S4 E1 | Gina Scarpa
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Stephanie talks to Gina Scarpa, a voice actor, coach and director. Gina works consistently in genres like commercials, video games, corporate, and more and is passionate about marketing and SEO as ways to grow and sustain her business.
Links:
Marc Scott - VO Marketing - https://www.vopreneur.com/
Maria Pendolino's MITTM Episode: https://www.stephaniepamroberts.com/podcast-episodes/maria-pendolino
Carin Gilfry's MITTM Episode: https://www.stephaniepamroberts.com/podcast-episodes/carin-gilfry
https://www.linkedin.com/in/ginascarpa/
https://twitter.com/ginascarpa
Making It To The Mic Website: www.makingittothemic.com
Instagram: @stephaniepamrobertsvo
Email: stephanie@stephaniepamroberts.com
Full transcript:
Stephanie Roberts 0:08
Hello and welcome to the first official episode of Season Four of Making it to the Micm a podcast about how different voice actors got to where they are today. I'm your host, Stephanie, Pam Roberts, and I'm so excited to welcome my first guest, Gina Scarpa. Gina is a voice actor, voice over coach and SEO and direct marketing expert. She is incredibly driven and passionate about this industry. So let's kick off the season with my conversation with Gina Scarpa.
Stephanie Roberts 0:34
Hi, Gina. How are you today?
Gina Scarpa 0:40
I'm great. How are you?
Stephanie Roberts 0:41
I'm good.Thank you so much for being a guest on season four.
Gina Scarpa 0:45
Oh my gosh. Thank you so much for asking me. I'm excited. Yay.
Stephanie Roberts 0:49
So I love to start each episode, and you know, we'll continue this season as well, to ask you how you started. Tell us about your journey. How did you make it to the mic, and what did you do before voice over?
Gina Scarpa 1:01
Yea so, I grew up as a theater kid, and was performing most of my childhood in teen years, but as I got older, I developed more and more stage fright and anxiety about being on stage. So feel like I spent more time avoiding performing than actually performing. But straight out of high school, I got an internship at a radio station in Connecticut and spent almost 10 years on air in Connecticut and New York. After that, I did entertainment reporting and podcast hosting. I was the editor in chief of two television websites and hosted a really fun podcast, interviewing people from every reality show as they got kicked off or were a special guest judge, or things like that. That was super fun. I had a great time. And I got to go to a lot of events, like fashion week in New York for Project Runway and backstage at the American Idol tour, and go to the Real World House. And it was very, very fun.
Gina Scarpa 1:54
But while I was doing that, I kind of missed doing radio, but didn't really want to go back to radio. The pay was rough. Things were being syndicated, super hard for women to have jobs in radio, like, for every station there was maybe one female. So someone suggested doing voiceover on Fiverr, it was like 2014 I didn't know anything about it, because in radio, we just called it production. And so I got like, a USB mic and started doing jobs on there and started making really good part time income, and I was honestly just chugging along, doing that and teaching kids performance here in Connecticut, until the pandemic, when, of course, everything shut down. And my sister, who's an equity actor in the city, she took a class online that was free very early in the pandemic with Diakem Lyles, who's a great casting director and coach in New York, and he was talking about voice over, and she texted me and said, "you know, I think you should try to really make a go at this."
Gina Scarpa 2:52
So I upgraded my equipment, I started taking classes. I joined voices.com started booking pretty quickly, which I feel very fortunate about. Had an agent in New York and LA by the end of that year, and booked my first national commercial, and that was it. And here and here we are!
Stephanie Roberts 3:10
Amazing. I love that. Thanks, sis!
Gina Scarpa 3:13
Right? She was, she was on top of it. She my family's always been super supportive of anything and everything that I want to do, and I really appreciate that, because my parents have been married for almost 50 years. They directed together up until their retirement in 2019 we had a family business, and when they retired, I didn't wanna take over for a multitude of reasons, and I felt like I was letting the family down in a lot of ways, like, Okay, this is their legacy, and I don't wanna take over here and my family, every one of them was so awesome about it, had my back 100% and if you've ever been to any of my workshops, they all come, including my parents.
Stephanie Roberts 3:51
I love that. So what was the year that you went full time in voiceover. Like consider your first full time year.
Gina Scarpa 3:58
So I did basically go full time in 2020 but 2021 was my first real full year in voiceover, full time working at, you know, a high level with agents and bigger brands and things like that. And then that second year, 2022 is the first year that I crossed six figures and coming from theater and nonprofit theater at that or radio, I am known for struggling financially. Like to do what I love and raising my son. I had my son when I was young. I worked multiple jobs and was very involved in his life, you know, in the things he wanted to do, sports or whatever. So voiceover brought me more amazing things than I could have ever imagined, not just financially, but community and fantastic projects and so many great things. So yeah, but 2021, was my first real full time year in the industry. Yeah.
Stephanie Roberts 5:00
That's amazing. I feel like so many people, it takes quite a while to get to that six figure mark. So it's amazing that you sort of like right out of the gate. What do you think was contributing to how fast you got there?
Gina Scarpa 5:13
I think part of it is I'm just a natural born hustler, like I was joking with one of my agents the other day, and I was saying, I love when the holidays come around and everyone starts booking out for two weeks. And I'm like, okay, great. Like, I will be here working. I just... I know I should probably have a better work life balance. But I just am, you know, obsessed with voice over. I love it so much, and I hustle my little butt off so I diversify the way that I get my opportunities. I feel like that's incredibly important.
Gina Scarpa 5:46
And I think for people building their business in a post pandemic world, I think there's a difference between people who built their business before the pandemic and people who are building it now.
Stephanie Roberts 5:57
100% !
Gina Scarpa 5:57
Thank you for validating how I feel, because I feel like a lot of opinions that are given, sometimes while valid and valuable, come from a place of building their career 10,15, or more years ago. And so for me, diversifying how I get my opportunities was really important, not being afraid to submit to rosters and get rejected. I've been rejected six times or more from rosters from agencies that eventually ended up taking me and just trying to creatively problem solve my way out of slow times and dead times. So I think those are like the main contributing factors. I definitely feel, you know, lucky in a lot of ways that I kind of ascended, I guess, as fast as I did. But you know, I think the background in theater, radio, podcasting, all of that really helped me as well.
Stephanie Roberts 6:42
Yeah, absolutely. And I'm wondering, like, how did you feel when you know you, like, closed out that first year making six figures? Were you like, holy crap!
Gina Scarpa 6:51
I couldn't believe it. Yeah, I mean 2021, was also great, because that was the year that I made more than I had ever made at any other previous job. So I came from being the education director of a nonprofit theater. I've worked in corporate offices in pretty high level jobs too. I ran a quality control department for a call center, and made a really great salary with bonuses and and I made, I think, a pretty decent living doing theater as well. But 2021, was the first year I surpassed that. And I was like, whoa. And then 2022 was pretty unbelievable. I felt really, really lucky. And the thing is, I didn't book anything that year that was, like, so massive. It was just a lot of bookings. It was like, 300 bookings that year. And the average booking was you know, much higher than what I had done in the past. But there was, like, no huge thing that I feel like pushed me over the edge, which was also kind of validating and exciting. And then every year since, you know, 2023 made six figures this year, I feel, you know, pretty confidently, that I will do the same. So very exciting and also stressful, because it's like this new bar that I feel like I need to stay on top of every year, and so there's pressure for sure, too.
Stephanie Roberts 8:09
That's funny - That was my next question is, do you feel like each year that you've cracked that six figure mark, do you feel like you've gotten one big job that you know, pushes you over the edge, or it's been a lot of little jobs? So that's really interesting, because I feel like a lot of people that make it to that category, they book their one big SAG job or one big non union job that, you know, kind of does it, yeah, or that at least sets the groundwork. You're like, Great, I'm already at whatever $20,000 in January. I'm good to go, you know, or whatever the the numbers might be. But that's really cool, that you were able to build that career, you know, so steadily. I feel like that's a really, really cool thing for people to hear that it doesn't necessarily mean, like you have to book this one big sag job and, you know, that's the only way to do it. It's cool to hear that you've got a bunch of little things that still got you to that place.
Gina Scarpa 8:56
Yeah. I mean, when I'm coaching people or speaking and, you know, workshops, things like that, I tell people it's totally possible to make six figures without that big money job. It's possible to do it without agents. Not that you know, but I mean that in the sense that for people who don't have agents struggle to have agents and see them as being their meal ticket. That's not really, I don't think the way, because what I've seen from agents, I think, in this day and age, I think during the pandemic, it was like, it was like, if you've got a half decent mic and source connect, like you're on the roster and right, things opened back up and kind of went back to like, quote, unquote normal. It sort of started to become more about, I think, what it was prior, which is a partnership like, you're already established and doing well, and now they're here to bring you to a new level.
Gina Scarpa 9:43
I mean, last year, I only had one job through an agent that paid more than $10,000 so I mean, $10,000 is a lot of money, but I mean, there was only one the entire year out of hundreds. So, you know, I mean, I get what you're saying, and I feel like it is. Totally possible to do it without the big jobs. You know, even if you're not booking a lot with your agent, even if you don't have an agent yet, it is possible to do it's hard. I'm not gonna act like it's easy, but it is possible, and I hope that's encouraging to people too, because yes, I did have agents The first year I hit six figures, but I was not booking with them nearly the way that I am now.
Stephanie Roberts 10:19
Yeah, I love that, and I love that perspective too, that there's still something in your control. I also came from a theater background, and I feel like in musical theater, and I've spoken about this before, that it felt so out of my control, like I don't play the piano. I cannot, you know, stage a full musical, buy all the costumes and everything, but voice over, felt so like, it was in my control. And I love that it could be in your control to earn six figures without an agent, without these extra, you know, like levels that you can grow to. So that's, that's really awesome!
Gina Scarpa 10:53
And I also just want to say that my two biggest jobs this year were booked by this girl right here. My two biggest paying jobs didn't, so far, have not come from my agents this year, though, I have booked very consistently with them, and I'm very grateful for them. But the two biggest commercials came from things that I booked, you know, myself, and you know that gives me a lot of validation too. One of my, you know, big, I guess, principles or things that I think about are, if anybody that I get my opportunities from pulls the rug out from under me tomorrow, it will not destroy my business. No one can destroy my that's how I feel. Nobody has the power to single handedly destroy my business. So I truly am thankful for all of my agents and managers. They are wonderful partners to me, but if they kicked me off the roster tomorrow, I will get by and I will still make six figures. Like to me, it's not even a thought in my head, and I feel like that's an important thing to think about too. Because I think when you have those agents, or even when you're on the pay to plays, or you're on a roster that's doing a lot of work with you, you should never feel like, wow, they have the power to take me down. And it goes back to what you were saying about that control over your business. That's literally what I love the most about doing voiceover, yeah, is I'm in control, and I'm in the driver's seat. And so again, it goes back to also diversifying. Where you get your opportunities from, too. And
Stephanie Roberts 12:05
Do you feel like there's one genre, you know, when you look back at your accounting, you can see like, Ooh, you know, commercials is where my chunk of this income comes from to kind of get you over that edge.
Gina Scarpa 12:17
I'm so glad you asked. I actually have a spreadsheet that tracks everything.
Stephanie Roberts 12:21
We love a spreadsheet !
Gina Scarpa 12:23
All the different ways that I get my opportunities and where, you know, I'm I'm booking the most. So you know, where am I getting my opportunities from? What genres are doing the most work for me? And last year, 65% of my income was commercial. And I did book. I'd say another 18% was corporate narration, not of the number of jobs I booked, but money wise, 80% of my income is commercials and corporate narration. I do a lot of video games. I do elearning, I do promo, I do a lot of different things, but I look and say, okay, commercial is my big time money maker. So when I'm prioritizing what auditions I'm gonna do. I often, you know, especially when I'm on the casting sites, it's like commercial, because that's what I tend to book the most of I do book quite I've done about 25 video games too.
Gina Scarpa 13:08
But, you know, video games you're getting, like your usually your hourly session rate, and that's it, right? You know, when you factor in that usage from commercial, it's really nice, and I have a lot of really great commercials running right now. So Cinnabon recently renewed, and I'm the voice of Hungry Root and Orangetheory Fitness and some others as well. So you know, that's been really nice to do so well in commercial, especially since in the beginning, one of my biggest pieces of feedback in 2020 was that I was kind of announcery, and I didn't show my true personality a lot. So I would get a lot of comparisons to Siri and Alexa. And I remember telling my friend this, who's outside, who doesn't work in voiceover, and she was like, Oh, my God, that's so cool. I was like, That's literally the worst thing you can say to me. All voice actors listening are like, no, it's like, dreaded. It's terrible. And so I spent a lot of time in 2020 really honing my conversational style and skill, and now it's something I teach and coach a lot on, and I feel like that's been a real game changer for me.
Stephanie Roberts 14:08
It's so interesting, because I feel like, for myself too, that those two genres are kind of my biggest as well, because you're right, like, the video game stuff is amazing and fun, and it's those, like, one off sessions, here and there, and then that's it. That's all you're getting from that work. Or same thing with, like animation, or like a you know, app, or something like that. It's just, here's your money for your sessions, and that's where it ends. And so it takes a lot of time to do those projects, and it's not a lot of payoff. Whereas a commercial like you could have a 30 minute commercial session and make whatever, $4,000.
Gina Scarpa 14:46
Exactly. And I mean, anyone who knows me knows I love video games. I'm super passionate about it. Whenever I'm not in the booth, that's what I'm doing. I don't care how old I am, I will play until the day I die.
Stephanie Roberts 14:56
I'm the exact opposite. I don't voice video games. I don't play them. I don't know about them!
Gina Scarpa 15:00
I love them. I love them. They're like, so therapeutic for me. And you know, it's like I need to do these other things in order to be able to live the life that I want and have the career that I want. And then the bonus is that, like, to me, the icing on top is that I get to do video games. But Maria Pendolino did such, and by the way, I just want to while I'm saying her name in 2020 Maria mentored me, and it really changed my life in so many ways. I worked for her for most of that year. I learned so much about how she runs her business. She's a bad ass. She takes no prisoners, and she kicked my butt up and down voiceover to turn me into the person you know, or the business woman that I am, because I had a really hard time setting boundaries, getting the value that I felt I deserved, but I couldn't articulate it.
Gina Scarpa 15:48
And so I learned so much from Maria, and I'm very, very, very grateful for our friendship and for, you know, the way she kind of took me under her wing in a very difficult time. But Maria did a class with NAVA that was like building your, you know, building your business on the non broadcast genres. And it's like, everybody wants to do commercial because it's like, Hey, I'm on TV or video games or animation, but like, for a lot of voice actors, that corporate narration, e learning, medical narration, is where you're going to build a lot of the structure and foundation of your business. And I thought it was such a great class, and something that I point to a lot when I'm coaching people as well, because everyone comes to me like, I want to be an anime I'm like, that's great, but, you know, we also want to pay bills, right? So, you know, you're probably gonna, you know, I mean, you can do anime and dubbing, that's great, or you can do video games, but I think you probably also want to hone those e learning skills too.
Stephanie Roberts 16:39
Yeah, and I also feel like that's where you get the hugest potential, the biggest potential for repeat clients. So can you talk about that in your business? Like, how you maintain those relationships? Like how much you think that that really helps to contribute to kind of, like, the basis of your income each year, knowing, like, Okay, well, if nothing else, I've got this group of people that comes back to me again and again.
Gina Scarpa 17:03
Yeah, I mean, I have really great clients that I have really nice relationships with, and they do come back quite a bit from, you know, with corporate narration, e learning, medical narration, scientific narration, and things like that. And so, you know, I'm really big on building that personal relationship with them. So in sessions, I'm obviously professional and punctual and prepared. Oh, my God, the three Ps - professional, punctual and prepared. But I am not afraid to let my personality out and try to connect with them in different ways. So there's one producer that I work with who is a big gamer, and like every time we're on, we start by talking about, I don't know, Call of Duty, Fortnite, or whatever the heck is going on. And that's really fun. I check in with them, you know, a couple times a year, let them know what's going on with me, try to see what's going on with them. And yeah, that's been definitely a very large factor in the hitting six figures and maintaining it, is those repeat clients. So, you know, again, just making sure to check back in with them, because I feel like when you're busy and when you're busy and when you're doing well, it's easy to forget to check in with these people and just say hello, because tomorrow it could be dry and barren, and you will be glad that you fostered those relationships and kept kind of watering that plant.
Stephanie Roberts 18:16
Oh, I love that analogy too, watering a plant, because it does feel like that. It's like, I've had some people that I met on voice, 123, actually, that are still clients today. And it's like, I think there's, you know, part of it is just that kind of cultivation, like, Hey, how's it going? Or I'm going on vacation, or whatever you want to do to check in, you know, a Christmas or holiday card at the end of the year, to really make sure that you stay top of mind.
Speaker 1 18:39
Yea I think that's so important, because this industry is just a bit oversaturated. There's just a few of us running around auditioning, and so, you know, I mean, there's 100 people, you know, or more auditioning, and it's easy to latch on to a new voice, a new personality. So, you know, it's hard. I feel like we're all on The Bachelor, like we're all just trying to get our Rose, and we're like, don't forget about me, please, because you had your one on one, you know. So I think that's really important to continue to foster those relationships. And I try not to look at any any relationship, and I mean in anything, but in voiceover as, like, transactional of like, what can you do for me? And I feel like a lot a lot of people sometimes do when they're reaching out on LinkedIn, when they're doing follow ups, when they're even talking to their clients, like, hey, just want to see if you were casting anything lately. Like, yeah, no, because you need money. And so I think it's like more that, you know, really, again, that personal connection. I am one of my favorite producers that I work with. We just, like, send each other recipes on Instagram. And I love that, you know, like, we'll just chat from time to time. And so that's really nice too. Like, I really like the relation. I genuinely like the relationship building side of I'm not saying I'm like, best friends with everybody, but I just mean, like, you know, when the only reason you're reaching out is to be like, hey, got any work? You know, it's just, like, probably doesn't go that well. And again, it's just, there's so many people in this industry that actually having a person. Reality and showing that to people is what's memorable. It's probably not just you know your audition. It's more than that.
Stephanie Roberts 20:07
And I wonder too, what do you do... I feel like this is a question that I struggle with. What do you do to maintain those relationships with with clients that you get through your agent? Is there anything that you've kind of figured out? Because I feel like, you know, you book that job through your agent, and you're like, yes, and you get on the call and you, you know, it goes great. The sessions amazing, and the engineer is awesome, and, you know, the client is fun, and you have a great time. And then you're like, well, now what?
Gina Scarpa 20:32
You know all of that is running through your agent, and they, they're the ones who brought you that work. And so it's like, I'm always respectful of that line. I mean, you know, I will tag them in a social media post, you know, thanking them. And so it's kind of a nice way to be connected in that way. For me, that's pretty much it, you know, I just kind of run it back through the agent every time, and that's hard, because you want to have that relationship, but, you know, it wasn't fostered by you in the first place. So I feel what you're saying, because I've been on a lot of sessions with people, and I'm like, Oh, my God, they're so fun, like, you know, but, but I also don't want to, you know, overstep either. So yeah, for me, it's been like, LinkedIn, mostly just making sure that I, you know, maybe thank them, you know, thank them and my agent and and just kind of put them all together in that post and show that that gratitude, you know, and hope that they then request me back through the agent, which they have, like, a good example is, I do commercials with Instacart, and I've now done three different campaigns with them through ACM. So, like, the first one went well, and so we're back doing, you know, other ones together. So, you know, I feel like, if you make that strong impression, they're gonna come back through the agent and get you again on something.
Stephanie Roberts 21:41
And do you do direct marketing, too? And you know, where do you find most of your work? I love what you said about being in control of your business. So as someone who's in control of their business, where, what other things do you do, kind of on the daily, besides just sort of waiting for, you know, an agent email to come in to find work and kind of keep that train running.
Gina Scarpa 22:04
Yeah. I mean, first of all, I love auditioning. Some people I don't know, get stressed out by it. Someone, I was coaching, someone yesterday who said they took an hour on an audition, on a pay to play. And I was like, sir, no. I was like, sir, no, we need to talk about this. I was like, I think I did four in 10 minutes before I came on this podcast. I'm like, go.
Gina Scarpa 22:20
Yeah. I do a lot of direct marketing. My degree is in marketing. I specialized in SEO, so given me a very big advantage. Okay, so the things that I do that maintain control over my business. One is a massive SEO initiative with my sister who runs my studio with me positive voices. So Mia, besides being a very talented equity actor in the city has a master's degree in English, and so I have a built in writer who an editor who is phenomenal. So she does a lot of my writing on my website. She does direct marketing, reach outs, she edits a lot of my projects and my auditions, which is super helpful. So I have it's not just me, it's we are a team, and we do a lot of things together.
Gina Scarpa 22:59
So we did a massive overhaul of my website over the last year to year and a half, and we're ranking incredibly well for a lot of keywords. So just last week, I had three different potential clients in my inbox, one from a very major food brand who wanted me to do a corporate video. One from a very prominent documentary director who's made 30 documentaries, and wanted me to voice a reporter in one of his films and one from a podcast company that works with major brands. And I have that booking, actually, right after this that all came from my website.
Gina Scarpa 23:31
So all I'm ever doing is screaming about SEO, and nobody listens to me. And I'm like, You know what? That's fine. I will be hanging out at the top of Google if anybody needs me, so there's that, then there's direct marketing. So researching clients to email, I feel like during the pandemic, everybody took direct marketing classes with me and with, you know, I don't know Tom Aglio, Tom Dheere, and everybody else that talks about direct marketing. And instead of, I think some people, instead of maybe formulating their own plan, are just sort of doing exactly what we told them to do. So now we you have this hoard of people that came through, like the Gina and Tom's direct marketing classes, and everyone's like, sending the same emails in the same way to the same people. And I feel like, you know, the three of us are often evolving our marketing tactics so, and I think very highly of both of them. And so for me, I my marketing now is about looking where other people are not looking like everybody is getting lists of ad agencies and marketing to them, and I'm talking to the hospital networks in my state about what needs they might have.
Gina Scarpa 24:38
So lot of direct marketing, a lot of LinkedIn reach outs, and that's been really great. I slept on LinkedIn for way too long, and thanks to people like you know, Mark Scott and Tracy Lindley, I started listening more and again, formulating my own strategies. But definitely they were very helpful, and making those connections too. Marketing is really important, and it's very important to be consistent with it. So in 2020 I'm thinking 2021, January of 2021. I didn't book anything. I booked $0 worth of work. I came off of the on the heels of booking a huge national commercial in December of 2020 and I was like, I am the best. Here I go. And then nobody booked me, so I booked a one on one with Mark Scott. And I was like, Oh my gosh, what do I do? I'm freaking out. Like, and he was like, Well, let me ask you a question. In the second half of the year, how many direct marketing emails did you send? And I was like, not that many. He was like, Okay, goodbye. Like, I mean, what do you want from me? Like, he was like, you didn't do it. Like you were busy, so you didn't direct market, and now you're not busy, and now you're wondering where the work is, and the answer is, you didn't do the work. And so something I like about Mark Scott is that he's very direct. But I like it. I'm like, Yes, call me out.
Gina Scarpa 25:49
So after that meeting, I never have not direct marketed. I mean, I might go a week without doing it, but I will then spend a weekend scheduling emails and getting it done. And so, yeah, it's super important. And again, it goes back to what we said earlier. What we said earlier, which is diversifying how you're getting your opportunities. It's not just agents, you know, managers, casting director or casting sites, internal rosters, direct marketing. It's also direct marketing in itself, like constantly refilling that pipeline of potential new clients, because you never know when they're going to answer.
Gina Scarpa 26:20
The best story that I tell about it is I sent an email, November of 2021 to a game company that I really wanted to work with. I didn't hear anything for almost two years out of the clear blue sky, they emailed me an audition. I was like, I'm sorry. I didn't even know that you knew who I was. Got my email. Thought I was good. No clue, right? My second audition I did with them two years after I sent this direct marketing email, I booked the gig, and it ended up being Adam Eve from Invincible in Fortnite. So I mean, massive opportunity for to be in a huge game with a huge franchise like Invincible, and it came from a direct to marketing email they sent two years ago. So I think sometimes we also feel like, oh, they they didn't answer. They probably like, don't think I'm good, or just archive it went to spam. But it's like, you literally never know, right? You know, when people are gonna think of you and be like, Yo, Yeah, where's that email from Stephanie? Like, hold on, let me get that. And then suddenly you're getting auditions. So I could literally, like, talk till I'm blue in the face about direct marketing and SEO.
Gina Scarpa 27:19
And what I find with voice a lot of voice actors is that they're great at being creative. They're great about taking classes and workshops. And where they struggle is the business side. And it gives people who are business minded, or are just inclined to do that, I think, a massive advantage. So if business is something you struggle with, that's where your efforts need to go. Like, we can only script read for so long. But like, how are you gonna get your work? That's, it's really important. And I feel like that's what I'm always shouting about.
Stephanie Roberts 27:47
I think, you know, and it's again, back to pre pandemic, post pandemic, you know, I feel like there were people who were direct marketing in these really awesome, creative ways, like sending gift baskets, or, you know, reaching out via, you know, postcards, and then nobody was in their offices. And obviously we're not gonna ask for home addresses, so that kind of went away, and now I feel like we're really back to, how is your email going to stand out amongst the millions of us that took marketing classes in the pandemic, just like, how is your audition gonna stand out? But I have a similar story, that the biggest job to date that I had booked, as of, like, a few years ago, was because I sent an email to a local recording studio in New York City, said, Hey, here's my stuff, and then got an audition, and then got the job eventually, but it was like a five year process, and I had no idea that they had kept the email, let alone knew where it was, or, you know, still had my demo saved. And I feel like that happens even on like a smaller scale, you know, you send an email, follow up, don't hear anything, or you get, like, a great, we've added you to our files, and then, you know, six months later, suddenly you've got an audition, and then it like, kind of, for me, goes through a period where then I'm, like, in with that company for a little bit, like, I do an audition, and then suddenly they have another audition, and then it's like crickets again. So I feel like it's, you're right. It's like, how many of those irons can you put in? How many fires so that you're not just waiting on the one random production company? You've got a bunch of people that may kind of come back for you.
Gina Scarpa 29:20
Yeah, I think that's really important. And in 2020 there were two production studios in particular that I was auditioning with very regularly and working with, and I literally couldn't tell you why they both just went completely rogue, silent, like that was it like, never heard from them again. I tried reaching out and being like, hey, like, haven't heard from you in a while. Like, what's going on? Just dead silence. And I was like, weird, okay, on two and these, these studios do two very different genres of voiceover. And it really, really upset me at the time. I've developed much thicker skin since 2020 but it just showed, but it showed me the importance of again, yeah, like you're saying.
Gina Scarpa 29:59
So, you know, reaching out to a lot of different people, you know, constantly refilling it. You never know when someone's gonna pop back into your inbox with something. But I think that's really important, but also something we were talking about earlier, which is when you're marketing, like, again, if it's, like, totally transactional, I think it's easy to just be like, I'm gonna, I'm gonna archive this, you know, like, what do you want? You know. And by the way, like my studio Positive Voices, we cast a lot of projects. We have cast people with Disney, Lego, Amazon, L'Oreal, really, really great projects. And it's so funny, like, I'll post something like, you know, so happy to, you know, announce, you know, so happy that we cast, you know, this great kid on Disney or this person with L'Oreal and suddenly everybody's in my inbox, like, Hi. And I'm like, Uh huh, okay, so, you know, so it is a little bit frustrating, because it's like, on the very average, normal day, you don't have anything to say to me, and then I say, Hey, I booked somebody on something. And now suddenly you're like, Oh my God, what's up? You know, sometimes that does feel transactional, and it's very interesting the way people email me to be on the roster at the studio. I get to judge a lot of direct marketing emails, and it's very interesting to see what does and doesn't work. In some of them, it's like, no, this is not the vibe. And other people, I'd send them, you know, the form to join the roster and so I can review their demos. I mean, right now, we're still kind of growing, but we really have built up this great client base, but it's been interesting to see it from that side. To see it from that side. And I've heard from a lot of casting directors too, that's like, you know, like, why are you in my inbox? Like, what do you like? What do you want? And so I try to look at it from the same from the perspective of Jennifer Hale, who is such a great voice actor and runs skills hub, but she said something that really resonated with me, which is she acts in service, like I'm here to help you. I'm here to I'm here you have a project, and, yeah, there's a lot of spinning plates, and I'm here to help make that easier. And that's my sort of approach, too. So like in my emails, I talk about the ways that I can make their life easier, like I try not to talk about me and talk about them, you know. And I that I understand what they do, and this is how I can help, you know.
Stephanie Roberts 32:04
So, okay, so you talked about loving auditioning, and I feel like not many people love it as much as you do, and maybe Carin Gilfry. feel like we've mentioned so many names, I will link everybody's either previous episodes on the podcast, because I've had some of these people as guests or their websites, so you can, you know, research everyone, because lots of wonderful, helpful names have been thrown out. But I would love to know your tips on auditioning where you know, because, again, like, if you're booking or you're trying to maintain this volume of work and income, you know, you can't be spending an hour on a commercial audition. It's probably a little bit about the volume of auditions that you're doing, as well as the volume of work.
Gina Scarpa 32:45
My tips for auditioning, I don't worry about it too much. Like even things that are really big to me, like an audition for me, like the goal is, say, Riot Games. Who makes League of Legends and Valerian or Blizzard? Who makes World of Warcraft, Overwatch and Hearthstone. I mean, these are, like the dream for me. I've auditioned for both studios, and I just don't get too attached to like, any auditions, even the ones that I like would just love to do. I mean, I might do, I'm sure, like, I'll do a coaching on it, and, you know, make sure it's great. But I don't spend too much time on auditions. I trust my instinct, which I think is really important. I trust bringing my personality to the table. And one thing I said on another podcast recently is, so like, my philosophy with acting is that every character is me. It's just me in the multiverse.
Stephanie Roberts 33:31
Ooh, I love that.
Gina Scarpa 33:31
I think, like, in the past, I would think like, oh, well, who is this character? And like, who should talk to, and what's their relationship? And I'm like, I kind of threw all that out the window a couple years ago and just started saying, started saying, like, it's me, it's it's like me if I was, like, fighting in an apocalypse, and it's me if I worked in a hospital, and it's me if I was a, you know, scientist in a lab. And so that has really helped me a lot. But I feel like I had to know myself really well and be comfortable with bringing it all into the booth, like, The Good, the Bad, the Ugly, all of it. And just when I do my auditions, I'm just like, This is me, you know, and maybe it's right or wrong for the brand, that's fine. This is me. And if it's right, great. And if it's not, that's okay. I'm not gonna I don't want to try to fit into some mold, because to me, then it feels inauthentic and I don't connect with it.
Gina Scarpa 34:16
So that mindset shift has been a real game changer for me. My bookings like went through the roof, and especially in the world of commercial when I started embracing that kind of thing, like, I'm just gonna talk like me and sound like me. It might be me when I'm being sarcastic, or me when I'm being warm and, you know, caring, but it's still me. And so that's been really helpful. Definitely, like prioritizing my auditions better. I had something I struggled with in the past, because there's just, like, too many for me to do in a day. Like, you know, there's like 100 different auditions going on, and I'm like, oh, like, literally. And I'm like, Okay, I like, I can only do like 20. So what am I gonna do here? So definitely prioritizing them, and just, I think, being like, very efficient in analyzing scripts, quickly, editing quickly, and just getting it off and moving on to the next one. And not thinking about it anymore. You know, I used to, I used to think about it a lot more when I was struggling financially. I mean, I still kind of struggle financially because I'm in debt. But, I mean, in the beginning, like, I really that's such a great point, though, hyper focused, because everyone felt like life or death, and now it just, you know, it's just life. So I definitely feel that shift in my emotions too.
Stephanie Roberts 35:21
Yeah, it's like, obviously I want to know the pay rate, because I want to know that it's fair and that, you know all that. But there's a part of me that wishes there was just no pay rates on things so that you could just do it. Because the minute you like, you know, I have one agent that sends emails in the same format, so each time I know the order of events in the email. And the, you know, the rate is at the bottom. And then I get to the pay rate, and I'm like, $20,000 and then suddenly I'm like, What could I do at $20,000 you know, or whatever it could be, $300 doesn't matter. But, you know, it's like, sometimes that sort of money, I don't want to say desperation, but that money, desperation feeling, kind of creeps in, and then they hear it.
Gina Scarpa 36:03
They can hear they can smell it. They're like, she's doing a $20,000 audition right now. She wants it. Well, I mean, in 2020 I booked a job that paid $500 for a really, really big brand, and I thought this was going to be like, my big break. This is like, before having my agents, and before booking my first national which was with Invesco. So this big brand hired me, and I kept looking for it online. It was just gonna be a non broadcast YouTube video for them. So corporate narration. And I ended up finding out that they recast me, and oh my gosh, I cried in my bed, like, literally for two days. I was like, I've made a mistake. That's terrible. I can't do voiceover anymore. Like that. $500 felt like the end of the world to me. Okay, last month I recorded a very big commercial for $7,500 so it's pretty excited. They the client came back to me and said, creative has decided to go in a different way, so we're just gonna pay your session fee of $400 and that's it. So I was like, woof. Okay. I mean, that's a lot of money, even making six figures. Now it's like, okay, that's $7,000 I'm not getting I was like, All right, you know what that's I was like, I'm gonna shake it off because I'm positive person, and I'm not gonna get I'm not the same person I was four years ago. Like, you know, there'll be other opportunities.
Gina Scarpa 37:11
The very next day, a client that was renewing my commercial came back and said, creative decided we're not renewing it ... $5,000 and I was like, Oh my God. But my attitude was just like, you know, I'll make it up. Yeah, it was like, $10 - $12,000 that I'm like, Okay, I'm gonna need to okay, I guess it's time to audition, you know, like, it's time to audition. It's time to market. So four years ago, it had me crying in my bed. Four years later, it has me, like, with a fire under me, like, Okay, well, right, we're gonna, you know, we're gonna make it up in other ways.
Gina Scarpa 37:42
And now I teach, like, a lot of the workshops I teach are about mindset, like, not about business and mindset. Those are, like, my two main focuses. Like, I could script coach, you know, like a lot of people, but I feel like you could find that anywhere. And so one of the things that I talk a lot about is a workshop I teach called harnessing the power of no and it's like about how when you're rejected from a roster, or you get recast or things aren't going your way, like there's a lot of power that you can take from that and things within your control, and also you saying no to rosters or projects or reps that don't serve you either. And I feel like that mindset has really been a game changer for me, and I think it's helped a lot of other people too. Because, again, it's like, we can all do script coaching, we can take workshops. There's, like, a plethora of but, like, who's talking about resilience mindset, you know, getting rejected, recovering from that. You know, I feel like that's where, like, I've really enjoyed speaking and coaching.
Stephanie Roberts 38:38
Ooh, juicy tidbits. First of all, I love you in the metaverse, because everything is authenticity, authenticity, authenticity. And so to be able to think about it in that way, I think, is really freeing, because you're just taking that extra layer out and just presenting you more, which is great,
Gina Scarpa 38:56
Yes, and, and this is like two conversations I had with people fairly recently about this very thing. So one person was struggling with their commercial reads, and they said, I just feel like I need to do something special on every line. And I said, Why do you feel that way when you're talking to me right now, like, you don't, you're not. Like, I need to do something special when I'm talking to her, like, No, you don't. You're just talking to me. You're not even thinking about it. You're just speaking. And the other person was saying sort of like maybe what you were saying, which is, you do the audition, you look at the budget, it's $20,000 and you think to yourself, I should go back and redo that.
Stephanie Roberts 39:27
Right, right? It wasn't perfect enough. It wasn't $20,000 enough.
Gina Scarpa 39:27
But in life, we do that either. We don't. We're not like, Hold on. Let me I mean sometimes when you're trying to explain something, but I just mean, like in your everyday life, like when you're just speaking, you're out to coffee with your friend, you're not like, hold on, can we actually rewind and go back two minutes and let's rehab that conversation? Like you wouldn't do that.
Gina Scarpa 39:45
So to me, I feel like my auditions, like it is what it is. It's this is in the moment. And yeah, sometimes I'll go back and redo things, but for I would say 95% of the time, I'm like, That's my take goodbye. And I feel like it's honestly helped me. So many ways. Because when you try to go back and you're like, let me try to duplicate that feeling, or let me try to add in a little sigh, it's like, yeah, okay. I mean, you know you could just kind of, you can tell, but if it really just comes up naturally, and you're like, Ooh, I like that. That's I'm always like, what comes up for me naturally and organically? I don't even read the script beforehand. I just cold, read almost everything, and just go with whatever my instinct is. Sometimes, the way they write it, I'm like, Wait, what is the sentence? Like, what are we trying to do? I mean, yeah, reading it, you're like, Wait, what is the sentence trying to say? And I'm like, reading it again. Oh, yeah, okay, I'll go back and then fix it. But even when they give the reference, like, I'll go look at the YouTube video, I'll listen to about 10 seconds and be like, Yeah, okay, you know, like, I don't want to I'm not trying to imitate it. They just want the vibe of it. And I'm like, Yeah, cool. Understood. Thank you. So I don't know if that but, but if you kind of think about it like real life, like it's just not how we think, you know, and, but you know, we're acting, it's like, we're like, we're in the process, yeah, and I just, I don't know. I'm like, I joke. I'm like, I'm the least actor reactor ever. Because I'm just like, This is me. I don't know. Here you go.
Stephanie Roberts 40:58
Sometimes I feel like, I I'll, like, struggle through a script, and I'm like, Oh, well, I could edit that take together. That's probably fine. And then I'm like, You know what? Just read it one more time. And then it's usually that one more time that makes it like, okay, that's the one I'll send.
Gina Scarpa 41:10
Yes, I agree. Because sometimes I try to pick up something and I'm like, but I feel the slightest of energy shift. I can feel it. I mean, of course, like a great casting director or agent is gonna pick up on that. But, you know, also, sometimes it's like, maybe they can't put their finger on what it is, but something feels a little disconnected. And so I'm always trying to remove any reason to get a maybe or a no. Like, I just want the yes, definitely the No. I'm always trying to remove the reason. So even that slight shift in, like, let me just pick up that thing and put that in, and then it's like, sounds kind of weird and disjointed. You're right. I do the same thing. Like, let's just read it again. It's literally, it's literally a 30 second script. Like, we're we can read it again. We don't need to just do the one line.
Stephanie Roberts 41:46
Well, this ha sbeen amazing. Is there any, like, last piece of advice, or any other thoughts that you have about maintaining and being this, you know, top earner in voiceover?
Gina Scarpa 41:56
Um, I think the biggest thing is just to, you know, a lot of things I talk about when you know, again, coaching and working with people is to stop being afraid. Like, if you submit to a roster, "too early," like no one's blacklisting you, unless you're like, the biggest jerk ever. And even then, there's a lot of jerks running around that are still working and doing well. So yeah, like, Don't be afraid. I mean, two of my agents, I'm sorry, three of my agents. All three of them rejected me six times each. So that's 18 rejections. And I just kept coming back with, like, new updates. And you know, nobody was like, Get out of here. Never email me again. Like, when it was time, they were like, okay, like, we've seen the progress and we're ready to take you on. So not being afraid. And I also feel like people are just full of excuses. Like, whether it's, you know, your website and SEO, direct marketing, you know, submitting to that roster, you know, whatever, like job tracking, like, stop making excuses. I'm always like, just do it, you know, because you never know. I This is, like, my last we can, we can, like, wrap it up with this.
Gina Scarpa 42:58
But I speak to my former high school every year about a career in voiceover. And last year, when I spoke, I spoke to multiple classes, like a couple 100 kids. One senior this year reached out to me and said, Hey, you spoke at the end of last year about voice over. I'd like to learn about it. He had some inheritance from his grandmother passing away, and he decided that he was gonna invest in voiceover 17 years old. By the way, I just wanna, I just wanna put this out there. So he buys the Sennheiser 600 which is a shotgun mic, a focus right solo, and he builds himself a little booth. And in exchange, I tell him that I will mentor him for free for as long as he needs me. That was, that was in November of last year. It he just emailed me yesterday and told me that he quit his job after school because voiceover has replaced that income for him, and now he's able to completely work from home. He's gonna go to school. He's gonna commute to school in the fall for college, and he's gonna build his voice over business. And it's honestly incredible. He books. He couldn't even meet with me last week. He had too many bookings and just didn't have the time after school. He's also very involved at school. The point is that, like, he was so unafraid. I mean, he's 17, you know, or 18, and so he, you know, I get it like we have life and responsibilities, but it shows what happens. By the way, this kid has no acting experience. He has never acted a day in his life. And we just worked together for months, you know, every week on his reads. And he just started booking and booking and and he built it him, you know, himself.
Gina Scarpa 44:19
And so it's like, what could happen when you take the leap and just see and one of my favorite motivational speakers, Mel Robbins, has this great saying, which is, what if it all works out? I mean, what if it all just goes the way you want? It like we spend so much time being afraid that, like often, the thing that's in our own way is us. It's not that agents aren't taking you. It's not that no one's answering your direct marketing emails. It's you, and you need to get out of your own way and problem solve your way out of it. Because you probably a lot of people who might be listening and are trying to get to six figures, you have the talent and the ability to get there, but it's like, are you taking all the right steps, and are you really doing everything you could to get there? I find a lot of times, through a lot of coaching, hundreds and hundreds of people, that the answer is almost. Always know they're not. So this is your sign to do it. And think like this senior in high school who's building his business at home and quit his job yesterday and was like, in the best mood, he was like, I'm on top of the world.
Stephanie Roberts 45:10
I love that. That's amazing. Yes, take the leap. And this episode has given so many kind of ideas and shifts of thinking maybe about, you know, what it could take to get to six figures. So I really appreciate your time and your thoughts today, Gina!
Gina Scarpa 45:25
Oh my gosh, thank you again for having me. It's always so nice to talk to you.
Stephanie Roberts 45:31
I don't know about you, but hearing what Gina had to say about direct marketing and SEO really gave me a lot to think about, and I loved her perspective on staying positive and working hard to get where she is. Income wise. If you'd like to learn more about Gina, I'm linking her website and socials in the show notes, which you can find at my website, making it to the mic.com. Please make sure you follow or subscribe to this podcast wherever you're listening, so you don't miss any episodes this season. Thank you so much for listening, and here's a little preview of next week's episode.
Rob Moreira 46:04
You run your business the way you feel makes the most sense for you, and there are going to be some people that will agree, and there are probably going to be many that will disagree, and that's okay.
Stephanie Roberts 46:16
That's next time on Making it to the Mic.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai