Thanks Neil, I needed that. I go through confident times when, “I can do that!” Then I go through, “What am I thinking, I’m useless!” I have got 6 projects out of 26 auditions so far, so I should be proud of that. Also, I procrastinate like crazy, 😆. Thanks for the encouragement 👍🏼
Confidence is such a big thing and it’s silly to think that everyone can be the confident all the time. Trust me when I say I have my highs and lows but as long as you keep plodding along you will get by.
Thank you Neil! The one about talking myself out of job offers because in the moment the money doesn't seem that big is so profound. The overall financial success often consits of many such small, but important steps. Love your channel and sincerity. Take care!
"Perfectionism is a straight road to driving yourself insane" - truer words have never been spoken for me. Sometimes I have to take a step away for a bit and then revisit because I can get so in my head.
See your posts on reddit. This is the 1st video I watched. The perfectionism bit is why I procrastinate. I've had the means and equipment to record for several years and barely did anything because I'm constantly afraid it won't be good enough, meanwhile I'm not putting in any practice. I hear reading and I KNOW... I KNOW I can read and VO well, but I look at that high wall of my idea of others expectations and they are all my own exceedingly high standards. I have to learn to relax and just DO IT.
Your high standards are always going to be higher than your clients and honestly I completely understand the impulse. Your description makes me think you may have an INFJ OR INTJ personality type. There are some things you can do to judge yourself more fairly if you have any understanding of that.
Might be worth a pop. I’m an ENTP and I’d say most of it rings true to my behaviours. Knowing how you work and seeing some of the pain points helps me tackle them better
Late to the party on this one but I love the straight talk. Especially the idea that a demo that doesn’t represent your everyday production quality is virtually useless! Better to under promise and over deliver than to raise a client’s expectation and then disappoint.
Maaaan - did I NEED this!!! Been in the studio beating myself up about my demos - even my Mrs said, 'Aren't you thinking too much about your recordings?' - thanks for sharing Neil - what a reality check!
My pleasure fella. Honestly you are always going to be so critical of yourself and only ever based on your worries not actual feedback. If you get negative feedback then learn and adjust. I know people who land regular work and have nothing but “imposter syndrome” about their success
I realized I was being too much of a perfectionist when I was playing a big brand video game that recently released. I went into the sound test just to listen to the actors takes on the lines and the roles. That's when I noticed on some lines I would hear the occasional pop or click. I noticed it for multiple actors on a number of takes. They weren't bad and decently inbetween, but that's when I realized that even the big budget pros make these mistakes, and it's not the end of the world.
I noticed that so much, especially over covid where you can hear the quality of recording change in game, not all their actors would have had a home studio so you can certainly hear the ones that did their best. Was it ever headline news? No.
I honestly expected this to be something more for me to have fear about but it turned out to be one of my faves from you so far. I needed all of it. Thank you Neil... Now to stop watching TH-cam videos (about) voiceover and go get my butt behind the mic and practice.
Thanks so much for this! So needed this- I've been putting things off like updating my demos/samples/website because of lack of confidence and the dreaded 'perfectionism' and not feeling good enough... just finished updating my self produced demo today and finally just said 'get over it!'. Can't wait to get it posted and delete my old one!
I finally got back in the studio today and recording/editing after a week or two of distractions and life happening. I forgot how much I enjoy *doing* the things. It's so hard just to get started, especially when I know that I will enjoy it when I get started. Thanks for making the reality checks, it's good to know that others deal with many of the same problems.
Sometimes just getting started is the big thing. I find that sometimes to be honest. It’s like a little cloud over me knowing that I have things I could be doing. Sometimes it only takes 20 minutes to do the work instead of that cloud popping up all day.
Procrastinating kills me. And staying positive can be so tough when starting out. Marketing is another language for me, so it still feels awkward making calls. Do you have a number you could throw out for about how many (new) companies you reach out to a day? I try to to reach out to about 20 new companies a week… but then I lose momentum and stop for weeks.
Some weeks I might reach out to a couple of hundred new PEOPLE at a bunch of companies. It’s rarely just one person who controls everything. Most responses are nice enough where they will pass my details on the person they think could use me but at last once a week I get a response from someone that need me at that right moment. Remember I have been doing this a long long time and my network is pretty vast on LinkedIn so I have access to thousands of potential new people with every new connection I make.
This was a great video man. I've kind of dropped off the path for awhile now due to life struggles. But still keep auditioning & trying in general. But this video helps a lot to reaffirm me that it's okay, I'll get there when I get there.
Take those jobs. That’s where I started with the channels I work with but over the months and years as the channel becomes more successful and you become the voice of the channel you can charge more.
i know your 5th reality check tip is to stop inventing worst case scenerios, i only invent worst case scenerios so that i have a plan b, something to follow up on should things go wrong, i guess in this it would be if i fail to get a job, simply go for another job, so pretty much go for the successful jobs and ignore and forget the n/a jobs, but learn from your mistakes and better yourself upon those mistakes to do better than before, would that be a good mindset to go with ?
Hi Neil, where can I pick up/or have the search word for a handheld clicker, ( to highlight mistakes in recordings on the fly) I think that s what I see in your hand now and again in this video. I have done many searches but to no avail. And thanks for the advice.
All the TH-cam voice postings I see are $5 - $20 max for example on upwork and definitely on Fiverr buyer request which makes me cringe lol. How often are you seeing postings for “decent” money?
@@CrownStagVoiceover that makes sense I’m working with someone right now that used to get 100k and 300k views and doing $15 per video (1,500 words usually) so I’ll keep the faith and if not it’s at least some work lol thanks for the advice!
I always set the expectation that we review my performance and cost every three months. My channel gets about 10k views a month that doesn’t amount to a lot of money. I’d guess at 300k views they are probably making in region of 3k ish a month
i slowed down your video so i can take notes and hear your every word, i swear i heard you say i love tit now i am going to wear it, i created a video sorry about that, i got a good laugh out of that
LOL! I thought I misheard you about 10. But, hey, they were on point enough to make it not matter. Really enjoy your videos, Neil. I'm just getting started in VO and I encounter almost all of the issues you mentioned. It's encouraging to hear I'm not alone in this!
Thanks Neil, I needed that. I go through confident times when, “I can do that!” Then I go through, “What am I thinking, I’m useless!” I have got 6 projects out of 26 auditions so far, so I should be proud of that.
Also, I procrastinate like crazy, 😆. Thanks for the encouragement 👍🏼
Confidence is such a big thing and it’s silly to think that everyone can be the confident all the time. Trust me when I say I have my highs and lows but as long as you keep plodding along you will get by.
Thank you Neil! The one about talking myself out of job offers because in the moment the money doesn't seem that big is so profound. The overall financial success often consits of many such small, but important steps. Love your channel and sincerity. Take care!
Thank you. I am glad it resonates with you
"Perfectionism is a straight road to driving yourself insane" - truer words have never been spoken for me. Sometimes I have to take a step away for a bit and then revisit because I can get so in my head.
It’s a constant battle for me too
See your posts on reddit. This is the 1st video I watched. The perfectionism bit is why I procrastinate. I've had the means and equipment to record for several years and barely did anything because I'm constantly afraid it won't be good enough, meanwhile I'm not putting in any practice. I hear reading and I KNOW... I KNOW I can read and VO well, but I look at that high wall of my idea of others expectations and they are all my own exceedingly high standards. I have to learn to relax and just DO IT.
Your words are perfectly my reply! Thank you! Now stop it and get in the booth! ;)
Your high standards are always going to be higher than your clients and honestly I completely understand the impulse. Your description makes me think you may have an INFJ OR INTJ personality type. There are some things you can do to judge yourself more fairly if you have any understanding of that.
@@CrownStagVoiceover on reading the descriptions I could say I'm a blend of the two, although I've never taken those surveys.
Might be worth a pop. I’m an ENTP and I’d say most of it rings true to my behaviours. Knowing how you work and seeing some of the pain points helps me tackle them better
Late to the party on this one but I love the straight talk. Especially the idea that a demo that doesn’t represent your everyday production quality is virtually useless! Better to under promise and over deliver than to raise a client’s expectation and then disappoint.
I really appreciate that you are giving useful advice and not just making videos covering the same old topics for the for the sake of it.
Don’t say that. I may run out of ideas
Excellent video, thank you, Neil! Liked your jumper by the way, nice color.
It’s my new fav
Maaaan - did I NEED this!!! Been in the studio beating myself up about my demos - even my Mrs said, 'Aren't you thinking too much about your recordings?' - thanks for sharing Neil - what a reality check!
My pleasure fella. Honestly you are always going to be so critical of yourself and only ever based on your worries not actual feedback. If you get negative feedback then learn and adjust. I know people who land regular work and have nothing but “imposter syndrome” about their success
I realized I was being too much of a perfectionist when I was playing a big brand video game that recently released. I went into the sound test just to listen to the actors takes on the lines and the roles. That's when I noticed on some lines I would hear the occasional pop or click. I noticed it for multiple actors on a number of takes. They weren't bad and decently inbetween, but that's when I realized that even the big budget pros make these mistakes, and it's not the end of the world.
I noticed that so much, especially over covid where you can hear the quality of recording change in game, not all their actors would have had a home studio so you can certainly hear the ones that did their best. Was it ever headline news? No.
Great advice Neil! I am waiting on my vocal booth right now so I can have a hopefully semi pro audio! You'll be getting questions soon I think 🤣
No pressure haha
I honestly expected this to be something more for me to have fear about but it turned out to be one of my faves from you so far. I needed all of it. Thank you Neil... Now to stop watching TH-cam videos (about) voiceover and go get my butt behind the mic and practice.
Haha! Quite right!
Thanks so much for this! So needed this- I've been putting things off like updating my demos/samples/website because of lack of confidence and the dreaded 'perfectionism' and not feeling good enough... just finished updating my self produced demo today and finally just said 'get over it!'. Can't wait to get it posted and delete my old one!
Really glad it’s helped you get motivated 😊
I finally got back in the studio today and recording/editing after a week or two of distractions and life happening. I forgot how much I enjoy *doing* the things. It's so hard just to get started, especially when I know that I will enjoy it when I get started. Thanks for making the reality checks, it's good to know that others deal with many of the same problems.
Sometimes just getting started is the big thing. I find that sometimes to be honest. It’s like a little cloud over me knowing that I have things I could be doing. Sometimes it only takes 20 minutes to do the work instead of that cloud popping up all day.
Procrastinating kills me. And staying positive can be so tough when starting out. Marketing is another language for me, so it still feels awkward making calls. Do you have a number you could throw out for about how many (new) companies you reach out to a day? I try to to reach out to about 20 new companies a week… but then I lose momentum and stop for weeks.
Some weeks I might reach out to a couple of hundred new PEOPLE at a bunch of companies. It’s rarely just one person who controls everything. Most responses are nice enough where they will pass my details on the person they think could use me but at last once a week I get a response from someone that need me at that right moment. Remember I have been doing this a long long time and my network is pretty vast on LinkedIn so I have access to thousands of potential new people with every new connection I make.
This was a great video man. I've kind of dropped off the path for awhile now due to life struggles. But still keep auditioning & trying in general. But this video helps a lot to reaffirm me that it's okay, I'll get there when I get there.
You will get there. You can do it
$70 for just one script?! 🤩 Where do you find TH-camrs that'll pay that much? Most I find want me to do 10 mins for $10. Crazy!
Take those jobs. That’s where I started with the channels I work with but over the months and years as the channel becomes more successful and you become the voice of the channel you can charge more.
i know your 5th reality check tip is to stop inventing worst case scenerios, i only invent worst case scenerios so that i have a plan b, something to follow up on should things go wrong, i guess in this it would be if i fail to get a job, simply go for another job, so pretty much go for the successful jobs and ignore and forget the n/a jobs, but learn from your mistakes and better yourself upon those mistakes to do better than before, would that be a good mindset to go with ?
Hi Neil, where can I pick up/or have the search word for a handheld clicker, ( to highlight mistakes in recordings on the fly) I think that s what I see in your hand now and again in this video. I have done many searches but to no avail. And thanks for the advice.
Just look for a dog clicker
@@CrownStagVoiceover LOL - Thanks
All the TH-cam voice postings I see are $5 - $20 max for example on upwork and definitely on Fiverr buyer request which makes me cringe lol. How often are you seeing postings for “decent” money?
Grow with the channel, some I started at $10 &$20 and as the channel grew I made more and more money per video
@@CrownStagVoiceover that makes sense I’m working with someone right now that used to get 100k and 300k views and doing $15 per video (1,500 words usually) so I’ll keep the faith and if not it’s at least some work lol thanks for the advice!
I always set the expectation that we review my performance and cost every three months. My channel gets about 10k views a month that doesn’t amount to a lot of money. I’d guess at 300k views they are probably making in region of 3k ish a month
8 to 10 min for $70?! I would never do that! But maybe I should if I can get 5 of those a weeks
Sometimes it’s adds up
i slowed down your video so i can take notes and hear your every word, i swear i heard you say i love tit now i am going to wear it, i created a video sorry about that, i got a good laugh out of that
I realise I only did 9 haha
Idk. I count #9 twice and there you go 👍
LOL! I thought I misheard you about 10. But, hey, they were on point enough to make it not matter.
Really enjoy your videos, Neil.
I'm just getting started in VO and I encounter almost all of the issues you mentioned. It's encouraging to hear I'm not alone in this!
Trust me when I say that if it’s an issue / worry / concern for you, it’s the same for many MANY others. You are not alone and can always seek help
Is that an antena popping out of your forehead? Just kidding. Looks like you have a gray hair popping out.
Brilliant - thanks lol
I needed to hear this 🥹🙏 brilliant video, very helpful
I hope it helps