Do You Have the Successful Mindset for Voiceover?

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One of the things I teach in my course and to the voice over talent that I coach one-on-one is how to get into the right mindset for success.

As strange as it sounds, most often the one person that stands in the way of your success is you…in the way that you think…and sometimes it takes a shift in mindset to get YOU out of the way so you can be successful.

One of the shifts you need to make is to stop seeing your voice over service as valuable….and start to see YOU as the PROVIDER of the service as THE valuable part of the equation.

Think about that.

YOU are the thing of value…not the voice overs that you do.

You bring your expertise, your talent and your training to the table everytime someone hires you for a job.

When a client hears your demos, likes them and points to something you did in one of them and says I want THAT for my project…they’re NOT buying you…they’re buying THAT voice over.

Because as you know every job is unique and requires your expertise, talent and training to help that client communicate their unique message.

Did you ever hear the now famous William Shatner voice over session where the director who was doing his job the way he usually does it, gets taught that lesson by William Shatner?

The client had hired William Shatner because he wanted William Shatner to voice the commercial…unfortunately, the director thought they had hired just “a voice”….and treated him that way.

Now you might say, “well, David I’m not William Shatner”…to which I’d point to as proof that you’re in the wrong mindset.

As you do your marketing to get new prospects you may be selling the wrong product. Look at your website. Look at the marketing materials you send out. Do your prospects gain an insight into you and your expertise …or just into your voice over services?

Stop selling voice over to prospects….START selling YOU.

One of the best things is that when people start buying YOU(?)…you can charge more…but that’s for another lecture, on another day.

Go get ‘em!

Stop Struggling, Get What You’re Worth

Stop Struggling, Get What You’re Worth

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In the process of teaching my course, giving my workshops, holding [OFFICE HOURS] and socializing with other voice talent in various groups on Facebook and LinkedIn I’ve met hundreds of amazingly talented voice artists who struggle to make a living doing voice over and are looking for help creating a reliable income through voice work.

And the biggest reason they struggle? Is because of what they charge.

Price is a Function of Perceived Value
Price is a function of “perceived value”…yours and the clients.

There are a lot of things that go into perceived value … what you can charge for your services is a function of the value the buyer attaches to the purchase and that YOU attach to your own worth.

What you can charge and what you ACTUALLY charge is almost never the same thing.

Why Undercharge?
In my experience far too many voice talent undercharge because they feel that price is simply a function of competition OR that they simply don’t value what they do enough to get what they’re worth!

Compounding the problem are inexperienced engagers who are awarding projects to the “lowest bidder” as apposed to the voice talent who is able to communicate the idea of their script the best.

There’s a reason why big ad agencies pay more for what you do, and that’s because they “value” what you do.

I think we can all agree that selling your voice services on Fiverr is no way to create a reliable income…even if some say they do it as an introductory offer. When a client who’s hired you through Fiverr has the budget to hire someone at a proper price they will most likely NOT turn to you. Why? Because of perceived value. They believe that you are only worth the $5 you charged them before.

Reevaluate What You Bid
Somebody recently told me that before you send a quote for a job, pause…comeback and add 15% to what you were going to charge. More often than not, if they like your voice, they will accept the quote. By that one gesture you have increased your perceived value in that customers mind.

Another way you can increase your perceived value is by doing something called a “results review”. A report card of sorts, on how you did after you’ve delivered your audio to the client.

Ask Your Client’s Opinion
You can do this review by sending an email and casually asking or you can do something more formal through a Survey Monkey short question survey. You could ask questions like:

  • How would you rate the quality of my service? 1-10, 10 being the best.
  • How would you rate the sound quality? Again 1 through 10
  • Would you recommend my services to a colleague? (If no…how can I improve?)

And finally be sure to leave them a space to write a general comment on the transaction. You’ll will likely get a usable quote that you can put on your website!

It’s important to keep the list of questions short and easy to respond to, a click here and a click there. You don’t want to take up more than 2 minutes of their time. You can sign up for free at SurveyMonkey.com go have a look.

What You’ll Discover
Once you have the results of your review one of 2 things will happen:

1) you’ll find that you didn’t deliver on the clients perceived value… and that’s ok because that’s how you can improve or
2) you’ll define a tangible amount of value that the customer received…because that will act as proof of value delivered and should give you the confidence to raise your prices.

At first it may seem scary to turn down low paying jobs but “stick to your guns” and to use another cliché…”short term pain, leads to long term gain”.

In order to create a reliable income you’ve got to step back and measure your “perceived value” …and then start charging what you’re worth.

Why Specs Are Not Important for Voice Over (Video)

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This clip is from a live, commercial voice over workshop. If you’d like to put your name on the list for the next online voice over workshop click here.

Transcript:

“Let’s talk about specs, when you get a commercial when you get an audition for a commercial or if you go in they’ll tell you kind of what they’re looking for.

Whatever you need to know about the commercial is already in the script…read the script.

If the script starts with the word “Yo”….so he’s not a businessman, right?

Everything that you need to know about that commercial is written in the script.

So my advice is to formulate your own plan for the commercial. And then once you’ve read it through once or twice or three times, then take a peek at the specs.”

Join us for our next online voice over workshop. Add your name to the list here.

The Dream Is Free, but the Hustle Is Sold Separately

The Dream Is Free, but the Hustle Is Sold Separately

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Social Media Isn’t a “Marketing Strategy”

Social Media Isn’t a “Marketing Strategy”

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Social Media Isn’t a “Marketing Strategy”

MY APPROACH TO MARKETING has always been a balanced one…a little bit of everything into the mix. As sexy as it seems (and cost effective) “Social Media” should NOT be the only thing you do to get the word out about your voice over services.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not suggesting you abandon social media, hardly. There is no better cost-effective way for any small business to market itself. I’m only pointing out that you need to use all of the tools at your disposal.

When was the last press release you sent out? Have you considered sponsoring or creating an event in your neighborhood? Have you volunteered to speak on the radio or TV about a subject that is affecting both your business and the general population? What are you doing to connect to your clients on an emotional level?

If it seems that your marketing strategy is all social media…it’s time to get cracking!

Bottom Line: Not everybody is online, what have you done lately to connect with those people?