The BOSSES discuss why adapting to an ever-evolving industry is crucial for standing out in a sea of talent. Anne discusses her own expansion into ventures like VO Boss, VO Peeps, and podcasting, illustrating how you can diversify your skillset and find fresh opportunities without losing your creative spark. Plus, the BOSSES spotlight the immense value of networking through conferences and workshops to elevate your voice-acting business to boss-level status. Join us, for an empowering session that promises to reignite your passion and strategic approach to your voice-acting venture.
00:01 - 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 VEO boss. Now let's welcome your host, Anne Gangusa.
00:19 - Anne (Host) Hey everyone, welcome to the VEO Boss podcast and the Boss Superpower series. I'm your host, Anne Gangusa, and I'm here with the lovely, lovely Lau Lapides.
00:31 - Lau (Guest) Hey Lau. Oh, amazing to see you, as always Amazing. Oh, thank you, Lau.
00:36 - Anne (Host) Wonderful to see you as well.
00:40 - Lau (Guest) What are we talking about today? I can't wait.
00:42 - Anne (Host) Okay, so I always have to open it up with a story. So lately I have heard a lot this year because it's been an interesting year. I've heard a lot from my students that they're frustrated. They have been making investments and they've been doing auditions and they're just not getting any work and they're just like frustrated to the point where they just want to give up. And I'll tell you what. I remember that feeling very well. I want to talk about voice actors who give up too soon, because I really feel like there's something to be said for sticking it out. I mean, building a business is not something that happens overnight. I know we say this all the time but, like my, overnight success took 10 years. I mean truly Lau thoughts on that.
01:32 - Lau (Guest) I'm right there with you and I think that that's a Listen, let's be honest, shall we? It's a very Western philosophy to think I'm opening a business, therefore I'm going to work and be successful right away. I mean, eastern philosophy is like no, at 10 years you're starting your business, right, yeah? So the idea of investment of time and resources and capital and sacrifice has got to be in our vocabulary and that's why we say in the first, three to five years is a typical timeframe, that we're looking at the metrics for what businesses are surviving and what businesses have gone under. We'll give it the three to five years, because you can't do it in a month. No, three to five years is the baseline. Can't do it in a year, can't do it in two years.
02:15 - Anne (Host) I'm constantly saying, oh, but I've spent so much money and I'm like have you? Have you really Like, have you? And again, I think we've spoken about this in many a podcast about the investment aspect of this career I'm like, well, thank goodness you didn't have to open a storefront or buy inventory. I mean honestly, your investment is investing in yourself. Because I constantly, as a coach and a demo producer, I hear this all the time because people are like I just don't have the money. Or I've taken so many lessons and I'm like have you? And I don't mean to be obnoxious here about it, but really, if you think about it and again, I've said this multiple times I always tell people look, we go to school for years. How many years do you go to medical school? How many years, if you want to become a vet, do you go to school? How many hours in a day do you spend at your job? Eight hours a day, maybe.
03:05 And so all of a sudden I'll get people who are like, yeah, but I've taken so many coaching sessions and I just I'm not getting the work and I'm like how many coaching sessions have you taken? And this is how many hours of your life have you actually spent studying the craft of voice acting, and not just for coaching. But let's just say, how many hours have you spent marketing? Like companies have entire marketing departments. They hire multiple people like you know, 20, 50, hundreds of people to generate leads. You are one person, and so you want to know why you haven't gotten work yet. You know what I mean. You're spending your time auditioning, you're spending your time doing a bunch of stuff, but also you've got to spend that time marketing, and so people, I think, are just giving up too soon. Lau.
03:50 - Lau (Guest) Yeah, they're also not paying attention to their environment. They're thinking that I'm in my own private Idaho. I'm going to be successful. This is what I want, and here it comes. You got to look at the world, you got to look at global economics.
04:03 You got to look at the US we're now in a high inflation state right now and how that affects other industries. That's going to make you feel I mean, we don't want injury and suffering of all industry, but you want to pay attention that if all industries are suffering, then it stands to reason that yours will be suffering as well too. And so there's misery. Does like a little bit of company, and so do the work, do the homework. Look around, however, you do that just so you can keep it in perspective, because otherwise we get so isolated and we get out of the bubble times.
04:37 How many times have you heard Anneie, oh, great, I got my demo, I'm ready to work. Okay, how do I work? And you're thinking, no, no, no, this is only the very beginning, the very, very beginning. Right, you're not in the middle, ready to work. No, this is the beginning of like, how do I put a little bit of a footprint out there? How do I get people to know I'm in the world? How do I do that? That's on me, that's all on me to do that.
05:02 - Anne (Host) And people will be very quick to blame people selling the dream, okay. So yes, there are people that sell the dream, but there's people that sell the dream for many an industry, right, and that's part of how they have their business flourish. However, there's a lot to be said for what you just said, and that is pay attention to the world, pay attention to the global market, pay attention to what is it that people are looking for? How is our voice profession being viewed in the marketplace right now? What's in demand, right? What is the going rate? What are people getting paid?
05:38 You cAnneot just say I've practiced, I've got a demo and now I'm ready to work, because there's so many other factors at play. One of the things is that you've got to evolve with the market and you've got to give yourself enough time in the market so that you can get hired. A lot of times, it's people who are established in the market and can show that they're established in the market for a very long time. Clients will tend to gravitate to them. I mean, I know for myself, right? If I'm looking to work with a particular we always use the dentist. It seems like I want a dentist who's got experience?
06:14 I want a doctor who has experience. I needed a breast surgeon right, obviously, for my breast cancer. I shopped for a breast surgeon. Of course, how long they were in business and how many surgeries did they perform it was a factor in who I hired to do such a thing. I think most of the voice actors that get super frustrated and say it's just not working. I put in all this money. I ask you to step back and think about what you just said. Did you really invest a lot of money? Maybe, yes, you thought that you could maybe create a business out of a whole lot less. Maybe it's because somebody sold you the dream. But also do not discount the fact that maybe you didn't look or educate yourself on what this industry is all about. And what investment do you need to make? That's not just monetary investment, it's also-.
07:06 - Lau (Guest) That's exactly right.
07:08 - Anne (Host) What sort of time is invested? What sort of education is invested for you?
07:13 - Lau (Guest) I always think to myself, Anneie, when, even though you may be in inflation, even though it may be hard to get clients at a particular time, I always think, when I'm very low, meaning I'm not getting enough action, I'm not getting enough energy, I always think and again, this is the work ethic of our generation I always think what am I doing wrong?
07:31 - Anne (Host) Did I lay back.
07:32 - Lau (Guest) Am I not working hard enough? Am I not working smart enough? Am I not strategizing enough? I may not be doing anything wrong, but the point is I always put it on myself. I don't look at the universe and say why isn't it coming to me, why isn't it just there for me? Why am I not busy and getting hired? I always think, well, am I putting myself in front of enough people? Do I have the right materials that are suiting the kind of job that they're looking for? Am I missing something? And typically I find it's on me.
08:03 - Anne (Host) Typically, I do find that, yeah, I agree, it is something that you really need to step back and take a look at. If you're not booking number one and I have so many people are like people that are newer to the industry that think, well, I've got a great commercial demo and I think to myself, well, commercial is only a certain percentage of the market. What about the other part of the market? Right, and so maybe you're auditioning, but you're only auditioning for your agents, who are typically commercial. Or maybe you're doing a ton of auditioning on the pay to plays.
08:35 Well, what is the majority of the genre that you are auditioning for? Is it commercial? Because, I guarantee you, there's a ton of competition for the commercials, because that's what all the voice actors tend to gravitate toward, that's what everybody thinks they need to audition for. Well, you can audition for e-learning, you can audition for corporate, you can audition for all different types of jobs. And, ultimately, I think that you need to really again step back and look at and maybe assess right down. Okay, here's what I'm doing on a day to day basis. Right, I'm auditioning for this type of job, I am auditioning for the majority of commercials or e-learning, the majority of whatever corporate, and so now really try to assess what's the demand out there globally right for that product. And are you marketing yourselves, are you writing that?
09:24 - Lau (Guest) letter, especially if it's on a pay to play.
09:27 - Anne (Host) Usually, you can respond with some sort of a hey, would love to be your voice, and make sure to take a look at my additional demos here on my website. Blah, blah, blah, whatever that is. Is that note up to par? Are you writing a novel? Are you quick into the point? Is your auditioning up to snuff? Is your acting skills? What about your audio? Gosh, we've done enough audition demolitions and, by the way, we've got to have another one coming up here soon. Yes, a lot of times audio has something to do with it too. What's your audio like? So there's lots of things that you can take a look at to see where you might evolve, where you might improve.
10:03 And also again, those things don't happen overnight. Great sound, although I will say great sound once you've got it kind of figured out, you shouldn't have to revisit it too much after that, Unless maybe you get new microphones or you move or there's more landscaping going on. I'm not sure.
10:18 - Lau (Guest) Yeah Well, it's inevitable to you and I on the coaching side of things that we'll get so many emails of people that say I don't understand how come I'm not booking what's happening. Could you please do a session with me and give me some feedback? And you and I will do the same thing. We'll give a session and just spend a whole hour with feedback and it looks like a ball, hit them between the eyes like, oh my goodness, I didn't even realize any of that. I didn't think of half of that.
10:45 Thank you for that value, because that value didn't save me and getting a job. That value helped me produce a career potential. Sure, and that's what smart people would say. They wouldn't take offense to it. They'd say, oh wow, this could help me build my career, just knowing one of those things that I would not have thought of. But I somehow feel like and I don't know what it is, I don't know if it's a generational thing, I'm just not sure this idea that, oh, I just know it. I got it all, I learned it all, I trained, I coached with five coaches, I know it all. And I'm thinking I don't think any of the great thinkers, philosophers or religious leaders think they even closely know it all, so chances are you don't know it.
11:26 - Anne (Host) All Right. Isn't that the truth? How about that? Isn't that the truth? I?
11:28 - Lau (Guest) can't imagine someone like Gandhi saying I know it all. It's kind of like the more you don't know.
11:33 - Anne (Host) The more you don't know, right, the more you don't know. Yeah, what was the saying? The more you know, the more you don't know.
11:40 - Lau (Guest) The more you realize you don't know right.
11:41 - Anne (Host) Yeah exactly.
11:42 - Lau (Guest) I think that that's true wisdom.
11:43 - Anne (Host) Can we just stop and say that again? The more you know, the more you realize that you don't know, right? Yes, that, I think, is key to understanding and not giving up Because you can again. We had another episode that we talked about. Well, people just they thought they had it all and they're like well, yeah, no, I sound great and in reality sometimes that is ignorance, is bliss right, or I sound great but in reality do you Like I've invested a lot.
12:11 Well, in reality, have you I market in reality. Do you Like you think about what companies do they spend thousands of? And also, do I spend money? They don't have money to spend on marketing. They don't have money to spend on coaching? Think about the amount of money that companies invest in their marketing departments. First of all, they hire more than one person, most of them, right. They hire a team of people and then that team of people work eight hours a day, maybe more than that, right Trying to generate leads and trying to close sales. And so are you doing that, really so?
12:45 - Lau (Guest) right and it's almost harder when that talent would come to me and they're fabulous and their demo is spick and span and they've got some great credits and they're just not booking the work and I don't have the heart to tell them that I've got 50 people just like that and it's kind of like not insulting. It's so sad for them, it's so doleful for them to have the realization and recognition that it is saturated and there are a lot of talented people and prepared people and people who have spent the investment.
13:20 They're not the only ones, and I think that they might intellectually know that, but put it in the back of their brain. But it's important to know that you have a lot of competitors. You're not so unique. You've got a lot of people.
13:33 - Anne (Host) that are unique too. You bring up a really good point. I'm glad that you said that because, yes, that's the other aspect of this. Do I give up, right? Or should I just give up because now there's just so much competition? Right, and yes, you nailed your demo, you have the acting skills and now, all of a sudden, have you really marketed? I always think, if you really are coming to that point where you've got the demo, you've got the skills, have you truly marketed it as much as you think you have? Or is it possible for you to up that even more again? But you're right, it's a saturated market. There's a lot of competition.
14:10 Now, if that's the case, have you thought about how you might evolve into maybe a different genre, or evolve your business to have another parallel set of skills that you're going to develop or evolve? Now that, I think, Lau is something to keep your business afloat. And I always talk about IBM. Ok, ibm has been around forever, right, and IBM is considered a technology company, but look at how they still are here. They're still relevant. They may not be considered a cool company, but guess what? They're still in business, right, and they've had to evolve their products, they've had to evolve their thinking. They've had to evolve over time, and take a look at any great company that has been around for a long time. They have evolved their brand, they've evolved their products, and so if the market is indeed saturated for, let's say, the genre that you love so dearly, well then maybe you think about how you can evolve into another genre or another aspect of the business that will bring you some income.
15:15 And sometimes only doing voiceover, it's wonderful, yes, but sometimes maybe you do something that's parallel to voiceover. Maybe you do audio editing, maybe you do copywriting, maybe you do virtual assisting right within the industry, maybe you do a podcast. Again, there are so many divisions and, again, I have always said to people that I have multiple divisions of my company, mostly because I love to challenge myself, right. So I've got the VO Boss. I've got this podcast, which I just wanted to learn how to podcast. I've got the VO Peeps. I've always wanted to network. I missed my teaching and then I'm demo producing, and so there's so many different evolutions of my business. I even coach outside of voiceover now, for wellness and healthcare. Why? Because I love it and I'm developing, evolving different aspects of my business that are going to serve me and bring me joy.
16:09 - Lau (Guest) Yes, and, let's be honest, Anneie, those of us that consider ourselves creatives, which most of us are, love doing different things. Yes, absolutely why aren't we sitting at a desk doing the same thing all day long, my God? Yes, exactly Because we're creative minded people. So that idea of multitasking and bringing out different qualities, and skill sets and loves and da-da, and maybe this year I want to try this. Yes, I want to move into that. It's not a cop out, it's not the side hustle that you shouldn't be doing.
16:40 It's an added layer of frosting to the cake, so to speak, that you really want to keep building over your lifetime, because not only can it be a service that you could really offer and make some extra cash, but also it could be really delightfully fun and inspiring and give you new ideas and be very satisfying to you in a way that the current daily situation is not or maybe it is, but it's not in that particular way and also branching out what I always called the divisions or the tendrils of my business.
17:12 - Anne (Host) Branching out allows you to expand your potential client base for voiceover here's an example, I'm going to be presenting at PodFest at a podcasting conference.
17:23 Now, podcasting is not what I do full-time. I am a full-time voice actor, coach, producer, that sort of thing but I certainly have been doing the VioBoss podcast for seven years and it's definitely a division of my business. Now I'm going to go and present and so ultimately that's outside of the voiceover industry, but yet I'm going to present to podcasters to talk to them about how they can utilize their skills in voiceover and also how they can improve their voice on their podcast, and so that is outside of right, and I'm not ashamed to say that it doesn't mean that I'm not doing voiceover anymore. No, it's another avenue that I find challenging and I find intriguing, and I want to pursue that as an additional piece of my business. There's nothing wrong with that.
18:12 - Lau (Guest) There's nothing wrong with that?
18:13 - Anne (Host) You don't have to be eight hours in your studio doing voiceover if that's not where your entrepreneurial brain wants to be, I mean, there's nothing wrong with that, and sometimes it's more healthy for you to branch out into other arenas to function way and refresh your brain and bring in new people, new ideas, new ideas, understand the perspective from a multitude of different perspectives. Right, yes, Really.
18:43 And that I think, is very healthy in terms of developing and growing your business. So if you don't get that national campaign this year, it's okay. I say a good entrepreneur will always evolve and develop their skills in a multitude of places so that they can have a successful business. And does it matter if you're not booking a national commercial every day, because I don't know anybody who is, to be quite honest. And so it really comes down to what is it that brings you joy, that can pay the bills and that you can do day in and day out?
19:18 Because most of the time, people get into this industry because they're super unhappy with what they're doing in their lives. So I always try to remember your why. Why did you get into the industry or want to get into the industry in the first place and then keep that why, especially when you're feeling like giving up, and especially we started this whole conversation about why people give up too soon. Well, I think you absolutely have to define your why and revisit that why over and over again and evolve your why as you grow.
19:48 - Lau (Guest) Yes, I mean you're the princess of pivoting and that pivot that change, that updating and upgrading we have to do it on our computer systems, we have to do it on our bodies. Yeah, you have to do it in our homes. Why wouldn't we have to do that in our businesses? And so that sense of like I have to clean up shop and I have to add something to this element that I don't have, because why? It's going to change the whole space, it's going to change the whole environment. That it's never just one thing, one effect. It really is. It has a whole rolling effect on everything. So if you learn to podcast or you become a producer or you learn how to write copy, that could have a whole riveting effect on your business. Absolutely, absolutely.
20:36 - Anne (Host) I love that, oh man. So let's talk about voice actors right now who are frustrated and want to give up. What is your best advice Lau? What can they do right now?
20:45 - Lau (Guest) I hear it every day. I'm going to throw out a quote. I love a good quote. Eleanor Roosevelt, the great Eleanor Roosevelt.
20:50 Okay, never, never, never give up. Don't mistake that. That does not mean don't give up on voiceover. It means don't give up on yourself and your potential within the business. That may morph into something else, absolutely. It may become something else, but don't throw that baby out with the bathwater and just give up on everything, because then what you're really saying is I'm not worth my time, my patience, my effort, my investment in really investigating my true potential, yeah, yeah.
21:24 - Anne (Host) And giving up is that, oh gosh, you don't feel worthy. And how many episodes have we already dedicated to? You must understand you're worth, you're worth it, you're worth it, you are worth it. And again, there's a reason why you got involved in this industry in the first place, and I think that maybe you're thinking the dream, or somebody sold you the dream, but I think, ultimately, you are responsible for educating yourself about this dream and educating yourself about how to navigate this dream, to turn it into a reality, to turn it into a success, understanding that this does not happen overnight.
22:00 There are constantly changes in the industry and there's a lot of changes. I mean, gosh, ai has thrown a wrench into a lot of this. Then there was a strike and then, every time I turn around, there are things that are throwing wrenches into the industry that you need to know about and you need to then say, all right, how can I evolve, how can I grow with this, if I'm not getting work right now? What can I do to maybe get work? Or can I create a new path for myself?
22:30 or create an alternate an additional path. Not just another, but an additional path.
22:35 It can be done, I mean gosh knows that I have created multiple, multiple divisions of my business just because it's a cool challenge, right, and it always forces me to grow. And I will tell every single boss out there right now that you don't think that I am scared every single day when I decide I'm going to do this and you don't think that scares the bejesus out of me. It still does. It still does, but I try to work through that. I've just been challenging myself constantly and I'm constantly afraid and I just try to work through it. Maybe it gets a little bit easier. I kind of doubt it. I still get just as scared sometimes when I say oh gosh now.
23:13 What do I do, Right?
23:14 - Lau (Guest) What am I going to do now?
23:16 - Anne (Host) Or I know what I want to do. How do I get there? How do I make that happen? Because now it's been what? 16, 17 years I didn't come this far to go work for somebody again. Right, this is my business or I am in charge of my own business. I will not go back. I cAnneot go back.
23:33 - Lau (Guest) Yes, absolutely, and I didn't even know when my dad always taught me you know, if you want to go in business for yourself, just know you're never going to sleep well again. Just know that that's so true, Like in as long as you understand that, you'll understand that you know you're going to set a very high bar. A lot of us that are perfectionists make the mistake of making the bar so high. It's unattainable, and then you're always disappointed. You're always letting yourself down. Really, no one's keeping score.
23:58 It's really about setting the bar at a place that is sensible, you can reach it. You can have small increments of success. Yes, right, yeah, I'll leave you on this quote. One of my favorite quotes is failure is the opportunity to start again more intelligently.
24:16 - Anne (Host) Yeah, love that, love that Love, that Is that good.
24:19 - Lau (Guest) Yeah, I don't believe in failure, really, but I don't either Use whatever word you want to use that I'm not achieving, I'm not attaining, I'm not getting. Allow you to grow. Allow you to grow. Take a step back and learn from it, you know start again Good stuff and don't give up, bosses.
24:34 - Anne (Host) Never, ever, ever give up, don't give up. All right, no Bosses, take a moment. Imagine a world full of passionate, empowered people who are giving back to their communities intentionally to create a world that they want to see. You can find out more at 100voiceswhocareorg. Also, big shout out to our sponsor, ipdtl. You, too, can network like bosses with awesome technology. Go to IPDTLcom to find out more. Guys, have an amazing week. Don't give up. We're here for you. All right, we'll see you next week. Bye. See you then. Bye.
25:10 - Intro (Anneouncement) Join us next week for another edition of VO Boss with your host and Gangusa, and take your business to the next level. Sign up for our mailing list at vobosscom 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.