Tags:

J.S. Gilbert, Problem Solving, Voice Overs, Client Satisfaction, Promotion, Marketing, Facebook, LinkedIn

Transcript of Problem Solving

[Opening Music]

Julie-Ann Dean: Welcome to Voiceover Experts brought to you by Voices.com, the number one voiceover marketplace. Voiceover Experts brings you tips, pearls of wisdom and techniques from top instructors, authors and performers in the field of voiceover. Join us each week to discover tricks of the trade that will help you to develop your craft and prosper as a career voiceover talent. It's never been easier to learn, perform, and succeed from the privacy of your own home and your own pace. This is truly an education you won't find anywhere else.

Now, for our special guest.

J.S. Gilbert: Hi. I'm J.S. Gilbert and first, I'd like to thank David and Stephanie for asking me to speak. I've personally been a member of Voices.com since pretty much the very beginning. I think I was the 10th or so actor to sign up and my career in voiceover actually goes back over 20 years. So pondering what I should say in this podcast, I thought to myself about how many people out there have so many questions regarding marketing themselves and just how truly difficult to test that is.

If you're new to the industry, when should you start marketing yourself? When are you ready? And for those who have been at VO for a while, should you market yourself and if so, how? Now, bear with me because this may seem kind of simplistic and you may have a tendency to not want to play no longer too now, but please do. Also, grab a piece of paper and something to write with. There's not going to be much note taking but a little bit.

Okay, the first thing I want you to do is forget about the words, voice talent or voice actor or voiceover or voice whatever and instead take that piece of paper and write two words down on it.

Ready? Problem solver.

Now, if you were strolling down the aisles of your local convenient store and you saw two identical boxes on the shelf, each with the same kind of packaging, each selling for the same amount. And one was a voice actor and the other a problem solver, which would you buy?

If you said voice actor, then you probably don't understand the mindset of most producers casting people and other folks who hire voice actors because the correct choice should have been problem solver. A voice actor often waits to get hired, but a problem solver establishes relationships. A problem solver learns about potential clients and establishes methods for approaching them that offer benefits to the potential client.

A problem solver takes the emphasis off of themselves and puts that emphasis on the client, the client's needs and the task. Problem solving means that you understand yourself and what you can offer to a client that could tend to be a unique selling proposition. We'll simply put, if you have a background where you worked and say, oh the pharmaceutical industry or bio companies. Then a problem you can solve is that many production companies that produce material for these companies have a bare of a time getting talent who can pronounce all those tricky names and medical terms and words.

If you can produce your own work, don't give it away for free but certainly, let any potential client know that this is something you can do. For years, I had some decent work recording and producing radio spots for small stations across the country that didn't always have facilities or personnel for you to take care of it. They'd fax me, script along with direction and voila! (back-end) and with the finished commercial. Some agencies, I mean, ad agencies also appreciate this ability if they lack in-house production facilities and some may not even have a broadcast creative or producer on staff.

Those are usually smaller ad agencies and some of them are quite approachable. Your abilities, your skills, your knowledge can very much come into play. Do you cook? Do you do wood working? Are you a history buff? Are you an enthusiast? Being able to walk the walk and talk the talk allows you to relate on very human terms with potential clients. Oh say, that you've researched a company that does docent tours for museums.

You've identified that one of the museums they do tours for is the Getty and you love the Getty. You've been there 100 times. You understand the pacing of a docent tour despite perhaps never having voiced one. You know the names of the artists and how to pronounce them and you have a true passion for this. Look at the level of conversation you can have with so many of the different people that may combine to hire a voice actor. Learn about the companies, the businesses, the agencies, the people, the production companies, whoever you want to pitch yourself to.

Many of them have samples of their work on their websites. You can hear the talent that they've used and the styles of work that they've created. Adapt this problem solver attitude and you'll start seeing numerous ways that your unique gifts and abilities make you a problem solver in so many ways. Finding two or three places that you can really approach as a problem solver, in the long run is going to bring far better results than sticking 20 demos in envelopes and mailing them out shotgun to anonymous agencies or people that you may think hire talent.

Oh sure, you could get lucky and have a demo land on somebody's desk at just the right moment but even so, if you took a little time and research the people and the companies and personalized each one that you sent out so that it speaks to the core values of the recipient well, you're going to get a lot farther. I've just touched the tip of the iceberg here. There are a ton of really good books on marketing that can be adapted to meet the needs of a voice actor. Some of my favorites are the Guerrilla Marketing series by Jay Conrad Levinson.

Marketing Without Advertising by Phillips and Raspberry is another book that I have gotten great ideas from. Michael Phillips also has a great blog at phillips.blogs.com. That's phillips.blogs.com. I'd also recommend everyone join Facebook and LinkedIn and you should be out there and looking at all the online communities. Invite everyone you know to join, participate, ask questions, and answer them. Don't just lurk or be a hit-and-run artist but be active. I'm not suggesting you should give advice in areas that you aren't knowledgeable in, but read the forums and the postings and get to know the communities. Talk about other things you're interested in besides voice acting.

Show that you're multi-dimensional. Be interesting and interested and others will find you interesting. Now that I've given you an idea how to cold call a little smarter. In my next podcast, I'll show you why you shouldn't cold call and set up a strategy for you to do referral marketing. If you'd like to contact me, I'm available through my Voices.com webpage or simply Google, J.S. Gilbert and you'll see all the ways you can get in touch with me. Thanks a lot for listening.

Julie-Ann Dean: Thank you for joining us. To learn more about the special guest featured in this Voices.com podcast, visit the Voiceover Experts show notes at Podcasts.Voices.com/VoiceoverExperts. Remember to stay subscribed.

If you're a first time listener, you can subscribe for free to this podcast in the Apple iTunes Podcast Directory or by visiting Podcasts.Voices.com. To start your voiceover career online, go to Voices.com and register for a voice talent membership today.

[Closing Music]

Links from today's show:

J.S. Gilbert

Your Instructor this week:

Voice Over Expert J.S. Gilbert

J.S. Gilbert has been active in the Bay Area for over 25 years. He is a trained actor, voice talent, engineer, audio director, writer and copywriter. His work has bridged over from the advertising community to technology to video games and the hospitality industry. Currently, J.S. produces audio and performs v.o. for the educational industry, commercials, branding, the internet, audio books, interactive and the gaming industry. He has also personally been voice talent on almost 400 video games and numerous commercials, industrials, voice mail projects, etc. J.S. produces the Gilbert e-newsletter, which is an extensive resource to monthly Bay Area events, mixers and other items of interest to the Creative Community and has a current readership of just under 5,000 people. J.S. is also on the Board of Directors for BAARC (Bay Area Advertising Relief Committee), and is a member of the Professional Advisory Committee at the Art Institute of California. J.S. is also a contributor and on the Advisory Board to Create Magazine. J.S. also writes for other publications on advertising, gaming, technology and convergence. J.S. was formerly on the Board of Directors of the San Francisco Ad Club and was Bay Area ADDY Awards Chair for 2005 and 2006. He is the recipient of many awards, including SF Ad Club's President's Award, AV Video Magazines Top 100 Producers List, ADDYS, Tellys, and others. J.S. was a featured voice talent on "10 Days That Unexpectedly Changed America", which was an Emmy award winner. J.S. can be reached at jsgilbert@pacbell.net His cell number is 415-336-6238.

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