The “pandemic” is basically over. (until we hear otherwise) We’re now entering Summer. And out here in Arizona, that has a whole different meaning. Are you getting as many voice requests, auditions, etc?

Our industry is going through phases, just like any other corner of the business world. I’ve had several days of absolutely no work or auditions. But I’m not freaking out. That doesn’t mean no one want’s my voice. Doesn’t mean I’ve fallen off all Talent Rosters. Just be aware, my voice services are just not exactly what someone needs specifically right now.

I like to take advantage of these days and utilize these slower days to work on all those studio needs I never seem to find time to do.

• Practice scripts,
• Clean up studio
• Organize all those studio cables & stuff on the floor
• Have you sent out Thank You cards for your latest projects?
• Do you Cold Call? If so, try about 5 each day.
• Since everyone else is emailing, texting, etc. make a personal phone call to your clients to keep in touch.
• Are you keeping up with your Blog? (Like this one)
• Do you have time & money for Coaching? Now’s a good time.
• Do you have a Mobile setup? If not, organize a solution and test it so you’re ready.
• Take a vacation!
• Spend more time with family.

Everyone will have different reasons for downtime. But these slow days create opportunities for you that you didn’t realize you had. Take advantage of this time.

By the way…if you are slow, just put out a notice that you are going to be “out of the studio” for a vacation and all of a sudden, work starts flowing in. Must be a trigger to clients, eh?

     2019?  Really?  Sheesh…seems life is moving so fast, the older you get, doesn’t it?  You wake up Monday morning and stretch and then look around and it seems its already Friday!   Good Lord, what’s going on here?  I’m hoping that means that I’m enjoying life so much, that I need to stop and take a breath and “smell the roses“.  Well, I’m going to be my usual self and be the eternal optimist as my norm.  You?  Does it feel that it too is moving fast for you also?

     We’ve been doing some things a bit differently as I prepared for this new year at home, “Paradise Found“, as I call it.  I have a budget!  So that means in order to live like I have become accustomed to, I need to bring in some more dough or trim my expenditures.  I’m also on a new diet. (lifestyle eating change) so far, so good.  We’ll get back to that at a later time to bring you up to date.

     Regarding voice work…I’m re-focusing on doing more e-Learning projects, Narrative jobs and Explainer Video’s.  I like long form that you can get “into” without doing any audiobooks.  That’s just not my gig.  Been scouring the Net to find the right people behind this new avenue of interest to me.  I’ve done a lot of narrative voiceover projects during my career and as you grow, your direction can seem to want to explore some of the areas you’ve touched on before.  And this seems to be my new interest. And my studio today is more suited to it also, with equipment and acoustics with room to spread my arms out without hitting a Auralex wall.

     And may I say that I truly appreciate what the good people at GVAA, The Global Voice Acting Academy, have done over this past year.  They have documented and refined a living and breathing document called, The GVAA Rate Guide.  They have taken feedback, input of all kinds, from all avenues of voice talents and blended it into a working Rate Guide that makes sense, reflects today’s voice workplace and is fair to clients. When negotiating working rates, I simply send them to the guide and say, I fall in line with those prices and support them.  About 95% of my clients have not balked at all.  If everyone is on the same page, the only difference is the quality and style of the chosen voice artist.  Ya gotta love it.

     What are you doing differently?  I hope you too have challenged your “typical normalcy“, otherwise, it’s like they say, “Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results, is the definition of Insanity.”  Hey, I didn’t come up with that…But it’s true.

     Well, I got to admit, I’m hearing a lot of VO folks saying that business is slow.  Yup, me too, except this month, I got lucky with one of my clients who sent me enough scripts to shake the bank account into an unexplored arena and I am so very grateful.  I feel blessed when the planets align and I am able to breath a bit more comfortably.

     We must be aware of good times and bad.  Whenever it get a bit sparse, use that time to your advantage.  Send out your Thank You cards to your latest clients who were smart enough to use your talent recently.  Perfect timing.

     Or super-serve that new studio who is using you for the first time and hopes to complete his project and make his client happy.  I just did that this morning in a session.  They were looking for another style of read that would please their people.  Our success is based on making all the clients, of those clients, of their clients happy. Follow?  Yes, it all trickles downhill. And it begins with our ability to give them the best that we can as voice actors.  In fact, they received exactly what they asked for, but their client wasn’t totally pleased.  So, another session was scheduled to make their client happy.  Not only did they receive another read, as they requested, I gave them a variation of friendly and conversational, corporate, another not sell-y or pushy, but prideful. plus, a backup version with minor little personality gestures to make it special.  They were very pleased.

     Going the extra mile to release your inner being and to show your versatility will come back in spades.  Producers remember who makes them sound and look good. Especially with a new talent that can do it again and again and doesn’t act like they are doing you a favor by hiring them.  Yes, they are still out there.  But they are thinning out a bit.

     Marketing, re-branding and basic communication is the key to utilizing this “extra” time we have during slow periods.  Thank God for our foundation clients that use us on a regular basis.  They keep the bread on the table.  But in order to get the butter, one has to be looking down the road and adding in new clients and sprinkling in those special gigs that only come to us when we have been available at the right time and looking in the right direction.

     What do you do when your biz is slow?  I’d be anxious to hear your insight.