Author: Marc Scott

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Why You’re Not Marketing

Marketing is so hard.

“I don’t know what to do. I’m not sure where to start. I don’t know what to say.”

Ever feed yourself any of those lines?

After you did, what happened next?

  • You signed up for another casting site and spent your day auditioning?
  • You fell down a social media rabbit hole and lost an hour on Facebook?
  • You went back to binge watching your new favourite show on Netflix?
  • You spent some more time complaining that you haven’t got enough opportunities?
  • You doubted yourself and your abilities because the work isn’t there?
  • You cleaned your house, mowed the lawn, ran an errand?
  • You bought a new piece of studio equipment thinking that would solve your problem?
  • You decided to outsource your marketing, except you never actually followed through?
  • You sent out a tweet directing people to your demo, and called it good enough?
  • You send a couple blind connections on LinkedIn to make yourself feel better?
  • You booked another voice over conference thinking that’ll help your career?
  • You spent an hour in a meaningless text conversation with a friend?
  • You read another book or another blog about marketing but didn’t take any action?
  • You downloaded a podcast to listen to, meanwhile, not doing any marketing?
  • You sent demos to six more agents, despite having no work from your current three?
  • You joined a Facebook rant about rates and blamed Fiverr for your problems?
  • You booked a session with a big name performance coach so you can name drop?

Majoring On Minors

After all this, you’re no closer to new work because you still haven’t done the things you need to do to find new leads… because it’s sooooooooo hard.

You sound like my five-year-old when I ask her to clean her room.

“But Daddy, it’s soooooooo hard.”

Harsh?

Let me remind you, a good coach tells you what you need to hear. Not what you want to hear.

Obstacles Aren’t The Problem

Next time to wonder why your business isn’t where you want it to be, and why you’re not booking as many jobs you want, remind yourself of this quote.

“You aren’t stopped by obstacles, but by easier paths to lesser goals.”
Benjamin P. Hardy

In other words, the fact that you don’t know how to market (so you tell yourself) is not the reason you’re not doing it. The reason you’re not doing it is because all those things I just mentioned above are easier. Paths of least resistance.

As long as you’re doing work you’re making progress, right?

Wrong!

Do you know why Musk, Bezos and Zuck are billionaires with the same 24 hours a day as you and me?

They’re intentional with their time and they work with purpose.

They don’t do easy stuff to avoid hard stuff.

They do what needs to be done.

You don’t have bookings because you’re not doing what needs to be done. #vopreneur
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If you don’t have a voice over booking this week, it’s because you’re not doing what needs to be done. You’re taking easier paths to lesser goals.

What To Do Next

Know what you need to do now?

Close this browser window, turn off all notifications on your phone, lock the office door, and don’t let yourself get up from your desk for any reason until you’ve contacted at least twenty new leads today.

Then do it again tomorrow…

And the next day…

And the day after that…

And… you get the idea…

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What J.D. Martinez Taught Me About Voice Over

It’s no secret to anyone who knows me that I’m a baseball fan. More specifically, a Red Sox fan. I’ve been to Fenway Park every year since 2013 and been a Sox fan much longer than that.

When they come to Detroit, I try to get there. When they come to Toronto, I try and get there. When the game is on, I try to watch or listen. I guess maybe that’s my hobby? Being a Red Sox fan, I mean.

In all the years I’ve watched Major League Baseball, all the way back to when Pat Borders posters decorated my walls as a kid, one thing I’ve never owned is a players jersey. Not once. T-shirts, yes. Hoodies, yes. Hats, of course. Even a few plain jerseys. Never a players jersey.

I’ve often said, and particularly in today’s age of baseball, why bother? Players are traded so frequently. Seldom will you see franchise players anymore. Say, like a Big Papi. About the time you drop the coin on that jersey, and baseball fans know they aren’t cheap, it becomes a relic of days gone by when your player signs with another team!

J.D. Martinez knocks a double off the Green Monster at Fenway – July 31, 2018

I’m a Martinez Fan; Not Specifically Because of Baseball

This week, while attending a game at Fenway, I broke my own rule.

I’m now the proud owner of a J.D. Martinez jersey. But perhaps not for the reasons you might think.

The numbers don’t like. He’s one of the top players in Major League Baseball this year. At the time of this writing, he leads the majors in home runs. He’s Top 5 or better in about half a dozen other batting categories. He was a 2018 All-Star.

None of that is why I picked up his jersey.

Back in June I heard a story about Martinez shared on a Red Sox broadcast. They talked about his work ethic when it comes to his hitting.

How To Succeed At Anything

When J.D. takes batting practice, there are three, yes, THREE iPads recording his swings. Every single one of his swings. After he’s done with B.P., he retreats to the clubhouse and reviews all the footage. He studies his swing, and makes adjustments necessary to be one of the premiere hitters in the league.

In his own words, “I always tell everybody that I’m not a natural hitter. I’m a trained hitter.” He continues, “I have to stay on top of it because my body will find a way to let 10 million swings I’ve taken when I was a kid slowly come back in. So, I have to grind away to get out of the bad habits.” *

That’s why I bought a J.D. Martinez jersey. That’s the kind of player, that’s the kind of person I want influencing me.

You aren’t going to become the best voice actor you can be by accident. #vopreneur
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Committed To Being The Best

I want to be so committed to my success that I do whatever it takes every single day, day in and day out, regardless of what level I reach in my career and business, to keep getting better. To keep developing new habits. Better habits. To keep old habits at bay.

I’m not a natural voice actor. I’m a trained voice actor.

I’m not a natural entrepreneur. I’m a trained entrepreneur.

Hearing that story, and watching J.D. Martinez with my own eyes both on television and in person, I knew if ever there was a players jersey I would proudly wear, it would be his.

When I was at Fenway Park on Tuesday, I bought one.

What Are You Going To Do About It

When did you last have a coach review some of your auditions?

When did you last review some of your auditions yourself?

When did you last have someone critique your website?

When did you last update your demos?

When did you last evaluate your marketing strategy?

When did you last measure progress on your goals?

J.D. Martinez isn’t one of the best hitters in Major League Baseball by accident. You won’t become the best voice actor your can be buy accident either,

Watch the tape. Check your habits. Stay accountable.

* Quote from Boston.com

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An Interview with Kevin West of VOPlanet – Part 2

This is a continuation (and the conclusion) of my interview with Kevin West of the recently relaunched VOPlanet.com. To read Part 1 please click here.

Marc: Will membership be capped? Or could we see another casting site boasting 200,000+ voice actors?

Kevin: We will never have 200,00 voice actors! If we do get 200,000 I am totally moving to Canada! Does VDC really have 200,000? The serious answer is the others do not have that many voiceover people. What they have are hundreds of thousands of untrained members. Anyone with a credit card can sign up on those sites and call themselves “pro vo talent.”

We’re not interested in profiting from the high turnover of people who think they might want to try being a voice actor. We want quality over quantity. We are happy to have enough pro voiceover actors in each category to give our voice buyers all the auditions they need to be thrilled with their job posts. We will certainly cap our membership when we get there.

Marc: What role does VOPlanet play in the casting process? Is it simply a matchmaker? Or can talent expect them to act as a middleman between them and the seeker?

Kevin: We are matchmakers. We do not pay talent or get mixed up in the money at all. No casting fees, no percentages, no altered budgets. We’re completely transparent. That is where the other guys went wrong. Buyers and voice actors work direct at VOP.

We designed the voice actor profiles to clearly highlight their direct contact information. Your personal website, your email address – all easy to find.

At V123 your website link is written in tiny little letters at the very bottom of the screen? Why? Why do they hide your direct contact info? Why do they make you pay FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS to see every job posted that fits you? Everyone sees every single job on VOP and that is included with our industry low annual membership fee of $199.

Marc: One of the problems many talent have with other casting sites is that within 15 minutes of a job posting going live, 200 people have already submitted. Is VOPlanet doing anything differently to control the audition process?

Kevin: I have cast more than ten thousand vo projects using every platform out there. You get 100 auditions. I can easily evaluate 100 auditions in a few minutes. I can tell within 3 seconds if a voice is a contender. Most auditions are not what the client is asking for, and I am happy to have more to choose from. Even the ones that come in late in the casting. This is an unnecessary fear among voice actors. I am telling you that from the casting side, two hundred auditions are not a problem. And yes, we do listen to all the auditions.

Marc: Casting sites are in a challenging position where they’re trying to keep both sides of the table happy, that being talent and seeker. What kind of commitment is VOPlanet making to ongoing dialogue with the voice over community and accepting viable / valuable suggestions that may be presented?

Kevin: By simply asking both sides what they need and finding common ground. Ask around. We have been in every vo group asking questions and the same with voice buyers. Voice actors want more jobs at better pay. Clients want better voices at a fair price. Both want transparency. And that is what you get at VOPlanet.com.

Marc: People that have been around this industry for a while remember VOPlanet from days gone by, and many don’t have fond memories from the end. What are you doing to reset the stage, so to speak? What messages would you like talent to hear so they’ll considering giving the site a second chance?

Kevin: When we took over VOPlanet.com the previous owner had become a minister and the site was no longer her key focus. The site lost momentum. We bought out those folks, built a brand-new site and are on the streets busting it to get gigs for our members. To us it is a new voiceover platform with the unique advantage of a client list that goes back more than a decade. Christine and I have been casting vo through our audio production site since 2005. This is not our first voice-over venture. Come join us. We will take care of you.

Marc: Thanks again, Kevin, for your willingness to answer some questions. Is there’s anything else you want the community to hear?

Kevin: There is a better way to do voiceover. Corporate sites are lowering voiceover rates, taking more than their share of the budget and funneling jobs to select voice artists. It is time to change your voiceover site. And it is time for voice buyers to change their voiceover casting site. VOPlanet.com is here to help! Thanks for the chance to share our vision Marc!

Marc: Do you have plans to offer a monthly option for people who want to test the site first before putting $200 down?

Kevin: We understand folks want to kick the tires a bit and take VOP out for a spin. That’s one of the reasons we post peeks at our jobs board on our Facebook page @voplanetofficial. We know you are curious about the jobs. We’re seeing nice jobs with fair rates. We have turned down some low paying jobs. We are not offering monthly memberships at the moment. We appreciate you letting us know that’s being asked. Great ideas from the vo community are vital to VOPlanet in building our community and setting our path.

Want to know more about the new #VOPlanet casting site? Kevin West answers your questions.
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Ready to Join?

For those of you familiar with me and my coaching, you know that I teach direct marketing. I encourage talent to NOT rely on casting sites to build their client lists and grow their businesses. I also believe that many of the casting sites out there do not have the best interests of talent in mind. Those sites are only interested in building their bank accounts, not yours.

With that said, having heard what Kevin has to say, I feel good about spreading the word about VOPlanet. He knows what he’s doing. He cares about the VO community. He’s trying to create something different. This is a business model I can get behind.

Casting sites still should only be ONE tool in your voice over toolbox, don’t ever forget that. VOPlanet could certainly be one of those tools.

Interested in joining? Visit VOPlanet.com. Membership is currently $199 USD / year.

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An Interview with Kevin West of VOPlanet – Part 1

When word hit the interwebs that VOPlanet.com was returning to the casting site world, the voice over community was buzzing. Everyone wanted to know what the story was. Some talent who had been around for a while recalled VOPlanet from a number of years ago. It was a major player for a season, but then slowly faded away to the background. That is, until Kevin West came in to revive it.

Does the world really need another casting site? After all, it seems like a new one is popping up and asking for our membership dollars just about every week. Well, that’s one of the questions I actually asked Kevin, who was more than willing to answer!

One thing remains prevalent in our industry. After the VCD fiasco, talent aren’t going to trust any site that doesn’t offer transparency and a reasonable level of accountability to the community at large. We also want to know we’re getting fair opportunities at fair rates.

Will VOPlanet deliver? Read on for yourself. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised!

Kevin West of VOPlanet Answers Your Questions

Marc: When the community heard about VOPlanet.com launching (or re-launching) many said, “Oh great. Another pay-to-play.” SO what sets VOPlanet apart from all the other casting sites trying to collect membership dollars? How is it unique?

Kevin: What’s great about your question is it’s the same first question we asked ourselves! How to build a P2P in 2018 is very clear: treat people better. The market very clearly demanded an alternative to the big greedy corporate sites. So, we asked the voiceover community what they felt was wrong with P2P and using that guidance built a voiceover platform that avoids the mistakes the other sites have been making.

My partner Christine Bloxom and I created a professional, transparent, work-direct P2P that’s actively being shaped by the requests and needs of the members.

Marc: Recognizing it’s still early in the launch, approximately how many opportunities a week are being posted on the site. Can you give us an approximate breakdown of male/female, languages and genres of work? What is the goal you’re targeting for the number of postings weekly?

Kevin: We are only in our fourth week and we are seeing jobs posted daily. There are hundreds of voice actors in about six languages split evenly male and female and we are adding members every day. All genres of work have been posted.

Our goal is “everyone works.” We’re working hard to attract better paying clients and jobs. We will push until everyone is auditioning multiple times daily.

Marc: What is VOPlanet doing to protect industry standard rates? Are budgets set or is there bidding? Is there a minimum rate or suggested rate card for voice seekers?

Kevin: We are not only working to protect standard rates, we are working to raise them. Another VOPlanet difference! A BIG difference! VOP created a no underbidding policy. We do not allow bidding lower than the proposed budget, which means no undercutting other voice actors. Think about that. While the big corporate sites have all encouraged a race to the bottom with bidding on voiceover rates for the past 15 years, we said enough.

Times have changed. If you feel the budget for a gig is too low, we encourage you to bid HIGHER than the client’s proposed budget. And you can tell the client why! It’s all built in our auditioning dash. No low bids? Please bid higher? Those are VOPlanet exclusives and our way of protecting rates, making our industry stronger and treating our people better.

Marc: Does VOPlanet do anything to vet talent? Are there any requirements or expectations talent must meet? Or can anyone with a microphone sign up?

Kevin: We are a professionals-only voiceover community. You must be an experienced, working professional with a professional studio. We listen to every demo and look at every vo site of every talent that registers. Expect to be asked to leave if you are not a pro. We’ll point you in the right direction of voice coaches and demo producers if you do not meet the requirements.

Marc: Within the industry, it’s no secret that VDC has an ad budget most can’t compete with. What kind of strategies does VOPlanet have for finding work and bringing opportunity to the site (without giving away any secrets)?

Kevin: VDC also has a reputation that clearly works to VOP’s advantage. We do not require millions in ad money when we have some of the strongest word of mouth networking of any P2P site in history. This at the very same moment the voiceover world is being turned upside down by corruption. Voice buyers and voice actors are searching for an honest alternative and we believe VOPlanet.com is clearly the best choice.

Kevin West of #VOPlanet answers your questions about the new casting site. Read on! #vopreneur
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Part 2 of the Interview

Kevin wasn’t done answering your questions. To see the rest of the questions and his responses, please read Part 2 of the interview available by clicking here.

Please, share this post on your social networks. Click the Tweet Box above or the social share icons to the left.

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What Do I Include In A Casting Site Audition Proposal?

Whether it’s sending an email or writing a note through a casting site platform, few things seem to confound the working voice actor more than trying to figure out what to say… which is kind of ironic, don’t you think? Guess we’re just too used to working off scripts!

I’ve had so many voice actors reach out to me for help with email marketing that I actually made my email templates available for purchase. It makes life easier when you can basically copy and paste. Takes the guesswork out.

But what about casting sites? What are you supposed to include in the little box that allows you to write a proposal with your audition?

Consider the Audience You’re Writing To

First things first… keep in mind audition count.

What I mean by that is, if the audition is unlimited and there are 200 voice actors submitting (not uncommon), what that translates to is, the voice seeker is going to have 200 of those messages waiting for them to be read.

Put yourself in their shoes. Would you have time to read 200 messages? Do you want to read 200 messages?

Your audition proposal needs to be short.

Read that again.

Your audition proposal NEEDS TO BE SHORT.

In your audition note, address the most important questions a client wants answered. #vopreneur
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What To Include In Your Audition Note

Length: If it’s more than a few sentences, I guarantee you it’s not getting read. Your note doesn’t need to resolve all the concerns of the entire project. That can (and will) happen after you book it. So don’t include every last detail and don’t write your life story.

Delivery: The most important question on a clients mind (perhaps only next to budget – which are often set already) is, “how fast can you turn this project around.” Answer this question. Briefly. Can you deliver same day? Within 24 hours? Do you need 48 to turn it around? In one sentence, give an accurate estimate of your delivery time.

Budget: If the project asks for quote, include it. My preference is to just give them ONE number. I’ve received auditions in the past that line list expenses. I don’t care. Most voice seekers don’t either. “My quote for this project is….” That’s it. Say no more in the audition note. You can break it down more thoroughly later, if necessary… after you book the job.

Retakes & Revisions: Clearly and concisely outline your policy for retakes and revisions. “I do not bill for retakes that are due to my read. Revisions as a result of script changes after the final recording will be subject to additional billing based on the scope of work required.” If you’d like to copy and paste that, feel free. That sentence answers the question enough for the sake of an audition. You can dig in deeper together… after you book the job.

Thank You: Call me old fashioned, but I still think it’s a sign of respect to show a little gratitude. It’s something I see happening less and less and that makes me sad. “Thanks for the opportunity and your consideration. I appreciate it.” Something like that is often how I end every note.

Be Thorough | Be Brief

It’s possible to do both. Answer the most important questions the voice seeker is likely to be asking. That’s being thorough. Do it in a couple sentences. That’s being brief. All the rest of the information you want to include, like details about your studio… sorry… but nobody cares. Unless they’re specifically asking for Source Connect or ISDN. In which case, you wouldn’t audition if you didn’t have it. Which means it’s assumed you do have it. Which means you don’t need to tell them.

In other words, just give them the necessary information THEY care about it. Leave the other details to discuss later…

After you book the job! 😉