The 2 BIGGEST Voice Over Marketing FEARS & Why They're BULL

Voice actors are petrified of marketing their services. 

Today, we’re going to get into what those fears are, why they exist, and why they’re complete and utter B.S. 

We’ll talk about some of the misconceptions around sales and marketing your voice over business, and what sales and marketing really are at their core.

And we'll kick it all off with a story....

Takeaways:
Voice actors often have fears and misconceptions about marketing their services.
Sales and marketing are vital for the success of a voiceover business.
The fear of annoying people and being seen as salesy or manipulative is common among voice actors.
Overcoming the fear of reaching out to potential clients is crucial for business growth.
Refusing to change and grow is a fixed mindset that can hinder success.

Chapters:
00:00 Unraveling the Fears and Misconceptions of Voice Actors in Marketing
07:16 The Importance of Sales and Marketing in the Voiceover Business
08:41 Overcoming the Fear of Reaching Out to Potential Clients
11:21 The Fixed Mindset: A Barrier to Success in the Voiceover Industry
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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Voice actors are petrified to market theirservices and today we're gonna dig into
those fears, what they are, why they existand why they're complete and utter BS.
We'll talk about some of themisconceptions around sales and marketing
in the voiceover business and whatmarketing and sales really are at their
core.
First, story time.

(00:21):
I talked to one particular voice actor,
last week and for reasons that will becomeobvious I'm going to keep this person
anonymous for their own good.
This is a chat I regularly have with voiceactors called a strategy call and the
whole goal of the call is to learn aboutthem and their voiceover journey and more
importantly where they want to take it tosee if I can help them do that.

(00:41):
So back to this voice actor this issomebody who's been doing voiceover for
the better part of 30 years.
They are by their own definition...
a medium -sized fish in a small pond.
They live in a small city and they fellinto, again, their words, not mine, fell
into a couple of relationships in the,with a couple of the local recording
studios and just over time became the go-to person.

(01:03):
So much so, in fact, that they built theirentire career on work that was fed to them
by these couple few studios.
Now, I've always said that unless you'rein New York, LA, or London,
that your home market as a voice actor isnot really enough to support you.
And clearly this person is the exceptionto that rule, but I'll be honest, this is

(01:25):
the only exception to that rule I've everactually spoken to.
Regardless, good work if you can get it,right?
So you may be wondering as I was if thisperson has had a long and successful
career Why were they reaching out to me tohelp them to find more business?
Well, apparently the gravy train thatthey'd been riding for the better part of
the last three decades had slowed from asteady stream of work that had been fed to

(01:49):
them over a very long period of time hadslowed to a drip now they went on to
explain that they saw themselves as Verygood at doing the job and clearly they had
a lot of happy well -fledged
satisfied clients, but they in their ownwords said they're not really good at
introductions.
They're not good at reaching out, not verygood at talking to other people for the

(02:12):
first time.
So that beg the question.
And I asked, so how often do you or haveyou reached out to clients to market your
services?
Never.
Email?
Nope.
Point number one, I'm just going to pointthis out.
It's really hard, really difficult.
Read that as impossible.
to be really good at anything when younever do it.

(02:34):
So I dug in a little further.
Well, tell me, why is that?
Well, you know, I've thought about it, butif that means picking up the phone and
talking to complete strangers, well,that's just not me.
Now, first, I don't recommend picking upthe phone, but that's a different topic
for a different video.
Listen to what this person said.

(02:54):
That's just not me.
In other words, that's just not
who I am.
They didn't say, well, that's something Idon't want to do.
I feel uncomfortable doing that.
They didn't say it's hard or challengingfor me.
It's something I prefer not to do.
It's something that I struggle with.
No, they said that's just not me.

(03:16):
They pinned their very identity on therefusal to do something that they found to
be so incredibly uncomfortable, even if itwould save their business.
Now,
before I get going here, and I will.
I want to make the point that I am notpicking on introverts here.
I understand that it is more of achallenge for more introverted people to

(03:40):
talk to strangers for the first time.
I understand that introverts don't oftenchange, even over long periods of time,
into extroverts.
But I also understand that there areplenty of introverts who do challenge
themselves and do the things that theyhave to do to become successful.
Introversion.
is not this person's main issue.

(04:00):
In the space of a few minutes, this personwent from, I'm desperate to save my
business, to drawing a line in the sandand staunchly refusing to do the one thing
that so clearly would save their business.
Now, many of you watching right now, I'msure, feel sad for this person,
understandably so.

(04:21):
But not me.
I'm angry.
I'm angry that this person clearly quitetalented,
in doing the work, clearly very adept atmaintaining and fostering relationships
with great clients, has dug in their heelslike a petulant child throwing a tantrum,
and refuses to even entertain the thoughtof doing the one thing that so clearly

(04:43):
will save their business.
I'm angry because this person's businesswill fail, not because they're
introverted, but because they simplyrefuse to become uncomfortable, to
challenge themselves even a little.
to even take the first step to growing onescintilla.
I'm angry because of the people in thisperson's life who will potentially suffer

(05:03):
from this failed business.
I'm angry because of all the people thisperson could have potentially helped, not
just from now on, but in the last threedecades.
Because let's face it, they're really goodat what they do and they've already helped
some people.
But most of all, I'm angry at thismindset.
It's a fixed mindset on steroids, and tome, it's a mental illness.
This kind of mindset says, I don't give adamn how desperate things get, I'm not

(05:27):
gonna change, challenge myself, or grow.
And the stupid part is that this - Welcometo this part of the episode entitled, The
Stupid Bits, where we delve headlong intothe insanely stupid bits of this fucked up
logic.
I'm your host, Paul Schmidt, and now, onwith the stupid bits.
And the stupid part is that this personclearly approached a stranger.

(05:49):
Me.
They've literally -
proven to themselves that they were ableto manage that fear to be able to conquer
that fear to the point that they reachedout to a stranger and if you did it once,
you could do it again.
Stupid part number two is that we'll neverknow how crazy successful this person
could have been.
How many more friendships, businessrelationships, clients this person could

(06:13):
have developed over the course of 30 or 40years.
And none of that happened because theywere too afraid.
How many hundreds of thousands, how manymillions of dollars never got made because
they were too scared?
How many family vacations were nevertaken?
How many memories weren't made?
How much joy never came to be because theystayed in the harbor?
Stupid part number three, this person isclearly good at doing a job and managing

(06:38):
the people that they work with and thoserelationships.
my God, how, why are they tellingthemselves some bullshit story that
somehow...
They're not good enough to reach out toother people to have a conversation about
solving their problem.
My God, make it make sense!
This has been The Stupid Bits.
Join us next time for more limitingbeliefs, batshit crazy thought processes,

(07:02):
and mind -boggling mindsets.
So now that we have a horrifying exampleof this fixed mindset in action, let's
break this down.
What are people so impossibly afraid of?
when it comes to marketing their voiceoverbusinesses.
Number one, I'm afraid I'll annoy people.
This is by far the most common fear when Italk to voice actors.

(07:25):
And yet I'm sure it's also a common fearamong graphic designers and coders and
freelance video producers and anybody thatneeds to build a freelance business.
But I think it's especially prominentamong voice actors because historically we
have been so passive because for decadeswe couldn't go find the work.
Most people think even when they'regetting into the business, voice actors

(07:48):
get an agent and that's how they get workand that's the end of the story.
Not today, Satan.
Not today.
Today, you have to hustle.
And if you think to yourself, well, that'sjust not me, then that's fine.
But you need to accept you're never gonnamake it as a professional voice actor.
And by hustle, I mean you have to start alot of conversations.
I'm talking like a hundred a day.
And if you do this every day, yes, youwill annoy someone.

(08:12):
Who cares?
A.
If you generally reach out to the rightpeople, you will minimize the chances of
annoying the wrong people.
B.
If you do happen to annoy somebody, peopleare polite.
Chances are they'll be too polite to sayso and you'll never know.
C.
If they do get annoyed, that's on them.
It's a perfectly reasonable thing to reachout to a complete stranger to try to start

(08:37):
a conversation around needs and painpoints they might have.
and how you might collaborate together tosolve them.
At the core of that, you have done nothingwrong unless your methodology was really
bad.
And D, look, at one point a couple ofyears ago, I did the math and I found out
that one in every 4 ,000 people I reachedout to...

(08:58):
came back with a rude reply.
People are generally not rude.
In fact, they are generally helpful andkind.
Who knew?
Big fear number two.
I'm afraid to be seen as salesy, sleazy,or manipulative.
Totally get that.
And I think this is a common fear becauseculturally, I think we have this icon,
this cultural image, this archetype of asalesperson being the...

(09:24):
finger gun poppin' plaid jacket wearingsales guy that's gonna put you in this car
today.
But only after he consults with asalesman.
We have this sort of cultural stigma aboutsalespeople that I think goes all the way
back to just after World War II of theintrusive, fast -talking, agenda -having,
inauthentic, even deceptive snake oilsalesman.

(09:46):
I talked to a voice actor just a couple ofdays ago and he said, you know what, I've
gotten a lot of bad sales calls in my timeand I don't want to be that guy.
I get it.
There are a lot of sleazy, inauthentic,unethical people out there, but going into
sales and marketing doesn't necessarilymake you one of those.
It makes me a little crazy whensalespeople are looked down upon because,
you know, there's an old adage in businessthat nothing really happens until somebody

(10:09):
sells something.
Look at any business.
Doesn't matter how large, how small.
Everyone in a company owes their cushy, bi-weekly, regular paychecks to the people
that put their paychecks on the line everytime they're open their mouth.
and they go out and they find the businessthat makes that company run.
It is hard work.
It is full of rejection or at leastperceived rejection.

(10:30):
And when done well, it provides stabilityand growth to every company in the world
that employs people.
Sales and marketing are the most vitalfunctions.
They are the heart and lungs of everybusiness in existence.
Because without that, there's nothing.
There's no product, there's no service,there's no accounting, HR,

(10:51):
compliance, legal, quality control,delivery, customer support, technical
service, there's no C -suite.
When done correctly, sales and marketingare at their core a business of service to
others.
They're about starting conversationsaround someone's needs in order to earn a
conversation about collaborating aroundthose needs to solve their problem and in

(11:15):
so doing making their jobs and their livesbetter by solving a problem that they
cannot solve.
for themselves.
You and I know how cool and fun this jobis.
If they could do it, they would.
It is perfectly reasonable to reach out tocomplete strangers to see if they have a
need and a problem that you mightcollaborate to solve.
You don't have to be inauthentic, sleazyor manipulative in any way.

(11:40):
You just have to be willing to be groundedin your ability to solve their problem and
the ability to start a conversation.
That's it.
Instead of thinking to yourself,
Well, what if I annoy someone?
Think to yourself, what if I delightsomeone?
Go to voPro .pro to get my move, touch,inspire, and weekly newsletter that comes

(12:02):
out just for voice actors.
More information on the voPro communityand the VO Freedom Master Plan, where we
teach voice actors just exactly how toreach out to strangers to build a business
by marketing their services.
If you found value in this video, ifsomething in this video helped you, if you
think it will help another voice actor,please share it with them, whether you

(12:24):
like, subscribe, send it to them throughtext or social media, however you prefer.
And while I'm at it, thanks so much forthe conversations we have on YouTube, in
the blog at voPro .pro, in the voProcommunity, and in the larger voiceover
community in general.
The more we talk, the more we listen, themore we have rational discourse, the
better, stronger industry.

(12:45):
we can have for everyone.
Thanks so much for your support and we'llsee you back here again next week.