Random Thoughts for Newcomers

Scott Pollak

This has been temporarily posted as a sticky by the Mod as a service to the Newbies out there.

Random thoughts. …
Feel free to add your own.

I’ve been toying with the idea for a while now to compose a sort of general, all-encompassing, J.S. Gilbert-esque pontification on this business that may provide some eye-opening clarification for the many newcomers to this business who happen onto this forum.

We often see many of the same remarks on these threads over and over from first-timers:
“I’ve been told I have a nice voice…”
“I’ve always wanted to do this…”
“My customers tell me I have the most pleasant voice…”
“I’ve been told I should be on the radio…”
“I’ve never really done this before…”

Now, before I get into this, please understand that everyone in this business had to start out at the beginning, so my goal here is NOT to discourage newcomers. It’s to provide stark honesty and clarification from someone who has been knocking around in professional broadcasting and voiceovers for over 30 years.

1) Being told you have a ‘nice voice’ or you ‘should be in radio’ doesn’t qualify anyone to do voiceovers for a living. There are, quite literally, tens of millions of ‘nice voices’ in the world and, quite literally, WAY too many radio voices (that most clients do NOT want any more). There are tens of millions of super nice looking people out there, too, but only about 1/1000 of 1% of them are models.
2) If you have absolutely no experience, know nothing about the technical or business side of voice work and/or voice production, have had no training in acting or delivering copy, then you need to get some. You may ultimately be able to make a dent in this business, but not without experience and training.
3) If you post a read or a demo here and ask for a critique, be prepared to receive it. Everyone here, and I mean EVERYONE, pulls for everyone else. This is the most supportive group of professionals you’ll ever meet in any profession, bar none. Heartfelt and QUALIFIED feedback will come to you from folks who know, from professionals who make their entire living doing this stuff. If you really DON’T want to hear it and learn how to get better, then please don’t ask for the feedback.
4) This is a business. It requires hard work, skill, the right equipment, training, business acumen, savvy, and relentless determination. If you lack any single one of those elements, the odds are heavily stacked against you.
5) While this is a tremendously fun career to be in, it’s not something to be taken lightly. If you happen to mess around on your home computer and make funny sounds or a great impersonation of George Bush or Sylvester Stallone, we’ll all smile with you as we listen. But please don’t think that it will gain you entry into this business. It won’t. Just because it can be fun doesn’t mean it’s not serious. You would never, EVER, walk into the offices of Smith-Barney and expect them to hire you as a stockbroker simply because you can balance your checkbook. Like it or not, the same is true in voiceovers (and pretty much any other legitimate business out there).
6) Most people will fail at this business. Here is where I acknowledge the many excellent posts by my friend J.S. Gilbert who has – time and again – shared the stats of the cruel realities of this business. The vast, VAST majority of people will make no money doing voiceovers. Most will, at best, make a few thousand dollars. As in other ‘entertainment’ types of fields (e.g.: acting, singing, dancing), a tiny, tiny few will make a career at this… some making just enough to pay the bills, and even less making a very comfortable living. The sad truth is that this is an extremely hard business to make a living at.

All newcomers are welcomed with open arms. We love to hear from you, talk to you, listen to what you have and provide feedback and suggestions, but you have a responsibility, too. You must be honest with yourself as to whether you should be attempting this. Aunt Sally and Mister Pipkin and your regular customers telling you what a nice voice you have means nothing. Ask those in the business who know… those you’ll find trolling these forums… and they’ll tell you whether they think you have the chops or not. You’d be smart to listen to them.

Do everything you possibly can to learn about the business. Buy books and read them! Take classes: voice classes, voice acting classes, acting classes. When the time is right and the budget allows, get the right equipment (it doesn’t have to cost a fortune… you can have a GREAT set up for under $1000). Learn how to use the equipment and software properly. Be humble and really know and believe that none of us – NONE OF US - ever knows it all or ever reaches the top or ever hits a place where we can’t get better or learn more.

From the bottom of my heart, if you’ve read this far, I hope this helps clarify where you are and what you need to think about and do (or NOT do!). Welcome to the wonderful world of voiceovers and best of luck.

Erik Sheppard · Posted: Tue Nov 20, 2007, 02:36 (GMT) Post subject:

Wow, Scott. Well said.

Allen Brown · Posted: Tue Nov 20, 2007, 02:51 (GMT) Post subject:

Scott,

Thanks for taking the time. Just the other day I was asked by one of my youngest daughter's friends about "getting into the biz". She's a theatre major in college. Ya' know, it's easy to pass out advice to strangers, but when it's close to home, you pause.

It would be nice if we could take some of the great advice and thoughts like this and congeal it into one sticky post. This post, some from JS (when he's not being a curmudgeon Wink

) and SO many others would serve as a wonderful primer and reality check for newcomers.

I've spent so many hours on the keyboard and on the phone consulting with newbies. It would be nice to be able to send starry-eyed newbies to "the" link. A special place...an honest place to start.

Caryn Clark · Posted: Tue Nov 20, 2007, 03:10 (GMT) Post subject:

I'm glad you took the time to do this Scott. I hate to see you, and others, take the time to say the same thing over and over again for some of the basic questions. Smile

My husband is a stockbroker, and it amazes him that people, who are asking a broker to manage their life savings, don't ask for a resume from the said broker (he offers it, by the way). You can draw the parallel to voice work...

Kim White · Posted: Tue Nov 20, 2007, 04:00 (GMT) Post subject:

Scott,

Thank you for posting this! Being a newbie myself, I also think it's important to express grattitude whenever a working professional takes the time to critique anything of mine. I keep in mind how much they usually get paid for their time.

Thank you, and other professionals like you here on the forum, for sharing your valuable experiences.

Blessings,

Kim

Colin Campbell · Posted: Tue Nov 20, 2007, 04:59 (GMT) Post subject:

Scott... all well said.

You know where I am... technically... got it down. Voice... do fairly well. With all my experience and talent... I still have to fight and claw to make a buck. This biz is not for the faint of heart.

Allison Scussel · Posted: Tue Nov 20, 2007, 05:48 (GMT) Post subject:

Beautifully put Scott!

Thanks for taking the time to put this post together. There are many folks who will learn ten-fold from it. I, for one, have learned quite alot from you through PM's and critiques.

The career in VO's is challenging and compettitive. It requires skill and training. You put it all into perspective.

Wink

Allison

Tom Pagnotti · Posted: Tue Nov 20, 2007, 13:17 (GMT) Post subject:

You would never, EVER, walk into the offices of Smith-Barney and expect them to hire you as a stockbroker simply because you can balance your checkbook

What a great analogy, Scott!

Lee Gordon · Posted: Wed Nov 21, 2007, 00:05 (GMT) Post subject:

Superb post, Scott. I would just like to embellish something you briefly touched upon when referring to Aunt Sally & Mr. Pipkin. When someone plunges into this business (or radio or singing) because he or she has "been told I have a good voice," the first question that person must ask him- or herself is, "what are the qualifications of the person telling me I have a good voice?" Unless your voice has been complimented by someone who is actually in the business -- either an experienced voice talent or a producer who routinely works with voice talent -- you should take the comments with a huge grain of salt.

Oh, and by the way, a good voice is quite possibly the least important attribute for success in this field. What you are able to do with your voice is far more important. Even if you don't cultivate any acting skills, you still need to be able to read. It sounds awfully basic, but a shocking number of so-called announcers don't know which words in a sentence should be emphasized and which should not.

If the person who likes your voice is, in fact a pro, that person is probably the one you should be attempting to work with or to introduce you to someone you can work with. If they are unwilling to do so, perhaps they were blowing just a bit of smoke up your kiester. That is not to say you have no potential, but it would be a good indication that you have a long, long way to go before you are ready to make money at this.

And finally, you are probably familiar with the expression, "It's not what you know, it's who you know." There is no business where that is more true than the voiceover business. You can have mad skills but the most uphill battle you'll face is just getting people to know you exist and remember that fact when opportunity arises.

Erik Sheppard · Posted: Wed Nov 21, 2007, 00:30 (GMT) Post subject:

Did old man Gordon just say, "Mad skills?"

John Bigl · Posted: Wed Nov 21, 2007, 02:15 (GMT) Post subject:

Well Said, Scott ...

You are, as always, a classy guy ...

Sure glad you came down hard on me all those months ago w/ some basic facts, truths, and honest observations.. Is difficult to face limitations, difficult times, mistakes and new challenges, but i'm thankful for these b/c they give me the opportunity to learn and improve...

Be Well

Deby Cedars · Posted: Fri Nov 23, 2007, 23:39 (GMT) Post subject:

I personally think it is time for an online VO Book. Something that v123 talents could read for free. The talents would win because they would not damage their reputation by making avoidable mistakes. The Client would win because they wouldn't have to sift through so much garbage. The only people that would lose would be the teachers that charge for the information.

There already is a lot of free info out there! The problem is that new talents either don't know how to access it or they are just to eager to skip the lessons and dive right in.

I'm on page 30 of a book called voiceover by Janet Wilcox. I already know a large portion of the info from all the classes that I have taken, but it is nice to review the info and see it from yet another point of view. She states that "....no one walks out the door one day and decided to play at Carnegie Hall that night...."

I found this to be very inspirational.....(partly because I want to sing at Carnegie Hall). Reading these boards are important, but since so few "true" voice seekers actually post, you have to take everything with a grain of salt.

Les Lakow · Posted: Thu Dec 27, 2007, 19:12 (GMT) Post subject: Entrepreneurial Spirit

Scott
Sage advice - particularly to people who have been employees all their lives and are now trying to branch out and do something on their own. I am brand new to this field, but not to starting new ventures - and experience has shown that the vast majority of people in ANY field, not just this one - are likely to fail in the first year for any number of reasons, not the least of which is unrealistic expectations and insufficient resources to weather the start-up storm..
Assuming someone has the basic requisite talent (a marketable voice in this case) - they still need to be prepared to knock on doors until their knuckles bleed and then knock some more to build a client base. That part is pretty much SOP in any field.
So now that I've gone and shot my newbie mouth off, hello everyone. I'll be posting my demos next week (getting production done over Christmas week is a whole other story) and I know you'll all be very gentle and supportive <grin>
Happy New Year
Les

Lori Furth · Posted: Thu Dec 27, 2007, 21:49 (GMT) Post subject:

Deby

I took a class with Janet Wilcox at UCLA a few years ago and I thought it was excellent!

She'd be happy to hear your feedback, I'm sure.

Best wishes...

Lori

Christine Cimmino · Posted: Sat Feb 09, 2008, 01:48 (GMT) Post subject:

Hi Scott,

I enjoyed reading your random thoughts. They really hit home for me. When I initially decided to get into this business, I naively thought it was going to be much easier than it, of course, actually is.

I have realigned my thinking over the past year and I feel like I'm getting on track with what I need to do to try and succeed as a voice talent.

Your advice is well received and appreciated! Thank you from this "Newbie", hopefully someday an "Oldbie"!

Christine Cimmino Smile

"MY Voice is YOUR Voice"
Versatile - Original - Ideal - Charismatic - Eloquent