Hey Folks! So happy to be back with you and happy to be sharing the latest!
My last post spoke to me landing my first agent, and my first big national brand voice gig with Academy Sports + Outdoors. Well, Academy came back to me for a national radio spot, and another one (fingers crossed) that is also in the works! These are huge jobs with great pay, and I’m so fortunate to have the opportunity to partner with these great folks!
I’ve also now signed with 3 more agents, and things are moving. In addition to Big Mouth Talent out of Chicago (as mentioned in a previous post), I have signed with Lau Lapides at Lau Lapides Company/MCVO out of Boston, IDIOM Talent out of Los Angeles, and to throw in a little international representation, Foster Talent out of Toronto, Canada! This means I now have representation in 4 of the top 10 VO Markets in the US! I have also been signed to roughly 8 additional rosters, as well, which will help me to keep a busy calendar. Roster spots are not the same as agent representation. These spots are usually held by production companies who have a need to keep a stable of voice talent handy to assist with their media production. They don’t represent you, but when a project comes along that matches your voice/capabilities, they reach out directly, and most of the time, will pay you directly. It’s great to have a solid relationship with as many of these production houses as you can safely manage. It’s great for keeping a steady flow of work coming your way!
One thing that I also experienced since my last post is agent REJECTION. To be fair, no one really “rejected” me, per se, but I was denied representation (for now) but a few agencies because:
- I already had representation in a market that caused a conflict. I can totally understand this. If there is market overlap, then a new agent may not want the hassle of figuring out who is able to lay claim to their percentage of my pay. I can see why some would avoid this. I was, however, asked to check back with them in 6 months, so I have a warm path back to this agent in the future, which is always important.
- There was already a similar voice on their roster. Again, this is completely understandable. If an agent has 2 voices that are very similar, how to you market one over the other? It causes an internal conflict that many agencies look to avoid. This particular agency loved my demo and my work samples, but they felt that as much as they would love to have me, they needed to remain loyal to the voice talent that they had already signed. Again, the important thing here is that I had a warm invite to check back in 6 months, in case anything changed. Maybe their voice talent isn’t booking much, and this could open the opportunity I’m seeking to move in as they move on from that person. It’s always very important to keep in contact, and seek permissionto reach back out down the road.
One thing that I’ve seen is this gradual shift: I’ve been able to let go of a lot of the lower paying jobs in favor of the higher paying ones. My average jobs are now paying THOUSANDS of dollars, and not hundreds, which is a great sign that I am doing the right things. This allows me to be a bit more selective in the types of jobs I take on, and in the genres I spend most of my time in. Commercial pays very well in relation to the amount of effort I put in. Conversely, Audiobook work is tedious, and takes a lot of time/effort relative to the amount of pay that I can generate. As such, I don’t do Audiobook work so that I can focus more time on Commercial, Video game, Affiliate/Promo, etc. I get more joy (and money) out of those, and at the end of the day, if you’re not enjoying what you do, is it really worth it?
Anyhow, with all the rosters that I’m finding my way onto, and all of the opportunities now coming my way, I need to get back to work. I’ll try to get one more post in before EOY, so keep an eye out for that! Thanks for rockin’ with me on my journey!
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