It was a day like most others. Festivities were all but a distant memory. Christmas and New Year had passed with the same exhausting but exhilarating social gatherings with family as always. It was that time, most know it, where the reality of a New Year had just started to set in and there was hope and optimism in the air. And maybe the remnants of a hangover! It was January 4th 2017.
Something special happened that day. Something that is etched in my mind for eternity. Looking back on it, I can still feel the excitement, nervousness and utter dis-belief that it happened.
I had started my voiceover journey in 2016. April to be exact. The radio is always on in our house and when I heard the commercials, I just thought “I can do that better”. Yes, a little egotistical maybe, but it’s exactly what I thought. On that day in April, I decided to do something about it and signed up for an 8-week voiceover course in my home city of Houston, TX.
A pivotal moment. While taking the course I was voraciously searching the internet for what was needed to start a voiceover business. Google was my friend, and I bookmarked every site I could find that was related to voiceover. Forums, Facebook Groups and asking unabashed questions in my quest for knowledge.
My plan? To start a voiceover career and take over the voiceover world within a year. Easy, right? I registered my business, opened a business bank account, bought a domain and created my website.
Open for business. Everything was in place by June 2016. By the end of 2016 I was going to be inundated with clients and have a flourishing voiceover business. Did I just hear you snigger? Ok, it was naivety at it’s finest. Well, maybe not naivety. Just unrealistic expectations built on an excitement and passion for voiceover. I absolutely loved it.
I joined V123 and Voices in October 2016. Having no clients from my hap-hazard marketing campaigns, I decided to stump up the cash and buy a membership for these 2 online casting sites. This would surely open the floodgates. The end of 2016 came with zero jobs booked. 105 auditions submitted on Voices.com, 6 thumbs up. Zero jobs. My soul was destroyed. Ok, maybe a bit dramatic but I thought it was going to be easier than this!
I had a 5-year plan. Why was the world conspiring to make this more like an eternal plan that would take it into my afterlife? I had plans for my afterlife. Struggling with a voiceover career was not one of them.
Then it happened. The morning of January 4th 2017. I opened up my Voices.com dashboard early as usual. This time, there was a symbol in my awarded tab that I had never seen before. Ooooh, what’s this I thought? Butterflies started to flutter in the pit of my stomach. I clicked on the tab and there it was. In all its glory. A job. A legitimate job!
This validation was all I needed. Somebody booked me. I was good enough for someone to pay for my services. This was the pivotal moment I was looking for and a springboard for everything that followed to this day.
This whole journey has humbled me. It taught me to be patient. To lose my ego. To train with quality coaches and pay my dues to this wonderful industry.
Your journey will be different. Yet there will inevitably be that period between when you start in voiceover to when you book your first job. It is frustrating, discouraging, upsetting (insert other various adjectives in this vein). But I can assure you, the exhilaration that comes from your first booked job is worth it. One word of advice, bottle that feeling when it does come. And label it as your voiceover magic potion. You will need it.