Marketing: Top 10 Lies Voice Actors Tell In Hopes Of Getting Ahead, by Paul Strikwerda
Top 10 Lies Voice Actors Tell
In Hopes Of Getting Ahead …
By Paul Strikwerda
Voice Actor
By Paul Strikwerda
Voice Actor
How far would you go to get ahead in this game we call the voice over marketplace?
Would you betray your pacifist principles and record a promotional video for land mines?
Would you flirt with the casting director? Would you badmouth a colleague in the hopes of improving your odds?
As soon as money is involved, people are prepared to sell their dignity and self-respect to the highest bidder, and it’s survival of the slickest and every man for himself.
IT’S ALL ABOUT ME
Take no prisoners. After all, the economy sucks and it ain’t getting better any time soon.
If it’s a choice between you and me, my friend, it better be me.
In an attempt to break into the business or simply stay afloat, people even start sinning against the Ninth Commandment: Thou shalt not bear false witness.
What do they tell you in this business?
If you can’t make it, just fake it!
FRAUD ON THE INTERNET
That’s why the almighty Internet is inundated with pretenders, posers, anonymous commentators and self-styled experts.
In this day and age where the latest is the greatest, nobody bothers to fact-check anymore. It’s the ideal opportunity to be whoever you say you are.
No questions asked. It’s in black and white. That means it’s reliable, right?
Now, don’t believe for one second that the people in our community are holier than the Pope. They are not.
A WEB OF LIES
Some of them are spinning a world wide web of lies.
Of course they don’t call it that. They see it as innocent embellishments of the truth. The means justify the ends.
Meanwhile, they are walking around with their pants on fire.
Here’s my Top 10 list of the most common lies people tell to get ahead in our line of work:
1. Experience
Lie: “With years of experience under her belt, Carla can handle almost any project.”
Truth: Carla has been at it for five months; part-time, that is.
2. Training and Coaching
Lie: “Roger has studied with some of the world’s best coaches.”
Truth: He took an introductory course at the local community college.
3. Clients
Lie: “John has recorded voice overs for some of the biggest names in business.”
Truth: John wishes he had recorded voice overs for some of the biggest names in business.
4. Equipment
Lie: “Peter exclusively uses his trusted Neumann U87, arguably the best known and most widely used studio microphone in the world.
Truth: Peter doesn’t even know how to correctly pronounce the name Neumann. He is the proud owner of a second-hand Chinese condenser he got off eBay for $65.
5. Home Studios
Lie: “Heather records her voice overs in her professional studio, guaranteeing you the highest audio quality possible.”
Truth: Heather hides inside a bedroom closet and she has no idea why this mattress foam won’t keep the noise out. She wonders: Should I have used egg crates instead?
Truth: Heather hides inside a bedroom closet and she has no idea why this mattress foam won’t keep the noise out. She wonders: Should I have used egg crates instead?
6. Demos
Lie: It sounds like Thomas really voiced those national campaigns, doesn’t it?
Truth: The scripts were stolen from auditions that never worked out. An audio engineer friend helped him with the music.
7. Languages and Accents
Lie: “Jerome speaks Dutch and is available for your eLearning projects.”
Truth: Jerome was born, raised and educated in Flanders (Belgium) and speaks Flemish. Dutch and Flemish are just as related and just as different as American and British English. Substitute Dutch and Flemish for other languages and accents to expose other actors.
Truth: Jerome was born, raised and educated in Flanders (Belgium) and speaks Flemish. Dutch and Flemish are just as related and just as different as American and British English. Substitute Dutch and Flemish for other languages and accents to expose other actors.
8. Testimonials
Lie: “Jennifer was a delight to work with. Our company would not hesitate to hire her again.”
Truth: Jennifer never worked for “that company” and she is the author of this endorsement.
9. Headshots
Lie: We see a young, smiling face, staring confidently into the camera.
Truth: After 10 years, Harry doesn’t look like his old head shot anymore. He’s become bitter and it shows. He also gained 20 pounds.
10. Believing that you won’t get caught
You see, people with real credentials have real experience and a real portfolio. They don’t have to hide behind vague descriptions and false advertising.
The truth will always come out and when it does, it will damage a career that never was and probably never will be.
SPOTTING THE ROTTEN APPLE
You don’t have to be a detective to find the fakers. Liars usually do a great job exposing themselves.
I was emailing one of my colleagues the other day, and he shared the following story with me:
“I’ve read your blogs regarding people that want to be a voice over talent with interest. I have some ideas on people that are “posing” as voice over talent and how to spot them immediately.
“For example: a young lady recently posted on a LinkedIn forum complaining that she wasn’t being hired via sites like Voices.com and how obviously the system was flawed, and that was the reason she wasn’t getting work.
“I visited her website to find that (through the placement of national logos for Burger King and Nissan) she had implied that she’d done voice over work for national companies.
“When I listened to her demo it was apparent that she had nowhere near the skill level of a national voice talent.
A STOLEN CLIENT
“Furthermore – on her website there was a mention of a client that she claimed as her client, when in fact, it had been MY client for more than four years.
“A quick check with producers led me to find that this person had never worked with that company.
“In short, she wasn’t getting work because she sucked as a ‘talent.’
“And yet, she couldn’t hear this, and was angry with the world because she wasn’t getting work.
“What are these people thinking? Do they really believe they can fool an experienced producer or creative service director?”
ACTORS ARE LIARS
People in our profession have a strange relationship with the truth. We get paid to pretend.
The most convincing liars get the nicest paychecks, an Oscar and a star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame.
However, true talent, trust and integrity are the cornerstones of a successful career.
Trust must be earned.
Trust must be earned.
True talent and integrity can never be faked.
Ain’t that the truth?
What are some of the lies that you have spotted?
ABOUT PAUL …
Paul Strikwerda is a 25-year veteran of the voice over industry whose Nethervoice service features German and Dutch voice overs, translation and evaluation services. Born in Holland, he has worked for Dutch national and international radio, the BBC and American Public Radio. Although 90% of his work is in English, Strikwerda also records in Dutch, German and French. Clients include Novartis, Johnson & Johnson, and the Discovery Channel. He also publishes an informative and entertaining blog, Double Dutch.
Email: paul@nethervoice.com
Web: www.nethervoice.com
As always Paul, your articles are both entertaining and informative. In today’s day and age of the internet, I would imagine it would be even harder to lie about experience, etc. without getting caught. Lying is just plain self defeating. Honesty is always the best policy in all business dealings. I think one problem in today’s world, is that people “expect” instant success, so they are willing to lie to make that success happen. It rarely works if ever.
Roy, my Double Dutch blog is packed with advice for starting and seasoned voice actors alike. Simply go to my website and click on the blog-tab.
Amanda, an attorney recently ordered me not to use the term “Distinctly Dutch” on one of my websites. His client ran a translation agency and did some voiceover jobs on the side. Apparently, she had trademarked the term. It turned out that she was from Belgium and she spoke with a distinctly Flemish accent.
BP, it’s never been easier to create a false online identity. Even well-known press agencies sometimes forget to fact-check, or they don’t have the staff to do it.
Happy clients are my best credentials. The fakers will eventually meet their fate.
It is not worth it to land a voice-over script when it involves lying. I will go with the truth and continue to work hard at marketing my voice. Hopefully this article inspires others, Paul. Thanks for writing it.
Paul, as per your advice, I read your blog page on website and going to dump my membership in voices.com which is getting me nowhere, and just try to get gigs on my own. Probably won’t succeed and have to take up house painting. But it’s useless to try competing with the whole world.”,”2011-09-22″,”07:42:00″,”1″,”2011-09-22 07:42:20″,”2011-09-22 07:45:43″
“PE5KD2HQ”,”54WC5O6Q”,”Howard Ellison”,”ellisonvoice@gmail.com”,”Hello, Dave.
Dare I say, I almost agree? We can never be sure what a potential client will play our demos on, so a bit of squashing is probably to our advantage. Maybe more familiar to them, too.
As for radio and TV sound in general – here in UK anyway – indeed in decline. Body-worn mics on actors, lapel mics under presenters’ chins, garbled web feeds, soundtracks out of sync, over-compressed by the platforms (how dare they!).
We now need an alternative term to ‘broadcast quality’ as it no longer implies something nice.”,”2021-05-04″,”15:02:00″,”1″,”2021-05-04 15:02:06″,”2021-05-04 16:18:41″
“0FI6R00S”,”X72CCJS1″,”Roy Wells”,”roy951@mail.com”,”On that earnings chart, you show that four people claim to be earning over $100k. This claim is pure unvarnished bs. Nobody can earn such a sum narrating audiobooks.”,”2015-09-11″,”22:37:00″,”1″,”2015-09-11 22:37:32″,”2015-09-12 08:02:43″
“SGE37WGY”,”EUX0R7ZL”,”Paul Henry”,”paul.henrydbc@gmail.com”,”Ohhhhh Maaaaaan that was beautiful!!! It is all those things that deep down inside I know but to read your words just brings them to the surface and lets me know that I am not alone in this struggle. And it is an internal struggle to be so professional that we forget to be…
Thanks
Paul Henry”,”2015-09-11″,”11:14:00″,”1″,”2015-09-11 11:14:37″,”2015-09-11 11:17:51″
“N3MJUIZE”,”zsnf1cb4″,”Rob Sciglimpaglia”,”johnflorian@voiceoverxtra.com”,”Hi Jane,
In order to protect your character voice you need to make sure your contract clearly spells out that you own the voice and that whoever is producing is licensing your voice for that character. Who owns the rights to the voice would be spelled out by contract prior to the job commencing. If there is no contract then unless you were an employee of the company you voiced for the voice would be your property.
Rob Sciglimpaglia
Paul, you are particularly fired up in this article! Do you have a recent story about how this affected you?”,”2011-09-21″,”11:37:00″,”1″,”2011-09-21 11:37:29″,”2011-09-21 11:38:46″
“PPLC32N4″,”DVIIL37O”,”Debbie Grattan”,”debbie@debbiegrattan.com”,”I’m with DC in feeling like if I was toying with the idea of moving into the VO world today, knowing what I know, I’d pick something else. It’s gotten so competitive, the tenacity and marketing knowledge needed to stay on top is exhausting, even with a stable of regular clients, and the ranks continue to be infiltrated.
And new folks are coming in with talent as well. But they find out pretty quickly that booking a few gigs does not a career make. It’s a marathon, and most get pooped out before the first 10K. At least I hope enough poop out to allow for the rest of us to still keep the flow moving.
I read an article today by Steven Lowell who quoted some stat of over 100,000 VO profiles online, only 5000 have daily work. I’m not sure where this came from, but it’s daunting. Maybe if more folks with hopes of being a VO-preneur would heed this stat early on, they’d find something else to chase.”,”2015-07-07″,”19:40:00″,”1″,”2015-07-07 19:40:47″,”2015-07-07 21:46:29″
“CX8YM2F5″,”DVIIL37O”,”Bobbin Beam”,”bobbin@bobbinbeam.com”,”Hi J,
I agree with just about everything you’ve said. However, the talent pool has indeed increased exponentially in let’s say, the past 15-20 years.
Technology has lowered the entry of cost to get into just about any business today. And yes, there is an abundance of work and good talent will rise to the top and command better rates. Well-stated. Thanks for your insight.
Paul, you have covered what NOT to do in excellent fashion. How about some suggestions as to what TO do, to get oneself out of the audition herd. Work is getting harder and harder to come by. The pa- to-audition sites are getting more and more crowded, with more competition. What’s a VO actor to do?”,”2011-09-21″,”18:13:00″,”1″,”2011-09-21 18:13:40″,”2011-09-21 19:26:18″
“OW5YEKFO”,”DVIIL37O”,”Joel”,”me@joelrichards.com”,”Actually, j. Valentino you don’t pay the same price for a book or an album that you used to and those industries have been shaken to their core. You can now get both, buffet style, for much less and even per unit prices on many of those items has come down (or stagnated for many years).
I do agree that the skill and investment in time and learning is still substantial, but I feel like we’re headed for a world not too far removed from the absurdist film, “Holy Motors.”