{"id":2,"date":"2008-06-17T01:10:00","date_gmt":"2008-06-17T08:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/danoday.com\/blogWORDPRESS\/2008\/06\/17\/voiceover-guys-the-successful-ones-are-generous\/"},"modified":"2008-06-17T01:10:00","modified_gmt":"2008-06-17T08:10:00","slug":"voiceover-guys-the-successful-ones-are-generous","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/danoday.com\/blog\/2008\/06\/voiceover-guys-the-successful-ones-are-generous\/","title":{"rendered":"Voiceover Guys: The Successful Ones Are Generous"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Last week I got a call from a woman who is thinking of attending this year\u2019s Summit<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll change the name of her market to \u201cSan Diego.\u201d (You wouldn\u2019t be able to identify her even if I named the actual city, but I don\u2019t want to embarrass her.)<\/p>\n

She said, \u201cThere are no well-known female voices in San Diego, so I think there\u2019s a big opportunity for me here.\u201d<\/p>\n

I told her I know a couple of very successful female VO artists in San Diego. In fact, one of them is a Repeat Offender and already has registered for this year\u2019s Summit.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh,\u201d she said. \u201cThen maybe I shouldn\u2019t come.\u201d<\/p>\n

I told her the obvious:<\/p>\n

\u2022 There\u2019s enough work in San Diego for more than one (or two or three) good VO artists.<\/p>\n

\u2022 With the Internet, her competition is not San Diego VO talent but VO talent from around the world.<\/p>\n

Then I tried to explain something that might not be so obvious to someone who hasn\u2019t yet \u201cmade it\u201d in voiceovers:<\/p>\n

She should attend not only to learn from the Big Shot guest speakers but, more importantly, to learn from her fellow attendees.<\/p>\n

Including the female VO people.<\/p>\n

Including the other San Diego female VO attendee.<\/p>\n

Successful voiceover people tend to be exceptionally generous in sharing their knowledge with others \u2014 even when the \u201cothers\u201d are their direct competitors.<\/p>\n

SIDEBAR:<\/span> I\u2019m talking about the ones who have real talent and truly are successful. I\u2019ve heard consistently dreadful stories about one L.A. VO performer who is slightly well-known because she got one high-profile gig \u2014 a straight announcing job that requires no real performance skills.<\/p>\n

But despite the one high-profile gig, she\u2019s not very good. She can\u2019t win auditions. She doesn\u2019t get a lot of work.<\/p>\n

And\u2026.<\/p>\n

When budding voice actors (mistakenly thinking this woman has \u201cmade it\u201d) approach her for advice, she treats them with haughty disdain.<\/p>\n

Okay, back to the truly successful VO people\u2026.<\/p>\n

During one Summit panel session of superstar voice actors, one of them talked about the time he was auditioning for a part that required a particular accent \u2014 which he didn\u2019t know how to do.<\/p>\n

The guy sitting next to him, waiting to audition \u201cagainst\u201d him, said, \u201cOh, it\u2019s easy. Let me show you a quick trick\u2026.\u201d<\/span> And he taught the panelist \u2014 his competitor for that job \u2014 how to do the accent!<\/p>\n

For years I couldn\u2019t understand this phenomenon. The voiceover biz is extremely competitive. Why are so many of its star performers so friendly with people who are trying to land \u201ctheir\u201d jobs?<\/p>\n

I live in L.A., and I can tell you that actors certainly aren\u2019t known for such generosity. (But I can tell you some great stories about actors deliberately screwing up their competitors\u2019 auditions.)<\/p>\n

Finally, a few years ago at another Summit session<\/a>, Steve Morris<\/span> explained it.<\/p>\n

(Among numerous stellar credits, Steve voices many of April Winchell\u2019s brilliant commercials, including the \u201cSnow Summit\u201d and \u201cOrtho\u201d commercials you might have heard me play at one of my seminars.)<\/p>\n

I\u2019m paraphrasing from memory, but Steve said something very much like this:<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like if you go to the 7-11 to buy a lottery ticket, and you see some other guy buying a lottery ticket, too. You don\u2019t turn to him and say, \u2018You bastard!\u2019 For any given audition, the odds are neither of you is going to get it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s what I tried to explain to the woman from San Diego.<\/p>\n

Talent Is Not A Zero Sum Game.<\/span><\/p>\n

When you\u2019re good and you know it, you\u2019re not paranoid about sharing your \u201csecrets\u201d (as if there are any) with others. You\u2019re too busy trying to learn new things that other people already have discovered, so you can continue to improve your craft.<\/p>\n

I learned this a long time ago:<\/p>\n

If you have a dollar and I have a dollar, and we trade dollars\u2026We each end up with one dollar.<\/p>\n

But if you have an idea and I have an idea, and we trade ideas\u2026We each end up with two ideas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last week I got a call from a woman who is thinking of attending this year\u2019s Summit. I\u2019ll change the name of her market to \u201cSan Diego.\u201d (You wouldn\u2019t be able to identify her even if I named the actual city, but I don\u2019t want to embarrass her.) She said, \u201cThere are no well-known female […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized"},"yoast_head":"\nVoiceover Guys: The Successful Ones Are Generous - DAN O\u2019DAY TALKS ABOUT RADIO<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/danoday.com\/blog\/2008\/06\/voiceover-guys-the-successful-ones-are-generous\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Voiceover Guys: The Successful Ones Are Generous - DAN O\u2019DAY TALKS ABOUT RADIO\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Last week I got a call from a woman who is thinking of attending this year\u2019s Summit. 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