J. Michael Collins

You’d think Frankenstein had released his monster, given the mobs that have been forming lately in certain parts of the voiceover industry.

 

I’ve been a big proponent of what a genuinely nice industry this is, and in general, that remains very true. We are, as a group, far more supportive and kind than most professions, and that is to our credit.

 

Recently, however, some cracks in our welcoming smiles have been showing.

 

There has long been a subculture of aggressive skeptics in our business. A handful of cynics who see any attempt to offer services to fellow voice actors as suspect. While their acid-tongued snark can be off-putting, they provide a service in their own right, as those who would seek to exploit their fellow VO’s know they have eyes on them, and that shady behavior is subject to being spotlighted. Most of these folks have been around for at least a decade or two, and they’ve seen the good, bad, and ugly of service marketing.

 

Every now and then someone steps forward and, for a time, plays the role of Sheriff. NAVA is filing those shoes in many ways today, helping organize legal help for those who have been misled by Lisa Biggs. I had my turn back when Voices dot com’s original ownership first betrayed our trust and ultimately took them to court, and yet others answered the call when Peter Rofe used his position to victimize women in our industry. It’s a lonely role and one no one would want it for long, but sometimes it’s necessary.

 

Calling out bad behavior and protecting our industry is healthy.

 

What is not healthy, however, is the forming of mobs and attempts at call out/cancel culture based on supposition, conjecture, and just because you don’t like the way someone promotes their services.

 

So, let’s have a look at the right ways and the wrong ways to point out wrongdoing in the voiceover industry.

 

The right way, step 1: Name names

 

Don’t be a coward.

 

If you have a complaint, concern, or worry about the conduct of a fellow VO or service provider, and you feel the need to go public, have the courage to say who you are talking about, and give them a fair chance to respond.

 

The wrong way: Vague-booking, talking around the issue, or framing things in a way that can be associated to particular person without standing up and saying who you are talking about. Also, please don’t use a paean to piety as a place to drop a link to your own coaching services. Because gross.

 

The right way, step 2: Identify a victim.

 

You find a person’s conduct problematic and have named them publicly? Great! Now, who did they harm, scam, or lie to? You? If not, we’re gonna need to know the name of the person or people they DID take advantage of. If the conduct is of a nature like the Rofe incident, and the identities of the victims need to be protected for fear of causing further trauma, the matter is probably best reserved for the courts until formal charges or civil action is taken, but that’s a harder call. Otherwise, a victim and bad act need to be identified.

 

The wrong way, step 2: Inferring malicious intent based upon marketing tactics or language.

 

Yes, there are absolutely many red flags that can be inferred from the way people sell their services. But we discuss those regularly in forums in a general way. NAVA has issued best practices guidelines. And we also need to stop and remember that in a free market economy people may market their services as they please so long as they aren’t engaging in misrepresentation. MANY of the tactics that we as voice actors have come to see as shady are staples of internet marketing and completely common in other fields, and just because someone is aggressive or ubiquitous in their marketing is not ipso facto evidence of bad intentions. Buyer beware, in all things. We have a right to protect each other, but we do not have a right to attack the business of our colleagues without concrete evidence of wrongdoing. The legal system has a term for that: tortious interference….and it’s a good way to find yourself on the wrong end of a civil judgement.

 

Which leads into…

 

The right way, step 3: Show proof, and make sure it’s the real deal.

 

You’ve named the wrongdoer. You’ve identified the victim and/or bad act. Now it’s time to close the deal. Show the email chains, the money trail, the belligerent voicemails and threats, the evidence of promises not kept.

 

If the evidence you post on social media would not be sufficient to close the deal in a courtroom, you are not only acting in a morally questionable manner, you are, again, placing yourself at risk of serious financial liability. Bring. The. Goods.

 

The wrong way, step 3:

 

Posting conclusions about the person you haven’t named and don’t have evidence of having victimized anyone.

 

“They’re a liar.” “They’re a bully.” “They’re cheating people.” “They’re a charlatan.”

 

There’s a legal term for this, too. Libel. And it can also be very expensive.

 

When you attack someone’s reputation in a public forum without the proof to back it up you are not only acting like a high school bully, you are potentially damaging their ability to make a livelihood and feed their family, and you’re also setting yourself up for substantial consequences should they be inclined to defend their integrity in a legal forum. This is the very reason the civil law concept of libel exists. You also run the risk of looking like a fool and a rabble rouser among your peers. So tread carefully.

 

I am proud to be part of an industry that is filled with so many shining examples of kindness and decency. And, keeping it real, I’m glad for the cynics and skeptics and sharp-tongued critics who keep ALL OF US honest. We need those people. And I get that recent events, especially considering that many people were victimized by someone considered by just about everyone to be reputable, have left us a bit raw and uncertain.

 

What we don’t need, however, are people forming posses because someone’s marketing or personality might not mesh with every best practice orthodoxy that we’ve been told is holy writ. Check their credentials. Ask for referrals. Review the offering. Make up your own mind. But unless you have proof of wrongdoing and are willing to name names, maybe think twice before you grab a pitchfork and join a mob, or form one.

 

Someone reminded me recently that trying to be the white knight/hero usually comes off as self-serving and virtue signaling. It’s advice we could all take a dose of.

It’s that time again. To put on the record my Nostradamus-like crystal ball gazing thoughts on what will absolutely, almost certainly, without a doubt probably not happen in 2024.

 

But first, let’s revisit how badly I screwed things up this time last year!

 

GOT IT RIGHT/PRETTY CLOSE

 

I predicted a slowing of new entrants into the business as economics crunched newbie budgets and also that the general decline of rates would slow or stop as fewer new talent began to slow the supply/demand imbalance in certain genres.

 

This feels mostly on target. Many coaches, including myself, saw the VO-curious less likely to pull the trigger and invest in training in 2023, with many taking a long look but ultimately deciding not to make the leap. Interestingly, the high-end of the services business was very strong…..demos, retreats, conferences, workshops….high ticket items were oversubscribed as established or semi-established talent looked to level up. But entry level coaching demand slowed, and I think many people will receive that as good news.

 

Whether or not that directly impacted the second prediction, I’m not sure, but despite many pressures on the industry the one thing that felt like it was moving in a better direction this year were rates. We’re not going back to the ‘90s glory days on pay for broadcast work, but the attrition seems to have stopped, and if anything I saw agents/managers fighting harder than ever and often winning the battle for fairer pay and usage terms, while also actively working to protect us from AI threats. In the online/new world/marketing side of VO, it felt like rates steadied and even started to grow a bit, perhaps with some correlation to the overall socio-psychology pervasive across the globe in 2023 that favored the empowerment of labor over greed.

 

I was wrong about there being a mild recession this year, but the rest of my financial picks were spot on. Inflation is no longer inflating (though the damage has been done, and people remain unhappy at the massive cost increases that resulted from gross mismanagement of the pandemic.) And my financial market forecast is a straight-up “nailed it.” Bumpy start to 2023, flying high at the end. Gonna take a victory lap on that one.

 

I’ll also take a win on my AI prediction. Lots of hand-wringing and discussion. Negligible impact on the bottom line of most VOs. Considering where the discussion was twelve months ago, it feels safe to say that the fear of some immediate AI-pocalypse was overblown. That’s not to minimize potential risk, but the Terminator has not arrived yet by any means.

 

I predicted that the death of crypto was exaggerated and that Bitcoin would nearly double in 2023 from its 2022 end of year low. I’m not dropping money into doggy coins, but this feels like a pretty good call, too.

 

My prediction regarding classic demos remaining the standard with agents/managers/CDs, and samples becoming more important on casting sites feels pretty accurate.

 

As predicted, the union made a stand for voice actors and many others in 2023, and are continuing to pay more attention to the needs of voice talent. They’ll be back with a 5-person entourage at VO Atlanta this year and we’re excited to have them!

 

The prediction of Trump indictments was….accurate, LOL.

 

My prediction of some sunshine returning to VO reads panned out to some extent, especially for female voices, but on the other hand the flat read has morphed into something more detached and distracted, so this is a split decision.

 

2023 was indeed a running social party for VOs, with packed conferences and lots of red carpets. It could have been a better year business-wise, but we definitely had fun being together once again.

 

Okay, I’m feeling pretty good about those ones. What did I completely screw up???

 

BLEW IT/WTF WERE YOU THINKING?

 

No major agency mergers to speak of, with maybe the most interesting moves on the representation front being the elevation of Sumeet Iyengar to the head of Cope Management after his run at CESD, and Kristin Paiva striking out on her own to create a new animation casting company.

 

My Super Bowl picks clearly reflected heart over head, though the Bengals did get pretty close, (and I froze my toes in 15 degree weather in KC watching them lose a nail-biter in the AFC championship game.)

 

Sadly, Putin and Xi remain very much in charge, though Putin did get a little scare over the summer.

 

My presidential front runners pick was a split. Biden remains in top position for the Dems, but DeSantis never caught traction and is fading fast.

 

World peace. Yeah. Not so much.

 

So, looks like 2023 picks performed reasonably, let’s see what the Crystal Lobster says about 2024….

 

INDUSTRY: 2024 will clarify what areas of voiceover are likely to be heavily impacted by AI, and which are likely to feel very little effect. I am more confident than ever that this technology is very little threat to real creative VO, and will largely proliferate in the YouTube, cheap explainer, and perhaps Imaging and Affiliate spaces, where price pressure is always on. Low-end e-learning will disappear, but quality-minded buyers know this tech does not hold the attention of their audiences. Moreover, more and more regulation will be enacted to protect us and society at large, and people will continue to reflexively simply reject the vulgar inauthenticity of generative AI in creative media. If a technology makes a noise in a tech bro’s house, will anyone else hear it? We will see.

 

WORLD: Let’s get that Super Bowl pick out of the way. I’m throwing it back ‘80s style. The feel-good San Francisco 49ers will edge out the flash and dash Miami Dolphins in a down-to-the-wire thriller in Las Vegas.

 

INDUSTRY: Unpopular opinion: Under new ownership/leadership, (not me!) certain casting platforms and training organizations that have had massive reputational issues may begin to turn the corner as they pay more attention to criticisms of their past practices. Watch this space.

 

WORLD: It’s an election year, and what’s fun for political VO’s may be hell for the actual country, but we’ll see. I’m gonna go out on a limb here for a chance at a big win. On Election Day in November, voters will have not two but FOUR high-profile choices. President Biden, Republican nominee Donald Trump, Independent Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and the No-Labels ticket, which I predict will nominate former Maryland governor Larry Hogan for President, and I hope to see Colorado governor Jared Polis as the VP choice.

 

Now, here’s where it gets fun. Nobody wins a majority of the electoral college, which means the Republican House of Representatives picks the President (and the Democratic Senate picks the VP.) You would expect this means a new term for Trump, but in an Earth-shattering bipartisan deal, Larry Hogan agrees to return to the Republican Party and leave No Labels in exchange for a majority of the House throwing the Presidency to him, and in exchange for Democratic support of this maneuver in the House, Senate Republicans agree to support Polis as VP, and the centrist Hogan/Polis administration quickly becomes the most popular in recent history.

 

INDUSTRY: Commercial VO sets records in 2024, with ad spend loosening as the economy improves and $15B spent on political ads.

 

WORLD: Sadly, the rest of the world continues to face dark days. The war in Israel and Gaza escalates to include Hezbollah and Lebanon, Iran gets involved directly or indirectly, and the US and allies strike the Houthis in Yemen as they continue to threaten maritime interests. Violence between supporters of both sides flares elsewhere in the world, with both anti-semitism and anti-Muslim sentiment growing more entrenched. 2024 ends with many more casualties and little prospect of peace as both sides dig in. The danger of massive escalation hovers over the world like the sword of Damocles, with the very real possibility of a nuclear exchange between Israel and Iran. The Biden administration and the incoming Hogan administration continue to strongly back Israel with money and materiel, and China and Russia match that support by supplying those backing the Palestinian cause. The prospect of a long proxy war becomes very real.

 

INDUSTRY: In a world that has grown more serious and dangerous, voices of strength and gravitas begin to grow in demand again, much as they did during the pandemic. For all the wrong reasons, middle aged talent and less-chatty reads have a strong 2024.

 

WORLD: China continues to rattle sabers at Taiwan, but with so much other turmoil is not inclined to invade in the coming year. Distracted by events in the Middle East, Western funding for Ukraine begins to run dry. A truce is inevitably reached with Russia retaining some territorial gains in the East, and both sides declare a form of victory as Ukraine boasts of facing down one of the world’s most massive powers without yielding its core territory, and Russia claims a win having incorporated more ethnically Russian regions of Ukraine back into its territory.

 

INDUSTRY: Facing many of the same issues that caused the strike in 2023, both commercial and interactive deals are made without a strike being necessary, as both sides understand that any outcome of a strike would essentially be a replay of the 2023 version, with too much collateral damage. There are wins and losses on both sides.

 

WORLD: Searching for some good news, housing prices in the USA finally start to come back to Earth, perhaps with a substantial crash at some point in 2024. By the end of the year rents and home prices are down 15% from their peaks, though decreasing interest rates make the prospects for a long term respite short-lived.

 

INDUSTRY: NAVA continues to focus on its core mission of protecting the industry as a whole, helping to craft bipartisan legislation protecting the likeness of artists, including our voices, at the Federal level.

 

WORLD: While instability percolates abroad, America’s pivot to the political center at year’s end ushers in the beginning of a new era that sees moderate voices prevail and a new coming together around common sense ideas for growth, cooperation, inclusivity, and tolerance of diverse perspectives. Extremists on both sides of the ideological spectrum become the subject of deeper skepticism, and we all begin to get along again as the nature of both major parties begins to change in the wake of their rebuke by voters in November.

As VO blog writers go, I’m not particularly prolific. Verbose, perhaps. Long-winded? Maybe. Stentorian? I like fancy words. But, I have the bad habit of not posting stuff unless I have something useful to say, which Anna will tell you is a vanishingly infrequent occurrence.

That said, gather round, for this shall be the first of two final blogs for the year, and before I go into my almost certain to be dramatically wrong New Year’s prediction blog in a couple of weeks, I figured we could start with some things to ponder to orient your voiceover business for success and growth in 2024.

Let’s start by acknowledging that 2023 was probably the most challenging year for most voice actors since the Great Recession, which is the last time I can remember even established VO’s reporting reduced growth and even lower income. Yes, the pandemic hit some segments of the industry hard, but many voice actors situated in the right genre segments had their biggest years in 2020 and 2021, with growth continuing in 2022. 2023, however, was a banner year for few. I’m fortunate to still be up on my 2022 numbers, but more marginally than I’d like. 10% annual growth is my minimum acceptable benchmark, and I won’t hit that this year. I’m closer than I expected after a robust October & November, and there does seem to have been a general uptick in business for many talent over the fall, but 2023 was a bit of a stinker for most, with many talent reporting declining income versus 2022.

Why? Guess what…..the answer is NOT AI. Despite the considerable Chicken Little panic, I know very few VOs who lost jobs to AI voices in 2023, and many, (including myself,) who saw clients experiment with them for a few months and come running back to human when they realized that the need for extra labor in making AI output remotely effective, coupled with inferior quality, was a time-waster and money loser. I raised rates on these buyers, and if you experienced something similar I hope you did, too.

2023 was a wet blanket for some fairly obvious reasons. The WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes had knock-on effects on parts of the industry even unrelated to the work being struck, including non-union work. Couple that with reduced ad spend in general, particular in the OTT space, (  https://mediaradar.com/blog/ott-ad-spend-is-in-a-slump/   ) where over $200 million less was spent in 2023 on ads than in 2022, and you have a setup for a bear market. Moreover, if you work in the non-broadcast narration space, the message from corporate buyers was clear……belt tightening was the order of the day in 2023, largely due to the expectation of a recession coupled with the effects of inflation. Simply put, the squeeze was on in 2023, and voice actors felt it in their bottom lines.

So, what will 2024 bring? Experts are predicting a considerable rebound in ad spend.  https://shorturl.at/gKRUX  Moreover, spending on political ads in the USA election cycle is expected to exceed $15B….yes, fifteen BILLION dollars….meaning those voice actors playing in that arena are in for a strong run. Recession looks less and less likely, and inflation, though not disappearing, is slowing, meaning corporate belt-tightening may slow as well. Many established VO’s and agents/managers I know reported noticeable upticks in general business volume starting right around the first of October, and remaining strong as we approach the holidays. My year-on-year growth was 3% on October 1st and is sitting at 6% now, so there definitely seems to be momentum.

The question is, what can you do to make sure you maximize the opportunities that will come our way in 2024?

EVALUATE YOUR VO ASSETS and PORTFOLIO

Where are you earning? Focus on shoring up relationships in the genres where you are experiencing consistent success, both by providing extra-attentive service to existing clients, and looking to expand your access to at bats in these areas through new relationships and representation in markets where you are not currently covered. Where applicable, up your marketing efforts to focus on the sectors that the market is telling you that you excel at.

Where are you not earning? Consider the areas of VO where you are not consistently booking, and why. Do you need more training? Better demos to gain access? Or is the market simply telling you that certain segments are not your forte? Connect with your coaches, agents, managers, and peers, and if you feel the answer is the latter of these, perhaps focus more on core competencies and reduce time and investment spent on areas that are not panning out.

What do you offer that is attractive to buyers and potential representation? How fresh is your skill set? Remember that delivery trends and “the hot sound” in certain genres often change rapidly. Retail commercial at the national level is undergoing shifts at the moment that are both deeply subtle yet equally substantial, with definitions of “conversational” or “authentic” that were accepted even a year ago possibly feeling stale today. Certain sounds, vibes, styles, and demographic trends are also informing who is booking what. Are you and the people you train with up to date on these latest shifts?

Looking for representation? What are you bringing to the table. Can you show recent quality wins that let an agent or manager know you are booking in the current marketplace? Is your demo game tight and multi-faceted, or do you have dated content/read styles on your reels and only one or two genres with pro reels? Have you taken time to lay the relationship groundwork that might get you a yes over someone else when all else is equal? Are you putting yourself in front of them? Reading for them when the opportunity arises? Getting referrals from people they trust?

ARE YOU DIVERSIFIED?

If I sound like an investment adviser, it’s because VO is a lot like investing…..if you put all your eggs in one basket, they’re likely to all get cracked at some point.

Here are six things you need to be thinking about:

1.) Evaluate your representation situation. Make a plan for gaining the agency rep and/or management that is best suited to your assets and portfolio as described above.

2.) If you play in the commercial world in particular, and other broadcast genres, there are about ten thousand production companies across the USA for you to market to, and even more internationally. Your demos should be finding your way to as many of them as possible each day.

3.) Do you pay to play? If so, are you doing it smartly? For most people the sites have become so saturated that you have to be both exceptional in performance and willing to pay for a more expensive membership (on Voice123 at least) to get traction. The P2P’s were billed for years as a place for VOs to start out and get experience while learning on the job, but the cold truth is that it’s a lot harder to break through on these platforms than it used to be, and if you’re not super competitive and wiling to pay for real access, your chances are limited.

4.) SEO is the new P2P. Huh? Twenty years ago young buyers thought casting through websites was cool and new. Today they think it’s lame to give 20% to a gig economy platform that may be shaving even more off the top that they aren’t aware of. Where are they looking for talent? Search. Does your site rank highly in search when someone types in something generic like female commercial voice actor with a young fresh sound? If not, find experts like the folks at voiceactorwebsites.com to help you.

5.) If you play in explainer video narration, e-learning, corporate/industrial narration, medical narration, political commercials….are you marketing to potential buyers every day? If not, why? This industry isn’t as complicated as it seems. Don’t suck. Understand the tech. And get ears on your voice. Do these three things over and over and you’ll build a business. But if people aren’t hearing you, they aren’t hiring you.

6.) Come out and play. Meetups, conferences, charity galas, whatever…..make friends in the industry. Not only do we actually hire each other a lot more than people discuss, but we also uplift, support, and refer each other all the time. You don’t build a circle of friends to use them, but your circle of friends WILL bring you opportunities. It’s what friends do.

So, are you doing a mix of all of these things? Or are your huevos exposed to single-basket risk? No one likes exposed huevos.

ARE YOU PLAYING IN GROWTH SECTORS?

Let’s be real. Some parts of the business are healthier than others.

Movie trailers are slowly fading away as a VO artform. Game trailers are increasing, with a more equal mix of male and female voices.

Imaging and Affiliate work is becoming more and more susceptible to cost cutting and interference from AI.

Explainers are growing a little stale, and E-Learning is still a great place to play but maybe isn’t exploding like it was 5 years ago and at the start of the pandemic.

On the other hand, Corporate Narration and Commercials are steady, Political ads are going nuts, In-Show Narration, Promo, and Animation are as sexy as ever, and Gaming work is going through the roof in terms of volume.

Are you positioned for growth sectors, or clinging to areas that are fading? If the latter, do you have a plan to pivot?

WHAT NEXT?

I’m optimistic for 2024. The strikes are over, at least for now. Commercial spend is coming back. Political season is rocking and rolling. Recession seems less likely so corporate spend may loosen. AI has so thoroughly spooked a great deal of the general public that it is facing substantial headwinds in the form of simple resistance, potential legislation, and risk aversion on the part of corporations that worry about exposure to liability. And the fact is that it’s still mostly in the uncanny valley. That doesn’t mean we should bury our heads in the sand, but we also need not run around like decapitated poultry.

VO in 2024 has the potential to rebound strongly. Are you ready?

 

Another day, another city.

I’m typing this from a lovely hotel suite in Miami where I’m about to host another round of my Get Your Voice Elected political commercial workshop. Tomorrow, I head to Cartagena, Colombia to appear as a speaker at the Viva Voz conference, which I believe is Latin America’s biggest voiceover event. This trip has also taken me to Cincinnati, and New York.

A Twitter commenter, seeing a 5AM shot of me on another piece of American Airlines metal, wondered, “how do you find time to record?”

It’s a great question. More to the point, how do I find time to maintain a thriving VO career, which still accounts for around 70% of my income, when I’m hopping around the world doing workshops, running conferences, and generally living the Life of Riley?

Ten years ago, this wouldn’t have been possible. Yes, I traveled and did events even then, but I either schlepped a bag full of gear or, in many cases, just lost out on work. And, don’t get me wrong. When I’m traveling around today, I do pass on auditions that aren’t high-dollar or aren’t red hot demands from agents/manager/buyers, and I do often turn down smaller jobs when I’m on the road.

However, I have a tool today that I did not have ten years ago that more than makes up for it. My website.

Yes, I did have a website ten years ago, and a good one. But it was not nearly as visible as the one I have today. My original designer did a great job, and my first SEO guy got the ball rolling to where I popped up on page one of search from time to time, but it was never a priority or major investment. About 6-7 years ago, when I decided it was time for a thorough redesign of my website, I had a domain authority in the high teens or low twenties. Now, I’m speaking as an educated layman here, but your domain authority is essentially the measurable metric of credibility that Google and other search engines assign to your website, and it affects how highly you rank when someone searches for things that are matches for your content or business. You can see yours at https://ahrefs.com/website-authority-checker

So, six or seven years ago, with a domain authority in the high teens or so, I popped up reasonably early in some searches, later in others, and was landing a buyer or two per week through my website, which is functionally a voice actor’s storefront. Not bad, but certainly not enough to keep up with the work I booked through agents, other rosters, casting platforms, and marketing. It was a nice extra.

When I first reached out to Joe Davis and Karin Barth at voiceactorwebsites.com it was mostly about freshening up the look of my site, which they did an amazing job of. But, I quickly came to realize that their true killer app is their understanding of search engine optimization and helping make my page rank highly.

After a process of refreshing and rebranding the site, we turned our attention to search. Ultimately, I settled on a monthly budget of $1,500 for SEO, including acquiring backlinks that would help give my site more authority and credibility. I’ll be having Joe on a Gravy for the Brain workshop in October to talk about what all that means in more detail, but the bottom line is that the skill of my SEO team and the investment I’ve made have lead to my domain authority more than doubling, to what at last check was a robust 42 (out of a possible 100.) Consider that billion dollar companies and institutions typically rank in the 90s, and the top casting platforms, with tens of millions of dollars behind them, are in the 70s, and that gives you an idea of what a domain authority of 42 means for an individual voice actor.

This also coincided with a very distinct shift in the way younger buyers are hiring voice actors.

We are in the midst of the second casting revolution. Almost twenty years ago, online casting platforms popped into existence and changed much of how the game is played. Today, for the first time, they are in decline, either running fewer jobs through their platforms or experiencing far slower aggregate growth than in the past. This is because younger buyers have shifted their preferences when it comes to hiring voice actors.

Having been nibbled to death by extortionate commissions and fees on casting sites, and having grown up being subjected to unfair labor practices by gig economy companies, greedy landlords adding more fees and charges to their rent, out of control tipping culture, and service fees for walking across the street or just existing, today’s 25-35 year-olds are tired of everyone having a hand in their pocket. So, over the past 5 years, they have started to come directly to us and have actively begun bypassing any and all middlemen, including casting platforms which were popular with this age group when they first appeared in the mid-2000’s. As such, voiceover artists with sites ranking highly in search have been seeing an exponential increase in traffic and business.

Seven years ago, I booked an average of a job or two per week through my site with around twenty unique visitors per week. Today, with nearly twenty unique visitors per day, (and most of these being LA and NYC IP addresses,) my website is acting as a spiderweb that is collecting on average almost two bookings at market rates DAILY. And with this, I’ve discovered a newfound freedom.

Today, I’m working from storefront brick and mortar pro studios more than at any time since the early 2000’s. I was on a workshop tour in Seattle when one of my more recent big national jobs came in a few weeks back, and I popped in, banged out about a dozen spots and several dozen tags, took the opportunity to hit a couple high-priority auditions, and then went to a 1PM Mariners game because Wednesday. This is becoming more and more standard operating procedure. Landed in Cincinnati this past weekend for another workshop, and hit a friend’s studio before I even checked into the hotel, (thanks, Bobbi!) Workshop Saturday, Bengals game Sunday, then on to Miami and beyond, with more studio stops along the way to handle the work that comes in, and no terror over missing small or medium-sized opportunities. And all because my own storefront, my website, is doing the work for me after a concerted period of effort and investment into making it a booking engine. It’s like I’ve reverse-engineered a voiceover career from days gone by, where we weren’t tethered to home studios or bags of gear. It’s incredibly liberating.

The best part? YOU don’t need a $1,500/month budget. Joe and Karin recommend $500 as a good monthly SEO budget to move the needle, but even less will get you started. If you’re voice is more niche, or your genre focus less broad, you can find yourself ranking in search even more quickly, especially in undersaturated genres like political commercials and medical narration.

Whatever your budget or ability to invest both time and effort, there’s no denying that the industry is once again undergoing a substantial shift in casting habits, and your web presence will drive your ability to compete in the future. What are you doing to make that happen?

 

 

 

 

We live in the golden age of voiceover training and information. To the extent that many sometimes view the abundance of choices and advice as confusing and occasionally almost too much. But as someone who began in an era when training for VO hardly existed outside of LA and NYC, (and even then not at all in abundance,) and adopted the DIY mentality at the inception of the first casting revolution, when we were all figuring it out on our own, I can tell you, the abundance of information is a blessing for new talent.

 

Once you find the paths and strategies that work for you, it’s up to you to implement them consistently and effectively. Do so, and if you have the performance skills, (and EVERYONE needs to be cold-eyed and frank with themselves about their ability level and position in the marketplace as it pertains to demand for their sound and their access to opportunities,) and the technical chops, chances are you’ll find some measure of success in the industry.

 

That said, there are things that come with achievement, regular business, financial gain, and recognition among your peers that aren’t discussed frequently enough. This post is meant to shed a little light on what you’re in for if and when things start to come together for you.

 

1.) Taxes and Financial Planning

 

Until you’re earning income similar to that from any other full time job your tax situation probably won’t take any dramatic turns, but voiceover success can come more quickly than some people expect. I’ve seen talent go from booking occasionally to a healthy six figure income in a matter of months if they are lucky enough to get a string of big wins in short succession.

 

This naturally feels like cause for celebration, and it is, but it’s also a time for caution on a couple of levels.

 

First off, if you just jumped from a modest five figure income to a healthy six figure one, and are self-employed, you’re about to get the hammer dropped on you come filing time. Around a third of your income will go to federal tax, as much as ten percent to state tax depending on where you live, and then there’s self-employment tax on top. Common advice is to set aside a third of what you make, but if you start stringing wins together quickly, you’d be better advised to put 50-60% of it to the side for safety sake. Chances are you’ll wind up with something left over if you do, whereas if you’re not careful you might be looking at a shiny new car in your driveway and a tax bill you suddenly can’t afford to pay.

 

This leads to point #2: Live Below Your Means

 

Now, if you’re one of my Facebook friends you might be going, “JMC, come on man, do you make a dollar you don’t spend?” We love travel and playing as hard as we work, and while we have a rule against posting “things,” we love sharing our experiences, (or if you hear certain messianic meatheads tell it, “flaunting wealth.”) But the truth is that for every dollar that puts a piece of lobster on a fork or an airplane seat under our butts, there are two that go in the bank. It’s how we‘ve lived since day one, and it’s why we’re now able to do many of the fun things we do as a family.

 

I had the awful experience of witnessing people dear to me light the world on fire in their careers and blow it all living like they earned twice as much as they did, only to wind up in their later years scratching out a meager existence on social security. Don’t be that person. If success starts to come your way, avoid the temptation to want to live as though your current income level is permanent and never-ending.

 

Which leads to point #3: That gold-plated gig that is making your year, (or years,) is going to go away.

 

Once you hit a certain level of access, you’re gonna land some whales. Jobs that are regular and outsized paydays. It’s not unusual to find one client accounting for 25-50% of your income if you hit a big one. Best advice: Pretend that job doesn’t exist at all.

 

When you are earning a substantial portion or a majority of your income from one voiceover client, it’s easy to think you’ve now graduated to a new income level. But the hard truth is that the job that is feathering your nest so beautifully right now is very likely going to go away sooner rather than later, no matter how well you’re performing or how iconic your role is.

 

Today’s VO and media marketplace moves faster than ever. Attention spans are shorter than ever. And what’s hot right now is very unlikely to stay that way for long. There can be exceptions of course, but if you have an outsized client who represents a large share of your earnings, your best bet is to base your lifestyle around the amount you earn without them, and treat what they contribute as a long-term security buffer. Don’t be the talent earning $250K today who loses one client and is down to $100K and struggling to pay a mortgage based on that larger number.

 

#4: Don’t buy in to your own bullshit.

 

We are all capable of running afoul of this one, and I’m no exception.

 

When things are going well and the stars seem to be aligning it’s easy to believe you’ve got things figured out and you can do no wrong professionally.

 

But the market will always check your reality. That big league agent you’ve been leaning on for years might move somewhere else and the new team may look at your skill set differently. The market itself may move away from your signature reads or demographic. The tricks and techniques you’ve been employing effectively for years might start to be less effective as more people adopt them and your strategy becomes saturated. Coach? Teach business? Produce demos? Eventually you won’t be the hot new thing anymore.

 

When things that have always worked stop working so well, do you have a plan to pivot? A plan B, and C, and D? If not, you may find that growth you were used to declining. And then maybe your business won’t be growing at all. Always have a “what’s next” in mind, and be ever attentive to trends and your brand itself. I’ve watched too many legitimate industry stars fade away because they just assumed the same old thing would always sustain them. The only constant is change.

 

#5: You’re gonna have haters

 

We celebrate the voiceover community as a special assemblage of kindhearted and unusually charitable people. And it is. I can’t imagine another industry where the vast majority of those involved genuinely care for and look out for each other the way we do in this business.

 

But success, especially if it’s visible, will always breed resentment in some. I’m a student of politics, but I’d probably make a shitty politician, because nothing wounds me more than knowing some people just plain don’t like me. That said, it’s something you need to prepare for if you choose to discuss your work publicly and/or begin to take part in industry events as a speaker, presenter, or expert once you’ve achieved whatever level of success you believe justifies stepping into a more public role.

 

I’m happy that I can count most of the people who hate my guts on one or two hands. I like to think that’s a product of an intentional effort to treat people the way I’d like to be treated, but it’s not a guarantee of immunity. Even a few folks I once sincerely counted as friends haven’t taken real well to one element or another of how I present myself, and I’ve lost relationships I genuinely cherished.

 

Most of the folks who express their dislike for me have reached that place after they’ve been removed from my life for repeated disruptive behavior or abuse of myself, my family, my events, or those I care about or employ. I have zero tolerance for that kind of behavior, especially when it threatens the well being of attendees of conferences and other events I’m involved in. It’s okay for you to set firm boundaries too.

 

Others aren’t pleased that I’ve cut ties, and in some cases pursued causes of action, after they’ve engaged in dishonorable or unethical conduct. Some just don’t like to see people loving life and having a good time, and are prone to resent those who do. And on occasion you get one who uses attacks on others in the business as a cynical means to create a following based on discontent and grievance, hating on anything that looks like a celebration of our community.

 

In all of their own minds, except perhaps the last type, these folks probably feel perfectly justified. As we’ve seen over the last decade, it’s easy to construct realities based in alternate facts, and those living in alternate realities would probably suggest the rest of us are doing the same.

 

In the end, this is the price of visibility, even in an industry as comparatively gentle as ours. There will always be politics and grievance. If you are in a place where you are thinking of stepping out to where the industry will take notice of you, be ready to reap your fair share of haters, no matter how hard you try to avoid doing so.

 

But never forget that the kindness and decency of this community is in fact the real deal. For every bad pineapple there’s a Carin Gilfry, a Marc Scott, a Dave Fennoy, and a Debra Wilson. We are only as good as the best of us, and the best of us….are pretty damn special.

 

I recently came across a discussion in one of the online forums about a trend on one of the super-low-budget casting platforms: voice actors having their human-voiced work rejected by the buyer because the buyer believes it was created with an AI voice model.

Now, I make it my purpose to stay abreast of conversations in all corners of the industry, and even though the platform in question is not one where I participate, the discussion raises a larger point.

As synthetic voice technology improves, there will naturally be voice actors who look at deploying a voice clone to perform auditions, (especially on casting sites and for other lower-budget work,) and even actual jobs, as a means of improving efficiency and maximizing revenue and productivity. In fact, there has already been discussion of this being done on more mainstream platforms like Voice123 and others.

Which, of course, begs the question: Is it ethical?

The discussion regarding the super-low-budget platform centered around a growing dissatisfaction among buyers, (and mind you this is occurring in the micro-budget space, so one can only assume that the reaction would be amplified among higher-dollar buyers,) with voice actors trying to game the system with voice models. Apparently this is so prevalent that even actual human-voiced work is now falling under suspicion.

This is telling, of course, as if even Fiverr-level buyers are rejecting synthetic voices then all of the industry panic may well be even more of an overreaction than I’ve previously suggested.

More importantly, though, it leads to a dilemma with regard to the morality of using AI voice clones to audition for jobs or deliver them without clearly disclosing this is what one is doing.

Here’s what bodalgo CEO Armin Hierstetter had to say when I asked for a comment for this article:

So, I ask, what do you think? Is it ethical to audition with a voice clone without disclosing it? Should casting sites ban the practice?

Leave your comments below!