@@AndrewBenjafield yes Andrew!!! 🙌🙌 And if you wanna join us for FREE and get REALLY fired up. Join our FREE community! www.skool.com/thevolounge/about
Bravo! 👏 Thanks for sharing your story. I really love the video, because I can relate to a lot of those things you mentioned, and it was very encouraging video.
Whilst your story is almost beat for beat my own (broke/hungry -> full time in VO in a year through what was effectively sheer grind/practice -> now I work 10-14 hours 7 days a week) and I largely agree w/ your content, I'd argue that hard work doesn't need to be as concentrated as the way we did it. Often times, when people ask why I'm [relatively] more successful than others who started VO at the same time w/ literally no experience: it's simply just because I put more hours in in less time. However, people *are* allowed to work less over a longer period of time if that's what their current lifestyle calls for--the results just won't be as immediate. Similarly, people are also allowed to be happy hobbyists and exist in that sphere as perfectly valid VAs.--Not that you're saying they aren't, simply that a lot of full time VAs tend to turn their nose down at people who are going at their own pace and having "fun" with it. I think it's easy to forget that not EVERYONE's goals are full time, working on triple A stuff in LA or anime in Dallas--even though, most people's are.) Unless I'm mistaken, you're a single? guy and/or you don't have kids (same w/ myself haha), so there's a certain privilege we have in terms of flexibility to totally rearrange your time in a way that others simply cannot. While I've become a big hustler since jumping into VO, I DO worry about narratives that heavily push or champion hustling as the primary/only means of success. It can accelerate the results/success for sure, but I'm honestly the least healthy I've ever been in terms of my relationship with work now, and whilst I agree a lot more people need to 'put in the work' overall, I also worry that this message is lacking a biiit of nuance.
@@KourosRaviv I appreciate the effort you put into this comment, it is a manifesto! If you put this kinda afford into VO you must be crushing it haha. I’m talking to the people who aren’t getting the results they want and I literally have videos saying people don’t have to work as hard I do, and if they don’t want to that is totally fine but I’m not the coach for them. And of course everyone is allowed to do whatever they want, I don’t judge, but if they think they can get the same results as me or anything close to it with anything less than equal effort they are dreaming. The truth is, when you start voiceover you are against the best of the best and the hustlers, there’s no shallow end of the pool - and if you want to stand a chance you gotta put in the effort. It would be insane to think that a couch potato could go play basketball a couple times a week casually and stand a chance against an NBA player in a game.
@@jessecarrollvoiceovers Oh, 100%. I think people forget that for almost anything that's a decently paid gig, you're going against people with 5-30+ more years of experience on you. (Not to mention if you're ultimately aiming for Class A Union commercials, network TV animation roles, all the fun/higher-class agent level work etc, you are quite literally competing with household names.) In VA, you start the game playing from behind. Way behind. And this is even more highlighted when you start the career in your 30's+ (as we seemingly both did lol) whereas someone else could've started when they were 15, etc. Despite my nitpick, I appreciate your content and have been following it for awhile, as I'm always keen to compare notes regarding P2P algorithms. It is unfortunate but A LOT of grizzled veterans/old school style coaches have a warped sense of like, what it's like to be a VA in 2024, and often times speak poorly of P2Ps/Fiverr/etc, but there's no better place to get your reps in. And I'm a big rep-minded person (I had no coaching/formal training, existed on free materials and did over 5000 auditions--not counting practice--my first year of VO--which doesn't even touch yours I'm sure, but it's 2x higher than anyone else I know). I'm lucky that the introductory course I happened upon back then was very exponential experience minded and I went into it with very little expectations in terms of success. I don't think quantity over quality is the move forever especially as I begin to move more into 4 and 5 figure opportunities and, well, simply put, stuff I *want* more (AAA interactive etc), but workflow mastery is a huge part of the lifestyle. Being a VA in 2024 is, imo, very different to starting VA in 2000, and not everyone accounts for that. Worse, a lot of times people don't feel people without 30+ years of experience are "qualified" to coach, but there's a massive need for people who are experienced with NEW ERA voice acting (which I believe you've sufficiently tapped into), and getting their business established in 2024, not, 2000. I've long felt I exist in this odd space of both being technically speaking, very little in experience in terms of length of years/career, but also way more experienced than the average 1.5 year VA w/ 250+ projects completed, several agents, etc, so discovering that I'm not in fact alone in my bullheaded success haha, has been refreshing. Sorry to take your time haha, but I just wanted to share one last thing. I was in a 4 week workshop the other month with the senior Blizzard casting director, and a fourth? third? of the class had NEVER auditioned before, but had been training and spending thousands on coaches and such for YEARS. They were in a $700+ workshop with literally no experience auditioning. It blew my mind. But that is actually what a lot of the old guard teaches; to them they're doing everything right, but... I mean, I'm sitting there full time, easily paying for 3-4 workshops a month w/ my VO earnings like, "Okay, but like, who's actually farther along?"
@@KourosRaviv you are a beast! Yes, most of the time when I take workshops it’s crazy to see the number of newbies who have never auditioned and they’re not only leaving money on the table they are also not getting in reps/practice. I’d love to interview you in my community to hear more about your journey if you’re up for it?
I mean, I 'could' work 10 hours a day on this, but I only have one outlet currently, which doesn't offer enough to work to put in that many hours a day. I do all my auditions, then I'll spend a couple/few hours refining my demos. That's about all I have available to me right now.
Auditioning all day every day is not sustainable practically or for growing a VO business. Instead of endlessly Auditioning on oversaturated P2P's, the best use of time we have each day is Direct marketing to Production companies of all different kinds. By all means audition part of a day but don't give all your invaluable time to Auditioning.
@@Whysodelirious88 I’ve been doing this for 7years… how much longer do I need to do it to disprove the B.S. that it’s not sustainable and doesn’t work? I always have time to market as well, I just do 50-60 auditions first as it’s the most important and superior way of marketing, but I only email/direct market to existing clients that I won from auditions. I am so sure this is the very best way to build a consistent and lucrative VO business that I offer anyone in the entire VO world a competition: They ONLY direct market for 30 days and I ONLY audition for 30 days. Let’s see who booked more jobs and gained more new clients and made more money at the end of the month. If anyone out there can beat me with the direct marketing method I will completely change my point of view and make a video about how I am wrong and will change my opinion on this moving forward. I am throwing this challenge out to ANY VO’s especially the ones peddling the VO marketing programs they sell ;)
@jessecarrollvoiceovers 50-60 auditions!! Omg! And out of how many of those do you actually land the gig? Most newcomer VO's have a regular paying full-time job to work around as well as their other important commitments. If they had 2 hours a day max to spend on VO, then direct marketing is the best use of the time they do have available instead of competing with 10's if not 100's of other VO's for an audition they likely won't get. Also, one aspect of appeal of becoming a VO is time freedom, so I cant honestly say that others will be happy grinding away 12+ hours a day to possibly land a job of the multitudes auditioned for. With marketing, the clients you build come to you because they've already chosen you for their project. Work smart not hard.
@@Whysodelirious88 it takes me 4 hours max to do 60 auditions… and how can you say sending emails is the best use of a short amount of time when you’re new when half those emails will be ignored and then successful ones will result in… drum roll…. An audition!! Which they still have to book. Cut out the time wasting and just get straight to the auditions. If you’re skilled that is where you’ll shine, and if you’re not skilled then get coaching and get practicing… how do you practice? Yup you guessed it, auditions. My booing ration floats between 1:38-1:43, so I book nearly 2 new clients a day and get offers weekly from clients I worked with previously who I got from… auditioning!… Sounds like you’re up for the challenge? How about it? You only do your marketing for a month and I only do auditions and zero marketing, not even to past or current clients. We’ll use a neutral party to judge and we’ll let the results speak for themselves so we can put this nonsensical argument to bed? Challenge accepted?
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Great advice Jesse, loving your work from here in the UK. I have my WHY and am fired up after booking my first job! I want more. 🙏🏻
@@AndrewBenjafield yes Andrew!!! 🙌🙌
And if you wanna join us for FREE and get REALLY fired up. Join our FREE community! www.skool.com/thevolounge/about
Excellent advice like always Jesse! Keep up that awesome content!
@@faustsid67 thank you sir, will do. I appreciate your feedback
"WHY" do we have to wait for this, I NEED IT NOW JESSE
@@wongesse1612 haha all good things my friend! Soon soon 😜
Thank you!
@@RacquelM you’re welcome Raquel!
Solid advice! Knowing your "why" definitely pushes me forward. Your spirit in this video was enough to give me more motivation
Bravo! 👏 Thanks for sharing your story.
I really love the video, because I can relate to a lot of those things you mentioned, and it was very encouraging video.
@@Gary-db4bc I’m so glad Gary! Happy to help :)
excellent advice...thanks!👍
This video is the one right here. Great job and thanks for sharing this Jesse. You are the real deal for sure!! 🔥💯🎙🦾
Thanks Dom! You’re such a great supporter! I appreciate you!
hell ya i love this so much ty for the info and telling me how to find my why
@@MasonYates-119 anytime!! Thanks for watching!
Whilst your story is almost beat for beat my own (broke/hungry -> full time in VO in a year through what was effectively sheer grind/practice -> now I work 10-14 hours 7 days a week) and I largely agree w/ your content, I'd argue that hard work doesn't need to be as concentrated as the way we did it. Often times, when people ask why I'm [relatively] more successful than others who started VO at the same time w/ literally no experience: it's simply just because I put more hours in in less time. However, people *are* allowed to work less over a longer period of time if that's what their current lifestyle calls for--the results just won't be as immediate. Similarly, people are also allowed to be happy hobbyists and exist in that sphere as perfectly valid VAs.--Not that you're saying they aren't, simply that a lot of full time VAs tend to turn their nose down at people who are going at their own pace and having "fun" with it. I think it's easy to forget that not EVERYONE's goals are full time, working on triple A stuff in LA or anime in Dallas--even though, most people's are.) Unless I'm mistaken, you're a single? guy and/or you don't have kids (same w/ myself haha), so there's a certain privilege we have in terms of flexibility to totally rearrange your time in a way that others simply cannot.
While I've become a big hustler since jumping into VO, I DO worry about narratives that heavily push or champion hustling as the primary/only means of success. It can accelerate the results/success for sure, but I'm honestly the least healthy I've ever been in terms of my relationship with work now, and whilst I agree a lot more people need to 'put in the work' overall, I also worry that this message is lacking a biiit of nuance.
@@KourosRaviv I appreciate the effort you put into this comment, it is a manifesto! If you put this kinda afford into VO you must be crushing it haha. I’m talking to the people who aren’t getting the results they want and I literally have videos saying people don’t have to work as hard I do, and if they don’t want to that is totally fine but I’m not the coach for them. And of course everyone is allowed to do whatever they want, I don’t judge, but if they think they can get the same results as me or anything close to it with anything less than equal effort they are dreaming. The truth is, when you start voiceover you are against the best of the best and the hustlers, there’s no shallow end of the pool - and if you want to stand a chance you gotta put in the effort. It would be insane to think that a couch potato could go play basketball a couple times a week casually and stand a chance against an NBA player in a game.
@@jessecarrollvoiceovers Oh, 100%. I think people forget that for almost anything that's a decently paid gig, you're going against people with 5-30+ more years of experience on you. (Not to mention if you're ultimately aiming for Class A Union commercials, network TV animation roles, all the fun/higher-class agent level work etc, you are quite literally competing with household names.) In VA, you start the game playing from behind. Way behind. And this is even more highlighted when you start the career in your 30's+ (as we seemingly both did lol) whereas someone else could've started when they were 15, etc.
Despite my nitpick, I appreciate your content and have been following it for awhile, as I'm always keen to compare notes regarding P2P algorithms. It is unfortunate but A LOT of grizzled veterans/old school style coaches have a warped sense of like, what it's like to be a VA in 2024, and often times speak poorly of P2Ps/Fiverr/etc, but there's no better place to get your reps in. And I'm a big rep-minded person (I had no coaching/formal training, existed on free materials and did over 5000 auditions--not counting practice--my first year of VO--which doesn't even touch yours I'm sure, but it's 2x higher than anyone else I know). I'm lucky that the introductory course I happened upon back then was very exponential experience minded and I went into it with very little expectations in terms of success. I don't think quantity over quality is the move forever especially as I begin to move more into 4 and 5 figure opportunities and, well, simply put, stuff I *want* more (AAA interactive etc), but workflow mastery is a huge part of the lifestyle.
Being a VA in 2024 is, imo, very different to starting VA in 2000, and not everyone accounts for that. Worse, a lot of times people don't feel people without 30+ years of experience are "qualified" to coach, but there's a massive need for people who are experienced with NEW ERA voice acting (which I believe you've sufficiently tapped into), and getting their business established in 2024, not, 2000. I've long felt I exist in this odd space of both being technically speaking, very little in experience in terms of length of years/career, but also way more experienced than the average 1.5 year VA w/ 250+ projects completed, several agents, etc, so discovering that I'm not in fact alone in my bullheaded success haha, has been refreshing.
Sorry to take your time haha, but I just wanted to share one last thing. I was in a 4 week workshop the other month with the senior Blizzard casting director, and a fourth? third? of the class had NEVER auditioned before, but had been training and spending thousands on coaches and such for YEARS. They were in a $700+ workshop with literally no experience auditioning. It blew my mind. But that is actually what a lot of the old guard teaches; to them they're doing everything right, but... I mean, I'm sitting there full time, easily paying for 3-4 workshops a month w/ my VO earnings like, "Okay, but like, who's actually farther along?"
@@KourosRaviv you are a beast! Yes, most of the time when I take workshops it’s crazy to see the number of newbies who have never auditioned and they’re not only leaving money on the table they are also not getting in reps/practice. I’d love to interview you in my community to hear more about your journey if you’re up for it?
I mean, I 'could' work 10 hours a day on this, but I only have one outlet currently, which doesn't offer enough to work to put in that many hours a day. I do all my auditions, then I'll spend a couple/few hours refining my demos. That's about all I have available to me right now.
@@AlienFrequency all we can do is all we can do :)
@@jessecarrollvoiceovers haha very true, sir.
Auditioning all day every day is not sustainable practically or for growing a VO business. Instead of endlessly Auditioning on oversaturated P2P's, the best use of time we have each day is Direct marketing to Production companies of all different kinds. By all means audition part of a day but don't give all your invaluable time to Auditioning.
@@Whysodelirious88 I’ve been doing this for 7years… how much longer do I need to do it to disprove the B.S. that it’s not sustainable and doesn’t work? I always have time to market as well, I just do 50-60 auditions first as it’s the most important and superior way of marketing, but I only email/direct market to existing clients that I won from auditions.
I am so sure this is the very best way to build a consistent and lucrative VO business that I offer anyone in the entire VO world a competition:
They ONLY direct market for 30 days and I ONLY audition for 30 days. Let’s see who booked more jobs and gained more new clients and made more money at the end of the month.
If anyone out there can beat me with the direct marketing method I will completely change my point of view and make a video about how I am wrong and will change my opinion on this moving forward.
I am throwing this challenge out to ANY VO’s especially the ones peddling the VO marketing programs they sell ;)
@jessecarrollvoiceovers 50-60 auditions!! Omg! And out of how many of those do you actually land the gig? Most newcomer VO's have a regular paying full-time job to work around as well as their other important commitments. If they had 2 hours a day max to spend on VO, then direct marketing is the best use of the time they do have available instead of competing with 10's if not 100's of other VO's for an audition they likely won't get. Also, one aspect of appeal of becoming a VO is time freedom, so I cant honestly say that others will be happy grinding away 12+ hours a day to possibly land a job of the multitudes auditioned for. With marketing, the clients you build come to you because they've already chosen you for their project. Work smart not hard.
@@Whysodelirious88 it takes me 4 hours max to do 60 auditions… and how can you say sending emails is the best use of a short amount of time when you’re new when half those emails will be ignored and then successful ones will result in… drum roll…. An audition!! Which they still have to book. Cut out the time wasting and just get straight to the auditions. If you’re skilled that is where you’ll shine, and if you’re not skilled then get coaching and get practicing… how do you practice? Yup you guessed it, auditions.
My booing ration floats between 1:38-1:43, so I book nearly 2 new clients a day and get offers weekly from clients I worked with previously who I got from… auditioning!…
Sounds like you’re up for the challenge? How about it? You only do your marketing for a month and I only do auditions and zero marketing, not even to past or current clients. We’ll use a neutral party to judge and we’ll let the results speak for themselves so we can put this nonsensical argument to bed?
Challenge accepted?