Need A Voice Over?

Video is a great way to promote your product, service or brand. Adding a professional voice over to it can really set you apart from the crowd.

You need a voice over on time and on budget.

You don’t need hassles, headaches or to spend all your time sifting through hundreds of auditions.

I’m a full-time professional voice talent. I record from my home. I offer quick turnaround, fully edited audio files, a professional recording, and a strong commitment to exceptional client service. If you need a voice over, let me give your words life!

Sounds good man. Excellent work! ~ Michael Doyle (Drive 80 Studios)

If you’d like to contact me about your project click here.

For more on Pam Ann Marketing visit pamannmarketing.com

For more on Drive 80 Studios visit drive80.com

Checking The Mail

Who doesn’t love getting mail? I’m not talking about email, either.

Every day, around 11am, I get up and walk to my post office box with great anticipation. What will I find? Junk mail trying to sell me insurance or an online education? Statements from my bank (even though I’ve requested repeatedly to receive them digitally)? Will there be cheques from clients? Bills from the cable company?

Or will there be some other surprise? Something unexpected?

I don’t know about you, but I sure do love checking my mail.

Old School Marketing

I designed new postcards for my business a while back and had them printed. They turned out great (in my opinion). I always like to try and send a thank you note to new clients after we’ve worked together for the first time. I’ve used postcards for that for years.

This time around I was reaching out to previous clients. Clients I haven’t worked with or heard from in a few months or maybe even a year.

With my list in hand, I got to writing.

All my messages were quick and simple and I didn’t try to sell them anything. No mention of rates or specials or voice overs. Just simple notes to say, “Hi. How are you doing? I hope all is well.” That sort of deal. Something to let them know I remember them. Something that will hopefully help them remember me.

Get Writing

Odds are I’m not the only guy that loves getting mail. Non bill mail. And honestly, do you even remember the last time you received a handwritten anything in the mail? Likely not. But I bet it would make you feel pretty great if you did!

So get to it. Buy some postcards from the Dollar Store. Design your own and print them at home or have them printed online. I used VistaPrint.ca.

Try a little old school marketing. Get your name back in the clients mind.

Y0u don’t need to give them a sales pitch. That’s not the point. Just a quick and simple note to say hi and let them know you’re thinking of them and you’re still here.

QUESTION: What kind of marketing do you use for your voice over business?

My intentions were equal parts documenting my journey and sharing from my experience. I’ve learned a lot along the way, after all. Some lessons have been learned harder than others, but my goal has always been to share those lessons so that your journey in voice acting may be that much easier.

Hard Work. Less Time.

Here’s the thing, blogging five days a week is hard work. Very hard work. Trying to find new topics and present them in an engaging and informative way doesn’t happen quickly.

While I’ve been writing this blog over the last year and a half, I’ve also been growing my own career. Becoming more established as a full time voice talent. Building a bigger client base. That’s a good thing! But it’s also left me less time for blogging.

New Strategy

I’ve read a lot about blogging frequency. Some say once a week. Some say three times a week. Some say five days a week. There are plenty of opinions on the subject. It’s not unlike the topic of voice over rates. There are plenty of opinions, but ultimately you have to do what works best for you.

So I thought about what works best for me.

For the past couple weeks I’ve been blogging Monday, Wednesday and Friday. My traffic hasn’t been impacted too much. I’ve also noticed a slight increase in the amount of social engagement, both in social network shares and comments in various social networks.

I think I found what works for me.

Too Much Of A Good Thing

Is it possible to have too much of a good thing? I think it might be.

One thing I heard from people when I posted five days a week is that they had a hard time keeping up with all of my posts. After all, you’re all busy with your voice over career, just like I am.

That was my first nudge towards blogging a little less.

I want people to be able to read my posts, absorb what I share, and really benefit from and be encouraged by it. If I’m posting too frequently, I might actually be defeating my own purposes.

So for now, I’ll blog a little less frequently!

Look for new posts Monday, Wednesday and Friday for the next month or two while I test out my new approach.

QUESTION: What’s your opinion on blogging frequency? Or even my blogging frequency? More? Less? Same?

You’ve got a mic. Check.

You’ve got a demo. Check.

You’re all set. Ready to be the next voice over superstar. National commercials will flock to you. Major corporations are lined up to have you voice their eLearning modules. The New York Times Best Selling Authors are hunting you down to record their ebooks.

It’s time to start living the dream.

Without This… You Will Fail.

I read a book this week titled, Nice Companies Finish First: Why Cutthroat Management Is Over–and Collaboration Is In by Peter Shankman. Let me just say that this book is a must read!

Although it’s filled with little nuggets that will help you become a better entrepreneur and overall better at business, in my opinion, the chapter on Customer Service was worth the price of the book alone.

Perhaps the most powerful statement in that chapter was this…

Let me be as blunt as humanly possible; without stellar customer service, your business will die. – Peter Shankman

He’s right!

No Clients… No Business

With no clients, you have no voice over business. With happy clients, you have lots of voice over business!

Something so simple. But something so often overlooked.

Your client has a problem. Your job is simple. Solve it!

They need a voice over. Give them one. They need it by a certain deadline. Meet it. They have a certain budget. Do your best to work with it. They require certain audio specs. Deliver.

Do whatever you can within your power and within reason to keep your clients happy and they will keep coming back. They’ll also tell their friends!

QUESTION: Do you have a customer service policy for your voice over business?

When you’re an entrepreneur, when you’re a voice talent, often, you have none of those things.

• There’s no guaranteed weekly salary.
• There’s no one to pass the buck to.
• There’s no HR department to protect you.
• There’s no manager to look out for you.

There’s just you. Chief cook and bottle washer.

Look Out For You

I received an email from fellow talent this week. They had quoted a project and come to terms with their new client. When the script was delivered, however, the project turned out to be significantly larger than the client had originally stated. The talent was emailing me to ask how to approach this situation.

I don’t want to quote too high but don’t want to be taken advantage of either.  What do you think is fair?

It’s a great question. One that we’ve all had to address. With no guaranteed income, we never want to say no to a job or do something that could cost us a job. But with no HR department to keep things fair and no manager to look out for us, what’s a talent to do?

Creating a Win-Win

The talent had already recorded a sample of the project and the client was very happy with what they heard. That’s a good thing. A great foundation to negotiate from!

My suggestion to him was to come back to the client with a new quote that the talent considered fair and explain to the client, respectfully, why he was re-quoting the project.

I also told the talent to be prepared to walk away. If the client chose to be unreasonable and not consider the updated quote, it was likely a client he wouldn’t want to work with in the first place.

Ultimately the goal is to get a rate that’s fair for both parties, while delivering a quality voice over that meets the clients needs.

That’s exactly what ended up happening!

Thanks so much for your advice, it worked!  They agreed to increase the budget to match the project without complaint.  I just needed a little advice to give me the strength to ask for what is right.

Stand Up For Yourself

When I received that email from the talent, I was so happy for him. He was respectful with the client, but also stood his ground and in the end everybody wins. The talent gets in the increased rate and the client gets a voice over they’re happy with.

Perfect!

Remember, when you’re in  the voice over game, you’ve got to look out for yourself because nobody else will. Don’t be afraid to stand your ground. Always be polite and respectful. Business is business and more often than not, clients will understand.

Remember, when you’re in  the voice over game, you’ve got to look out for yourself because nobody else will.

Create win-wins and everybody walks away happy!

QUESTION: Have you ever had to take a stand with a client. Did it work out?

• Working with amazing clients!
• Being my own boss.
• Controlling my own destiny.
• Getting to voice new and unique projects each day.
• Having freedom and flexibility with my schedule.
• Being able to earn a great living and enjoy life.

Thanks To Voice Over

The last one on the list was of particular importance to me this weekend. Mother’s Day. When I put my mom on an airplane (her first time flying) and took her to Boston to see a Toronto Blue Jays game at Fenway Park. One of those memories you never forget!

Plane rides. Cab rides. Fenway Franks. Lobster Rolls. Lobster Dinners.

For mom it was a day of firsts, and for me, it was a blessing to be able to share the fruits of my successful career on such an amazing experience!

Being able to be a full-time voice talent is one of the greatest things that’s ever happened to me!

QUESTION: What experiences has voice over given you?

I mentioned a day or two ago on Twitter that because my cold was keeping me from recording voice overs I was taking advantage of the time to catch up on paperwork. Invoicing, banking, etc. You know, the no fun side of the business that we still need to stay on top of.

In response to that tweet a fellow talent asked a really great question:

I sometimes submit auditions when my voice is a lil off from sickness, bad idea? If not should I mention I’m sick in a note?

To Record Or Not To Record…

When you work for yourself you don’t want to miss a single opportunity. Every voice over job you can’t audition for, every client you turn away is potentially money out of your pocket! So naturally, even when we’re sick, we still want to be able to record.

So what do you do?

If you’re voice isn’t 100% do you record the audition anyway and mention your illness?

Can You Give 100%?

My response to the talent asking the question was honest. It’s based on part of my overall goal as a entrepreneur. I want to offer every one of my voice over clients an exceptional client experience.

Personally, I want to give my clients 100% always. So if I’m under the weather I just take time to rest and recover.

So what do you do when you’re sick? In my opinion, you ask yourself if you’re able to give 100%. If the answer is no, you wait until such a time as you can.

For what it’s worth, I’ve never lost a job from an existing client yet because of illness. When I’ve explained to them that I’m under the weather and wouldn’t be able to give them my best, they’ve always adjusted their deadline and told me to record when I was feeling better.

QUESTION: Do you still audition when your voice isn’t 100%?

I know a lot of you wanted to be there, but couldn’t. So please, continue to live the conference through me. Here’s 5 more things I learned!

5 MORE Things I Learned At VoiceWorld

1) Don’t become complacent: When things are going well in your voice over career it’s easy to settle into a groove. Here’s the thing, if you become too comfortable or complacent there are other voice actors waiting to come in and steal your clients! Never stop learning. Never stop training. Work hard. This tip courtesy of David Goldberg of @EdgeStudio

2) You don’t need a $1000 mic: When shopping for a mic many want to buy the most expensive one they can afford. But that’s not necessarily what you need. Especially if you’re recording space isn’t done right. A good quality condenser mic in the $300 range is likely all you need. This tip courtesy of Dan Lenard (Home Studio Master)

3) Never read a typo: To be honest, you’d think this would be common sense. Evidently it’s not! If you’re recording an audition and there’s an error in the script, correct it! Don’t just read the script as it’s written. This tip courtesy of Pat Fraley (Man of 4000 voices)

4) Prioritize your time and the jobs you audition for: One train of thought is that you should audition for every possible job you can get a script for and eventually the law of averages will play into your favour. The other mindset is, basically, work smarter not harder. Only audition for the jobs that fit your voice and your chosen niche(s). This tip courtesy of @StephCiccarelli ofVoices.com

5) It’s not all about you: Sometimes it’s easy to get so wrapped up in your business and earning a living that you forget how much your clients actually matter. Always remember to care about your clients first! Ask them about them. Be interested in them. Build relationships with them. This tip courtesy of @DavidCiccarelli of Voices.com

QUESTION: Did you attend VoiceWorld or Faff Camp? Share something you learned in the comments.

Friday night I walked around the city, which is beautiful at night. I took in a Toronto Blue Jays game, which was a little less beautiful (they lost). I also enjoyed Toronto street meat, the best you’ll find anywhere!

Saturday was all about the conference. About investing in my voice over career, learning as much as I could, and making new friends and connections.

For those that weren’t able to attend, I wanted to share a few things from my notes.

5 Things I Learned At VoiceWorld Toronto

1) Get an app demo: The voice over market for apps is huge. One of the fastest growing categories. If you want to work in this genre, get a custom demo created specifically for the category. This tip courtesy of David Goldberg of @EdgeStudio

2) The future is mobile, global and fast: Everything online related to your brand needs to be mobile friendly. There are no borders in the online marketplace. Be prepared to work with clients around the world. More and more, people want things done yesterday. The quicker you reply and deliver, the better off you’ll be. This tip courtesy of @DavidCiccarelli of Voices.com

3) You don’t need to spend thousands on your home studio: All to often people get into the business and start buying the most expensive microphones and equipment and remodelling their homes to build fancy studios. It’s not necessary. A closet can work just as effectively! This tip courtesy of Dan Lenard (Home Studio Master)

4) Be objective; know your limits: You may want to be a voice over jack-of-all-trades, but odds are, it won’t work for you. Be objective about your voice and your skillset. Know your limits. Being realistic about these two things and directing your efforts accordingly is the path to success. This tip courtesy of @StephCiccarelli of Voices.com

5) Best doesn’t always book: Sometimes being the best doesn’t book the job. Sometimes being different is what sets you apart and grabs the clients attention. When you’re looking at a script try a take that wouldn’t be the typical read. It could be the winner! This tip courtesy of Pat Fraley (Man of 4000 voices)

Honourable Mention
“PC’s just suck!” ~ Dan Lenard
Possibly my favourite quote from the weekend! :)

Thank You To Voices.com

I really enjoyed the conference and I’m really glad I forced myself to step out of my introverted comfort zone and attend!

I’d like to extend my sincerest thanks and gratitude to all of the amazing staff at Voices.com for putting on a great event. I hope it’s the first of many more to come!

PS: Want more? I’ll share 5 more things I learned later this week!

QUESTION: Did you attend VoiceWorld or Faff Camp? Share something you learned in the comments.

Whether you do or don’t post your rates is something you’ll have to decide for yourself based on what makes the most sense for your business and your clients. For me, posting my rates has been a great decision. One I wish I had made sooner.

5 Reasons I Post My Voice Over Rates

1) It takes the mystery out for potential clients: I can’t stand it when I visit a business web site and they want me to call or send an email request for pricing information. If I don’t like it, and won’t bother doing it, I know others will feel the same.

2) It keeps low ballers away: People who want a voice over for $25 are people I don’t have time to deal with. There’s no point in even trying to negotiate with them. My time is better spent in other areas. Having my rates on my site has saved me more than a few back and forth conversations with people who simply aren’t willing to pay.

3) It creates a trust: When a client asks me for a quote I give them a number and then direct them to my web site to see my public rate card. That way they know right from the start I’m being fair and honest with them and not trying to maximize their budget for my own gain.

4) It’s brought me more business: Remember the people who visit a web site and leave when they can’t find rates? I book those jobs now. Since I made the decision to post my rates I’ve booked more work through my web site then I did when I made people inquire for a quote.

5) It’s a starting point for negotiation: Some voice talents think that posting their rates means that’s the final price. It’s not. For me, my rate card is the starting point for negotiation. I’ve worded it in such a way to let clients know these prices are the base but are subject to change based on individual needs.

Decide What Works For You

If you’ve had a chance to read all of the posts from this week, no doubt there is a lot of information for you to process. Voice over rates are a heavily debated topic. Everybody has an opinion, some will fight rather intensely to defend those positions.

You must decide what works best for you and what best serves your clients. Once you’ve decided on that stick to it and don’t let anyone pressure you to do otherwise.

You must decide what works best for you and what best serves your clients.

Whether you post your rates or not, at the very least I do think you need to have a basic rate card that you can quickly and easily supply to a client if they request it.

It shows them that you do have a pricing structure and that you’re not just pulling numbers from the sky or trying to work them for as big a budget as you can.

Here’s to your prosperous career!

QUESTION: How do you approach the voice over rate card?