Category: Blog

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What Are You Making Time For?

“But Marc, I’m too busy to market.”

“But Marc, I don’t have enough time for marketing.”

“But Marc, I have a full-time day job.”

“But Marc, I have a wife and two kids and a dog and a cat and a gold fish and an alpaca.”

I’ve heard them all and then some. People are forever blaming their lack of success on their lack of time. They may not always say it that way exactly. They may not even see if that way. It all comes down to that, though, in the end. People blame a lack of time.

How Are You Spending Your Time?

Yet…

You binge watch your favorite show(s) on Netflix… and Prime… and Hulu.

You’ve got 20 minutes to play Candy Crush while you’re on the toilet.

You always seem to fit in your afternoon nap.

You spend 20 minutes standing in the shower yawning every morning.

You’ve read all the Harry Potter books… twice.

You spent two weeks beating the last game you bought for your Xbox.

You don’t even realize that all those five minute Facebook visits add up to two hours a day.

You watch Monday Night Football… Thursday Night Football… Sunday all day Football.

You have enough time to complain to your coach that you don’t have enough time.

How Successful People Spend Time

Without even realizing it, you’re literally wasting hours every day on things that might be nice or fun or entertaining; maybe even things that you think are important. But all those things aren’t going to get you one step closer to your goals.

Successful people are people who invest time.

Successful people are people who respect time.

Successful people are people who protect time.

If Jeff Bezos can build a trillion dollar company with the same 24 hours a day you’ve got… trust me… you can find the time to do the marketing you need to be doing to book the voice over work you want to be booking.

What are you waiting for?

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This Is The Secret To Success

Action.

There you go. One word. You probably don’t even need to read the rest of this post. The secret to success is action.

Now, for those of you interested in diving a little deeper, I’m happy to do it.

Your level of success will be relative to your level of action. That is to say, take little action and you’ll achieve little success. On the other hand, take massive action and you’ll achieve massive success.

Or will you?

Taking Massive Action

Take Jim, for example (named changed to respect privacy). Jim reached out to me after submitting over 300 auditions on casting sites without a single booking, and only a handful of “thumbs up.”

By any definition, I think we can agree that submitting 300 plus auditions on a casting site would qualify as massive action. That’s a lot of time. A lot of effort. A lot of talking! With that kind of massive action, it stands to reason that Jim should be achieving massive success, correct?

How about Lacy (named changed to respect privacy). “Marc, I’ve submitted my demos to over 20 different agents in the last two months and haven’t received a single reply. What am I doing wrong?”

Again, an example of digging your heels in and taking massive action. Yet, also again, one would assume the results would be massive success. Sadly, such is not the case.

Finally, I offer the story of Jason (name changed….). Jason dropped over $10,000 on studio equipment. The finest of just about everything. All in the name of having better audio for better auditions for better bookings. Jason hasn’t yet earned back even a portion of his investment.

If the secret to success is action, where’s the massive success relative to the massive action?

First, A Word About Action

First all of, let me say this… in all cases, despite the unsuccessful results, I’m incredibly proud of Jim, Lacy and Jason.

Why?

They took massive action. I promise you, less than 20% of the people I coach within the voice over industry will ever take massive action. In fact, if I was being brutally honest, that number may even be more like less than 10%!

Every single day I dispense advice to voice actors through this blog, social media, videos and courses. Every single day.

Why aren’t they all successful??? Like I said, probably less than 10% of the people who receive the advice I share will ever take the corresponding action. Especially massive action.

Action is hard. Action is work. Action risks failure. Many would rather remain comfortable or stagnant or miserable than risk any kind of failure.

So well done, Jim. Well done, Lacy. Well done, Jason. You did what most won’t and that’s absolutely respectable in my book!

Action is hard. Action is work. Action risks failure. Most people won’t do it. #vopreneur
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The Third Word Is The Missing Link

If the key to success isn’t simply massive action, as we’ve already established not all massive action produces successful results, what then, is it?

It’s my belief and practice that the key to successful is effective massive action.

If you’re taking massive action and you’re not seeing massive success, it’s because your action isn’t effective.

The good news is, this is easily fixable.

I checked out Jim’s casting site profile and made a few suggestions. I also referred him to a coach who will help Jim work on some of his reads. When he’s done that little extra training and making those profile tweaks, I believe with all confidence that Jim’s next round of massive action is going to result in a lot more bookings.

Lacy needed to change her approach with the agents. What do I always preach about email marketing? Personalize, personalize, personalize! Gone are the days of generic form letters. The only thing they’ll do for you is get you flagged as spam. With a new strategy, I believe Lacy is going find some new representation in her future with her next round of massive action.

Do you want to know how good a $5,000 microphone sounds in an untreated space? Jason knows. Having the best and fanciest equipment isn’t worth a dime if your space isn’t properly treated. Being able to say you have a Neumann may look nice on your website or when speaking to a producer, but if your space sounds awful, nothing will highlight it better than your fancy microphone. Once Jason gets his space treated, he’ll be ready to take effective massive action and start paying off his investment.

It May Be Time To Re-Evaluate

If you’re taking massive action and not seeing the results you want to see, it’s time to re-evaluate. Don’t feel bad. You didn’t fail. Well, as long as you don’t just give up, anyway, you certainly didn’t fail. You had a misstep is all. Missteps are easily repairable! Oh, and guess what… every person who has ever taken massive action, regardless of industry, has had missteps!

You’re in good company.

Sometimes the best thing you can do is step back and look clearly. Pause and reflect. Or, better yet, find a coach or mentor who will take a look for you. It could be one small variable standing in the way of you and your desired results. Finding it could be as simple as asking for a little help.

FYI: There’s no shame in asking for help. The wisest, most successful people on earth do it. That’s how they got there!

If you have the gumption to take massive action, you’re already in a small, exclusive group. By making sure it’s effective massive action, you’ll be well on your way to achieving all of your goals!

What massive action did you take that didn’t produce? What are you going to do to make it effective massive action?

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5 Ideas For Writing Better Subject Lines

Composing an effective marketing email… easy.

Composing a subject line that gets an effective marketing email opened… hard!

According to research from email marketing firm OptInMonster, 69% of email recipients report emails based solely on the subject line.

In other words, two thirds of the emails you send are getting judged before the recipient ever makes it to the content. You know the saying, “you never get a second chance to make a first impression?” Well, that’s what we’re talking about here. Your subject line is your first impression and if you don’t make it a good one, your email isn’t getting read. Plain and simple.

So what makes an effective subject line? Don’t we wish we knew!

Writing Effective Subject Lines

There are a few different strategies you can take. It’s something I’m personally experimenting with on a daily basis. No matter what strategy you deploy when it comes to subject lines, track your results. Split test. Pay attention to the data. Some are going to work better than others.

Here are few suggestions to consider based on current research.

Curiosity: The idea of using this approach is to intrigue your recipient into wanting to see more. Humans want to know the whole story. If you give them part of it in subject line, people may be more inclined to get the rest by opening your email. An example of this approach is asking a question in the subject line and providing the answer in the message. Other strategies would be to promise something interesting or lead with something unusual.
Bottom Line: Say something that makes them want to know more.

Funny: We all love to laugh When it comes to marketing emails, funny subject lines may be harder to come up with, or may not always be appropriate. Keep yourself open to the opportunties. That said, if you’re not naturally funny, DO NOT try and be funny. It’ll backfire every time! Look for triggers to humor. Something the lead shared on their website or social media that made you smile or laugh could open the door to an idea for a funny subject line.
Bottom Line: If you can genuinely make them laugh, they’re going to keep reading.

Vanity: This might sound awful, but it works. Play to their own sense of vanity and pride. Use an accomplishment they’ve shared and you’ve learned about as a subject line. For example, is the production studio award-winning? That’s your vanity subject line. Mention the award. They’re going to want to see what the email is about because they’re going to want to read what you’re saying about them.
Bottom Line: Ego strokes makes us all feel good!

Pain Points: If you’ve paid attention to anything I’ve shared in this blog over the years or anything I’ve ever posted on social media when it comes to marketing you know that marketing is about providing solutions to problems. Problems are pain points. That is to say, if you can identify what is causing your lead pain and speak directly to that pain point, they’re more likely to listen to what you have to say.
Bottom Line: Hit the pain point in the subject. Provide your solution in the message.

Personalize: You can never go wrong with personalized subject lines because it proves to the reader you aren’t just sending yet another generic marketing form letter to them. Look for idea triggers on their website and social media. Could be their tag line. A service they offer. Something from their About page. It could be a quote they used. Dig in a little and you’re bound to find something that will work.
Bottom Line: Prove to them you did a little research and this isn’t a generic letter.

Writing a good subject line is equally important as writing a good marketing email. #vopreneur
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There’s No Secret Strategy

People ask me about subject lines on a near daily basis and I wish I had one magical line that worked every single time with every single email.

There’s not.

Or, at least, if there is, I haven’t discovered it yet!

As a Voice Actor, you’re a naturally creative individual. Put that creativity to use. With the strategies mentioned above, a little bit of info collected from your leads website or social media and a creative thinking on your part, you’ll come up with some winners. There’ll be done duds too, to be clear. Don’t sweat them.

As I mentioned earlier, pay attention to data. Bank the winners. Toss the duds. Keep experimenting,

When all else fails, try “Professional Voice Actor 🎙️”.

Whatever you do, don’t let the subject line paralyze you. An email sent, even with a dud subject line, still has a better chance of being opened and read than the email that never makes it into your Sent folder!

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3 Criteria for Vetting Voice Over Leads

Before you invest a lot of time in researching and pursuing voice over leads, it’s always nice to know if there’s potential for return. Although it’s impossible to know this up front every time, there are certain things you can look for with each lead to help determine if they’re worth connecting with.

Watch this video tip for the 3 main criteria I use to vet each voice over lead.

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Why You Need to Pick a Path to Follow

Where are you going?

Do you have a clear path you’re following? Or are you just moving in whatever direction you end up?

Before I head out on my bike, I have a plan. I pick a trail. I follow it. I have a destination in mind. Whether I’m going for a quick 15k to clear my head, or a long 60k to see some sights; I always have a plan.

Your voice over business needs to be the same. You need to have a plan.

There are too many talents trying to be too many things to too many people, and wondering why they don’t seem to be making any progress.

Jack of All Trades

Jack of All Trades, Master of None. In this business, that shouldn’t be taken as a compliment.

For me, I’d rather be crushing a couple areas than trying to scrape by in six or eight or ten. I know my strengths. I play to them.

I’m staying in my lane. Are you?

Success is taking 20 steps in one direction rather than one step in 20 directions.

Sounds simple enough, right?

It really can be if you intentionally apply it to your decision making processes and goals.

  • It means NOT submitting for every audition on a casting site.
  • It means NOT making 18 different demos.
  • It means NOT trying to make 12 different social networks work for you.
  • It means NOT dividing your attention between four tasks at once.
  • It means NOT checking your phone and Facebook every 60 seconds.
  • It means NOT trying to master every genre of voice over.
  • It means NOT asking for a hundred different opinions on the same subject.
  • It means NOT working with 27 coaches.
If you’re struggling with success in #voiceover you may be going in too many directions.
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Pick ONE Path and Follow It

One of the reasons I reached six-figures in my voice over business is because I decided very early I was going to focus on just a couple areas of VO and do whatever it took to get really great at them. That meant that not only did I not market myself in the other genres, but I didn’t even pay attention to what was going on in them. I didn’t want my efforts divided. I didn’t want the distraction.

I made a decision very early on to take 20 steps in one direction, not one step in 20 directions.

What about you?

Have you ever put any effort into identifying your voice over sweet spot?

Have you ever consulted with a coach to get some guidance on what genres to pursue?

Have you ever considered your strengths, not just in performance, but in marketing as well?

Have you ever stopped to think about whether you’re walking 20 steps in one direction or one step in 20?

If you’re going to succeed in this business, you need to have a clear path and you need to be intentional about following it.

That’s how you’re going to get yourself where you want to be.