with mindset, and it has to do with somebody who’s newer to the industry, comes in, and you tell them, okay, well, you’re going to do that video, and I believe that you can charge $500 for that video.
That’s fair market standard for that video. And that person says, what? Like, this is going to take me like 10 minutes to do.
I can’t… I charge 50 bucks for that, and I’m making really great money. And that’s a mindset issue.
It’s a mindset issue where people can’t wrap their head around the true value that they bring and how that converts into dollars. They’re simply looking at it on a basis of time. It only takes me so many minutes, and so really, it’s not right for me to charge whatever based on it only takes me so many minutes to do.
Okay, well, fine. Then if you want to talk about time, yes, it only took you 30 seconds to record that 30-second commercial that’s going to air a thousand times over the next six months to an audience of six million people. Let’s talk about time.
How much time did your voice just spend on the air, sharing the message of a business, and now all of a sudden, you know what, maybe it is worth more than $5, $50, whatever. But it shouldn’t be about those types of things. It always comes down to, in my opinion, it comes down to a mindset issue and people not being able to wrap their mind around what they actually are worth.
And I mean, that goes back to programming that we learned when we were kids. I mean, I don’t want to go all psychology on you and everything, but it really does. It really comes back to what we were taught about money and how money was handled in our households and with our families or whatever the case may be.
And until you get over some of that stuff, it’s really hard for people to actually charge fair market value. And I get it. I went through that struggle.
When you’re starting out in voice over, okay, so I just got laid off from radio and my rent still do next week, and I’ll work for whatever anybody wants to pay me just because I’m desperate to pay my rent. I mean, I’ve been there. I understand it.
I had to work through that. You know, do I still… I’m still not charging.
You know, I don’t know that my rates are probably on par with GVAA in some of the categories, but I know that I’m charging what I’m worth, and I know that it’s a heck of a lot more than I would ever make on Fiverr and probably more than I would make on a bunch of the casting sites too.
Wow, Marc, thank you so, like, literally, mind’s blown here. I think the mics are blown too. But anyways, I mean, it’s like you really have just turned so many misconceptions on their head and really have given our audience the chance to just reevaluate how they’re pursuing their business.
Like, are they even pursuing it as a business? So how can people get a hold of you and, excuse me, either to hire you as a voice talent or to work with you as a coach?
Yeah, so if you want to get connected with me, my voiceover website is markscottvoiceover.com. It’s M-A-R-C. The coaching side of things is at markscottcoaching.com.
That’s where my blog is and some of the resources that I offer at markscottcoaching.com. The group that I run on Facebook is called VOpreneur. One of the things that really frustrated me about some of the other groups in Facebook and the reason why I’m not actively participating in some of the groups in Facebook is that there’s a lot of pity parties that go on in them sometimes.
There’s a lot of whining and griping and complaining and just general negative attitudes, and I really, really didn’t like the way that new talent were getting treated in some of those groups as well. Look, we have a responsibility as veteran talent. We have a responsibility if we want this industry to remain something beautiful.
It’s our responsibility, I believe, to help make that happen, and part of how we make that happen is by properly training up the people that are coming in behind us, and you don’t properly train them up by telling them that they’re stupid for being on Fiverr. That’s not effective, in my opinion. So I wanted to create a group that was a little bit different, that had a little bit different vibe to it.
And so the VOpreneur group that exists on Facebook, I mean, its primary purpose is designed to help people with the business side of voiceover, because again, you are starting a voiceover business. We tend to be creative people, we tend to think creatively, and so sometimes the business side of things doesn’t come naturally to us. So that was the initial intent of the group, was to help people with the business side.
But it’s also just to create a culture that people actually want to participate in and engage in. And it’s not that, you know, it’s all sunshine and rainbows and unicorns. You know, I have some pretty straight talk in the group from time to time on certain subjects and certain issues, but everybody is respected.
And there’s no talking down to people. There’s no making people feel stupid. You know, when somebody comes into the group and asks about fiber, you know, let’s have a conversation with them about fiber.
And let’s have a conversation with them to help them understand why maybe that’s not the best place for them. Let’s not just say, you’re an idiot, get out of our group. That doesn’t solve the problem.
That doesn’t help people advance. That doesn’t get them off of fiber and into a position where they’re charging fair rates. And so the VOpreneur group is open to anybody that is on Facebook that is a working voice actor.
It’s facebook.com forward slash groups forward slash VOpreneur. One of the things that I like to do as much as possible, I do free Advice Fridays where I literally, I just pop online for half an hour or maybe an hour in the group lots of times on Friday afternoons. And it’s just a Facebook live broadcast where I literally just sit there and just answer your questions and just offer up advice and talk about whatever you want to talk about related to voiceover and to your business.
And I really take the responsibility, I take it seriously of being able to offer something back to the community that has been really good to me. And we do have a really, really amazing community. I’ve never worked anywhere else where I’ve seen anything like that.
That kind of community certainly doesn’t exist in radio. It’s about as cutthroat as it can possibly get. So it’s cool to just be a part of that and to be able to share and contribute that.
And it keeps me sharp too. Sometimes people ask me questions that I have to stop and think about, or they’ll ask me a question that makes me want to go and do a little bit of research afterwards or dive into something a little bit deeper. And so it’s just as good for me as it is, I think, hopefully for the people that are participating and getting the advice.
So again, that’s facebook.com forward slash groups forward slash VOpreneur, and that’s open to anybody, any working voice actor on Facebook.
Well, Marc, we really appreciate you being on again. The VOpreneur group is really a breath of fresh air, and it shows the attitude that you mentioned about giving back. It’s actually the same reason we started this podcast.
We don’t charge anybody for it. You can listen to it free on the Webosphere, and we just like to give people a chance to listen to great folks like you to help them grow their business. Now, we’re going to see you again in a few weeks, or at least I will, at the Mid-Atlantic Voice Over Conference.
Are you looking forward to that?
Yeah, I’m really looking forward to that one. It’s actually my first time going to that conference, and I’ll tell you, I totally dig what Val is doing. I love VO Atlanta, but I’ll be honest with you, I’m a little bit of an introvert, and man, sometimes VO Atlanta feels a little overwhelming to me.
It’s exhausting.
There’s just so many people, and you want to talk to everybody, but it’s funny, there were people that were there that I never even actually ran into over the course of the weekend. It’s so huge, right? And it’s got this totally different kind of vibe that is really cool.
But I love that Val has created something intentionally small because she wants the people that are there to be able to have more of a connection with the coaches and the mentors. And I really dig that, because I’m just as happy to sit down and have a conversation with somebody one-on-one or in a group of three or four people or whatever, as I am to get up and speak in front of a session that’s filled with 80 people or 100 people or whatever. So I just think it’s really cool that she’s kind of creating something that’s a little bit on the other end of the spectrum, and I think that’s going to work for a lot of people.
So I’m really looking forward to doing that conference and making some connections there.
Yeah, I love the idea of an intimate voiceover conference, because you’re right, when you’ve got 600 people in a three-story hotel, it’s easy to have some misconnections, and it can be overwhelming if you’re an introvert, like many of us in this conference call. But I think, unfortunately, I won’t be able to be there in person this year, but I know you’re going to have an amazing time. So I hope you guys do and learn lots.
Yeah, we’ll talk again. We plan to sit down at least for a few minutes with you, Marc, and Ken Foster, who will be joining me. And we’ll have a grand old time.
Yes. Very cool. Well, thanks again, Marc, for just so much for your experience or insight, just your overall attitude.
I love that you come from this place of wanting to educate people without judgment. I feel like there’s a lot of animosity towards new people because they make mistakes that make us upset or frustrated, but they don’t understand what they’re doing. So rather than breed animosity by name calling, why not give them the information that will help them make an informed decision and make the changes that we’re asking them to make?
So thank you for your part in that.
I don’t think there’s any of us that started in this business perfect.
We all make mistakes every day.
And so sometimes those of us that have been around for a little bit, we just need to remember that. You know what? I was a stupid rookie too.
I made every mistake when I was first starting out. So I have no problem sharing from those experiences because they are vast.
Wonderful. Well, thank you for sharing some of them with us today, Marc. We hope you have a wonderful day and wish you nothing but the best in your VO business.
Thank you, guys. I appreciate it.
All right. Thank you so much to Marc Scott for joining us on the podcast. We’ll wrap up with you guys in just a minute.
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No need to hire someone every time you want to make a change. And our upfront pricing means you know exactly what your costs are ahead of time. You can get your voice over website going for as little as $700.
So if you want your Voice Actor website without the hassle of complexity and dealing with too many options, go to voiceactorwebsites.com, where your VO website shouldn’t be a pain in the you-know-what.
Thanks again to Joe Davis, Karen Barth, and the rest of the team at voiceactorwebsites.com. We really value you as a sponsor. So Sean, what do you think about Marc Scott’s interview?
Wow, it was amazing. I know our goal for the podcast is to kind of enlighten our listeners and stuff like that, but for me, it’s just wow. I mean, I learned so much and it really changed my mindset.
Like, mainly just the volume of reaching out that you need to do in order to really build and gain traction and just have that steady stable of repeat clientele. So thank you so much, Marc, for being so generous with your advice and expertise.
Yeah, it really reaffirmed what I kind of already knew, but it was good to hear that having business acumen is so important in running your VO business. If you have that experience or if you don’t, you should go find it, that you really need to be making all those contacts in order to have any returns at all. So if you’re not already calling or contacting 10 people a day, you’re really not doing it right.
That’s right. I mean, I know cold calling is one of the things that people hate, and you just have to do it, or something similar. It can be emails as well, but you need to find, like, so many other things in this business.
You need to find the method that works for you and be consistent with it.
And what you’ll find, and I just found this out this week, and I know this from other businesses, but it’s finally starting to happen in my VO world. Once you make those initial contacts, they will start coming back to you in the form of referrals. So, the author I worked with yesterday was a direct referral from an author that I worked with a year ago, who I reached out to personally.
I saw their book was out on Amazon, on Facebook, and I reached out to them and said, I’d like to do your book. And we end up doing it here in the studio. And then just last week, last Friday, her name is Wendy, Wendy sent me an email saying, I’d like to meet Donna, she wants to do a book too, and boom, we had it done yesterday.
That’s awesome. Yeah, once you get those connections started, they can grow exponentially.
So hang in there.
So hang in there, guys. Just keep going, pound the pavement. 50 contacts a week.
So that pretty much wraps up this episode of the VO Meter.
Measuring Your Voice Over Progress.
We’d just like to say thank you again to our wonderful sponsors, the Global Voice Acting Academy and Vocal Booth to Go.
voiceactorwebsites.com and podcastdemos.com.
And last but certainly not least, our wonderful tech sponsor, IPDTL. So thank you, Kevin, and your team for giving us such a wonderful service for our podcast. That wraps up this episode.
We hope you guys have a wonderful day.
So long, everybody.
Thanks for listening to this episode of the VO Meter. To follow along, visit us at www.vometer.com. VO Meter is powered by IPDTL.