Enjoy Your First Booking. Pay Close Attention To The Next Three.

Photo by Keith Luke on Unsplash

Hey there!

How awesome did that first booking (the first PAID booking especially) feel?

(For those of you who have yet to book your first gig, trust me. It’s even better than you can imagine.)

Celebrate! Enjoy! Have a party! And then, get back to work.

And pay very close attention to the next three bookings you get. They can be extraordinarily valuable. Here’s why.

Hope this helps!

David

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  1. Interestingly, though I worked in radio broadcasting for about five years in the 1980s, and heard myself on the air lots of times back then doing news, commercials, promos, PSAs/SPAs, etc., the first *paid* VO booking after I decided to make a go of an actual VO business two years ago was one political commercial for a local county freeholder race. They loved it, and specifically sought me out the next year for three more, of which one was a voice track for a TV spot. But hearing that first radio spot playing on one of the state’s biggest talk FM stations (“New Jersey 101.5”) was an absolute blast. Most of my work since then has been corporate/explainer/Kickstarter campaign, and I’m happy to get that work, but I’d still love to do more broadcast commercials. It’s addictive!

  2. That first “on air” experience is a rush. Ironically, I didn’t experience it until many years into doing VO. My first paid gig was an industrial for the American Red Cross, and I never saw the finished product. So it went for a couple of decades–I got into doing industrials, and unless I was also the producer, I never saw the end result, and none were for broadcast anyway. The first time I heard myself on the radio was for a “tonight on ABC” lineup spot for WJFK-FM, where a guy who went to my high school was a PD. He found out I did VO work, and invited me to the studio for a tour. While there, I did a couple of spots that are usually covered by the RPs, just for fun. And I too had the “almost drove off the road” experience when I heard myself on the air a few days later.

  3. Sharing my first booking with you and the VO2GoGo family was invaluable. All the advice and support helped to calm my overabundance of nerves, and sharing my excitement with everyone in my life felt wonderful! Like you, I didn’t expect to get my first booking in my 40s, nor did I expect it would be playing a villain. For me, acting has mostly been a hobby, so I’m not sure what the future holds regarding more on camera work. I’d like to get future bookings, and if I do, I’ll be a little surprised if I keep playing a villain. Thanks for the video David.

  4. For audiobooks specifically, I was SURE I would be a non-fiction narrator. And yet my first two jobs have been for YA fiction novels. Lesson learned: embrace what people want to hear you read !

  5. I remember jumping up and down calling out to my husband and son “Guess who got a voice acting job!!!!!!! We were thrilled. The company continued to send me more e-learning modules to do! The same thing happened when I got my first commercial and then when it was released on YouTube. Love that feeling!