Respect Your Efforts, Respect Yourself: Finding Real Power in a Long-Term Voiceover Career

Last Friday was bonkers.

I got a callback on an audio drama! Now, if you’ve never listened to one you are totally missing out!

They started in the 1920’s, and really grew in popularity in the 30’s and 40’s. They reached an apex in the 1950’s and then were taken over by TV.

My all time favorite is “Johnny Dollar” who is billed as “America’s fabulous freelance insurance investigator.” There’s tension, gunplay, fight scenes, romance and plenty of humor. Hit YouTube if you’re curious and look for the Bob Bailey episodes. He was the best Johnny. You will NOT be disappointed. I doubt today’s insurance investigators are anywhere near as exciting…but I could be wrong.

These little 15-minute episodes are something I’m sorry we’ve lost. The voice acting performance, the foley, the bumpers, and occasional ads left in promoting war bonds or cigarettes. It takes me to my happy place, well before I was born.

So back to my callback. They scheduled a table read and wanted me to record both sides of the conversation, so I ended up joining a video conference on my phone while capturing studio-quality voiceover recording on my end, rolling the entire session so they could review their provided real-time direction.

I also got the script at about 5AM, so I was scrambling to nail down who was speaking…and each character’s idiosyncrasies and motivations so I could handle audiobook character differentiation and adjust my tone for each of the five women (who weren’t identified directly in the script). I did it in the audition, but those were just one character at a time.

I don't mind saying that when we connected my heart was doing a marimba!

Admitting that I was new to table reads felt important, especially in a collaborative production environment like this one. In my head, it let me off the hook if things didn’t go exactly to plan.

But we got through. They seemed pleased! I think I should get positive feedback this week! It's exciting, daunting, and exhilarating all at once!

And then, later that day, a contact I reached out to on LinkedIn who works in audiobook production wanted to schedule a call. I thought, “Well, I did just prove I can handle long-form narration and multiple female voices, so why not?” Call booked.

And then I saw a job posting for another audiobook, and I thought, “oh, what are the odds, sure I’ll go for it.”  (That author won’t have a decision till the weekend but said I was her favorite so far. No Way!)

After voiceover being too quiet for far too long, I should have a massive eLearning narration project hitting this week. One I negotiated back in December. I’m 80% sure the audio drama will hit (which is a multi week commitment), it seems I’m in the running for an audiobook, and I'm talking with an audiobook producer Monday. Uh oh, I may be hoping at least one of these is delayed!

I don’t think this is all luck. I think it’s persistent effort, consistent creative work, and respecting the long-term voiceover career I’m building.

“Respect your efforts, respect yourself. Self-respect leads to self-discipline.  When you have both firmly under your belt, that’s real power.”

Know who said that? Clint Eastwood. Dirty Harry himself, or as I like to think of him, Wagon Train’s “Rowdy.”

If you are slogging, working strategically, and consistently showing up for yourself, give yourself some credit for that.  Know how few people do that and take their destiny into their own hands? Precious few.

As a professional voice actor, I’ve stayed away from audiobooks and dramas because I assumed I lacked voice actor versatility to pull off so many voices. But I proved to myself that I could do the work, and do it well. So I did it again, and didn’t hide from more opportunities.

I feel powerful. Like I have some hand in the direction my career takes. If you're doing the work and it hasn’t clicked yet, have faith, my friend. It will and when it does it will be unexpected.

So yeah, “Go ahead. Make my day.”