VO-BB - 20 YEARS OLD!

[Neil K. Hess]

When you were trying to make the transition from part time to full time, what was the key, or the best return on investment to help you get to the point where you could go full time? A better website? More frequent coaching? An updated demo?

What would you give the most credit to personally?
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http://neilkhessvo.com

[todd ellis]

ya see neil, i don't really play well with others. one day, i had a difference in opinion with my corporate-world boss with regard to selling strategy, in which, i was completely and irreconcilably right, and he was a total douche-hammer. this resulted in a "you can't fire me, i quit" scenario. i swooped all my crap off my desk into a trash bag (snagging some really nice pens in the process - score!), and walked out with my head held high. when the reality of no ACTUAL work set in my head drooped a bit, then a lot. BUT, i hung up my full-time VO shingle the next day, spent 99% of my time marketing & 1% talking into yon can, and after almost 15 years now i can say i'm glad it did it.
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"i know philip banks": todd ellis
who's/on/1st?

[Lizden]

I was "downsized" from my corporate recording gig.
I was the Engineer, director, casting director, project manger there.
I figured if I could do it there, I could do it for myself.
I had also been the bookkeeper, so I pretty much had learned the skills I needed to run the BUSINESS side of my business as well as the creative side.

Like Todd, after 12 years, I'm glad I did
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Liz de Nesnera O.A.V. ~ Livin' The VO Dream!
English/French Bilingual VO w/ ISDN
HireLiz.com / liz@hireliz.com

[Bob Bergen]

I had a day job the first 5 years I was pursuing vo. The last 2 of those years I as making more in vo than I was in the day job. But I was terrified to leave the security of a 9 to 5. One day my boss called me into her office and told me I had 32 sick days that year and they had to let me go. (this was way before the days of a home studio....today much of this recording could be done before/after work) I begged her to keep me on, as I was concerned the vo gigs might dry up. She assured me I could come back if need be. So, I was outta there!

I'd saved every dime I made on vo and lived off of what I made in the day job. I had more than 2 years of living expenses saved up, so I knew I had a cushion. Being let go was the best thing that could have happened to me. It forced me to commit 100% to vo. I never needed another day job, though I came close due to a few strikes. During the commercial strike I took advantage of being a licensed massage therapist and subsidized my income with that for a few months. But overall, I've been very fortunate. Living below my means helped a lot.

[Lizden]

[Jason Huggins]

Living below your means is DEFINITELY key...to life...in general.

I personally waited until my VO income was (by itself) what I knew I could survive on. I was also going to school full time and I was getting the post 9/11 GI bill. That pays a little bit for "housing" for when you are going to school. Then I prayed and prayed and prayed and felt like the time was right.

Funny thing... When I quit my full-time day job and just started doing VO full-time, my VO work tanked. So I prayed again I knew it was what I was supposed to do so I just kept working the plan and after about 6 months I was doing well and after a year I was out of debt. (I never planned on going INTO debt, but I was kinda stuck once I quit my job).

I would definitely say do NOT let debt be a part of the plan. Sometimes you can't avoid it (like when I had my first child with terrible health insurance but just enough income to be ineligible for help), but it should be avoided at all cost.

Make a plan, work the plan and when it honestly makes sense...jump!

[Deirdre]

Being pushed out of radio by bean-counters.
And yeah, it was scary.

17 years later, am I glad I did this?
Jury's out on that.

Norman Vincent Peale said
“Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars."

Sometimes, all you end up with is a handful of spades, so watch it.
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DBCooperVO.com
IMDB

[Lee Gordon]

Norman Vincent Peale had a better grasp of metaphor than he did of astronomy.
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Lee Gordon, O.A.V.
Voice President of the United States
www.leegordonproductions.com
Twitter: @LeeGordonVoice

[Philip Banks]

Voice Over is not a thing! If anyone asks me what I do for a living I say I do voice over work. I am not a Voice Over, it's not a thing. Voice Over work is essentially part of an Actor's skillset like theatre skills, singing, dancing, stagecraft and being a completely self obsessed flake.

Most of my time is NOT spent doing voice over work but the time I spend doing it generates sufficient money to keep me going and feed Bess (Border Collie). Sometimes it is simply voice work as it is not OVER anything. One thing I do not do is steal work from professionally trained, highly gifted, hard working actors. The only work I get is mine. Someone else could do it and when I die someone else will do it. For the moment, for enough people "I'll do just fine".

Forget the "great pipes, awesome training y'got there dood and WILL YA LOOK AT THE SIZE OF THAT MICROPHONE" and look instead at what you bring to the party. You, not your voice. YOU. Your life experience, the 1001 things you know, that make you laugh, make you cry, make you angry, make you lift the spirits and enrich the souls of others. Long after a listener tires of the instrument what will keep them listening to your song, the music you make?

Our world is full of empty promises, users and abusers. You need to ignore the noise pollution and the deception. YOU need to be enough.

When you know that YOU alone are enough and when you are able to tell from whence your enough from voice work will come then you may free yourself to make enough money from voice over work.

Voice Over work is not a thing, it's not a full time job. Finding enough to keep you going can be a full time pursuit but worth the effort.

Every day stand in front of the bathroom mirror, look yourself straight in the eye and say out loud.

"I am enough"

When you believe it, REALLY believe it ..........

[DougVox]

What Philip said.

Also...being good enough at doing this work and getting this work, that you can earn a "full-time" income.
_________________
Doug Turkel (tur-KELL)
Voiceover UNnouncer®
UNnouncer.com

[Bish]

Much wisdom in the posts above. I'll certainly agree with the "downsizing" of lifestyle. In many ways, it wasn't too hard for me... I left a very healthy six-figure corporate gig and came to the realization that I only needed that money because I spent it (changing car every two years... all that unnecessary stuff). The reappraisal of my outgoings was relatively easy (although at the time there was a lot of angst and panic!). Mortgage, utilities, & food will always provide a baseline... the rest is fluff.

My biggest step was more significant. It was actually more difficult than the financial one. It was the realization that I was selling myself rather than any particular service I was providing. I shook off the whole, "I want to be like..." attitude and concentrated on being me. It's an old platitude, but really, I'll only ever be a second-rate (insert name here)... but I'm capable of being the best me. Do not be generic. Be yourself.

My transition wasn't about "going full time". I was in a position where I'd jumped off the corporate horse and all I knew was that I would not (could not) get back on. The redundancy package (severance) helped for a while... but whatever I chose to become HAD to work. Hobson's choice. No fallback. Now THAT tends to focus you
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Bish a.k.a. Bish
Smoke me a kipper... I'll be back for breakfast.
I will not feed the trolls... I will not feed the trolls... I will not feed the trolls... I will not feed the trolls.

[bobsouer]

I know I'm a month late in offering a response to the question. For me, it took 26 years of working more and more steadily doing voiceovers before I was able to make the transition to only doing voiceovers. What really nailed it down for me was getting to 6 figures in voiceover income while still working full time at my corporate day job. That was when I knew I was probably going to be able make it all work.
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Be well,
Bob Souer (just think of lemons)
The second nicest guy in voiceover.
+1-724-613-2749
Source Connect, phone patch, pony express

[Jack Daniel]

[MBVOXX]

When I made the commitment to dive in to VO full time there was no
internet, no websites, no MP3s. It was 5" reel, cassettes, and a ton of networking by pounding the pavement, going to every audition, mailing promo cards, and blanketing every ad agency with a demo reel.

Now you can do all of that via the internet, but the strategy is the same.
Buy the ticket....take the ride.

[ConnieTerwilliger]

Knowing where you fit - what you do well - and then finding the people who want to buy what you have to sell. That is the key to making money.

As Bob S said, when you work at it part-time and over time find that you are making more $ than in your regular job, then you have your answer.

But as you also read, many people had no choice but to jump in voice first.

Those that made it were able to make great personal connections with the people who hire, have something very special to bring to the table (a quirk, a style that gets attention), audition well for the right things, have a niche, or great customer service, all of these or some of these.

They had saved up for that day when the security blanket job was gone.

If you are not pushed out and you are consistently upping your VO game, you should be able to figure out when that jumping off point is.
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Playing for a living...
www.voiceover-talent.com
YouTube Channel: http://youtube.com/connieterwilliger