13244: What’s The One Rookie Mistake You Wish You Hadn’t Made?

Raw transcript:

when people first start working on a
new skill, being part of a new
community, being uh you know, adept at
doing something new. They’re often very
concerned about missteps, making
mistakes, and that’s you know,
understandable. In fact, I was just in a
session uh with a couple of peers and
the question was asked, “What’s the
biggest mistake you made when you
first started doing this work that you
would wave somebody off of that you
would warn them about if they’re getting
started in what we’re doing as
performers?”
So, let’s talk about that in this
episode of the VO Heroes podcast.
So, the nitty-gritty here is that there
are tons of things you can do wrong and
a whole bunch of things you can do right
as you’re just getting into the
business. Even after you’ve been in it a
while, there’s that that honeymoon
period where everything is possible and
who cares if you make mistakes and it’d
be great if you could, you know, figure
out how to do things better, but, you
know, get messy. I I advise people to do
that.
The one thing that I came up with when I
was asked to answer that question in
this session
was very simple.
Don’t overspend.
Don’t spend money. Don’t throw money at
problems, especially when you’re first
getting started. The biggest mistake I
see people making when they first start
off as voice talent, when they first
start off as actors, as writers, is they
buy the most expensive gear, the most
expensive software, uh the most
expensive and deep dive courses, some of
which they’re not even ready to acquire
in terms of the benefits of those
products, whether they be hardware or
software or training.
And in fact, I, you know, I spent
thousands of dollars. I I was actually
kind of lucky because when I was working
in syndicated radio, uh, CBS, uh, spent
$30,000 on my home studio back in the
day. Uh, and, uh, I didn’t have to spend
that money. But when I think about it,
I’ve spent money on really expensive
microphones, really expensive software,
uh training that I went into with all
the best intentions but wasn’t ready to
uh understand the nuances of. My advice
is don’t make the mistake of throwing
money at a problem
because
especially in the beginning, you don’t
know what you don’t know. and the
solution that a very expensive piece of
gear might provide might not be a
solution that you’re ready to benefit
from. So that’s one of the reasons that
we uh we give our students the
microphone that we give our students.
It’s the microphone that I use now. I
don’t use the really expensive
microphones that I have. I just I I
don’t need to. I and and in some cases,
you know, microphones are really really
uh weird animals. And just to take that
as an example, you could buy a
microphone that is too good for your
space. Um, and you’re playing catch-up
trying to get your space to be quiet
enough to allow a Noman U87 or an MKH416
from Sennheiser to do its best work, but
you don’t have the environment in which
it can. So again, that’s that’s the
bottom line. Don’t don’t overspend. Uh
you you want to slowly work up to the
point where you can acquire the
knowledge that allows you to take
advantage of what a more expensive piece
of your system might afford you might
afford you. So
I wonder what mistake you look back on
and god I wish I hadn’t done that. I
wish I wish I’d just taken it a little
bit slower. You know, we talked about in
the session doing your demo too soon,
trying to go after an agent too soon,
but I’d like to know what you think.
What What are the things that if you
could go back in time and do it over
again,
especially for those of you who have a
little bit of experience under your
belt? Let me know in the comments below.
What mistake would you wave somebody off
of? Maybe not getting training soon
enough, you know, thinking you could go
on YouTube and research it there and use
Google and that’s all you need to do.
You don’t need to spend all that money,
right? So, I wonder, let me know in the
comments below. Be kind. Uh, if you’re
on vioheres.com, that’s what I’m talking
about is the comments below there. Uh,
you can hit the like button if you like
what you’re hearing. You can subscribe
to the channel. You can, uh, click the
notification bell and be notified when
the next episode in this series comes
out. I’d love to have you. Uh, I’m David
H. Lawrence, the 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)