Abundance is Calling

The EURO VO Retreat just completed its thirteenth iteration, and its first in beautiful Florence, Italy, where we were blessed with a perfect week of cloudless skies and 70+ degree days.

But it was the attendees who did most of the shining throughout the week.

Graced with the incisive insights of agents Wes Stevens of VOX and Jonathan Saul of Stewart, Casting Directors Denise Patierno, Carroll Kimble and Randall Ryan, brilliant Director Jeff Howell, legendary Promo Superstar Joe Cipriano, a large bald shellfish lover, and three attendee-led sessions, the group rose to the occasion and showed off their skills, culminating in the always-exciting Audition Contest won this time around by Nadia Marshall with an exceptional gaming character performance.

The brilliance of the group, however, was not unexpected. From its inception in Barcelona in 2017, to its current format, the EURO VO Retreat has turned into a veritable Chautauqua of learning and growth amongst attendees who are largely already strongly established in the industry and looking for that next edge over the masses. Possibly our most accomplished group to date, this set of attendees were constantly darting from our session content to room 118, which was dedicated to the use of our communal Tri-Booth, assembled by the expert hands of super-tech Patrick Kirchner. Indeed, this retreat probably set a record for the most real-world bookings recorded onsite, with the booth occupied by our pros almost non-stop throughout the week.

This wasn’t lost on our presenters, who quickly picked up on the fact that they were working with a set of premium pro talent who weren’t desperate for a break, but rather excited to see what heights were still available to them to ascend.

And that was my biggest takeaway from the week. Seeing in action the truth that real working pros continue to live every day, and which we have experienced for decades…….that despite whatever fussing the social media algorithms may feed you, dedicated voice actors are still building careers of abundance, where the scarcity mindset has been left in the rear-view mirror through careful and considerate career curation and selectivity that places control in the hands of the actor.

This place where mission-oriented voiceover artists gather to rise to the next peak may seem elitist to some, but such is the mindset of scarcity. To those with the mindset of abundance, the chance to learn from and feed off the brilliance of a select group of masterful pros who still understand that there is always room for growth is aspirational. And it is the mindset that stares mediocrity in the face and says, “you shall not enter here.”

From P2P to Fiverr to AI to whatever the next bogeyman of VO may be, this industry has always defiantly persevered and grown in spite of the chaos of any given era. And it remains, and shall remain, a place where anyone with the true skill and deep dedication to do so can dream of a career that will not just pay the bills, but will allow them to experience abundance, sometimes even in the Tuscan sunshine.