Tag: Tips

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One Way To Elevate Your Self Confidence

Being confident is one of the most important building blocks for voice over success. When you’re self confident, it impacts every area of your life and business. You market better. Audition better. Perform better.

What can do you, then, to build your self confidence? In this weeks video I share a tactic that I’ve employed for a couple years now, very successfully, in my own voice over business. It worked wonders for me, and I believe it can for you too!

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Sharing The Secrets To My Success

“You must be nuts,” they proclaim.

“Aren’t you worried people will steal your clients,” they ask?

“I just don’t get it,” they concede.

They’re all commenting on the same subject… why do I share all of the secrets of my voice over success on this blog?

Two Truths About Why I Blog

reap_what_you_sowYou Reap What You Sow: I honestly believe that one of the reasons I’ve been as successful as I have been in my voice over business is because of how open I am with advice, tips and tricks through this blog. Some will call it karma. I call it good stewardship with the gifts, wisdom and abilities I’ve been given.

“Remember this—a farmer who plants only a few seeds will get a small crop. But the one who plants generously will get a generous crop.” 2 Corinthians 9:6

Most Won’t Act: The truth is, even though a couple thousand people read my blog on a weekly basis, I suspect that the vast majority of those readers will never take the advice I share and put it into practice. This could be for any number of reasons from busyness to laziness to disagreement with my writings and all points in between.

Just reading what’s written in these virtual pages, isn’t enough.

Sharing The Secrets To My Success

Am I voicing national commercials on a daily or weekly basis? No. Not even on a monthly basis.

Am I represented by voice over agents in every major market in North America? Haven’t got a single agent.

Am I working exclusively with glamorous corporate clients? No, but I’ve got a few.

Am I six figure voice actor? Not yet… but close enough I can almost taste it.

Will reading this blog and putting everything I write into practice guarantee your success? Not necessarily, but everything I write here is tried and tested in my own business and I’m doing pretty darn good for myself!

Be A Blessing

Open-VaultI have been so blessed in my life and career, not the least of which is the blessing of working from home, working for myself, and doing something that I love… so it doesn’t even really feel like work at all!

The least I can do is share a bit of that blessing with others, in hopes that they they, you, will be blessed too!

So that’s why I share the secrets to my success. Because the more God grants me success in my own business and career, the more it drives me to see others succeed and, hopefully, be a benefit to the voice over industry as a whole!

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How I Achieved 100% Payment in 2013

Tis the season for filing taxes! Oh the joy!

As I was finalizing all of my invoices, expenses, etc… to send off to my accountant, I had to smile at my 2013 books. After all, knowing I was able to collect full payment on 100% of my invoices is a pretty good feeling!

In the voice over business, as with my freelance businesses, achieving 100% payment isn’t always easy. Look in any voice over group on any social network and you’re guaranteed to find talent venting, complaining or seeking wisdom on how to collect on outstanding accounts.

So what’s my secret?

How I Achieved 100% Payment in 2013

Invoice Immediately: This one change I made in 2013 might have been the biggest difference maker! I send an invoice with the final audio. No more waiting for client approval. No more waiting until the project is complete. Essentially… no more giving anyone time to forget about me!

30 Day Follow Up: I follow up on any outstanding invoice after 30 days. The key to this follow up is be polite! Don’t assume because you haven’t received payment the client is trying to screw you. In my experience, that’s never the case. A friendly note reminding them of the invoice, asking if they need you to resend it, and reminding them you’re available for any new work is all it takes!

Choose Clients Wisely: Go with your gut. Trust your original instinct. How many other cliches would you like me to throw at you? Nine of out ten times, you’ll have a sense of whether a client is worth your time or not. Pick bad clients and bad jobs and you’ll suffer. Select great clients and great jobs and you’ll get 100% payment!

Make Payment Easy: This is vital. I accept cheque. I accept PayPal. I accept email money transfers. I accept wire transfers. The more ways you have to get paid, the easier it will be for clients to pay you. Include CLEAR payment instructions in your invoices.

The key to collecting on difficult accounts is to be friendly. Always. Click To Tweet

Be Friendly. Always!

keep-calm-and-be-friendly-8If someone comes at you, what’s your reaction? Get your back up? Does anything productive ever come from that response? Seldom. If ever.

Did I have to chase some invoices in 2013? Of course I did. But I never got nasty. I never dropped threats of collections or legal proceedings or other such things I hear other talent discussing. I always assume the best, give them the benefit of the doubt and remind them how much I enjoyed working with them.

In all cases, for me, it worked!

Here’s hoping to 100% payment for your business in 2014!

For Comment: What techniques do you use for collecting?

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Hard Work Isn’t The Answer

No doubt at some point in your voice over journey someone has told you that in this business you’ve got to work hard. I suppose that statement isn’t entirely incorrect, but it’s also not entirely accurate.

Few things in life come easy. Without effort. Without dedication. Commitment. Time. But “working hard” isn’t necessarily the road to great success.

Consider the individual working two or three jobs just to make ends meat. No doubt they are one of the hardest working people you’ll ever meet. But if hard work truly were the answer to success in business, this person should be basking in wealth and financial freedom, should they not?

Hard Work Isn’t The Answer

targeted focusIn theory, if hard work were the answer to voice over success then the individual that submits 50+ auditions a day, spends 16 or 20 hours a day in the studio, makes 20 phone calls daily, sends 50 prospecting emails daily, and attends every conference and networking event within driving distance should be making big money.

More often than not, that is not the case. More often than not, the individuals working that hard aren’t having much success at all.

Work Smarter

The key is not necessarily in how hard you work. It’s how smart you work!

  • What kind of work do you book most consistently? Figure it out and limit the bulk of your auditions to those jobs.
  • Who are the clients you’ve worked with more than once? Devote marketing effort to those people.
  • When you cold call a studio, first confirm they produce projects in your niche area.
  • When you email studios use the same logic as cold calling.
  • Don’t attend every networking event. Attend the one that fits best with your niche.
  • Choose voice over and business conferences based on the sessions offered that you’re most interested in.

When you narrow your focus and direct your efforts accordingly, you’ll find that you’re able to be much more effective.

Now, you can work hard but smart with a targeted focus and reap the rewards you’re hoping to see!

QUESTION: Do you work hard or smart or both?

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Finding The Right Client

This is going to be one of my shortest blog posts ever. It will also be one of my most important. The lesson I seek to share doesn’t need a lot of words.

Are you ready?

Finding The Right Client

There are two types of voice over clients. The ones you want to work with and the ones you don’t want to work with. How can you tell the difference? Here’s one of the easiest ways…

The clients you want to work with will know that the lowest bid isn’t necessarily the best bid.

QUESTION: Are you finding the right clients?