Setting Financial Goals with Danielle Famble

Learn how to transform money aspirations into concrete financial plans in our next episode of the Boss Money Talks series with Danielle Famble. The BOSSES guide you through setting precise financial goals, breaking down larger targets into manageable segments, and preparing for the variable and unpredictable income streams that are so common in the voiceover industry. The BOSSES dive deep into strategies for creating financial freedom through strategic growth. They discuss the powerful impact of investing in yourself and your business, whether that means hiring help, taking breaks for self-care, or seeking out coaching and training. Tune in to discover how financial stability can lead to better business decisions, higher quality work, and long-term success in the competitive world of voiceover.

00:01 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) Hey, amazing voiceover talents. Do you ever wish boss marketing was as fun as it was being behind the mic? Well, check out my VO Boss Blast. It's designed to automate and make your marketing simpler. You'll benefit from your very own target marketed list, tailored to meet your goals and your brand the VO Boss Blast. Find out more at voboss.com. 

00:28 - Intro (Announcement) It's time to take your business to the next level, the boss level. These are the premier business owner strategies and successes being utilized by the industry's top talent today. Rock your business like a boss a VO Boss. Now let's welcome your host, nne Ganguza. 

00:47 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) Hey everyone, welcome to the VO Boss Podcast and the Boss Money Talks series. I'm your host, Anne Ganguza, and I'm here again with the lovely Danielle Famble to talk money today. Hey Danielle, hey Anne, it's good to be back with you. Yes, I love talking money, me too. 

01:05 Money money, money. So, speaking of money, we were just having a conversation where we love to. Well, I love to shop online. I will readily admit that, and I think it's important that we think about do I have the money to spend on this? Do I have financial goals for my business? Do I have the money to spend on this? Do I have financial goals for my business? 

01:24 Because another thing that I will also do with my students is when they first start working with me, they have to fill out a goal sheet, and I think that a lot of times, we know what performance goals I want to get work. I want to work in this genre, I want to get an agent. We have all the performance goals and, oh, I want to have a business, or I want to have a thriving business, but I don't think many of us get very specific about financial goals. Again, it's one of those things where I think people think if they don't look at it it's kind of like don't look at my credit card statements that maybe they'll go away. But no, we've got to really keep our eyes open and look to the future, and I think it's a good time to talk about how to set financial goals for your business. 

02:04 - Danielle Famble (Host) Yeah, no. That's really important because for me in the past I've always just said with a financial goal, I just want more. I want to make more money, I want to have more, and it's not specific at all, it's just more or mentality. What you're lacking in that specificity tells you what is enough and how you know when you've reached your goal, so that you can either make more goals or become more targeted on that goal. So more usually was my goal and I never felt like I hit it. 

02:39 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) Or for me it would be like oh well, I want to make a six-figure income, and so I don't think that's specific enough. Right, right, like how do I get to that six-figure income from day one right and day 30 and day 60, like on a monthly basis or on a weekly basis? How am I achieving those goals? 

02:58 - Danielle Famble (Host) Yeah, and I think what you could do then is say, okay, if you want to make a six-figure income, okay, what is six figures? Is it specifically $100,000? Is it $ Five hundred thousand? Five hundred thousand dollars? All of these things are absolutely possible, but what is the specific six figure For me? If I were saying you know I want a six figure income, I would want to say, all right, is it one hundred thousand dollars? If it's one hundred thousand dollars, then you can divide that by 12. Yeah, just round numbers and then figure out that you need to make that number per month and you'll know monthly if you're on target to hit that amount or not, also considering things like expenses and taxes and things like that. So it's a question of are you wanting to just bring in that amount of money? Are you trying to bring in that amount of money after expenses? Like, getting specific about these financial goals really helps. You know when you've hit your target or not. 

03:54 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) Right, right. And the more specific I think you can get, I think, the more achievable it may seem to you. Because it's all well and good to say I want to make I don't know. $8,000 a month, right? So $8,000 a month times 12, right, that doesn't quite get you to 100, right. So $8,000 a month times 12, right, that doesn't quite get you to 100, right? Or $12,000 a month will get you $120. I'm pulling out my calculator because now that we started. 

04:14 - Danielle Famble (Host) As much as I love talking about money, math is not my. 

04:17 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) No, we need calculators. 

04:19 - Danielle Famble (Host) Math is not my ministry, so sometimes I have to just pull out a calculator. 

04:24 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) I got it, I got you. But let's just say I have that money goal on a monthly basis, right? What is it going to take for me to achieve that? And that is especially difficult, and I think this is why most voice actors it's so hard for them to set these financial goals, because our industry I mean we are entrepreneurs, I mean we have highs, we have lows. 

04:45 There's no expected income coming in, which makes this so much different than my corporate job where I made a salary per year and you divide that by the amount of times I get paid, I know exactly what I'm going to get on my paycheck, right? And that takes away that uncertainty, all that risk, right? Because it's a stable kind of an income that's coming in every month and so we could count on that if we're working a job and working in corporate. But now, all of a a sudden, we're entrepreneurs and so that monthly achievable goal, or weekly or whatever you want to set it to, becomes like what I mean there's no guarantee. So what do we do? What do we do? We have that goal, how do we get there? There's the question of the day. 

05:30 - Danielle Famble (Host) So you can take a look at what you're currently doing now. I think looking at where you are and then making your goal achievable within where you're currently at will help you, hopefully, get closer to that goal than if you are at making $1,000 a month and you're saying I want to make $10,000 a month next month or next year. There are things that you're going to need to do. So if you can look at where you are now and see where you are in relationship to that goal, that will help you understand the time frame that it will take, how long it will take you to hit that goal. 

06:03 What else do you need to do? Do you need to study more? Do you need to have different kinds of demos? Do you need to take a look at what genres are you auditioning for? Maybe you're not going to make that kind of money doing a certain kind of genre. Maybe that money comes from a different genre that maybe you don't work in as much. So do you have the demos and the training that you need to make that amount of money? Once you start getting specific, it actually starts to add more questions so that you can figure out how to get to that financial goal that you have. 

06:36 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) Yeah, I like that because it really brings in all the other elements into play. Right, because, all right, in order for me to make and I'm just giving it a number, in order for me to make $10,000 a month, right, that's four weeks, right? So how many auditions do I need to do? Right? How many times do I need to book? And you're right, absolutely Like, what kind of genres I mean, what kind of money are you making? Especially because we never know, like necessarily from job to job, what that money is. We can have a baseline, right, and we can say, well, I'd like to charge this for the job. It may make us rethink what we're charging people right? 

07:14 - Danielle Famble (Host) Absolutely. That's a huge part of it too are your rates. If your rates are completely out of alignment with what your goal is, then that tells you. Maybe you need to take a look at your rates. Maybe you need to take a look at the types of jobs that you are auditioning for what you are saying yes to, because when you say yes to something, that inherently means you're saying no to something else, because you only have a certain amount of time to do what needs to get done. 

07:38 That's actually something that I've had to take a look at in my own business is, if I say yes to certain things, is that actually getting me closer to my goal, or is it getting me closer to more, and more is not specific. So sometimes you're going to need to say no so that you are available for the jobs that will get you closer to your financial goals your financial income goals, if that's what your financial goals are. 

08:03 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) Yeah, the power of no, it is a thing, it is an absolute, tangible thing, the power of no. 

08:09 And I think also you've got to be aware of the market, right, it's all well and good to say I want to make six figures, you know, and I'm going to charge this amount, so there's also the other side of the coin, where you're going to be, let's say, maybe pricing yourself out of the market. And so education I feel like this whole series, like we need to start off by saying educate, educate, educate, educate. It's so important because now, all of a sudden, there's market price, right, we're dealing with the dark side of synthetic voices coming on the horizon. And so what are consumers willing to pay? Right, and you know you do have to take that into account, right, and so sometimes you can be price undercut by another talent or somebody else on a roster who will do it cheaper, and it's unfortunate, but I mean that's the way the cookie crumbles, or there's got to be some sort of money analogy for that, danielle, that you might know, that's the way the dollar gets spent. 

09:02 There you go, yeah, I mean, there's all these variables, danielle, and it's so intimidating, which is why I think most people don't really set those financial goals. 

09:11 - Danielle Famble (Host) And also adding in negotiation. Being comfortable negotiating your rates and negotiating what a company or client is willing to pay is really important as well, and getting comfortable and competent in how to negotiate is actually a lever that you can pull as well. There are so many things that are in your control when it comes to bringing in the income for your business that just saying okay, I want to make six figures, that's all well and good. Now what can I do? What's in my control? What are the levers that I can pull? Maybe it's negotiating. Maybe it's making sure that I'm quoting industry standard rates, educating myself on what industry standard rates are, maybe going to a GVAA rate guide or looking at what is the industry charging. 

09:58 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) Marketing more yeah. 

09:59 - Danielle Famble (Host) You can also say no and say hey, listen, this is below what I'm willing to accept for my time, because this is not going to get me closer to my goal. There's so many things that you can do not going to get me closer to my goal. There's so many things that you can do. Just saying this is the goal and I'm just going to continue doing what I'm doing really takes away the agency that you have in getting to this goal. 

10:17 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) You know, one thing that I will say that allows me to be bolder in moving forward in my business is having and I've said this in numerous other podcasts, but I think it bears repeating is having that financial cushion. That means having money in the bank that allows me to be bold with my saying no if I need to right, maybe delving out into a different genre or getting more coaching or whatever it is, making another investment in my business so that I can move forward Again. I wish it was all like oh, this is the absolute path I must go in order to achieve this. But there's so many variables that you say and I love it because it's so positive that we have in our control to do it, and I like to really think about it like a challenge. I mean, I'm a girl who loves a challenge, right, I mean so for me. I've always said that I love voice acting and I love coaching, but I love the business I love the business of making money right. 

11:13 I love trying to figure out how can I make more money and if I treat it as a challenge and I treat it like a game right, as long as I have that financial cushion right in the bank, I have some leeway. I have a little bit of play where I can actually go out on a limb and take a chance and take a risk, actually go out on a limb and take a chance and take a risk, and if that pays off for me, yes then that can be something that catapults me into the next tax bracket. 

11:39 - Danielle Famble (Host) Absolutely, it's so empowering to be able to walk away and say no or to go for a different genre or whatever your goal is or your challenge, as you're saying, would be. It's so empowering to be able to back that up in your mind of saying, if this doesn't work out, I'm still okay. For me, that goes for financial savings goals. So I want to make sure that I have a certain amount of money in the bank, in savings, so that I'm not destitute. Yep, you can pay the bills. 

12:05 Desperation is palpable and if you are operating from a place of, this has to work or else it may not work out as well for you. But the confidence in the back of your mind of saying, if not me, that's totally fine, I'm still okay, that's you taking the power and the agency of your future, of your financial future, your business's future. So, going from I need to make a certain amount of money to I need to have a certain amount of money so that I can feel safe and confident in being able to say no. Is it really important financial goal? That has taken me a long time to understand that it's as important, if not more important than just revenue goals. 

12:48 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) Absolutely, absolutely. And you know, your strategy to get there doesn't have to always revolve around jobs that you do. It can revolve around, like for me everybody knows I've been on a health journey, right, I worked myself to the bone, to the point where I was unhealthy, right, and then that was also taking away from my product. Actually, do you know what I mean? I wasn't at my 100% best, and so for me I was like I can't stop, I can't stop, I can't stop, I want to continue. Like I had a nice financial cushion but the workaholic in me said, well, let's just keep putting money in there. But at one point it became a little bit detrimental to me, right, because it affected my health. And now I'm okay with saying you know what, I can take that hour, that maybe hour and a half, to do some self-care, because if I am healthier, I'm going to have a better product and I'm going to be able to serve my clients better, I'm going to run my business better. And so the goal goals there, you know, in strategizing are not just like okay, this is what I want to make and these are how many auditions I'm going to have to do to get there, or this is how much marketing I'm going to have to do. It also can encompass whatever it is that affects your product right, to make your product better. 

13:56 I think that's an avenue we need to look at, including coaching right, including new demos, which is why I feel that that part of the strategy in your financial goals. They're hand in hand Because it's all about the product really, right. I mean, we are a company. I always tell people like, especially when I'm teaching corporate narration, I'm like look, you can't just be an information deliverer when you talk about corporate narration, because the word corporate in and of itself says we need to sell something, right? There's no other reason why companies are formed. Can you think of any reason? 

14:28 that companies are formed outside of to make a profit and they have a product and a service to sell. There's no other reason. So that means that you exist to make a profit, right. 

14:39 - Intro (Announcement) You exist to make a profit. 

14:40 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) Your product needs to make a profit. And if your product is not making a profit, then you need to look at improving that product. And how are you going to do that? Or how are you going to make sure that you have a good product and that you're maintaining it, but not just maintaining it, but evolving it and growing it and making it better so that it's competitive? 

14:59 - Danielle Famble (Host) I appreciate you saying that, because where you were when you realized that it was time to make a change is quite literally where I am right now. 

15:08 I've said to myself recently I would love to be that person who goes to the gym at four o'clock in the afternoon. Well, normally I'd be doing auditions or trying to make sure I have a session at that time, or it's during the day. I need to be in this booth making money. I must be here, because if I'm not here working towards these financial goals, then what am I doing? But I need to pour into the instrument that is, the product, and to be able to do that I need money. So I need to be able to strategize that I'm making money enough to be able to take that four o'clock hour or whatever hour and go and take a workout class or go to the gym or just go outside and get some vitamin D, because sometimes I don't do that. So that's where you can take your financial goals and make them applicable to your daily life, not just as the person that you are, but the product of your business, which is how your business makes money. It's cyclical. 

16:09 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) Yeah, I mean, if we had a physical product, it would be a different story. You know what I mean, like if I was like I'm selling pens, oh, I'm selling my Nganguza pens, right? So that's a different thing. I mean, you've got physical inventory here. Here we're talking about your voice, right, and so it encompasses that's what makes it so unique. 

16:25 It encompasses so many different things in order to put out a great product and those goals whether you think so or not, I mean those goals that you set, financial goals. There's so many ways to get there that don't include just how much money do I invest? It can be how much do I invest in my product to make it better so that I can ultimately charge more or ultimately get more income coming in? So I didn't want to miss out on saying how important that was in terms of strategizing and goal setting, because I didn't realize it. Do you know what I mean? I just kept thinking, oh my God, I just have to work, I have to be at the desk, I have to work, I have to work, and then I realized that ultimately, my product was suffering, and so you don't want that to happen. 

17:09 So, always being on the lookout of how can I be better? How can I and for me it's always been like the challenge and how can I grow? And growing takes. Growing is scary. You know what I mean. Oh yeah, growing your business is scary. I mean, okay, all of a sudden, now I might need an assistant. Oh, that means I've got to put more money out. That's scary when I don't feel like I have control over that. Income is not steady anymore. So all of a sudden it's like well, I don't know if I can afford right, which is what a lot of students can't afford. There's only so much they've allowed in order to develop their product. But in reality, taking it all in and understanding what's involved in putting out a great product, I mean, at least you don't have a storefront, that you're leasing a building. 

17:55 - Danielle Famble (Host) Yeah. And the question that you can ask yourself, instead of saying I can't afford, is how can I afford? 

18:01 - Intro (Announcement) to have an assistant, because then that starts to open up a lot more questions. 

18:07 - Danielle Famble (Host) How much does an assistant cost? How much time commitment would I need for this assistant? Maybe it's a part-time assistant, a certain number of hours a week, Okay. So it's going to be 20 hours a week at, let's say, $15 an hour, Okay. So now that I know it's this amount of money, how can I afford this additional amount of money? And then you reverse engineer the problem. 

18:31 Yeah, I love that so if it's, how can I take off at 4 o'clock in the afternoon to go to the gym? All right, that means that I need to make sure that I'm making a certain amount of money per week or per month, however I want to view it. Per week or per month, however I want to view it, and I'll know if I'm maybe negotiating a certain rate and I hit that target. Anything else for the week is gravy, because I know that I've made my target amount of money, I've hit my goal, I know the enough number and anything else on top of that to me is pure profit, which I love profit. 

19:03 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) We love profit. 

19:04 - Danielle Famble (Host) I love profit, and so I think that's really how you can look at it. Instead of saying what you cannot do, ask yourself the creative in you how can you do it? 

19:13 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) I was absolutely just going to say you know what I love about you, danielle, because you're always about what you can do right Versus I can't afford, I can't do this to grow. You're always like you're reversing it, like literally everything that we've talked about in this series is you with the positive manifestation right of how you can. Let's reverse, engineer, let's see what we, what here are our goals, here's what we can do to get there. And I absolutely love that about you and I believe that it's instrumental in your success. I think it can be instrumental in every boss's success that instead of what you can't do, what can you do and just manifest from abundance that whole mentality. 

19:53 - Danielle Famble (Host) Thank you. I believe in that. We are creatives. That's what we are doing. We are actors. We are creating worlds and stories out of someone else's words, sometimes our own and we're creating something that didn't really exist before we breathe the life, the voice into it. That's what we do. 

20:13 So if that is what we do in our business, how can that be that we don't do it in creating the abundance in our business? It's really important to me. When I get negative and I do often when I do get negative I want to try to get out of that by flipping to where is my power, what can I do about it? And if I need help, then that means that I need to figure out the resource to help me. If I don't know, then I need to get a coach or get someone else's perspective. But there's something that you can do, and it's probably in business. It's going to cost you some money, which is why talking about money and finances is so important, because it is the vehicle for how we get what we want in life and in business. 

20:57 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) Right, it is so true, and I think there's a lot of creators that may not want to believe that, like, I'm going to do it for the love of it and that's okay. I mean, I think every day, we should be doing something we love if we absolutely can, and if it can help us pay the bills, I mean, my gosh, how fortunate and how wonderful is that. And I always say how lucky am I? Am I lucky? I manifested it. Just saying, I mean, I manifested something that I love, right, and turned it into something that I can make a profit with. 

21:21 And so how much luck was involved in that? Well, maybe a little bit, but there was an awful lot of hard work and there was awful lot of manifestation and saying what can I do? Right? And I believe, bosses out there, that you need to again educate yourself. Right, take that real world, look at your finances, set some goals that are realistic goals and do it working backwards, right, because it's not enough to just say I want to make a six-figure income, right. Well, okay, give me a number and then work backwards from that, right. And what are you going to have to do to get to that number? And maybe, guys, maybe it's not about how many auditions you do. Maybe you need to go outside. I mean, I hate to say that, but I don't hate to say that there's nothing wrong with going outside and getting a supplemental income while you're building your business Absolutely nothing. 

22:08 - Danielle Famble (Host) Oh, for sure it can be actually one of the best things that you do for your business, because it's less work that you'll have to do in bringing in income in your business, because you've already got additional income kind of helping you out and that keeps you afloat and that buoys you. 

22:25 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) Yeah, that's your cushion, that's your cushion, that's your cushion so that it makes you confident to move forward. So go deliver Instacart. I mean. I mean, why not? I mean I've thought of all these other things that I would love to do. I mean there's all these things that I find joy in that I'm like you know what, if I ever had to change my career, I could do that. I'm always thinking. I'm always thinking, and I'm not saying I'm getting out of voice, acting at all or what I'm doing, but I'm always evolving and always thinking about what is it that's going to help me to be joyful and bring money in. It's like joy and money, and I'm not afraid or ashamed to say joy and money in the same sentence. 

23:03 - Danielle Famble (Host) Oh no, making money can be quite joyful. I've also made money in a way that has not been completely joyful to me, but spending that money was a little bit more joyful. And that's how I got my joy Spending money is joyful to me. 

23:15 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) Yes, absolutely, and making it, of course, because you got to have it to spend it Absolutely. Oh man, what a great conversation. So I believe financial goals take it work backwards right. Figure out what your goal is, what you need to do to get there, and always as Danielle has so eloquently and wonderfully demonstrated in all of these podcast series episodes that we've talked about is be positive. What can you do right and not that you can't do it because of right, no excuses, what you can do and bosses. There's no shame in strategizing and coming up with ideas outside of the box to get there and give yourself that financial cushion to push even further to those financial goals. So I love talking to you, danielle. I love it. Thank you, anne. 

23:58 - Danielle Famble (Host) This is fun, you get me all charged up. 

24:00 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) Not charged up. I might go charge something now. Oh, I'm going to go manifest my next level. 

24:07 - Danielle Famble (Host) Yeah, I'm going to go set some more goals, some financial goals. 

24:10 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) Manifest the next level of bossness setting some financial goals. All right, guys. Big shout out to our sponsor, ipdtl. You too can network and be a boss. Find out more at IPDTLcom. Guys, have an amazing week and manifest those awesome financial goals. You guys can do it. We believe in you. All right, have a good one. Bye, guys, thanks everybody, bye. 

24:33 - Intro (Announcement) Join us next week for another edition of VO boss with your host and gang Guza, and take your business to the next level. Sign up for our mailing list at VO bosscom and receive exclusive content, industry revolutionizing tips and strategies and new ways to rock your business like a boss. Redistribution with permission. Coast to coast connectivity via IPDTL.