A while back, one of my accountability coachees needed to add more voice samples to their Voice123 profile.
Instead of having them search for certain keywords, I gave them this assignment instead:
Go back to the beginning of your auditions on Voice123 and just start listening to them, going from oldest to newest.
Why would I torture someone this way?
Twwuuuu….Wuuuuuvvvv
Well, because in addition to needing the samples, this person was also dealing with some major impostor syndrome.
Despite seeming skeptical, my coachee agreed to try it.
The following week, after doing the exercise, they said that they were amazed that going through the samples that way, they could FINALLY hear how much progress they’d made over time.
The exercise that could have helped me skip YEARS of sucking
I already mentioned this in my blog a few weeks ago, but I think it’s worth mentioning this again. Soon after that incident with my coachee, I got this brilliant idea that I would do something similar:
I would revisit my first samples on V123 from 7 years ago and:
Choose one
Find the script
Do a cold read of it now
THEN listen to my old version to compare
Then do another (third) version where I direct myself much like I would do in a coaching session (thanks to my coach, Hugh Klitzke, for this stroke of genius recommendation…it’s made all the difference)
What I heard, I couldn’t believe…
I sucked!
GASP!
I’m not joking or exaggerating, and I’m not begging for praise. I really wasn’t very good. I just couldn’t hear it at the time.
It’s kind of shocking to me now:
How often I sounded like I was just reading, instead of really being a person.
How I was pitching my voice up from my natural speaking voice.
How absolutely horrendous my audio is.
How unconfident I sound.
How breathy I was. 😵
Back then, I thought I was pretty good. Not brilliant, mind you. I knew I had plenty to learn, but I thought I was pretty good.
Even in year 4 or 5 of doing voiceover, I would be in workouts and wonder why I was getting critiqued when others were getting praise. “I’m doing the same thing they are!” I would think to myself, “Why am I getting picked on??”
I used to get really down on myself for not being further along. I’d get SUPER frustrated because I couldn’t hear the difference between what I was doing and what they (those who’d been in it longer, who got praise in workouts) were doing.
Actual footage of me in a voiceover workout circa 2017
If I could go back and talk to myself in the first 5 years of my voiceover career, here’s what I would say:
Feel like you suck at voiceover?
It doesn’t matter. Seriously. Just keep going. And just keep doing what you’re doing.
Why doesn’t it matter?
Because with work, you can get better
Because beating yourself up doesn’t help you get better faster
Because learning the skill of distinguishing good from bad just takes time
Because not being very good might not stop you from working (and if it does, then keep working at it)
You are at the skill level you are at, and that isn’t going to change overnight.
Focusing on the feeling of being terrible isn’t going to help you, it’s just going to discourage you.
In the meantime, if you hold back from taking chances because others tell you you’re not ready, you’re going to miss out on opportunities. The market will tell you if you’re not ready. If you don’t book paid work, if no agents pick you up, keep training.
Even if you do, keep training.
Despite not being very good in the first few years of my voiceover career, I had an agent, and I booked work. And not just a little! I made $26K in my second year of voiceover, mostly through agent work. (It was a different world, pre-pandemic) If I had listened to the people who said that I should have waited and done more coaching BEFORE seeking work, I would have missed out on a lot of opportunity.
Do both. Keep training—and keep trying to book work.
How to stop sucking faster
Uhhh…maybe I should have phrased that differently. 😂💀
Moving on ➝ ➝ ➝
Party on, Wayne…
Here’s the thing: There isn’t a shortcut to hearing your flaws.
Deliberate practice (meaning the type of practice where you deliberately look for your errors or flaws and try to correct them) and experience *over time* is the only way to learn. (Click here for a guide to deliberate practice)
If you want to get better, faster, the best way is to develop your ear for it:
Learn to differentiate good reads from bad.
In a blind taste test, a master sommelier can often tell you not only the type of grape and where it was grown, but sometimes can even pinpoint the vintage or a particular winemaker by their style. This sounds almost supernatural to those of us whose wine knowledge stops at “well, it’s red,” but these are skills that take years of study to gain.
Even average musicians can tell you what time signature and key a piece of music is in, while I’m over here just going “Wow, this is really a bop, huh?”
Tastes like wine!
Whatever it is that you need to learn to distinguish to be good at your job, work on that thing.
Revisit your own work frequently, and try to improve what you’ve already done. NOT like doing the same audition every day—that wouldn’t be helpful. It’s best to try different scripts, different styles and genres, and become well-rounded.)
Personally, I’m not a fan of listening to my coaching sessions again, but that IS a way to get more bang for your buck when your funds are limited. For me, there’s typically just too much fluff in re-listening. I want to get right to the part where I hear my reads.
Why I recommend revisiting your old auditions
When we are in the throes of sending out auditions, we are typically just trying to get them out before the deadline. Even if we listen critically, we aren’t listening with fresh ears, typically.
It’s the equivalent of trying to edit your own writing. You are blind to your own mistakes much of the time, especially if they are recent.
Taking time away from your work, and then revisiting it in the future—whether days, weeks, months, or even years later—can give you the distance you need to hear things differently.
I’m only on week 3 of this project, and I plan to keep it up for a while, because I’m learning a LOT from doing it.
Try it, and let me know how it goes!