Message to up-and-comers...

[Colin Campbell]

When someone says to me they want to get into VO, all of the toil and rejection flashes through my mind and I just shake my head. I think to myself "you'll never make it." But for ME, I guess I an optimist. Which is funny because in everything ELSE in life, I've been told I'm a very negative person. But, for some reason when it comes to this, I think I can do it. I've made such slow but very steady progress. Now jobs will come along that I didn't even solicit. Considering how things were two years ago, I'm on cloud nine. There was a time when I said to my wife.... "I think I'm gonna give up." She told me very convincingly not to. It was after that that things started picking up. At my day job, they noticed my extra-circular activity and moved me from IT back into Production which saved my paycheck from budget cuts. Then the flood gates opened. Local clients, auditions won through Internet venues, etc. OK, not a full time income yet but I can see the light, I can feel it coming. Maybe not until retirement age but SOME DAY. Where I've come to was from persistence and not listening to negatives which prompted my post above.

[K_Miller]

My VO income sustains life. It's just not human life...

[Robert Jadah]

Originally Posted by jsgilbert

98% of all of those calling themselves voice actors will fail to earn $5,000.

I wouldn't argue too strenuously against those numbers. As a long-time ACTRA union member, I know that the 95%/5K stat hold up for US and Canadian screen actors, and from my agent's Christmas parties, I know that 98%/5K hold true for local models.

And, since there are some 45,000 voicers out there burbling into their mics as we text, I do not find it unreasonable to assume that only 900 (2%) are making more than five thousand a year.

So yes, those are the facts, ma`am. They do not, of course, change the thrust of anybody`s points here. They do, however, underscore the gargantuan challenges of this biz.

(And I`m not crazy about my agent`s Christmas parties; there`s something scary about starving models).

Number-Crunchingly Yours,
RJ

[bigbry]

Yes i agree with all of you....I've been told, after they find out what I make doing VO's...that no one would ever steal my Identity. That is a big plus about doing VO for a living.

[David Love]

Do what you love - love what you do - deliver more than you promise - the money will follow.

I know that's true. I make my living as a musician. I get paid a lot of money to do what I love - singin' 'n playin'.

And I love doing VO. The money will follow.

[jsgilbert]

Many of us have heard the 80/ 20 rule, such as 80% of the profit comes from 20% of the sales, etc. Bill Tancer and others speak about the internet having a 1/9/90 rule 1% innovates, 9% participates and 90% ruminate.

In voiceover the messages that are pushed across daily on sites like this and from teachers and from the press who profile a few participants of v.o. hither and yon with the wonderful rags to riches stories are essentially the ones of "Do What you love and the money will come" or How someone took a few classes and made thousands doing a commercial.

There are many, many people who will come across these forums that nobody knows about. The odd person here or there who has been told they have a nice voice or who thinks it would be cool to be a cartoon character. My posts, which are so tiny in terms of theiri scope or power are designed to get people to think that maybe there's more here than meets the eye. Maybe it's not all milk and honey. If one person winds up making a more intelligent decision based upon something I've said or written, then I'm "succesful".

I've had quite a few write me and thank thank me for giving them permission to question or think differently. If stopping someone from going heavily into debt or losing a home or leaving a profitable job market (and then try to re-enter 5 years later with no possibility of success); if any of this happens because I decided to be the jerk and go against popular and happy opinion, then it's worth it.

Love is an interesting thing. They say that love is blind. There is a differnet story for every person who embarks on any journey of a creative pursuit.

Thomas Edison, The Wright Brothers, Bob Bergen and Daws Butler? Why not toss Mother Theresa and Abe Lincoln in there too? How about Christ and Buddha or are they not in the mix because they don't have a contract with Warner Brothers?

I agree that one should measure your successes by your own standards and forgive me if somehow you're interpreting that I am attempting to establish some sort of standard for everyone. It just seems that with all ofthe looking for apporval that goes on, this is merely lip service and in fact thee are many here who measure their success by what others thnk. So please, if you want to disregard what I say, feel free, but also disregard all the people selling books and tapes and classes or the people who have been in this industry a whopping 25 minutes and have a tremendous wealth of experience to draw from or those who simply lie to make themselves look better in the eyes of their peers and instead look deep into your own heart and if you have the life and lifestyle you want, then that's what counts.

Once again I will simply say that the nicest thing about banging one's head against the wall is stopping. The two hardest things for any "artist" to do are to know when to start and to know when to stop.

[Allen Brown]

Originally Posted by jsgilbert

Thomas Edison, The Wright Brothers, Bob Bergen and Daws Butler? Why not toss Mother Theresa and Abe Lincoln in there too? How about Christ and Buddha or are they not in the mix because they don't have a contract with Warner Brothers?

Love it, J.S. I enjoy the grit of your posts here much better than what I've read on the other "cleansed" board. (Do you have eggshells on the bottom of your shoes?) But, worth a read wherever you sling the ink!

[Jon Morss]

Originally Posted by jsgilbert

Thomas Edison, The Wright Brothers, Bob Bergen and Daws Butler? Why not toss Mother Theresa and Abe Lincoln in there too? How about Christ and Buddha or are they not in the mix because they don't have a contract with Warner Brothers?

Well, I sort of think that Thomas Edison and the Wright Brothers did not have a Warner Brothers contract. Did WB exist back then? And, I believe Daws Butler worked for Hanna-Barbera. So, I guess I don't get your point. But, you do make a great point regarding Mother Theresa. She was/is a great role model and I think as people, we all could gain plenty from her teachings.

Originally Posted by jsgilbert

The two hardest things for any "artist" to do are to know when to start and to know when to stop.

When the heart stops, then I'll know its time for me to stop. However, in the mean time, I will not bang my head against the wall. That could damage the wall.

"Most of the time people criticize in order to forget their own weakness." - Croft M. Pentz

[Diane Havens]

There are many ways to lose credibility, but two sure-fire ways are to love everything or hate everything. And surely beware of those only in the business "25 minutes", and I count among those, the clients in it only that long.

Just as in our work, in our reads we have to know our audiences, how best to speak to them, to reach them, to identify with them -- we should always speak to each other with that in mind as well. Communicating what you really mean to say is key, and in a forum situation, for those less skilled in the written word, there will always be misunderstandings.

Humor and wit always work for me, and it is dull indeed to read robotic rhetoric, even if the message is relevant.

I still consider myself a newcomer to this business now going on three years of up and down "success." I put most of what I have earned my first year right back into my training and equipment. I have no illusions or delusions about what I'm up against. I have friends who are actors in NYC, for 30 years or more, who are VERY successful by anybody's measure, supporting families and buying homes with money from this business, and yet there are years they might need to take an office job for a month or two, or do something that is a "come down" from their last Broadway show.

That is the life you are getting into. Constant job hunting. Constantly proving yourself. And no laurels upon which to rest for a moment. It's always the question, "So what's next?"

[Colin Campbell]

If one enjoys doing something whether or not they are successful at it, how is that "banging your head against the wall?" Working at a job you don't like for a steady paycheck is closer to that sort of pain. I really don't get the analogy.