Voice-Over Meet-Up Groups Can Help Your Career
A large aspect of marketing yourself as a voice actor involves networking. Networking not only with potential clients, but also with fellow voice actors. Forming and maintaining relationships with other voice-over artists is important for both your career and for your sanity!
One rough thing about doing voice over full time is that you are always working alone. Alone, and in a tiny, padded cell — I mean, room.
Networking with other voice actors will give you the chance to learn and grow from other professional talents’ expertise, get friendly advice, and get good feedback on your own voice-over technique. If you find a good group to work with, a meet-up group could end up being the most affordable voice over training you’ve ever had!
An example of a voice over group that keeps it both professional and fun is the Orange County VO Peeps Meet-Up, started and run by Anne Ganguzza. This group started out as a small group of classmates that met in a local voice over workshop, but now they meet bi-monthly in a potluck-style setting as friends.
“Our group welcomes all talents, from beginners to advanced professionals in the industry,” says Anne. “We strive to educate, motivate, and inspire — hopefully helping member achieve their career goals and go out and get as many voice over jobs as possible!”
The group consists of 23 members, and they all come from different backgrounds and levels of experience. They each bring a different dish to share, and then they take turns reading copy and getting constructive criticism on their read, as if it were a professional voice over job. They even hosted a special guest, Tim Keenan from Creative Media Recording to come give them feedback on how to read corporate narration copy.
On the agenda for up-coming meet-ups is everything from marketing to writing business plans, bidding on jobs to editing auditions, and working with VO agents to managing finances.
Eila Ulyett, another member of the group, says, “As a newcomer to the group and having attended only one meet-up, I can say that it has already helped me and encouraged me so much. We all work independently in our recording worlds, and it’s wonderful to have a great group of like-minded people who understand the difficulties we face as we build our voiceover careers. Without a doubt, Anne’s enthusiasm and professionalism is a lot of motivation!”
Meet-Up groups are definitely not a good substitute for traditional voice-over technique training though! They are most effective if the members have had some voice-over training and can contribute as much to others as they get from the group.
If you are a voice actor in the Orange County area and would like more information on Anne’s meet-up group, please contact her directly at: info@annespeak.com
Learn how to land more jobs in voice overs starting today! If you’re ready to handle more voice over work, visit us here to find out how to get started with the tools and techniques you’ll need today!