Have you ever made money in your sleep?
Waking up to learn that you've got an amazing voice over job waiting for you can be an exciting thing. Recently, I heard one such story from a member of the Voices.com community and am able to share it with you.
What's the best voice over gig you've awoken to and why do you think you got it?
Be sure to share your thoughts as a comment on today's VOX Daily!
Getting Business In Your Sleep
One morning last week, Kara Edwards woke up to a 40,000 word e-learning project geared toward school aged children from a brand new client. Yes, you read correctly. 40,000 words!
Kara related via Facebook, "(I) went to bed thinking I'd be recording for an hour or so today for a regular client...(and) woke up to a 40,000 word e-learning script from a brand new client! I love my job!"
Considering her open schedule that particular day, this sudden and unexpected business opportunity with someone entirely new to her couldn't have come at a better time. That being said, Kara is a hardworking talent who spends a lot of time promoting her business so the fact that she was offered work in this fashion literally overnight is in no way coincidental.
How Does Your Brand Serve You?
A lot of time and energy is spent on how your brand serves other people but not many talent take the time to think about how their brand its equity serves their own business as a professional.
I thought about phrasing the question above in a different way, perhaps saying "does your brand serve you?" but decided to rather ask how it does. Whether or not you believe your brand is responsible for what you're receiving work wise, it does impact you one way or another.
When you think about it, your brand should be working just as hard for you as it does for your clients. Building up a solid brand that represents you well is important and will yield positive results.
Gather Round The Water Cooler
Earlier on in this post I asked you what the best voice over job you've ever woken up to was and why you feel this came to pass.
Right now, I'd like to invite you think about what that job was and also why you believe you were selected. The job could have been something you auditioned for or it could be an opportunity like what Kara described in her story, a job that resulted from seeds sown prior to the initial connection on a personal level.
The floor is yours.
Looking forward to hearing your stories!
Best wishes,
Stephanie
iStockphoto.com/Stephanie Swartz
Woke up to the telephone ringing. My agent was on the line.
"Are you free at 11am for an ISDN session?"
"Yes"
"Ok I'll tell them and send you the script"
The George Clooney movie "Up in the air" had been nominated for a BAFTA award so they needed a new trailer to include that and I was to be the voice.
Lovely!
Great blog Stephanie! I'm honored you used my little story!! :)
Congrats to Kara! It's always nice to open the e-mail and discover a "You have received a deposit at Voices.com" in the In-box.
A 20 hour audiobook for Random House last week. It's going to be a happy July!
The first will ever be the best. Jack and the Beanstalk, for a Microsoft launch event video: provide own script. Adrenalin goes nuclear. Sprint to library and back. Deep breath, and here we go: Fe Fi Fo Fum... and Jack wins the day. Decent producer gave good feedback. And it was thanks to Voices.com
....and, to ensure those lovely morning calls, it matters to post links that work! Here's a replacement for my broken one. Sorry!
http://www.voices.com /demo_detail/58972
Best project I ever woke up to was from an existing client who needed another hypnosis project recorded. The client is a self-help guru but whose native language is not English. Therefore, he has me record a lot of projects for him. My favorites are the hypnosis because they are an entirely different, pitch, tone and rate of speech from most projects.
:)
Hey Stephanie,
I have been trying to find the rite connections into voice overs, living in PA, its been hard to find connections. A lot of people had mentioned to me to find local radio stations to get my voice heard. About a year ago, I went to the Gettysburg college radio station for a try out for fun. The students let me broadcast one of my voices over the station, man it was fun, too bad I couldn't do a lot because commuting back and forth for my job in MD. Did not have enough time to do, but this year have more time to get out there now. I have been doing cartoon voices since I was a kid. Just want the rite people to work with, so far I have recording my voices on my cell phone, that all I have to do now is burn them on disc.
HarmonyPhi. It is a pleasure still, to hear a job you did yourself.
A Cable Network series narration.
IKEA's national phone lines.
105 Episodes of Kagaku Ninjatai Gatchaman. Oh yeah...
Toyota Dealer. I pitched a Corolla during a PBS Auction, and they used the clips for a 13 week flight. Basically I got paid for work already done, with the exception of recording a couple VO bumpers.
Late 80's early 90's cartoons did so many minor characters in so many could not eat my cereal without hearing myself lol
I was the "voice" for Iceland in the UK for a few years, and I came on at 1 min to 8 every morning. I used to drive my friends nuts! They couldn't take me seriously as an alarm!
I was the voice who spoke the names & the drug names when the computer called people to complete a survey. I recorded about 1000 names an hour for 7 years! It was awesome.
Got a call from the producers of the CBC TV series "Heartland" rushed an audition (On Camera) by usendit and got a principal role in the "Ring Of Fire" Episode from season 3, you can little clip here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yq62RJ_EZuE&feature=related