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Last night featured the opening celebration dinner of the 8th EURO VO Retreat.

As always, it was an evening of laughter, fun, indulgence, and the joy of the finer things in life, as we prepare to embark on another week of intensive small-group learning, this time on the banks of Lake Lucerne in lovely Vitznau, Switzerland.

Paul Strikwerda recently wrote an article on the retreats, (https://www.nethervoice.com/jmcs-euro-vo-retreats-extravagant-or-priceless/) in which he rhetorically asked if an event with a price point over $5,000 that limits attendance to a dozen or so jet-setting voice actors is elitist. Fair question, and to some surely the answer will be yes.

But however lavish a EURO VO Retreat may be, it’s the “why” behind their existence that I haven’t discussed often enough.

Lessons Learned at the EURO VO Retreat

Being comprised of thousands of solopreneurs, all largely isolated in padded rooms and social media bubbles, it is very easy to allow a scarcity mindset to creep into what we do. Being self-employed is inherently terrifying, with a sense of insecurity being a defining feature for many. However good things may happen one day, there’s no corporate paycheck to fall back on if they slow down the next. We are our own safety net, and that net can feel thin at times.

This insecurity leads to gravitation towards compromising our value, lowering our expectations for pay, long-term security, personal happiness and pleasure, and the play we all deserve as a reward for our hard work. It makes many feel that they are not entitled to the same quality of life that their friends who work in the corporate world may have and causes them to buy into the mentality that we are just gig economy worker bees who should be happy that we get paid to talk.

The EURO VO Retreats are the opposite of that. They are lessons not just in growing one’s skill set and camaraderie but also in creating a mindset of abundance. They showcase that with hard work, extraordinary talent, and exceptional business acumen, this Wild West industry we have chosen to devote our lives to can be harnessed and channeled into a security-creating stream of reliable income that can render normal what once seemed extravagant. These retreats demonstrate what people in our industry can have when they take themselves seriously and embody a professional role in the classical sense, no different than the dedication exhibited by lawyers, architects, and hedge fund managers.

Those of us who have worked in this field for decades understand that there is, always has been, and most likely always will be more work than there is quality talent to do it. Regardless of the advances of AI, or the growth of newer, micro-budget parts of the marketplace, there will always be a strong and steady pool of buyers looking for exceptional talent and willing-to-pay rates that reflect their appreciation for quality. And we understand that voiceover doesn’t have to be a hand-to-mouth, hoping for the next job, hustle-and-grind lifestyle, but rather one where we can decide what work we do, how much we get paid for it, and when we want to be on call……or not.

What is the why of the EURO VO Retreats? The why is simply to show what can be…..and how what can be might be far more than you ever imagined.

The herd mentality in voiceover today is all about figuring out how to incorporate AI, voice models, and voice clones into your business plan. Who will be the first movers to get ahead of the AI voiceover trend and capitalize on it? Who will be harmed? Not me. On both counts.

I’ve spent my career trying to see where the herd is moving and then either getting ahead of the next move (or, more often,) moving in the opposite direction. This philosophy has helped me build a voiceover business and voiceover-adjacent businesses that have thrived for almost three decades. It has also served me well in financial planning and investing. Scared of the markets right now? I’m not. Warren Buffett once said it is wise for investors to be “fearful when others are greedy, and greedy when others are fearful.” I’m buying market dips right now in multiple sectors while most people are selling. If the market crashes, guess what? I’ll still be a buyer. In the long run, the growth will be there.

AI Voiceover vs. Authentic Human Voices

Recently, I encountered a fascinating Twitter thread (https://bit.ly/3qxAe9f) by content marketing writer Rob Lennon, who has self-published 45 titles on Amazon and is highly familiar with the freelance writing industry. The freelance writing industry has similarities to voiceover, though it is not directly analogous. However, Lennon’s article struck a chord. Lennon predicts that “Entry-level freelance writing jobs will be decimated w/in five years and replaced by AI wranglers.” This is similar to my prediction of the imminent demise of entry-level voiceover jobs at the hands of AI voice models. The sub-$100 voiceover space will likely cease to exist for human voice actors in the next five years. The $100-$250 space could see up to 80% of jobs replaced by robots. And the $250-$500 space may see as many as 20% of jobs lost to AI. Above the $500 line, where quality and nuance trump price, there is likely to be minor, if any, erosion.

Lennon posits that “A chain reaction occurs. Fewer entry-level business writing jobs are available. Years go by. Fewer writers getting better at their craft. Fewer writers writing about writing. Thus begins the gap.” Voiceover will likely experience a similar phenomenon. Fewer low-end jobs available. Fewer new entrants into the industry. Eventually, buyers are left with a stark choice between human, or robot, as the available talent pool thins over time.

A market will emerge for what Lennon calls “strict human verification.” High-end buyers will demand authentic human voices. Consumers will demand them. And the most discriminating may choose to work only with those voice actors who can guarantee that their voice does not exist in an artificial form.

If you are licensing your voice in AI form now, it will be very challenging to assure future buyers that someone else won’t be able to use a model of your voice to recreate the deliverable you provide them. It may dilute your value in a market that starts to prize verifiably human voices. We don’t know what the future looks like. This is one of many possible outcomes. But one thing I’ve yet to see from AI modelers is a use case for how voice actors make more than pizza money from voice clones. Show me how we get to 5-figures monthly with an AI model, and you’ll have my interest. Until then? Going forward, J. Michael Collins voiceovers are Verified Human, and I’ll proudly display a badge declaring the same on my homepage in the near future.

Of course, I’m also buying stock in Veritone. So we’ll see.

*This blog is the writer’s personal opinion only and does not constitute financial advice.

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