…and we begin with that most cliche’ of sayings: “…a rising tide raises all boats…”
The struggling VO newcomer dinghy is effected, so is the audiobook narrator sailboat, the radio-imaging rowboat, the eLearning narrator’s skiff, and the network promo talent’s speed racer.
The adage is oft-quoted, ’cause there’s a lot of truth to it. As a voice-acting community, we don’t operate in a vacuum.
Why is it then, that the purveyors of success with Fiverr, Upwork, and ODesk perceive themselves as apart from that rubric?
How can you NOT be part of the voice-acting community, when what you are doing is, in fact, voice-acting? Participating in the compensation-destroying metrics of well-accepted rate structures can do little else but upset status quo.
By analogy, how can you claim to subscribe to the current belief that all the world’s residents are to blame for global warming, but then set yourself apart from that reasoning when it comes to the VO marketplace. Are not all things inter-related?
a dedicated and forward-thinking portion (20/80?) of the VO community can buoy up the entire population of voice acting professionals Click To Tweet
Alternatively, a dedicated and forward-thinking portion (20/80?) of the VO community can also buoy up the population of voice acting professionals with education, awareness, advocacy, and a call-to-community.
As with most things in life, the battles are fought in the middle, where the tension is; neither side claiming victory or moral ground, and neither side truly knowing to what extent they have ANY control over the peripheral vectors that affect our market (technology, world politics, global economic forces).
Every year World-Voices Organization members gather in a conference to see about being the buoy…to build community, to grow their awareness and knowledge.
Is there 100% agreement on everything? Nope. Do those gathered go forth afterward and change the world? We’ll see. Most of us think we have a duty to try. There might be some pride involved, but an even greater portion of altruism.
Call us optimists, ’cause we’re crazy enough to think we CAN raise the tide, and hopeful enough to throw out a towrope to you if you need it.
CourVO