The Realities of Working Your Business

VO BOSS

Immerse yourself in the art of building and sustaining your business. In this episode, the BOSSES highlight the critical role of consistent auditioning and active marketing, emphasizing the necessity of maintaining strong connections with industry professionals. Overcome fears and harness your unique personality and energy to make genuine connections. Get inspired by our creative marketing techniques, including SMS and email outreach, and learn how to ensure you're always top of mind with potential collaborators. The path to success requires more than just setting up a business; it demands passion, dedication, and relentless hard work. Join us and discover strategies to elevate your voiceover business and rock your business like a true boss!

00:02 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) Hey Boss, talent Anne Ganguzza here with a quick shout out to those who are a little freaked out about marketing VLBoss Blast is your secret weapon making your marketing manageable. Your voice deserves to be heard. Join us at vlbosscom and start your marketing campaign today.

00:22 - Testimonial (Announcement) I've just finished listening to Creative Brilliance with Improv, nne and Law, and all I can say is yes, ladies, improv is absolutely one of my favorite activities, and the life of the pre-life is real. Remembering that the run-in line, or your lead lead in line, does not only exist at the beginning of your read, but throughout, it's a critical activity. The running conversation that has to happen in your head truly makes a difference. So, ladies, thank you so much. I greatly appreciate it.

01:02 - Intro (Announcement) It's time to take your business to the next level, the boss level. These are the premier business owner strategies and successes being utilized by the industry's top talent today. Rock your business like a boss a VO boss. Now let's welcome your host, anne Ganguza.

01:22 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) Hey, hey everyone. Welcome to the VO Boss Podcast. I'm your host, Anne Ganguzza, and I am here with my boss superpower business buddy, Lau Lapides. Hey, Lau, how are you today?

01:38 - Lau Lapides (Co-host) Annie, fabulous, how are you I?

01:38 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) missed you. I know it's been a while it has been too long Lau, and so I asked how are you? How's it going? I mean, what have you been working on?

01:46 - Lau Lapides (Co-host) Well, let me just say this I haven't had a booking in a while.

01:50 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) Really yes. Well, how often are you auditioning?

01:54 - Lau Lapides (Co-host) I'm auditioning every day for like an hour, maybe even two, and I'm waiting for my agents and I have a few agents to send me things and they haven't.

02:06 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) And I'm really upset. Well, I think maybe it's time for us to sit down and have a talk about getting real and really talking about what does it take to get work in this industry. I don't think. Maybe waiting for your agents and you know this as an agent is necessarily something that you want to be doing. I think let's talk about how we can be proactive as actors, because I hear that a lot. I mean, thank you for that little role play Lau.

02:31 - Lau Lapides (Co-host) I was just about to say. I actually spoke with a coaching client this week who gave me that exact conversation and I wanted to role. Play that with you because it's common.

02:42 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) Now I have so many students that talk to me and say are we ready to make that demo? I mean, why do I need more sessions? I'm like if you could do some more homework I give homework, I'm a homework girl and so they could be practicing scripts like an audition, like auditions, every single day. And yet at the end of a week they might've recorded one or two. And then they're like well, why am I not any closer to my demo? I'm like well, how much work have you put into it?

03:09 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) So yeah, that's an excellent, excellent topic.

03:14 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) What does it take? How much do we have to put into our careers? Yeah, get out what you put in.

03:19 - Lau Lapides (Co-host) Well, listen, you're taking the words right out of my mouth. Like we're sisters, east West Coast sisters. I was just about to say you get out of it what you put into it.

03:32 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) It sounds so cliche, but I'm telling you, I'm saying that more than ever now, and the truth is.

03:35 - Lau Lapides (Co-host) The truth is we're even grinding more these days for less at times, because of the saturation of competition, so you just have to put that into your equation.

03:48 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) And I like that you brought that up, because now we've got evolving moving parts too, right. I mean, 10 years ago, the industry was a particular way. There were so many people in the industry, but I'll tell you what it's more saturated than ever. I'm not here to say that there isn't work, because there's a ton of work out there. However, my goodness, you have to realize that and I say this how many times have I said this? On how many podcasts Lau when we go to school and learn a skill, I mean we practice that skill for hours. We go to school for years, and so I don't understand why people that come into this industry think that they can just immediately go out and book work as if they've been doing it for years.

04:32 - Lau Lapides (Co-host) Well, you know, that's very interesting. You say that, annie, because I'm seeing especially an older set and some have been in it for three, four, five, six years and feel like veterans. Three, four, five, six years and feel like veterans and to some degree they are veterans say, okay, where's my payoff, okay, where's my semi-retirement, so to speak, like it should just be coming in like mailbox money and I don't have to do much, when the truth is, if you look at and I always go back to, like the biggies, the big box stores, they're running advertising, they're running sales, they're thinking up new campaigns. What aren't they doing right? And they've been around for 50, 60, 70 years. Think about that. It's because their competition is shifting, the generations are shifting and they really have to keep up with those tides. They can't sit back and say and they really have to keep up with those tides. They can't sit back and say, oh, but we're Target and we've been around now for 60 years.

05:30 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) Well, you have some competition now, especially online, and so yeah, I'm glad that you brought that up because it affects everyone. It doesn't just affect new people coming into the industry. It affects veterans in the industry as well, because if they're not moving with the times and they're not paying attention and their eyeballs aren't open and they aren't thinking outside the box these days and that includes, maybe working with different coaches on different genres because every little bit, even though you might be a polished actor and you've been doing this for years I mean, I'm a lifelong learner I think you can always get something from more education, and so I really feel as though it's important for actors to continue their education and continue their quest for thinking outside the box. Days, voiceover industry because it is truly the whole digital online thing has really just disrupted disrupted what used to be, and we need to be prepared for that and we need to be able to roll with the changes, roll with the punches, so to speak that's a perfect word you're using.

06:37 - Lau Lapides (Co-host) That's like the new word disruptor be a disruptor. Well, I'm going to disrupt you right now and I'm going to say you do have to work harder. And that's not welcomed by a lot of people who are being brought up in this ideology of work-life balance. Well, I'm telling you, when you're building business and you're grinding in business, there is not the work-life balance that you would like to have. You cannot have your cake and eat it too. You just cannot as much as we try to generationally. And I'm not saying don't take care of yourself or don't be good to yourself and be healthy, but I am saying you will have somewhat of an imbalanced life as you're building business and sustaining and keeping business, because you have to grind, you have to work really hard.

07:22 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) You made a big distinction. I'm going to tag on to that and say that this is your own business and so, yeah, that only needing to put in the work for so many hours per day and not necessarily doing more than that, I don't know if that holds water when you are running your own business, because in reality, it's not like you're depending on someone to give you that paycheck every week or every two weeks. Now you're the one that's going out and doing everything and generating the leads, and so I mean absolutely I'm not saying you can't work nine to five if that's what you choose. However, if you choose that, understand that there's consequences for that, especially when you're first starting out. I mean, in order to get the work, you've got to generate the leads, and a lot of times I mean I think people have to know that they probably have to work harder than they thought to generate those leads.

08:11 - Lau Lapides (Co-host) I think that's really it. Everybody's like well.

08:13 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) I'm not booking. I'm not booking. I have great demos and now I'm not booking and I'm like well, okay, let's just talk about the first thing. I asked you about auditioning. So, auditioning, how often are you auditioning? How many auditions? Now, I know if people aren't paid to plays, they might get penalized if they audition too much. However, there is a multitude of opportunities out there and I'm not saying you should spend eight hours a day auditioning. However, you've got to go out there and search the opportunities. If you're not auditioning, you should be marketing to people who can give you opportunities. Right?

08:42 - Lau Lapides (Co-host) Right. And how many of these folks too, when you really dig a little deep and dive in there, annie, they're not keeping up with their current connections. Oftentimes they haven't flagged them, they're not in their calendar. Maybe they did an audition, a showcase, whatever, a year ago. They haven't been in touch with them. It's this ideology of I'm still waiting for things to come to me rather than proactively going out and getting them. And the building and sustaining of relationships, as you and I know, is really about reminding. It's like think of yourself.

09:18 Top of mind. Hey, I'm here. Yes, think of yourself in terms of advertising. Right, Advertisers have to show you something 10, 15, 20, 25 times in a day, maybe even more right? Well, we do too.

09:29 We have to remind people that we're here, remind them what we do, remind them that we have a relationship together. That's on me, that's on you, that's on the onus of us, right? And you and I are great examples. We've been in our businesses for 15, 16, 17 years. Now you and I are texting each other on a Saturday in the middle of the night, absolutely Now.

09:50 True, we're on different time zones, but we're still obsessively up in the middle of the night thinking, ooh, why don't we do this on Wednesday? And what's next? Exactly so isn't there a part of that like, if we take out the obsessive quality, which I understand, I'm obsessive To your audience, I am, and I admit it but isn't there a part of it that's so fun, that's so much joy, that's like you get a kick out of thinking up new ideas and executing them and going after six people that you haven't talked to in a few months, and I feel like it, authentically, is missing from a lot of people's like persona to do that. They feel like, oh, where's my job and where's my money and where's my credit? Versus where's my process, yeah, yeah.

10:39 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) I love that you brought that up.

10:40 You need to give a reminder to these people.

10:42 I mean, that's the whole, and I know that people are scared about spamming, but, honestly, if you take a look at the trends now in marketing and email marketing, especially on the retail level right, because I joined a lot of mailing lists and I always encourage people to join mailing lists for companies that they want to work for, so that you can understand how they market and then you can learn a lot from other companies marketing really Retail wisewise I get reminders, I get text messages and I'm trying to think outside the box about okay, how can I SMS text my clients, which is now becoming an option for a lot of the new marketing methods out there.

11:21 I mean, I know the Wix backend now enables you to SMS remind people or text them within your sales promotions, and that's kind of a cool thing that people can, of course, opt out of, but I'm doing a lot of my business via text. So for me, my brain is thinking how can I keep connected with my clients right Via text, so that it's not intrusive, but yet says, hey, I'm here, by the way, and kind of spark that top of mind where they're like. Oh yeah, ann would be great for this job.

11:53 - Lau Lapides (Co-host) Yes, yes, yes, I mean anything you can be thinking about, even one new methodology that you bring into your business. It doesn't have to be every single day, it doesn't have to be all day long, it's just one new concept. One new idea can change the whole face of what you do and really how you work. I oftentimes say to folks that we're coaching do you know, if you reach out to one new person or one new company a day, which for you and I is not a whole lot, but for someone else it might be a lot to take on? One, that's five a week in terms of work days, that's 20 in a month, yeah, 20. And then you say, but Lau, I can do three or four in a day. And I say, well, then do it, because then you're going to be 100 prospects richer by the end of the month. Absolutely.

12:42 And why aren't you doing that? And you know what the reason is. I'll tell you one of the firewalls reasoning behind why they're not doing it is, I'm afraid, Laura. Why are you afraid? I'm afraid. I don't know what to say to them. Yeah, yeah.

12:55 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) Well, I say, let's start off by just being human and making sure that you have done your research on them so that you can make a good introduction and that you're not going to be wasting their time by giving them like paragraphs and paragraphs of all about you, you, you. But really it's got to be about how you can help them.

13:15 - Lau Lapides (Co-host) Yes, and one of the things that I can tell you I live my whole life this way that books jobs is your energy and your tone and just like, ironically, how, as an actor, you would read and think about what's my tone for this commercial, this e-learning copy? What's my tone when I reach out to someone, when I talk to someone, and you get hired for your energy and you get fired for your energy or lack thereof.

13:45 And you have to rely sometimes on your personality and say you know that books a lot of jobs if you're likable.

13:54 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) Can I be completely honest and say that your personality, when it comes out in your read right, that's what makes you unique, that's your point of view right, and that's what connects us as humans to each other. And so people always say well, how do I sound, how does my voice sound? Am I cut out for this industry? I'm like no, it's not really about that. It's about being able to bring yourself to the party, and how many times have we heard that said over and over?

14:19 again and I just want to say it differently, so that maybe people like, all of a sudden, I want that light bulb to go off because honestly, it's that innate, like non-touchable thing that when we meet somebody and we say, god, I like her, like when I met you, I was like man, I like that girl, I felt the same way about you going?

14:37 on and thus began this relationship, and so I can tell people when I do consults all the time I've got a few coming up after this but they'll say do I sound like I can make it in this industry? I'm like, but in reality it's all about bringing yourself to that read, that special uniqueness that is you, and if you can develop the skills to allow yourself and the permission to allow yourself to do that, that's what's going to connect with the listener at the other end and that's what's going to make you successful, right? Is that connection with?

15:05 the listener and, of course, all the other stuff should just come by the wayside, right? It's kind of like we're storytellers. Well, how do I tell that story when the script is written in this way? Well, you have to create that story right, Create those opportunities right. And how are you going to lock in those opportunities? By being your human, wonderful, beautiful, awesome self and just connecting.

15:27 - Lau Lapides (Co-host) So wait a second, annie. Are you hitting on something deeper now? Are you really talking, maybe, about the fact that there is a true and honest lack of self-confidence, which may even be deeper than that, a lack of self-esteem and a lack of self-value, because it really does challenge us to say if we're reaching out to someone, there's a reason and we have to share who we are and what we do with that person.

15:54 If you don't know who you are and what you do, then there's a real lack on your end that you have to go and dive deep. You have to go coach, get therapy, go meditate, whatever you need to do to find that the end user, that audience, they do whatever you need to do to find that the end user, that audience, they do not care, they're not there for that. They're not there to build you up, they're not there to give you confidence, they're not there.

16:15 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) They're there for you to help them and they're not there seeking you out necessarily, right? So, again, the work that needs to be done for success in this industry, especially today, you have to work your butt off. I'm just saying, even for us, that we've been in this business for how many years, we know how hard we have to work, and now we're working even harder, right?

16:36 - Lau Lapides (Co-host) But, annie why is that a bad thing? Why is that being given a bad name? Why is that something that is sort of shoved under the rug, like, oh, we don't want to do that. We want to work less hours in the week, we want to take more vacations, and I'm thinking, well, it's all well and good, but don't you want to build a business? Sure, and to build a business from the ground up and sustain it, especially during hard times, economic times, whatever. During war, you got to work really hard. That's the old school work ethic you and I have.

17:07 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) Well, yes, and I'm going to say that, okay, do you have to work that hard 24-7? Well, I mean, I do just because it's an ethic, but honestly, like and we're totally obsessed.

17:17 Yeah but besides that, but in reality look, you can be super talented, you can get a great campaign right, but every person that I know that has really made it in this industry that has been uber successful. You can never count on that client being there tomorrow. And so, even though you might have a great gig and a great contract and it's been ongoing and you're making good money, I don't think any of these professionals out here have ever stopped looking or cultivating or continually growing. That's what makes them successful. So you can't just necessarily just say, well, I've got my client, I did great this year and so therefore I can kind of rest a little bit and maybe not have to work so hard. I mean, once in a while, of course, you need to take your time off, but in reality you're constantly looking for that next client, constantly, and that doesn't just happen in an hour a day.

18:12 Now, for those people that are working right now and you know again, I always tell people don't give up your day job. Yet, you know, until you find out that this is something you're truly passionate about and that you truly want to pursue, because the time required to generate those leads, the time required to audition, the time required to do all the things that is necessary to build and grow your business, not just exist and have a business. Okay, I set up my business. I have my demos, here I am. That's not enough. That is this tiny little tip of the iceberg, do you know what?

18:43 - Lau Lapides (Co-host) that reminds me of, annie, when we had brick and mortars pre-COVID and we did most of our work pre-COVID in brick and mortar, that was like, okay, I set up my shop, I set up my physical location, I had my coffee maker there, we had our computers there, we had okay, we paid the heat, we had toilet paper. It sounds ridiculous, but you have to think of all of that. Yeah, yeah, you have a brick and mortar, all right. How come I'm not successful? Yeah, mm-hmm. Oh, because I haven't started the work. Yeah, I haven't started. The work was just preliminary. Yeah, the, the house, there's a ton preliminary. But to actually build a house, that's a whole other set of things, right? So if you're doing your due diligence by training and getting your demos and setting up your booth, you get big applause from me, you get big kudos from me because you beat out half the competition already. Yeah, absolutely. But don't think that that's the work. That's not the work of owning a business, that's just the brick and mortar, if you will.

19:40 Yeah, absolutely the setup of the business, and the setup is always changing and upgrading too. Yeah, now you've got to work the business.

19:48 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) Now you've got to work it. You've got the business.

19:50 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) Now you've got to work the business.

19:52 - Lau Lapides (Co-host) And you and I are workers Like we're worker bees, we like working, we like the validation I mean. Look, my mother in real life is 85 years old.

20:01 - Intro (Announcement) Guys, don't tell her that I told you that she's amazing.

20:06 - Lau Lapides (Co-host) She's a licensed family therapist and she works still full-time, 85 years old. She says I will never not work. It's my identity. I want to be helping people, I want to be giving to the world, I want to be making money, I want to be this and that there's this sense of like kicking back and going what's coming to me? I'm 85, now what's coming? No, no. Taking on new clients and seeing how she can help them solve their problems, which are more complicated these days by the way, right, that was a key thing that you said was that she wants to help people.

20:40 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) So it's not that she doesn't deserve a rest or she doesn't deserve to kick back at this point in her life, but it brings her joy. She doesn't want to. Yeah, exactly, and a lot of people feel that way.

20:51 - Lau Lapides (Co-host) Yeah, a lot of people want to be in the world. They want to be a part of the world that spoke in the wheel, so to speak, but be a part of a large community, which we are, a very large global community but really be doing our own unique part of that, our own unique feel to that. And you and I I mean I take on pro bono projects, I take on projects that I'm giving back. Why? Because I want to. It fills my soul, it fills my spirit. I love working with maybe younger people coming up in the industry or people who don't have a budget that really need help. I like that. Listen, if huge civil rights attorneys can do that, I can do that too. Yeah, absolutely.

21:34 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) Right.

21:34 - Lau Lapides (Co-host) I'm not saying to work for free. I'm just saying the point is what's your process? Why are you doing it? You know, take a step back and say if I want to have it easy and I don't want to work too hard, then ask yourself a more important question why am I doing this?

21:49 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) Then get a job and work for someone else.

21:52 - Lau Lapides (Co-host) Yeah, get a paycheck every week, right.

21:55 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) Don't expect to come into voiceover land and have that same kind of mindset where that's going to work.

22:02 - Lau Lapides (Co-host) Yeah, go be a middle manager at Chipotle and you're all set, you got the good food, you got the salary, you got the benefits. It's a whole different mindset about things, very much so you know I mean my dad, who is an entrepreneur. He always said to me you know, there are two people in the world, one is the employee and the employee mindset, and one is the employer.

22:27 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) Yeah, yeah, and they're two different mindsets. Absolutely, absolutely. We are an employer mindset. Yes, we have to be an employer mindset. So, look, this doesn't mean right for the bosses out there. Well, how much time right? Well, I mean, for us I work a 16-hour day, but am I in the booth for 16 hours? No, I am not.

22:44 I am marketing, I am creating content for marketing, I am reaching out to clients and, of course, I'm doing stuff in my studio as well. I'm auditioning. I'm auditioning for my agents, I'm auditioning for rosters. I mean hours, and so I know how hard it is and I will speak to working a full-time job and then just seeing if voiceover is. For me, that's the hard part about doing it part-time. I almost thought that doing voiceover part-time was harder than doing it full-time. I mean, the risk is greater when you quit your job and go full-time into voiceover, especially financially, if you don't have that cushion and I don't recommend that you do that if you don't have a financial cushion, do not quit your day job, but if you're working full-time and you're doing voiceover, you've got to work so hard.

23:28 Oh my gosh, so hard You've got your nine to five or whatever that might be during the day, and then every spare moment of the day has to be working on voiceover. And that's the hardest, especially when you're starting because you're practicing, you're getting better at acting. Hopefully you're coaching with somebody, you're working towards a demo or you've gotten a demo. So now, if you've gotten your demos, then when you get home from your day job, you've got to be marketing right and you've got to find your leads. You've got to create content. You've got to create content. You've got so many things to do in those hours and you've got a family to take care of, so it is excruciatingly tiring when you are doing this with a full-time job. I get that, guys. But again, if this is something that you want to pursue and this is the life that you are looking for, that's just what you've got to do to make it work. I mean to be quite honest. I mean otherwise.

24:19 I have so many people that kind of half-heartedly put their time in Well, they'll do the coaching, they'll get the demo and they're working full time. But then they're like well, but I haven't gotten a job yet and I'm out of pay to play. I haven't gotten a job yet. Well, you've got to audition your tush off. You've got to market your tush off at this point, and that means hours a day. That doesn't necessarily mean like five minutes a day, but if you can do something every day, I would say do something voiceover related every single day. That, to me, is something that says you are dedicated to making this work, to making this be successful. And it's tougher than ever these days. You know you're fighting a lot of people in the industry.

25:00 - Lau Lapides (Co-host) You're fighting. And I would say too, as you said earlier, annie, do the homework, do the research, don't come in cold. Talk to people, see what they do in the career. We used to call those internships or apprenticeships. Well, you kind of have to do your own.

25:14 You don't want to try to make a living on a scaffold 50 flights up. If you're scared of heights, yeah Right. You have to know what the occupational hazards are. You have to understand what the hours put in, what the dangers are, what financial issues you could run into. You really have to be smart up front. Rather than saying, well, why aren't I making money? That to me is a very sort of novice-y green question. To ask if you've done some of the homework and talk to working professionals who have been very successful. They will all tell you. Even the most successful people who are making livings doing animation or they're a series regular on a TV show. They'll say, listen, I know when I book something I better save that money, I better invest that money, I better do whatever, because I may not work for a year.

26:02 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) Yeah, I may not get another decent booking for a year, and I have to know that I have to like plan for that.

26:08 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) So, bosses, go out there and get the work. Go out there and do it, spend the time, put in the hours, and I think you're going to see results. I mean, it's as simple as that Put in the work, you're going to see results. It's probably a lot more than you think, yep. The more you put in, the more you'll get out. Absolutely there, it is All right. There, it is Great. Big shout out. Find out more at IPDTLcom. You guys, bosses, have an amazing week and go out there and get it. Go out there and get it. We love you. All right, bye, bye.

26:46 - Intro (Announcement) Join us next week for another edition of VO Boss with your host, Anne Ganguza, and take your business to the next level. Sign up for our mailing list at VOobosscom and receive exclusive content, industry revolutionizing tips and strategies and new ways to rock your business like a boss. Redistribution, with permission. Coast-to-coast connectivity via IPDTL.

27:16 - Anne Ganguzza (Host) Five, six, 7, 8. I'm trying to go faster. I'm trying to go 5, 6, 7, 8. I know I think it's waiting for me. That's probably what it is. I am waiting for you. There's a delay, guys. There's a delay, alright, wait.