By British Male Voiceover Artist Chris Tester
Essentially, what I want to do is bring together two of my previous videos, one of which was about goal setting and the other one which was about taking stock of your voiceover achievements for 2021, and then use myself as an example of how I'm going about setting my goals for this coming year. The trickiest aspect of this can be that you don't really know where to start!
Everybody has their own kind of competing goals. There are loads of posts on it at the moment on social media; various voiceover provider services are all about these things. And you can't really see the wood from the trees. So I recommend that you have to start with what your goal is. You also need to think about how you would go about achieving that goal.
But the thing that I believe is I really kind of missed out from last year in properly interrogating was the why, as well. I think this is of crucial importance to really determine whether or not a goal actually works for you personally, or whether or not you've just taken it from someone else's goal list and assumed it into your own business rather than really properly interrogating it. So it's about the what, it's about the how, but it's also crucially about the why, and this is what's going to be able to make you narrow down your options into something that is actually feeling possible to you in this coming year, as opposed to something that is overwhelming.
Let's talk in-depth without further ado!
#1. Brainstorming
So to get onto the resolution aspect of this, the first thing that I really recommend is that you brainstorm everything. But you brainstorm everything with three major sectors in mind:
Technical Side
The first one is going to be the technical side. The technical side may be equipment, it may be an investment in your space, but it's to do with your recording environment, the process of recording from a technical side. So equipment, all of that kind of thing.
Performance Side
The second area to really focus on is the performance side. So that could be working with particular coaches in particular genres. But then that also goes towards the actual demo production you might be involved in if you actually want to showcase your work in that respect
Marketing/Employment side
There's the technical side, and there's the performance side, and then there's also the marketing/employment side.
So this is to do with what are your inbound marketing streams?
What are your outbound marketing streams?
Inherently, that's social media and any direct marketing that you do. And then, on top of that, it's also what agents are you represented by?
How often are you auditioning?
Are you auditioning through production rosters?
Are you using pay-to-plays?
And if so, how regularly you are auditioning, all of that kind of thing.
So we've got those three rough areas from which to start with.
#2. Stock Consideration
The next stage is to make sure that you have taken stock of this year, 2021, to see what targets you've set and whether or not you managed to do so. And then also to interrogate why. So when I look back, I'm not going to try and repeat everything that's already in that pre-existing video. But when I look back, obviously, there are many things that I'm very proud to have been able to achieve.
So, for example, I didn't hit my income target, but I came very close to hitting in terms of working more in games or audiobooks. That was very successful. I managed to get this home studio built, which has made me have to worry a lot less about the technical side of things. And I've also managed to formalise my coaching offering. I've managed to work with a marketing company specifically on defining what my marketing strategies are. And I've also managed to create another skillshare course, which is very, very good and very well-regarded and completely free if you sign up for a trial, just saying.
But there was also something that I completely dropped, completely failed on. And again, this comes back to not having really interrogated the why enough. So, for example, I had this whole idea that I would create a kind of marketing pack for myself so that I could, I don't know, get more varieties of interviews or appear on podcasts or anything else like that.
Because there wasn't a really clear why behind that, other than I'd heard a few other people do it, that never really kind of came together in any way, shape or form, or more specifically also with working on US general American accents, it's something that I'd set up as wanting to revisit because I'd done a lot of it as a trained actor before previously.
Many people say it's a very, very good idea, but it never became a priority for me because I just didn't encounter that many castings where it was really an issue. And increasingly, as well, with people looking for really authentic accents, I kind of used it as a bit of an excuse because my why wasn't strong enough in the first place to not even begin touching that. So I'm not saying that's not something that I'm going to focus on in the new year, but I need to develop a strong enough why to justify that being on my goals list.
So oriented around those three different areas, you brainstorm everything you think of, anything that pops into your mind that you possibly think of as a goal. Don't try and qualify it in any way, shape or form; just put it down there and attach it to one of those three spheres. And then from that, you need to focus on the why which will be a natural process of elimination before you get into the nitty-gritty of the how.
There's no point in wasting lots of time on the how if the why isn't strong enough. It's like any kind of acting objective exercise; if your want isn't strong enough, then the scene won't be successful because you won't really feel you'll need it. So there won't be that tension of drama. It's exactly identical in terms of your motivation. If these are going to be goals that you're going to be pursuing for an entire 12 months, if the why isn't strong enough, you won't do it.
#3. Documentary Work
So if I look at some of the goals that I'm contemplating in 2022, one example is documentary work. So that's what it is. I want to work more in documentaries and long-form duration and that type of thing. Then why is because I've always had a real interest in that from David Attenborough and his nature narrations, having a particularly huge effect on me, and then more kind of historical narration as well. I've been really interested in it.
And so, therefore, once I've got those two as established, that's a very positive thing, then I can go into the, how could I possibly do that? And that would be by working with a coach that I think is well-respected. So maybe doing some research on that and working with them to get a demo. And then when you have that demo, well, what can you do? Yes, you can put it on pay-to-play sites. Yes, you can give it to your agents. Still, it would then be working in terms of my marketing as well so that I could identify specific leads that I could reach out to directly and then incorporate into my overall kind of direct marketing strategy as a result.
#4. Consolidation of Income
Another what that I'm really contemplating is that I want to consolidate my income. Before I get into how I want to do that, I really need to think about the why. And obviously, it's because more money is always great, right? Maybe? But the why is actually because I want to take some time off from voiceover without massive feelings of guilt. So that's quite a strong activator for me in terms of a life goal, as opposed to a business goal, to take more time off without going; oh my God, my business will plummet as a result. And then that justifies very much more strongly the, how I want to go about that.
So that's making sure that I am actioning all of the marketing work that I explored with Knowlton Marketing when I hired them as a consultant for my business. In terms of inbound work and outbound work, it's about making sure that the workflow of my content creation is as streamlined as possible so that I can be consistent and do batch contenting. It's led to some outsourcing. It's why I've got a virtual assistant for my outreach to help with that. Now, throughout this process, I'm not saying that the why has always to be ridiculously strong. It's good to have some speculative ones in there that you can subsequently kind of quantify.
#5. Whole Dubbing and ADR World
So, for example, with me, one of the goals that I'm contemplating is looking into the whole dubbing and ADR world because it's something that I haven't experienced. I don't know whether I'd love it or hate it because I've never even done a workshop on it or tried it out myself. So I know that I want to go about doing that. What's the why? Because it seems to be such a booming industry at this moment. So do I know whether or not I'd like it? Do I know whether or not it's a genre that would work for me? I'm not going to know that until I explore it in some kind of way.
And so, therefore, we go down to the how, and that's by seeing what workshops are available, seeing if there are any resources that I'm already paying for, from my memberships to the VoiceOver Network or Gravy For The Brain, or other organisations are available and whether or not they have some resources that I can use, whether or not the friends or people that I know who already work in those spheres, that I can potentially talk to to see what the whole process is like.
Once you've gone through this entire process, you should have a bunch of ideas that you've brainstormed out, and then they will have automatically kind of funnelled down quite considerably as soon as you've analysed the why.
#6. Different Colours
I recommend even using a kind of different colours. So maybe all of the ones you've brainstormed are in blue, but when they actually qualify to the next stage, you may put the why in red. And then if they're ones that you actually want to spend considerable time on thinking about the how, then you put them in another colour, like purple for example. And that means that they are definitely going to be priorities for you. And obviously, if they chime with you and you're more excited about them, then that's obviously a very good sign.
In a Nutshell
One of the practical benefits of having those three areas kind of like mapped out is to make sure that there's some form of balance so that you're not focusing purely, always on the performance side and not at all on the marketing side, because yes, it's great that you focus on your skills, especially when you're starting out.
But if you want actually to make it function as a business, you need to spend at least as much time on the marketing side, on getting auditions, on getting those relationships, and on the technical side. I know that the technical side, thanks to having invested in the studio and making it such a priority in 2021, is less of an issue for me.
So it's going to be focusing more on the performance side and much more on the kind of marketing side, marketing to new areas. But again, it's about kind of forming a natural process, not by trying to get it right, right from the get-go, but by literally copying everybody else's ideas first and foremost, having them all out in front of you, and then seeing what speaks to you.
Last Words
I hope this video has been of some use to you. And I wanted to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, regardless of what the COVID restrictions may or may not be by the time that we get there. Thank you so much for your support for the channel, as ever. Please do like, subscribe. Please do tell other people that you think might enjoy this content about this content, as it would mean a great deal.
And thank you, as ever, for your time and support and lovely comments. I will be taking a break for a week just to kind of revise where I want to take this channel next. And I hope that I'll be able to bring you all along with me. Thank you so much, and I look forward to seeing you next year!