How refreshing! During my daily quick check of the voiceover Facebook groups today, I found a fantastic post from a fantastic person. I don’t know Shelley personally, but I have been in a few Zoom chats with her and everyone in the voiceover community always talks very highly of her. In the post, a person had asked if there was a way around constant P2P auditions. The comments came in as usual with many saying, “do this” or “do that”.
Yet this comment from Shelley Avellino was gold: “A LOT of great, great info in here. Being a brit in the USA and also someone who casts talent, it's definitely a mixture of booking off of your demo and custom auditions. Like TB mentioned, European clients will book from your demo a lot more. If you are on Production company rosters, they will occasionally need a custom audition, but usually book off demo's. Agents will mostly need custom auditions, so it's a really mixed bag. P2P's definitely have their place in the whole thing and I actually used them in the beginning to keep my audition chops up. In other words, it was my "practice" place and if I happened to book a job, then it was a bonus. It's changing your mindset to the fact that it's not the only place you can get work. Like BD and many other people here, I get 80% of my work through my own marketing efforts and rarely have time to audition, unless a big agency one comes through. But very occasionally if I see a lovely fun audition on Bodalgo, which is the P2P I keep in my back pocket, I'll pop on and have a play. The other difference is that you should enjoy auditioning...it's fun right!!! There you go, my 2 cents. Everyone's VO journey will be different, so saying you are not going to do this or that, is a little daft....you may do a bit of everything or a lot of one thing. It really depends how you want to run your business. Going in with all the facts and then choosing what’s right for you. You're driving the bus my lovely...lol. Have fun, whichever route you take.”
Perfection! You will notice immediately that Shelley doesn’t lecture anyone on what they should do. Her answer just let’s you know that we all have different paths to success and your journey will be different from mine. AND THAT”S OK! The goal is to always to book directly with your clients. That is the perfect situation. For those who are just starting on their journey, that is a tough ask. Cold calling people is very difficult for some. Others make a great living from the P2P’s so why would they stop?
There are no definitive answers – just what is right for you. Just make sure that you take the right advice from the right people. Check out Shelley’s profile and you can see that she is an industry pro. Check the credentials of everyone you seek advice from. Your journey will be unique. There are many people who will guide you in the right direction and many others who will take you further away from where you need to be. Like Shelley said, “You’re driving the bus my lovely”, it’s up to you on the route you take.