J. Michael Collins

Keeping the Fire Burning: 3 Tips to Stay Motivated as a Voice Actor

Being a small business owner is rewarding in many ways, but finding the motivation to keep doing the little things that make a business successful can be challenging. As voice actors, people see our big wins splashed across their TVs, tablets, and movie screens, yet the daily grind is invisible. Here are a few voiceover motivation tips to keep your head in the game when the weight of business building starts to feel heavy on your shoulders.

1.) Have a routine, and stick with it.

If your workday has an established flow, it’s easier to get into a rhythm and feel as though you are operating at a high level. My days start with a check of my email and social media, a shower, and breakfast. Them I’m into admin. I clear my inbox before anything else, starting with messages that simply require a reply. Next are client projects that can be cleared quickly. Commercials, short narrations, promos, etc…. get done in the early part of my day. Then I clear priority auditions from agents, management, and existing clients/rosters. After this I have my task list, which includes invoicing, handling requests from coaching and demo clients, demo scripting, and other admin. Now I’m several hours into my day, and live sessions will dominate the rest of my time, while I handle emails and urgent auditions in the short gaps between sessions. Short breaks for lunch and dinner, lather rinse repeat the next day. This clear and consistent process allows me to keep my deck clear and my inbox as close to zero as possible throughout the day, so things don’t pile up. It also allows me to ease in and out of my week and avoid working weekends as much as possible.

2.) Build in downtime.

I’m a grinder. I go hard in the middle of my week with few breaks, but I intentionally book Mondays and Fridays as light as possible, and I don’t work weekends. I cram 50+ hours into the middle of my week, but that allows a lot of planned 3 and 4-day weekends, and I plan several weeks throughout the year to simply book out. Golden handcuffs clients can interfere with this, but if you build in downtime and stick with it, you’ll have something to look forward to as you are in the whirlwind, which will keep you motivated.

3.) Your income starts at ZERO every month.

I track my numbers religiously, but the number that I keep front and center on my tracking sheet is how much I’ve earned this month. For newer talent, seeing that number climb will often motivate you sufficiently, but for established talent looking at the number you’ve earned so far versus your needs/expectations for monthly income based on past performance helps to gamify the work experience, and adds motivation. No matter how much you’ve earned so far in a given year, seeing a small number staring at you on the second or third….or tenth! of the month can be enough to keep the fire under your ass burning and motivate you not to rest on your laurels or the expectation of repeat business.

Leave your comments below and let us know how YOU stay motivated!

Negativity Bias in VO Media: Why the Industry is Doing Just Fine

by J. Michael Collins 10 Comments

There has been lots of research over the years in the retail and service industries showing that consumers are more likely to post reviews about and share negative experiences than positive ones. Psychology suggests that this comes from a negativity bias in VO media. It tends toward reporting negative outcomes over positive ones because we tend to simply expect the positive, and feel wounded when those expectations are not met.

Similarly, there has been much written about a similar bias in news media, the, ” If it bleeds it leads,” mantra that negativity gets more eyeballs than positivity. Open any news site, from any perspective, (and let’s be honest, there aren’t many objective ones anymore, are there?,) and you’ll be served heaping portions of what’s wrong with the world today, with perhaps a small side dish of feel-good for balance.

Unfortunately, the voiceover industry is not immune to this phenomenon. Whether in the form of social media, blogs, webinars, or other interactive engagements, we are exposed to a daily barrage of whatever the latest VO outrage may be. Fiverr and P2Ps are fun punching bags. Lately, fear of AI has spread faster than hungry fleas at a dog party. Tomorrow, it will be something new.

Moreover, sorting through VO social media is like navigating a sea of, “Why am I not booking?,” “This client ripped me off,” or, “My agent/manager/Keeper of the Jobs/whatever is screwing me over.” Cream doesn’t rise to the top. What floats in a commode does.

When legitimate, and many of them are, these complaints should never be dismissed…….but, they risk portraying what remains one of the best parts of the entertainment industry in an undeservedly unflattering light. Especially when the noisiest voices are often the ones least invested in the industry in terms of daily client engagement and bookings.

Here’s the actual truth: Not much has changed in the last 5 years or so.

The people who book consistently are still booking consistently. Indeed, many established talent reported 2020 to be the strongest year of their careers, as non-broadcast narration seemed to double in volume and commercial defied expectations and grew in the middle of a pandemic. And many of these same talent are seeing no drop off in 2021 after unprecedented year on year growth. Go ahead…ask any of the pros you know who book regularly what their 2020 looked like compared to 2019. Many have kept quiet what a substantial growth year 2020 was out of respect for those in other industries who were ravaged by the lockdowns, but the bottom line is that VO thrived to the point that agents and managers across the country were hustling to get their on-camera and theater actors trained up in the one side of the business that was still booking. We’ll likely, (and hopefully,) never see a year with that kind of forced growth again, but even just maintaining or slowly growing those gains in 2021 and beyond will take many talent to a whole new place in their career.

Newer talent had a rough ride at the start of the pandemic, but by the end of the summer agents were encouraging submissions and the additional work was starting to spill over. There was and continues to be a flight to familiarity among clients, but there’s more work today than there has ever been, and despite growing numbers entering the field, there are only so many with the requisite natural ability and training to book consistently….and, eventually, many of them do.

Has competition and the dominance of the home studio pushed down commercial rates? Absolutely, especially at the high-end. Local and many regional spots and campaigns remain largely static compared to 5 and 10 years ago, but there’s no question that nationals pay less than 5 years ago, frequently with more versions and lifts attached, and significantly less than 15-20 years ago. Nevertheless, savvy talent have become strong negotiators, and the savviest are making up for anything lost on national rates by feasting on the unprecedented volume of commercial work that new media has introduced. Over time, the very concept of a national commercial will likely fall away into geo-targeted micro-campaigns that may even feature multiple talent reading the same spot and distributed to different parts of the country. Commercial will continue to evolve into a volume game, but those who play the game well will be rewarded for their persistence.

The same is NOT happening in Corporate/Industrial, E-Learning, Explainer, and Medical Narration. Will AI eat some of these jobs? You bet! But there is absolutely no sign of some sort of apocalyptic singularity in which every buyer suddenly embraces Skynet. As with commercial voice over, there is more work out there than quality talent to do it, and those who book continue to book, and in many cases more than ever. Funny thing about busy voices is that they don’t have time to engage in the chattersphere every day, so you just may not hear them as much.

And heavily union and LA/NYC genres like Promo, TV/Documentary Narration, Animation and Video Games are doing just fine, as much of this work continues to be controlled by an iron guard of serious gatekeepers who won’t yield on the rates set by SAG/AFTRA.

If you’re terrified of robots, Fiverr, or P2P, there’s an easy solution: Cultivate the kinds of clients who are not attracted to such outlets. You’ll be surprised to find how many of them are out there.

Folks, the fact is that the voiceover business is doing swell. If that’s not your reality….your best bet might be to spend more time upgrading your performance game, sharpening your auditioning skills, improving your sound, and tuning out the negativity bias that pervades so much of our media.

Will the industry look different in 5 more years? Probably. But chances are it will look far less changed than you might think.

Poker Face: Why You Always Have to Project Confidence in a Voiceover Session

by J. Michael Collins 4 Comments

Voice acting can be a struggle. Training, investment, hours and hours of auditioning and marketing. It’s tough. Eventually, though, it can start to pay off. Before you know it, there you are, face-to-face with paying clients from major corporations who are looking to you to bring their message to the masses. It’s intimidating. Like a professional athlete, singer, or stage actor, the spotlight is on you, it’s your voiceover session. It’s time to perform.

And then….suddenly….you have marbles in your mouth. Lots of marbles. It’s practically a game of Hungry Hungry Hippos. And the butterflies in your stomach are flying in formation like insectoid Blue Angels threatening to cause the marbles to depart your mouth in a most inglorious fashion. You’re sweating. They’re looking at you. You start your first read and halfway through…..word salad.

How you react in that moment will define your client’s impression of you. Will you catch your breath and seamlessly hit a pickup? Will you show your fear and apologize? Will you run screaming from the studio in utter panic?

As a coach, demo producer, and commercial producer I have directed a lot of talent. Over time, I have come to see a pattern among the ones who make it versus the ones who don’t. Surprisingly, it doesn’t have as much to do with actual ability and hustle, (both of which are, of course, very important,) as it does with confidence, or at least the ability to project it.

When you are hired and find yourself in a live-directed environment, more and more of which take place with an on-camera component these days as clients are increasingly moving to Zoom and other video platforms to conduct sessions, even if the audio is going through SourceConnect, you are in both an enviable and vulnerable position. Most live-directed sessions pay well. Typically at least close to a thousand dollars, and frequently many thousands. Looking at you are people who would sell their beloved puppy to earn several thousand dollars in thirty or sixty minutes. Most people don’t understand the life of a voice actor…they just see someone with a $5,000 an hour price tag who better be freaking amazing. You’re gonna get a solid payday from your session, but you are now in the dangerous position of providing a high-priced service that is extremely subjective and intangible when it comes to defining quality. You have to own your value.

In a session, WE ALL MAKE MISTAKES. We have good days and bad days. There are good directors and bad directors. There’s good writing and bad writing. You are GOING TO fumble words, slur something, have mouth noise that sounds like Churchill’s bulldog, and otherwise suck from time to time. It’s normal. We aren’t machines.

How you handle these hiccups, however, will often determine whether or not you get hired again by that client.

There are two kinds of voice actors. Those who look at the mic and say, “I hope this goes well,” and those who look at the mic and say, “Wait ’til they see what I can do.” In my experience, the latter find themselves booking far more often than the former.

With your clients, you always want to be respectful, courteous, customer-service-oriented, and professional. With the mic? You need SWAGGER! Blew a word? No worries. Take a beat and hit that pickup like the star you are. On take 10 of a three word script? Make a joke in a cartoon voice and then hit that next ABC like it’s fresh. Client over-direction driving you nuts? Smile, and dance monkey dance. It’s their time. But whatever you do, DO NOT apologize. Do not ask if, “that was okay?” Do not say, “This doesn’t usually happen.” And do not ever show uncertainty on your face.

It’s your job to make the client comfortable that you’ve got things under control, even if you’re panicking inside. Put on your poker face. Project confidence. You can ask a question if you are unsure about their direction, but ask it clearly and concisely and without hesitation. When you screw up, instead of saying, “I’m sorry,” you say, “I’ll take that from the top,” then hit it again. Be the pro, at all times, and the client will respect you and see your value. Show fear, and you lose your credibility.

It doesn’t always take a straight flush to win the hand. Sometimes it’s enough to make the rest of the table BELIEVE you’re holding the winning cards.

Lead with Gratitude

by J. Michael Collins 4 Comments

The voiceover industry isn’t perfect. It’s filled with the same little professional hassles and internal squabbles that any field faces. Some of these challenges are more important than others and don’t necessarily deserve to be dismissed. Nevertheless, as people who get to do this work professionally, we should always stop to count our blessings. To lead with gratitude works; it has always carried me past even the most gnawing VO irritations.

Here are a few things I’m grateful for:

Agents

I’m grateful to have great representation in numerous markets. I am not the least bothered if the occasional job is sent to me that I’m not a good fit for or if jobs are duplicated among multiple agencies. I have agents who curate auditions just for me and others who blast the firehose into my inbox. I book with both, and every single agent I have has proprietary work that I don’t see anywhere else.

I’m grateful to be on their rosters in times when agents are fighting harder than ever to uphold rates and feed their own families. The inconvenience of getting an audition for a Hungarian female with a falsetto voice is a small price for having access to quality paying work.

Newbies

I love new talent. I love their enthusiasm, their energy, and their excitement. Do they ask many of the same questions privately and in public forums? Sure. And I think it’s great. The fact that they consider our opinions as pros to having some value is rewarding after putting a quarter of a century into this business. Nothing will dampen the enthusiasm of new talent faster than being ridiculed for a dumb question or being shouted at to use the search tool instead. Noobs, ask away. I’m grateful you think I have advice worth listening to.

Conferences, All of Them

From VO Atlanta to VOcation to One Voice to MAVO and That’s Voiceover and all the others, I’m grateful that the organizers make it their mission to create places where industry colleagues can congregate and learn. The enthusiastic reception, even for virtual content in the middle of a pandemic, is a testament to the quality that these events offer and the need among our tight-knit community to come together, whether in person or remotely, to celebrate what we do.

And I’m grateful to all the presenters. The veteran sages we see at almost every event because their wisdom is too valuable not to have them on the marquee, and the new blood that continues to join the ranks of VO educators each year, offering fresh takes and diverse perspectives that dovetail with the changes taking place in our industry and society.

Clients

Even the demanding ones who dump volumes of work on you the day before vacation, or need just one more ABC, or want you to sound “like Don LaFontaine, but conversational.”

You pay our bills, and in the end, the customer is always right. I’m grateful you value my performance, and I’m dedicated to rewarding that confidence with quality.

The Competition

Otherwise known as our colleagues, for being brilliant at what you do in whatever part of the industry you work and for pushing me to be better at everything that I do so that I can keep up.

Family

For reminding me what this is all about. Not money, visibility, or even the satisfaction of a job well done…….but knowing that another day in the booth is another day that they are taken care of and seeing their smiles as a reward for a hard day’s work.

Gratitude.

It’s so tempting to find frustration in the things we do. To lash out at those who annoy us with their actions or sensibilities. To engage in call-out culture and clubby backbiting.

Leading with gratitude isn’t the easiest choice. But after more than twenty-five years, it is one big reason I wake up each morning pinching myself…..wondering if I really do still get to do this for another day.

A Marine’s VO Journey: Paul Matthews

by J. Michael Collins 4 Comments

Today I turn the blog over to the United States Marine Corps veteran Paul Matthews, to talk about how his service prepared him for his voiceover career.

I was elated to be asked to contribute to J. Michael Collins’ blog, especially on such an important day for Americans and Veterans worldwide.

You see, this holiday is a unique one. Rather than honor the veterans surviving, this holiday honors those who made the ultimate sacrifice. This concept, this ideal, is one many folks can never truly comprehend. For it is the reason we service people and veterans sweat, train, and desire to fight for our country. And if the sacrifice is such that we do not make it home, it’s ok. We know what we signed up for. Veterans just ask two things; One, let no sacrifice be in vain, and two, NEVER FORGET. So… on this holiday, this old Marine asks that you never forget. EVER.

I joined the U.S. Marines right out of high school, to escape my small-town existence. What a world did I discover! I learned the true meaning of hard work, teamwork, and brotherhood in the Marine Corps. I learned to rely on that person that was a stranger just weeks ago and whom I now call my brother. I saw the seeds of hard work grow into a disciplined, focused U.S. Marine. It was then life truly began. Although those lessons seemed harsh or even hidden, I look back on the foundation that built the man I am today.

However, do these lessons weave into the fabric of today’s endeavors in the voice-over world? Actually YES. Quite easily.

Determination: “Good timber does not grow with ease. The stronger the wind, the stronger the trees” – Thomas Monson

When we start our voiceover journey, we learn that there is much more to voiceover than having a ‘good voice.’ How much formal training should I have? When will I be ready for a demo? In the military, determination is the name of the game. Despite the obstacle in front of me, a tower, a forced march, or even an unidentifiable enemy, WE MUST PUSH ON. Only determination and sheer will help us succeed. Voiceover is no different; focus and determination will see me through. This attribute has been burned into my soul thanks to my military training.

Planning: “Plans are nothing; Planning is everything.” Dwight D. Eisenhower

In my job in the Marines, we facilitated the movement of troops and supplies over Sea, Land, and Air. It was our duty to ensure our troops, their vehicles and supplies got to the fight, no matter where it was. In voice-over, you must also plan. You must set goals and dreams, obtainable stepping stones to define your own success. We had to define the goal, then plan backward to make it happen. Just like voice-over. What is your goal? How are you going to achieve it? Take definable steps toward your goal. Make a plan. Blaze your path to success.

Comradery: “Hardships often prepare ordinary people for an extraordinary destiny….” C.S. Lewis

The Marine Corps boasts the largest fraternity in the world. It is true. No matter age, location, race, or gender, any Marine is part of the fraternity. Even as I write this, my phone buzzed with a message from a brother Marine I served with thirty years ago checking in and saying, ‘I am thinking of you today.’ I have heard from three different Marines this weekend. All are part of a fraternal organization that sees only green and refers to one another simply as “Marine.” The voice-over community is the most similarly connected group to this mentality I have ever seen. I have met talent from all over the world. People I’ve never shaken hands with but affectionately call “friends.” The VO community welcomes one and all; we are here to aid each other and root for each other. I’ve never been a fast runner. I hate running. However, I’ve had my brother finish a three-mile run and turn around and run it with me, urging and rooting me on the whole way. In VO, you’ll never starve for support. We are here to lift up, root on, and build confidence in each other.

I spent thirty years doing what I was trained to do in the Marine Corps but in the civilian world. When I left the service, I thought I had left my fundamentals and training behind. But as I have found out, every step along our journeys may be different but still the same. We need DETERMINATION, PLANNING, and COMRADERY to find our way in voice-over. And thankfully, our community is with us every step of the way.

Paul Matthews

USMCR 1988-1994

www.paulmatthewsvo.com

Fortune Favors the Bold: Taking Chances with Your Performance

by J. Michael Collins 6 Comments

Twice in the past week, I’ve seen the power of bold, even edgy, performance choices on the part of voice actors validated by industry gatekeepers. In one case, a demo client who has a signature snark was signed by a sought-after agent who proactively reached out after hearing his demo that led with a two-bleep beer commercial as the first spot. In the second instance, Executive Producer Kelsea Seavey of Oberland in New York encouraged voice actors attending a GFTB webinar to take chances in their auditions and get her attention by being fun, edgy, and different.

As the pool of voice actors continues to grow, success may be defined by thinking outside the constraints of classic decorum and offering bold choices to stand out from the competition as someone who will likely be fun to work with.

Buyers and agents listen to dozens if not hundreds of auditions and reels daily. The terrible ones are dismissed out of hand, but once the 80% of non-viable submissions are culled, the remaining 20% are still vulnerable to very fatigued ears. In today’s marketplace, making vanilla choices can often be more dangerous than taking calculated risks.

Over the summer, I booked a fun campaign for a trendy credit union by dropping a full line ad-lib into the first take of my audition. The read was about the initial lockdowns in 2020, and the script went something along the lines of, “You probably did some stupid stuff during the lockdown, like filling your living room with toilet paper, or letting your cat run that Zoom meeting….” to which I added, deadpan, “Yeah, your ass is fired,” before continuing with the rest of the script. The ad lib got me hired, and they added a version of the line I created to the actual spot.

Now, this was not a 5 or 6-figure job, and I might have been more circumspect if it was….but perhaps not.

If there’s one thing my voiceover career has taught me, it’s that fortune favors the bold. Half of the battle is just showing up. The other half is making them remember you.

Of course, you always run the risk that you’ll land on the desk of the uptight individual who doesn’t appreciate South Park and American Dad-style humor. However, it’s not always about shock value. Sometimes being bold can mean going way off-spec on a B-take (or even an A-take if you’re feeling really frisky.) I booked a series of Boost Mobile national TV spots several months back by ignoring the spec on my B-take and giving a read I thought might fit better. They went for it. No edgy humor….just their copy in an unexpected manner.

Sometimes, these choices can best be deployed on unexpected content. I’ve booked countless E-Learning and Corporate Narration jobs by unexpectedly dropping an Easter egg into an otherwise bog-standard read. It can pay off if you are the ONE talent among a hundred who takes a shot.

That said, be careful, and trust your instincts. There are many places where ad-libbing or taking an odd approach with delivery style would be a poor or inappropriate choice. A spot about a deadly disease or missing kids is not the place to demonstrate how clever you are. And when it comes to demos, be aware of whom you submit them to. I can think of five or ten agents where a well-placed bleep could get you signed…..I can also think of five or ten who would mark you down for it. You should discuss this with your producer before considering going over the top with your demo. Making a more vanilla version of a spot for a specific audience should not entail a lot of extra expense.

In the end, however, today’s buyers are getting younger and younger. They have grown up with edgy takes on life to a degree that previous generations did not. Safe and vanilla are not the order of the day. Fortune….favors the bold.

J. Michael Collins

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