This’ll be brief.
An observation.
An encouragement.
Back in the last decade, when I was a VO newbie with stars in his eyes and a bedrock certainty that I was on the cusp of voice acting success, I hit a wall. Days, weeks…sometimes months went by with nary a job.
Like so many, I had a “real” job to pay the bills. And like so many, I didn’t give up after VO discouragement. OK, so I wasn’t on the cusp of the big-time…but I was making progress, right?
Here ‘n’ there I’d land a gig, make a new client relationship, and score some points as a reliable partner in someone else’s project. The thing was… it was slow going. Not all of those partners were very steady. More like — sparse — I’d say. But I kept after it; adding new relationships as they came along, and forging ahead. Most would return…sooner or later…sometimes years later.
They add up.
The years. The relationships. The jobs.
They add up.
I expected October to be a less-than-stellar month in terms of revenue. After all, I planned to take almost three weeks away — handling only the most precious jobs if they came up while I was on the road.
And yet, October turned out to be a great month. Surprise around every corner. I awoke each day to a new email, a random phone call, or contact from one of those…one of those… long-lost clients from 2009, or a person I hadn’t heard from since 2012. Some had NEVER worked with me, had always expected to, I guess.
People don’t forget excellence, courtesy, dependable & earnest partners. Most don’t. They come back to the tried, trusted, and true. They like it when you’re still there with your solid product, and your can-do attitude. They appreciate it when you communicate in a timely manner.
Stay with it.
They add up.
CourVO