Posts tagged Career Advice

A bit of conventional wisdom you’ll often hear about how to be more conversational or more “real” in your voiceover work is to “just talk to one person.” But, as my friend Juan Carlos Bagnell (also known as Some Audio Guy) points out in his recent blog post Stop Talking to One Person, there’s a lot more to doing a good voiceover than applying that one bit of conventional wisdom.

As you scroll through the tweets and Facebook updates from your friends in the voiceover business, you might be tempted to despair because it seems like everyone else is getting lots of work and you aren’t. A check of objective reality would quickly demonstrate that things are not always what they seem.

Now, I’m not running down anyone who excitedly posts about something they’ve recently booked or accomplished. I genuinely love seeing my friends do well. I’m just trying to say that comparing what you are doing by yourself with what 100 of your friends are doing in the aggregate isn’t an accurate or fair comparison. At any given moment someone else is always going to be a bit busier than you are. By the same token, at any given moment you are more busy that some others are.

What I’m leading up to with the above, is to revisit a point I’ve made previously about the value of generosity or selflessness. Seth Godin has written brilliantly about this subject in his recent post titled The sad irony of selfishness. Do not fear being generous. While you may seem to fall behind now and then as you pass along to others what you cannot or should not do yourself, in the long run you will gain more than you give. No, as Seth points out in his blog post, this isn’t guaranteed. But, isn’t all of life full of risks? And aren’t those who win big always those who also risk big?

(edited to fix typo)

John Florian has just published an article I wrote called The Secrets To Becoming Exceptional for his excellent VoiceOverXtra site.

The SAG Foundation presents an event benefiting the Don LaFontaine Voice-over Lab. The series of discussions on the art and future of voicever is broken down into two sessions. Each session is presented over 4 different days, starting February 21st. All the details are available at this special page of the SAG Foundation site.

This question could lead to a discussion about being able to record voiceovers while you are traveling, but this time that’s not where I’m going with this question. (I’ll come back to that one another day.) No, this time I want to point out that if you aren’t thinking about how your website looks on a mobile device, it’s time to start.. To get prime your pump, here’s an excellent article called Go Mobile or Go Home on the Fame Foundry blog.

Take a few minutes to read Dan Friedman’s latest blog post called What Do You Believe? These are sage words of advice that I hope you will both read and heed.

Yesterday I wrote about the pitfall of being average. Now, let’s get very real for a moment. No one, no matter how talented and dedicated and industrious is going to be able to excel at everything. We’re all going to have areas of weakness and average-ness. Even in our professional lives, some things are going to be outside of not only our comfort zone, but our ability.

Having established that, here’s what I also know. You can be exceptional if you will take the time and exercise the humility needed to learn what you need to learn in order to become exceptional. Once you’ve begun this process, stick with it. The main thing that can derail you on your journey to being exceptional is to change directions or change focus. Doing so will derail your efforts every time. Needless to say, quitting will also derail you.

And once you’re on your way, here’s something you won’t hear from a lot of people. Don’t be afraid to say “no.” Know yourself, your strengths. You can’t please everyone. You really can’t be all things to all people. So don’t even try. Say “no” to the things that aren’t right for you. I do this all the time.

But, when you say “no,” keep in mind that this can still be a win for you. Refer a job that isn’t right for you to someone it is right for. In fact, when you do so, it’s a win for not just you, but your friend who gets the job and the client who gets what he or she needs. Do that often enough and you won’t know what to do with all the work you do have.

What? Turning down work leads to more work? Yes. Because at least some of those people to whom you refer work, will refer things back to you. And at least some of those clients you helped are going remember you, too and when they have something that is right for you, who do you think they’re going to call? Yep. You.

The more you concentrate on doing the work you are best at, the work you most enjoy, and turn down everything else by referring that work to someone else, the bigger your avalanche is going to grow.

(edited to fix typo)

Average is just that, average. As Seth Godin points out in a piece published at Business Insider, being average not only isn’t good enough any more, it’s much worse than that. This is true in the voiceover business as much as it is in any other business. I need to keep raising my skills. So do you. This isn’t so much to get ahead as it is to simply keep moving.

The real secret to avoiding “average” however, is to be you. If you’re trying to be the next whomever, stop. Find your voice. Build your business around the things you love voicing. Not only will you be happier, you’ll almost certainly be better paid, too. Just as I am the world’s exclusive source for voiceovers by Bob Souer, you are the world’s exclusive source for voiceovers by you.