13177: I’m Sure They Mean Well, But…No.

Raw transcript:

most of the time in these episodes I’m
trying to help you with a better way of
doing something a more positive way of
doing something a more effective way of
doing something or recognizing an issue
and in this episode I want to talk to
you about something that I don’t think
is a good choice I really really don’t
I’ll give you the give you the lowdown
in this episode of the vo Heroes podcast
coming up
next
so if you’ve heard me talk about my
definition of success you know that it’s
do more of what works and less of what
doesn’t and you can’t help but being
successful and um you know it’s knowing
what works and what doesn’t and rarely
have I seen a
more uh blatant example of what not to
do than recently I encountered in an
invitation to join a new
voiceover meetup group on meetup.com uh
I’m in a number of uh voiceover groups
on Meetup they send me invitations all
the time one of them is one of the best
groups I’m in voices Anonymous here in
Los Angeles we actually do meet up face
to face every month and it’s just it’s
one of the highlights of my month I love
it so I always investigate when Meetup
offers me uh the opportunity to join a
new group who knows I mean it might be
great so I get this uh thing and I’m
looking at at it and they always have a
section called what we’re
about and when I saw the what we’re
about for this section I was like no no
no no no no here’s what it read you want
to do voiceover work but you don’t know
where to
start sign up for this group every month
we’ll have a small class of 10 folks to
teach beginning voiceover work which
will culminate in a professionally
studio recorded demo reel
no no no no if anything this is not the
way to go about doing a demo real it’s
as if they’re saying one of the things
you need to get started in doing
voiceover work is a demo real and that’s
not that’s not something to do anywhere
near the moment you’re getting started
or the the first few months of when
you’re getting started or however long
they think it’s going to take before
they’re ready to do demo work and also
really professionally produced studio
record is there money involved here
usually meetups don’t don’t do that some
of them have fees but more
importantly we tend to make uh demos get
making our first demo of what will be a
series of demos if we’re going to take
voiceover seriously uh and and on camera
as well and getting an agent those two
things are often things that people put
in the wrong position they want to get
those done first so they can get started
with their voiceover career couldn’t be
a worse strategy or tactic to do that
you don’t go to a Meetup session for a
few months and then get your demo done
especially when it’s a once a month
thing getting your demo put together
even the first iteration of what will be
a living document your demo will change
many times over the years as you’re in
this business um should not occur that
early in your journey it just shouldn’t
you’re not ready for it you won’t be
ready for it I promise you you will not
be ready for it and you will thank me if
you choose to follow my advice here uh I
did not join this meetup group and I
also am concerned about the people who
will and will walk through this process
and be presented with something that
might not serve them might not who knows
someone might C catch lightning in a my
point here
is there are better ways to go about
doing this and my opinion is the better
way is to get a lot of work under your
belt a lot of feedback under your belt
build your brand build your experience
portfolio build your performance
portfolio build your training uh get to
know the business so that you know what
to do with the demo once you get
it not join a meet up for a few months
and then go and get a professional
studio recorded demo uh it’s not a
bucket list item it’s not a checkbox in
a Google doc it’s it’s much more
important than that and it’s going to be
your first iteration it’s going to
change over time I get that some people
like well I just want to get one done
okay great but be careful about sharing
that with people who could potentially
hire you because it might might not be
your best foot
forward anyway I’ll stop talking about
this just I think it kind of little
triggered me a little bit and
so uh I wanted to share that with you um
be careful about how you go about things
like developing this kind of tool and be
prepared for it give yourself that gift
of being prepared for it what do you
think did you come into this business
whether it’s on camera or voice over did
you come into this business and think to
yourself oh yeah all I need is this demo
I get a demo done and then I’ll be fine
you know I’ll just send that demo out
and I’ll get all kinds of work how hard
can this be okay so um let me know in
the comments below hit the like button
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episodes come out that would be great
I’m David H Lawrence 17th I thank you so
much for watching and for listening and
I will see you in the next episode of
the vo Heroes
podcast

(from YouTube)