Don’t Shoot Yourself in the Foot!

I don’t know about you, but I guess I’m lucky enough to get bombarded with emails from the P2P sites every day with possible jobs to audition for. (Note that I said lucky, because honestly I’m not complaining about that!) But with 50 or more of these coming in a day, it’s nigh impossible to audition for all of them — at least, if you’re trying to get anything else done in your day, like marketing, education, research, or even any of those pesky house chores that always seem to need to get done…

 

Oh, and then there are days like today, when I was really lucky, because I actually had a client to record a job for, in addition to monitoring audition emails and all the rest. (Again, not complaining here!)

 

So my point is: because you can’t audition for everything (and because some sites like Voice123 actually tell you NOT to audition for everything), you have to screen auditions and be picky, figuring out which ones you’re really a good fit for, which ones interest you the most, etc. And of course, it seems natural that jobs with higher payouts will likely rise to the top of your list to submit auditions for.

 

BUT HERE’S A GREAT LESSON I RECENTLY LEARNED:

Don’t just completely disregard a job because it happens to have a low-ticket payout number. Try to at least look at the specs and information written about various jobs, because you never know what potential goldmines they could be! Case in point: I was recently invited to audition for a job that listed the payout as $100. Now, while other, more experienced VO folks out there may scoff at such fees and not even think twice about auditioning, being a relatively new VO talent, my general thought pattern is: “Hmm…well, if I can knock that job out pretty quickly, it’s $100 I didn’t have in my pocket before!” (Not to mention more experience, and another client to add to my client list and resume.)

 

But when I actually READ THE SPECS about this particular job, it turns out that they just had to put in an arbitrary number to fill out the posting, and the job itself is for a WEEKLY 15-second radio spot, and once they find the talent the client wants to work with, they’ll negotiate a rate for the whole job.

 

HELLO!!!!

 

So rather than just disregarding it completely, which I might have done, I’m now in the running to pick up what could be a really great weekly job!

 

So remember, folks, don’t shoot yourself in the foot. At least KNOW what you’re NOT auditioning for, and why. And taking a few extra minutes to at least LOOK at the information regarding a job might just pay off big in the end!