I'll never forget the first year of my business. It was downright painful. 

I don't mean listening to my work was painful, although it might have been, but physically, it was painful. 

Every single day, I would get up at 6 am, go to work, come home around 6 pm, pick up the kids, get dinner ready, spend time with them, put them to bed, spend a few moments with my wife, and put her to bed around 10 pm.

After she got in bed, I would go outside and get my super-sized army style duffle bag and drag it into the house, being as quiet as possible, so I didn't wake the kids.

Once I got to the office space, which happened to be on the other side of my little dwelling, out would come the PVC pipes and packing blankets. 

I constructed my PVC pipe Hobo Fort, as I called it, based on a number code marked on each tube so I would remember where it all went. After it was up, I had to move the desk and computer so it would fit together and finally attach the...

There is no doubt; I love Fiverr. It has changed my life and helps me make a six-figure income in voice-over each year. 

But there is another side to Fiverr that gets on my nerves THE UNRULY CUSTOMER.

I was talking to a friend earlier today, and they let me know that a customer had tried to take them on an "I don't need broadcast rights, and I will only pay you $5" ride, and after trying to talk it through with the customer, they became so rude, that she blocked them.

Then, the customer created a new account, and still ordered from her, probably in an attempt to give her a bad review.

This happens on Fiverr often. 

However, the other day, I was working on "Freelancer," and I was taken for a scam with someone from China trying to sell me on a business deal, after claiming they needed a voice-over. 

Unfortunately, this sort of thing is the price we pay for doing business online. There are scammers around the corner, trying to get your money or worse, your personal...

I made a quick video on why I think you should make content for your voice-over business. 

To me, creating content and sending it out in the world, via social media, is like investing. 

When you create a blog post, video, podcast, etc, you create something that will last and has the potential to grow your business. Unless you take it down, it never goes away.

Many people are worried about creating content for voice-over because they don't know what they should say or they don't know how to format things.

As of right now, there are millions and millions of videos, articles, and podcasts explaining this very topic and for good reason.

This is the age we live in. If you are not putting out content in some form, either about your journey or about your thoughts or research on another business, you are missing a monumental opportunity. 

Check out the video and I hope you enjoy it! 

Anthony
Hello and welcome to A VOs Journey Podcast. My name is Anthony Pica. This show is all about helping the new and upcoming voice-over artists grow their business and sidestep all of the crazy things that I seem to step on. I have got an exciting show for you tonight. I'm just bubbling over here. I had the privilege to interview read Horror ex who is a top-rated seller on Fiverr. Been there since 2013. Absolutely incredible, woman. So knowledgeable. So just fun to talk to. And we go in for quite a while. I apologize upfront for the length of this, but I think you're really gonna enjoy it and make sure you listen to the end because she gives some information that I've never even heard before about her workflow and the things that blew my mind. So thank you. Read so much for your time. And if you don't know ah, a little bit just more about her. Before we start, she goes into it so I won't go too much. But, you know, she as played an integral role And I believe...

What does it mean?

1. Conversational Tone - Approachable, friendly, sincere
2. Heightened Life - Conversational with all the boring parts taken out
3. Conversational voice-overs can be different

When should we practice it?

1. Should be part of your warm-ups every day - Clearly define a warm-up pattern. Spend a little bit on creating your warm-up routine for conversational reads, i.e. examples that you can use to imitate, and practice them.
2. Before you go into a recording session - Develop a sentence, brief script, or phrase and put it to memory. Before you begin recording the conversational read, repeat those words 2-4 times to drop yourself into the conversational pocket.
3. When you are driving alone - One of the best times to practice your conversational tone is when you are alone.

Where should you use it?

1. Directions by the client - Clearly when a client asks you to use it
2. Interpretation - But there is also an interpretation of the script, and the client can be saying one thing but...

So, what exactly is a voice actor rate card anyway? A VO rate card is simply a chart, document, graph, etc. that outlines monetary prices to work with you and to license your work.

Why is it important?

1. Your business is supposed to make money. Without knowing how much you are charging and what you can expect, you will not be able to grow a profitable enterprise.
2. Consistency - There needs to be a consistent customer experience so they can trust in your name

How is a rate card formatted (Simple example)

A. Rates determined by length of the script:

1. 5 words (2 seconds)
2. 50 words (20 seconds)
3. 500 words (3 minutes)
4. 5000 words (33 minutes)
5. 50,000 words (5.5 hours)

B. Broadcast Rates and Sizes Online

1. 10,000 people
2. 100,000 people
3. 1M people
4. 10M people
5. 100M people

How do you price your rate card?

3 ways to do it:

1. Industry Standards: GVAA is a great place to start your search
2. What are your operating costs
3. What are the trending rates on the platform you are on?

Do you post it?

1. Do you...

How To Tell Your Voice Acting Story

Learning how to tell your brand story can be pretty hard.

So I wanted to come up with a video today sharing with you an easy way for you to create a piece of content every single day that you can spread across all of the different platforms. All you have to do is start recording your voiceover sessions.

In the video, I talk about how you can create great content. This is an excellent way for you to start growing your social influence and building a body of voice-over work.

Then what will happen is people will find the work that you have done and want to hire you because of the fantastic work that you have completed.

P.S. There are a million and one questions you could ask about creating your content. All of these questions would be valid and could be answered. The problem with this idea of analysis before you start is that the rabbit hole goes on forever and ever. 

You have to start and let figure it out along the way! 

When I first started in voice-over, I had the most challenging time with my breath.

Because I didn’t know what I was doing, I tried to breathe in places that were very awkward and not normal speech. It took me so long to edit out breath’s and I got confused about where they should go and how they should sound.

So then I adopted a no breath strategy where I would remove all of the breaths.

But as I went along, I realize that that sounded very unnatural as well. So I went to a strategy of leaving all the breaths in. What happened there was that the breaths were so loud that that didn’t work either.

As I went through this whole process over a couple of years, I realized that the problem was not my editing but my actual breathing during my voiceovers.

So I created a strategy on how to breathe better during my speaking. In this video, I talk about four different steps you can use to build up your stamina and correct any breathing problems you may have.

Simple 3-step Voice-over Marketing Plan (Email, 20 online sites/1 P2P, and social engagement)

General Notes: 

1. Don’t make things over complicated with your marketing plan (Use this 3 step formula)

2. Consistency is everything.

3. The content was king, but engagement has taken over. 

3-part Plan:

*Number 1 - Get set up with 20 online casting sites; Freelance, P2P sites (Fully complete your profiles. Do not leave anything undone.)

*Number 2 - Social Engagement - Pick two social platforms, Twitter and Instagram, and engage, qualify, contact)

• Engage - Leave comments, retweet, share, participate with companies on social media.
• Qualify - Research their social and site to make sure they hire voice actors.
• Reach Out - Message and email them. Mention the content you found on social media.

*Number 3 - Cold email - Mailshake, Social Leads, Monthly Newsletter (1 tip, 1 article summary, one offer)

• Take the leads/contacts you got from your engagement process...

Editing breaths in my voice overs used to plague me all the time. I literally would spend hours taking out breaths because I thought they sounded horrible and made the voice over seem amateurish. 

But I quickly realized that it wasn't the breaths I needed to be paying attention to, but the type of voice over I was doing.

Let me explain ... Was I narrating an audiobook or doing a car commercial? 

Both are voice overs but have a defined style of narration. There are always exceptions to the rule, but one (audiobook) should have breaths and one (car commercial) should not. 

As I grew as a practitioner of audio, I learned how to differentiate between the two. 

So ... there are times, especially during long form narration, elearning, conversational reads in longer form, etc. that should have breaths. It is natural to breath while talking and will actually sound quite odd if excluded. 

But, shorter spots, quick reads, commercials, etc. should...