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CAREER Are You A Voice-Over Studio-Bound Introvert? 5 Ways To Open The Door ... February 7, 2019  By Dave CourvoisierIt's not your fault.
You
work a lot by yourself, in your booth. Maybe along with that you're
(what they used to call) "shy"- and to top it all off, you spend
WA-A-A-AY too much time second-guessing or doubting your actions. Any one of those behaviors can give rise to an unhealthy aloneness that only detracts from voice-over success. Not that being an introvert is bad. Quite the opposite. We are thoughtful, creative, careful, and deep/imaginative thinkers. Neither
extrovert or introvert is better - just unique in their strengths and
weaknesses. But since I have experience in being an introvert in an extrovert career, here are five ways I've found to open the introvert's door ... 1. Do what you do best as a pro VO: Tell Stories. Think of conversations as a way to emerge from aloneness
AND to hone your craft. Since you're an introvert, practice what you're
going to say compellingly in your mind, then go for it! Soon, you'll
start to look forward to relational associations because of the great
story you have to tell.
2. Start on the phone. This totally works for me. While I (wrongly) think a face-to-face
energy encounter is beyond me, a phone call is sort of a half-way point
that gets me to come out of myself, but doesn't require ALL my energy. Take the positives from a successful phone call with you when you engage
in person. 3. Have/be an accountability partner. This person would know your love/hate relationship with being solitary as much as
you do. Call her/him on it. Or literally call them on the phone to
check on them. Both of you agree on what you can/should do each day or
week, and then hold them to their promise, and they will hold you to
yours.
4. Don't be a proud introvert. Sure, you may TEND toward the shy side, but in/ex-troversion is a
spectrum. You have it in you to be exuberant, fun, outgoing and
gregarious when the moment is right. So find the moment. Find your
sweet spot. 5. Find the passion that brings you out of yourself. Do that. Take acting in the booth, outside the booth. You know all about finding your emotive spot so you can book the job in
that all-important audition, right? That works in the real world, too. If you can bring it to your performance, you can take it to the
streets. OK, maybe sometimes it's a pose. But if it brings you out of
yourself, so what? Honorable mention: Recharge, then go forth! It's been said that the extrovert starts out her/his day empty, and
fills their emotional bank through personal interactions all day. Introverts, on the other hand, begin their day full, and each
encounter drains them a little. So make sure you get the battery
charger going when you need to; i.e. alone time that will let you be
interactive when you have to be. Let's face it, no freelancer is going to be successful crawling into
the booth all day. To find clients, you have to be outgoing,
personable, and assertive. I don't know about you, but I'm not going to
let my introverted nature get in the way of my VO success. Like anything else that breeds success, this takes discipline, too. -------------------- ABOUT DAVE Dave Courvoisier is a full-time voice actor and audiobook narrator based in Las Vegas, where he was formerly an Emmy Award-winning broadcaster, producer and the main weeknight news anchor on KLAS-TV, Channel 8, the CBS affiliate. A former president and a founding member of the World-Voices Organization (WoVO), he also writes Voice-Acting in Vegas, a daily blog of voice over adventures, observations and technology, and is author and publisher of the book, More Than Just A Voice: The Real Secret To VoiceOver Success. Email: CourVO@CourVO.com Web: http://www.courvo.com Blog: https://courvo.com/blog More Than Just A Voice: http://courvo.com/more-than-just-a-voice |
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As a fellow introvert, I found it helps to get an accountability partner who is an extrovert. Sometimes two introverts can rationalize away missing a goal/deadline when an extrovert can offer that extra push or insight.
Many thanks,
Gene