The 80/20 rule. Pareto’s Principle. In it’s most basic form… if you do ten tasks in a given day, two of them will produce 80% of the results.
This rule, when applied to your voice over business can be a game changer. It’s all about focus and working smarter, not harder. About devoting your attention, efforts and energies into the areas that are going to produce the greatest results.
5 Ways To Apply The 80/20 Rule To Your Voice Over Business
1) Genres: There are literally dozens upon dozens of genres of voice over work. Too many people try and dip their foot into them all. For real success, you need to narrow your focus. Pick one or two and crush them!
2) Marketing: Networking. Social Media. Cold Calling. Email Marketing. There are a lot of different ways to spread the word about your voice over services. If you’re doing all of them, take some time to evaluate which ones are most effective. Armed with that data, forget the others and narrow your focus to the proven strategies.
3) Social Media: Nobody has the time necessary to effectively use every social network. There’s simply too many of them. From Twitter to Facebook. Instagram to SnapChat. Youtube to Vimeo. LinkedIn to Google+, and all points in between. Which ones do you enjoy the most? Which ones are you most comfortable with? Own those. Forget the rest. You don’t need to be everywhere. You need to be effective where you’re at.
4) Casting Sites: You can very easily spend thousands of dollars each year to get a membership on every casting site. It seems like a new one is popping up every day, which makes it even harder to figure out where you should be. It’s time to evaluate your casting site memberships. Do the math! How much time do you spend on each one? How many auditions do you submit? How many convert to bookings? How much money are you earning? Pick the top performer. Leave the others behind.
5) Agents: There’s a misconception in this business, particularly among newcomers that says, “he/she who has the most agents, wins.” This is definitely not the case. In fact, odds are, the more agents you have, the more you’ll be receiving the same auditions over and over and over and having to face the awkward task of choosing which agent you’ll submit through, and how you’ll tell the rest about it. It’s not a productive use of your time. Rather than collecting agents, commit to the one that’s the best fit and trust that they’ll send you the right opportunities.
By cutting out all the “stuff” that isn’t working for you, you’re going to have a lot more time to devote to the things that are. That’s a recipe for growth and success!
