VO coaching is always a hot topic in the business. But near the end of this past year folks started talking about ads promoting some sort of VO coaching program that was claiming that you could earn $100K by doing 10 minutes of VO work. (after buying the program of course.) Full disclosure, I did not actually see the ads myself. Nor did I try to track down the “program” to see the details. Because I don’t think that any of that really matters to the overall discussion.

I’ve been thinking about the state of VO coaching for quite a while now. And to me, This is just the latest “coaching program” to make waves and get everyone talking for all the wrong reasons.

• Do I hope that rational people know that it’s probably not all it’s promoted as? Yes.
• Do I understand that there is going to be a chunk of the population that’s going to “hope” its real and cough up their money? Also yes.
• Do I think these situations are hurting the entire industry? Yep.

That sort of pitch seems to imply that you can commodify the hard work and skill required to make a living in VO. (Just follow our simple checklist! and start cashing those massive checks..) It makes the business sound much more lucrative and easy than it actually is. Regardless of the actual content of that specific program, it colors the whole industry in a bad light when these new folks don’t make their first $100k of the day before breakfast.

This is only a symptom.

The VO coaching “industry” overall has some issues that I think need to be addressed. As the business shifts, and rates fall, I’ve been seeing more and more folks “hanging out their shingle” as coaches to keep the money flowing in. And I think that can be a problem. At the same time, I can also see problems with the “established” folks that are offering coaching and marketing services to the new folks in the business. But I’ll dive into that a little later down the page.

Currently there is no group that I’m aware of that is providing standards or ethical codes for folks that “coach” in the world of VO. Anyone can declare themselves a coach and start charging for their time and “expertise”. And that’s a problem. NAVA has created best practices for casting and demo producers. Nothing like that exists for “coaches” in the business that I can see. And while I understand that most coaches do conduct themselves in a professional and ethical manner, there is also VO “snake oil” being shilled under the guise of “coaching”

In VO, Coaching is too generic a term.

Part of the problem is that “coaching” ends up being too vague, so we don’t have a clear frame of reference to work from. I see coaching as falling into the following 3 major “buckets”

1. Performance coaching.
2. Business coaching.
3. Marketing coaching.

Bucket 1:

Performance coaching is the part of the training that we all need to get better at the thing that we do. This coaching is essential and ongoing. But this coaching doesn’t really have anything to do with the money part of the business. It has to do with building the skills that will eventually allow us to make and keep making money. And just to be clear, I feel that every voice actor/talent should have performance coaching under their belt BEFORE they hang out their shingle as a professional. You have to learn to do the work, before you can do the work.

Bucket 2:

Bucket 3

Marketing coaching is the third piece of our pie. This is how you are going to meet the folks that you hope will hire you to do the think that you do. And how you go about this is largely dependent on where you want to work in the industry. Folks that want to specialize in Medical narration and Corporate work need to market very differently than audiobook folks, or people that want to do commercials or documentary work. So that means you need a marketing coach that understands the part of the industry that you want to work in. There is no one size fits all marketing “scheme”. You have to find what works for where you want to work.

The 4th type of coaching.

This one is where it gets tricky. This is where the “one stop” coaches show up. Sadly these are usually the folks that tell you that they can get you to 100K in 10 minutes in your PJ’s. And while I’m not saying that everyone that offers “one stop” coaching is bad. As cliche as the old saying is, there is some truth to it. Jack of all trades, master of none. Are all one stop programs bad? No. Are you getting the best and the most current, cutting edge information about the all those various genres of VO? I’d probably also say No. And that’s only because the one stop folks have to keep up with ALL of the various parts of the business. And the more you do, the less time you have to devote to deep knowledge of any specific area.

The biz is highly competitive these days, and you need more than to be good, or decent, or have a nice voice. You have to be able to compete. And for that you have to be current, and sharp and aware of how and where the business is going. To do all of those things, you need specialized coaching. Not generalized coaching. A major agent that I did a workshop with said they were looking for folks whose talent was “An inch wide and a mile deep”. They wanted the depth of knowledge in the genre that they represent. Not a generalist.

The Experience trap.

So now that we have things better defined, clearly the answer is to only coach with folks that have been in the business for years, right?

Not exactly. I have a few concerns with that too.

• Coach A has been in the business for 20+ years, so they are going to teach you the performance and business systems that they built and used to get them to where they are today.
  • Sadly, the business is different today than it was even 5 years ago. So how relevant are techniques that worked 10, 15 or even 20 years ago going to be for new talent?
  • The business is rightly going to work differently for a talent that does have a track record of work, an established list of repeat clients, and contacts in the industry. (None of which are available to those new folks that are being coached.)
• Coach B has built a business program for X niche in the industry since they have been in that niche almost since the beginning.
  • Unfortunately, That niche has probably changed quite a bit in the intervening years. And while Coach B may still be working in that niche, they have the benefit of contacts built up years ago when the niche was new. New(er) talent doesn’t have the advantage of those contacts.
• Coach C is a marketing coach that worked in the business in an adjacent, but non talent capacity for X years and then moved from that to set up their own full time marketing coaching program.
  • While their past experience in other parts of the business can be relevant to a point, they have never actually done the actual work of VO, so they probably really don’t actually know what works for VO talent today. They just know what “they” wanted to see back when they were working with talent in their adjacent job.

So what about the unicorn coach?

What about the rare coach that is established in the niche that you want to work in. Is working consistently in that area. And is offering coaching on what is current and working for them RIGHT NOW in the business. Well, those folks are usually really busy. Which means they have limited slots available for coaching, and limited space in their schedule to do that coaching. Which allows them to be much more selective in who they coach. (And they can charge more as any time spent coaching is time away from making the big bucks doing the thing that you want them to coach YOU how to do.) So that usually makes those folks a poor choice of coach for brand new people. Their time is too valuable to be coaching the basics. And the new folks may not be able to afford their rates.

How about the studios and groups that offer VO coaching?

This is a mixed bag, and everyone is going to have to do their own research to determine who they want to coach with. There are some amazing groups out there that are absolutely perfect for folks new to the business. And there are also some shady folks out there as well. Sadly most VO groups on the internet will have someone sharing horror stories about lousy coaching, poor demos, and not much progress after spending a good amount of money with XXX. I haven’t worked with all of the studios and groups out there, so I can’t speak from direct experience.

So how do you get good coaching?

• Do your research. Look up the coaches you are interested in working with and see if they have a decent number of current credits in the genre that they are coaching in. Ask around in the various VO social groups out on the internet. Get opinions from folks that have coached with that individual or that studio or have taken whatever program you are interested in. Get honest opinions from people that have direct experience. Third hand information is mostly useless. You want to talk with folks that have done the course/coaching/program. Ask specific questions.
• Generally speaking you should AVOID any group/studio/coach that offers a “package” of a set number of coaching sessions with a demo at the end. That’s usually a HUGE red flag. Everyone needs a different amount and level of coaching before they are demo ready. It’s not a matter of X sessions and you are a pro. Demo ready is different for everyone and a good coach will tell you that up front.
• I think that coaches should be transparent, and I think that potential students should know what percentage of a coaches income actually comes from coaching. If 70% of their income is from coaching, then they are clearly spending most of their time instructing and teaching. Which means less time actually doing the thing that we do.
• If someone is promising opportunities, or specific income levels, or representation after completion of a program. RUN. I have yet to meet a coach that can honestly promise you will make $X a month/year doing VO. And the ethics of someone charging you for coaching and then offering to represent you is just beyond terrible.

So where do we go from here?

Unfortunately I don’t have all the answers. I do think that as talent, we have the right to ask the questions of the folks that are asking us for money though. If you are going to trust someone enough to pay them to help shape your career, then you deserve honest answers. Before you pay them anything. And I think that as a business we need all to talk more about ethics and standards for coaching.

So what do you all think?