The 6 BIG Reasons YOU'LL QUIT VO
If you are a professional voice actor or audiobook narrator, you have one job, and that is to stay in the game as long as possible. Voice over is not a long game. It's an infinite game.
Author Simon Sinek says that in finite games like football or chess, the players are known, the rules are fixed and the end point is clear. The winners and losers are easily identified.
But in infinite games like business or yeah, voiceover or even life itself, the players come and go. The rules are changeable and there is no clearly defined endpoint.
In VO, we know this. The players come and go all the time. People every day are coming into and going out of this business. The rules of voiceover are changing all the time. This audition wants natural and authentic. This one wants a classic announcer. Yet, this third one wants quirky and offbeat, and on and on and on and on.
And of course, in voiceover, as in all business, there is no clearly defined endpoint. That's why you hear it often referred to as a journey. There is no destination. Again, your job as a video pro is to stay in the game as long as possible.
So, what are the biggest threats to staying in the game? I'm so glad you asked, because that's exactly we're going to talk about today.
Here are the six reasons you'll quit voice over.
#6 You're Under-Trained
The single biggest mistake people make in this business is underestimating the amount of skill and training it takes to succeed. Once you start seeking work in this business, you're going to be competing with trained voice actors, some of whom have been training for years, if not decades.
Do you really think that eight or ten classes is enough to hang with those people? If you do, get out now and take that money and put it towards lottery tickets because you'll have a better chance of hitting it big there.
I will beat this drum until I can't fog a mirror anymore. It takes months if not well over a year to get baseline competent and voice acting. And it takes years and decades to get very good, great, and elite, which is… let's be honest, that's not unlike any other profession.
I talk to voice actors every single day, and I can't tell you how often I hear something along the lines of this:
“Well, you know, I trained with So-And-So for a year back in 2017.”
Really, that's it? Why did you stop?
To be at the top of any profession, you've constantly got to be improving and refining your skills. That's why they call it a craft. The top golfers, tennis players, singers, actors, the top[ performers in the world, they all still work with a coach.
Do you think that they waited to become successful until they started training with a coach, or do you think maybe, just maybe, that's the reason they became successful?
#5 You Don't Want It Badly Enough
What does that mean, Paul? I think wanting it badly enough means two things. First, passion. You've got to love doing it, whatever it is. For us, it's voiceover. Or when it's that thing that you love, you know it because you lose yourself in it. Time falls away. Hours pass like minutes. You think about it even when you're not doing it. You daydream about it. And when you do, puts you in a better state of mind. You get that little “Oooh!” feeling, you know?
The second thing about wanting it bad enough is purpose, a strong why. And for most of us, that why has to be bigger than ourselves when when things get really, really hard. And they will get really, really hard. You need a why bigger and stronger than yourself to get you through it.
Just loving the work ain't enough. kids.
And having that bigger, stronger purpose can be the difference between throwing in the towel and sticking it out
For years, my why has always been my son. Voice over, for me, always mapped back to him. It was always a way for me to provide a better life for him and to have freedom of time and flexibility with my time so that I could spend more time with him as he grew up.
As I'm filming this today, he just turned 17 last week and he is getting ready to explore colleges, go off to college and launch his life. And so, I've been in a weird place where I have to reexamine my why. My why is shifting because my son doesn't need me as much anymore. And my why is now shifting to helping other voice actors as I have been for a while. But the sort of weight that I'm shifting from one foot to the other is changing.
And so now helping other voice actors succeed in doing what they love and finding their passion and purpose, that's what Paul Schmidt Pro has always been about. But that's becoming a bigger why, in my own life.
My point is, if it's just about you or just about money, you'll quit. Don't ever let your purpose come down to yourself or your wallet. It's just not enough.
#4 You Lack Discipline
I can't tell you how many times in my conversations I hear things like, “Well, I just don't have the time to market, to train, to audition, to network…” whatever it is. “I just don't have the time.”
Really? You’ve got time for Game of Thrones and Candy Crush and Wordle and Real Housewives of Tuscaloosa.
If voiceover, or good god, anything else you want in life, if that's something you decide you really want, then you've got to make the time, make the sacrifice to make the time to do the things necessary to get that thing that you want.
Every single one of us has 24 hours in a day. It's a cliché because it's true. You have the time. But do you have the stomach to give up the candy, the distractions that don't lead you any closer to your life's goals and changing your life?
In his book, It Takes what it Takes. The late author, Trevor Moawad, quoted the great college football coach, Nick Saban. He says this:
“But the fact of the matter is, if you want to be good, you don't really have a lot of choices because it takes what it takes. You have to do what you have to do to be successful. So, you have to make choices and decisions to have the discipline and focus the process of what you need to do to accomplish your goals.”
Moawad called it “the illusion of choice.”
Once you make the decision to do something, then you also, by default, make the decision to do the things necessary to do that thing. You can't commit to running a marathon without committing to do the training necessary. You can't commit to taking care of your mental health unless you commit to taking care of your physical health.
You can't commit to goals without committing to the actions and behaviors necessary to achieving those goals.
#3 You're Too Isolated
As voice actors, we generally work alone at home, in our home studios, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic. And as a result, it's super easy, in fact, it's the default that we're isolated from other voice actors. And when that happens, it's really easy, especially for newer talent, who don't necessarily have a frame of reference developed yet to believe that because we're isolated, that all of our challenges, our problems, our obstacles, all those things that we face are hours and hours alone.
It's like being on a treadmill in a gym that's completely empty and you’re all by yourself. It's not a lot of fun.
That's why it's absolutely essential to your mental health and your professional mental health to participate in community with other voice actors.
Join the Facebook groups, the accountability groups, the workout groups, the meetup groups, wherever you can find and build relationships with other voice actors.
And one way to do this, of course, I highly recommend the VO Pro Community.
Being in a community with other voice actors, other audiobook narrators, other people who do what you do is not only good for your mental health, in fact, it's essential, I believe, for your mental health, but it will also enrich your life.
I have hundreds, literally hundreds of friendships and relationships now that I did not have a decade ago. one of my best friends in the world, another voice actor named Craig Williams, is someone that I met through voiceover at VO Atlanta years ago.
#2 You Don't Know How To Find The Work
Wichita State University estimates that sales and marketing comprises about 10% of all jobs in the U.S. And if that's true, then it stands to reason that 90% of the people that come into voiceover, because we get people in this business from all walks of life, let's estimate that 90% have never had any exposure to or built any expertise in sales and marketing.
So, if you don't have that expertise, that's not your fault. It's not your fault you don't have any sales or marketing experience coming into the business any more than it's your fault that you don't have any acting experience coming into this business.
But what is your fault is assuming that you can be successful in voice acting without learning how to market your business, i.e. find the work.
Why on earth would you go to all the trouble and do all the training and learn how to do the work but not go through the training to learn how to find the work?
The days certainly of new voice actors coming into the business, opening accounts on the pay to plays and making a good living are over. The COVID 19 pandemic saturated the market with people who thought they could do just that
In 2024 and beyond, learning to market your business directly to prospects to grow relationships over time so that when projects do come up, you’re top of mind, they think of you, and send you an audition or hand you a gig outright.
That skill is absolutely essential moving forward, and that's exactly what we teach in the VO Freedom Master Plan.
And #1… The Biggest Reason You Will Quit Voice Over Is… Your Mindset Is Weak
Look, to me, there are two types of people in the world. There are people that make excuses and there are people that figure it the fuck out.
People who tell you why they can't. They have a laundry list of reasons and people who’ll tell you, “I'm going to get it done. I have no idea how yet, but I'm going to make it happen.”
Years ago, I talked to an entrepreneur who is a friend, Amy Brachman, and she told me this:
“Entrepreneurship is like jumping off a cliff and sewing the parachute together on the way down.”
And she's right.
You don't know how to find clients. So what? Learn to. You don't know how to reach out to them. So what? Learn to. You don't know how to do promo now. So what? Learn to.
Marie Forleo wrote an entire book called Everything Is Figureouable. No one… NO ONE has all the skills they need to succeed When they start out doing the thing that they do.
But the ones who do succeed all have one thing: A rock-solid mindset that says, “You know what? I don't know how, but I'm going to figure it out and I'm going to make it happen.”
Without a strong, growth, figure-it-the-fuck-out mindset, voiceover becomes a finite game really fast.
If this post inspired you, if you got value out of it, more importantly, if you think it will help other voice actors, other audiobook narrators, maybe other entrepreneurs in general, then share it with them. Do that for me so that we can help other people and also do me one more solid and watch this video right here: https://youtu.be/HdNgM8xRMn8?si=ocZ8cIq3LJMMC2aY
And finally, to get my Move Touch Inspire newsletter for voice actors that comes out every Thursday and is absolutely free, click on this link and we'll see you back here again soon.
Thanks so much for reading and watching.