This last two weeks have been very interesting ones in our industry. A time of great conversations, a few heated debates and a little controversy, courtesy of the practices of a particular Pay To Play casting site.
Don’t worry, I’m not going to rehash all of that today. Although, if you’re interested in getting caught up, read My Thoughts on Pay To Play Casting Sites.
Instead, I want to share with you a few of the conversations I’ve had since this all started and offer an entirely different perspective on the matter at hand.
A Few Conversations I’ve Had This Week
With…
…an influential voice talent and coach who has facilitated some great discussion (and debate) on the subject of casting sites in general. Together we discussed the issue and how to keep the conversations constructive and educational.
…an industry leader and talent about educational opportunities. Teaching and empowering voice actors to market their own business.
…a voice talent that has created a system to use the P2P’s to her advantage to find new opportunities and book new work.
…several voice actors who, in frustration, canceled their casting site memberships as a way of vocalizing their distrust in the new methods being adopted by certain sites.
…a voice talent who feels like they’re looked down upon by their peers because they use casting sites, even though they’re finding great success with them.
…a voice actor who has never used P2P’s and simply couldn’t understand what all the fuss was about.
…several voice actors who want to escape the Pay To Play sites and, as such, have requested to do some one on one coaching with me to help them develop their marketing skills and efforts.
Run Your Own Race
What I loved about every one of these conversations is this… each person I spoke with was in an entirely different place from the others. Each one was working on their own business, doing their own thing, finding their own path, and doing it in a way that worked for them.
Awesome!
Regardless of what’s going on with this casting site or that casting site, here’s what matters most… run your own race!
My race doesn’t involve paid memberships on casting sites. Maybe yours does. Maybe that’s working great for you. Or maybe you’re union. Or you have a dozen agents. Or you make 40 cold calls a day. Maybe you’re a teacher or coach helping new talent find their way. Maybe you’ve been in the voice over industry so long and you’re so well established that you simply laugh at people who engage in these current debates.
All that matters is you run your own race.
Figure out what works best for you and your business and go with it. Don’t worry about what everybody else says to do or not do. What works and doesn’t work. What’s right and what’s wrong.
Educate yourself, for sure. Find a coach. A mentor. Take a class. Read. Learn. Grow.
Then run your own race.
