S4 E7 | Jessica Taylor
Play the episode
Powered by RedCircle
Show Notes
Stephanie talks to Jessica Taylor, a voice actor with over 10 years of experience based in Colorado. Jessica works in all aspects of VO except for animation, video games, and audiobooks. They talk about the ups and downs of the business, maintaining client relationships, and how voice over allows Jessica to be an involved parent.
Links:
Instagram: @jessicavodotcom
LinkedIn: @jtaylorvo
Website: http://www.jessicavo.com
Tina Morasco's Online Course: https://www.tinamorascocoaching.com/voiceoverlibrary
Natasha Marchewka: https://natashamarchewka.com/
Thom Pinto: https://www.thompinto.com/copy-of-styles
Making It To The Mic Website: www.makingittothemic.com
Instagram: @stephaniepamrobertsvo
Email: stephanie@stephaniepamroberts.com
Full Transcript:
Stephanie Roberts 0:11 Hello and welcome to Making it to the Mic, a podcast about how different voice actors got to where they are today. I'm your host, Stephanie, Pam Roberts, and my guest today is Jessica Taylor, Jessica is a Colorado based voice actor and mom who's been doing voice over for over 10 years. She openly shares her experiences on the ups and downs of this career, and I think it will resonate with so many of you. So let's dive in. Here's my conversation with Jessica Taylor. Stephanie Roberts 0:42 Hey, Jessica, how are you today? Jessica Taylor 0:44 Hi. I'm well, how are you? Stephanie Roberts 0:46 I'm good. Thank you so much for being on the podcast today. Jessica Taylor 0:50 You bet I love podcasts. I love getting to know talent I don't know. Stephanie Roberts 0:53 Yeah, same. It's been, it's been really cool for me to get to interview a bunch of people that I've never met in person or even on on Facebook before, so I'm really glad that you're here. So I always start by asking everyone the same question, which is, how did you make it to the mic, and what did you do before voice over? Jessica Taylor 1:09 In high school, I did lots and lots and lots of theater, and was like a theater focused kid, and I was going to go to college for for acting, essentially. And I was accepted into a handful of top programs, NYU, Boston University. I was wait listed at Juilliard, Carnegie Mellon musical theater. And my parents were getting divorced at the time, they had me when I was quite young. They were 21 and I just don't think college was like on the list of things they needed to prepare for. I just learned there was no money for me to pursue that in that way. And I was not comfortable going into what would have been, I don't know, at that time, $150,000 in debt. That was out of my comfort zone. Jessica Taylor 2:00 So I went to massage school, and I wanted to find a way to support myself while I continued to pursue theater, which ended up being (and this is going to tie in with voice over) so ended up being kind of like an undercurrent for me. I ended up moving from Minneapolis to Colorado, and I've been here since '98 so I continued to do on stage. I got an on camera agent. I ended up doing some work at the Denver Center and some Shakespeare. That was all going great, and I thought I was going to continue to pursue that. And then when I did this job at the Denver Center, I was seeing these people who women who were like, at the top of their game, they lived these lives where they went from regional theater to regional theater. And I was like, Oh, this is what it means to be a successful on stage actress. And I was like, I don't think I want that. Jessica Taylor 2:59 So it was really good for me to see that in person. And I was actually had a moving truck scheduled to move to New York, and then September 11 happened, and both of these things were kind of happening at the same time. Me seeing like what my life might be like if I continued in this path. And then September 11, and I was like, Okay, I don't think this is what I want. I ended up staying in Colorado, and I met my now husband, Our first date was one week after September 11. That just like kind of pivoted me. And I continued doing some on stage, but it kind of dwindled after that, and my massage career was, like, taking off like crazy. I was working on NFL players. I was working on musical theater people actually, who came on tour. So I had, like, this different skill set, but also understanding actors. So I was, like, pretty talented deep tissue therapist, like people came to me to get rid of aches and pains or so that they could run the triathlon or do the Leadville 100 like super tough Colorado athletes. And I got to the point where my business was so thriving that I started hiring people to work for me because I no longer had enough time. Jessica Taylor 4:18 And what I discovered in that is that I really loved owning a business. Like, I loved it more than doing massage. I loved the marketing. I loved the development, like, oh, now I'm gonna do this, and now I'm gonna do this. How can I grow this business? Like I had online scheduling 10 years before anybody thought about online scheduling, like when it was in its infancy, and that was really exciting, and people loved it. And while I was doing that, I did an on camera corporate job, and I met a woman, her name is Tia Marlier, and she was like the voice in Denver. Like you heard it all the time. She was a big voice talent in Denver at the time, and she and I met, and she became a client of my business. I would record an outgoing voicemail every day. Hi, thanks for calling. Serenity Now Massage Therapy. Tomorrow, we have openings at one o'clock, two o'clock, three o'clock, and Tia would call and listen to these, and she because she wanted to get a massage appointment, and she'd be like, Jessica, you have got to start doing voiceover. And I was like, huh, Tia, you're so funny. That's cute. I'm running a business now, you know, I'm like, not doing acting so much. And she goes, well, just file it away. I was like, Okay, I'll file it away, Jessica Taylor 5:36 So I ran my business for 10 years, and then I closed it when the market crashed in 2008 because massage was just like the last thing on everybody's list because money was an issue. But I had a three month old, my oldest son, and it was like, another one of these times where, kind of, like, your circumstances point you to what's next. And so I was like, I'm gonna shut this down, and now I'm gonna stay home with my kids. So I stayed home with my kids. Had three boys. Stayed home with them for 10 years. During that time, we lived overseas for four years, so we did lots of travel, which has been a big theme in my life. We came back to Colorado, and my youngest was getting ready to start kindergarten, and I was talking with my mom. She's like, Do you are you gonna go back to work? And I said, you know, I would really like to find something new to do. I really need a business, and I really need it to be creative. And she said, You know, I made a new friend who narrates audio books. Do you want? Do you want to meet her when you come to Minnesota this summer? I was like, Yes, I do. So I went and met with her, and she showed me what her day was like, the kinds of things that she did, she like, really got me out on the right foot. Like some voice talent come into the business, and I feel like they don't like, they may not meet up with the right people at the right time. And so I am so grateful that she was the first person I met, because she was like, this is a good company. This is a good company. This is a good coach, you know, like she had this whole document for me. And by the way, I have really tried to pay that forward with other people. Jessica Taylor 7:19 So I've done that at every opportunity, when people ask about how to get into voiceover I left that day. I mean, it was like we were my mom and I were driving back to her house, and I said, Well, that's it. That's what I got to do. I didn't know how much money voice talent made. I didn't know how you got work, really. I mean, I knew nothing. But I was like, that is the perfect thing for me. It is creative, it is hugely entrepreneurial. It is very flexible, so that I can continue to be an involved parent with my kids, which has always been a priority. So really I what I saw was like this opportunity for a career that would meet my personal needs and at the same time support the lifestyle that I wanted to have. And I will credit Natasha Marchewka for this statement, but I took her Master VO To Do List course, like, before I even had a reason to have a to do list, like, I didn't even have a to do list other than, like, learn how to do voiceover and she was like, Well, what's your goal? And she said, Well, my goal is to make full time income in part time hours. And I was like, yeah, that's my goal too. Full time income, part time hours couldn't be better. So that has always been my goal. Stephanie Roberts 8:36 I love that, and I feel like everyone that I talk to has such just like a different story about how they got here, but there's so many elements that are the same, like something they needed a change, or something just wasn't quite working. They'd always been interested in voiceover. It was always kind of in the back, like there's just, there's always something that seems to overlap in everybody's story, which I think is so fascinating. So when did you reach six figures for the first time, Jessica Taylor 9:01 It was in year two that I started. Stephanie Roberts 9:03 Oh, cool. And what was your first year of like, I'm a voice actor. This is my business now. Jessica Taylor 9:10 so remember I told you about Tia? Yes. So I come home from that trip from Minnesota, and I called Tia. I hadn't talked to her in 10, 12, years, and I said, Hey, Tia, it's Jessica Taylor. I'm ready to start voiceover. And she was like, so interesting, because I am currently an agent at Go Voices. She was about to leave because she didn't love the agent lifestyle. It was just too much like nine to five for her after having been a talent for so long. And she said, but I'm coaching now. And I said, let's start coaching. Let's coach once a week. I'm not going to ask you, I just want you to tell me when you think I'm ready to record a demo. She was like, great. So I coached for maybe eight weeks, once a week, and she said, you're ready to record a demo. I was like, great. Jessica Taylor 9:57 So I met her at my local studio, Coop Studios here in Boulder was very latch key, kind of like I was choosing copy. It was not the ideal demo scenario, but it completely worked. I recorded a commercial and a corporate demo. I sent them to Go Voices on her recommendation. I'm sure she put in a good word for me, because I was not a working talent. I had never recorded a project. But they took me. They took me. I booked something fairly quickly. It was a radio job, and then I booked a $40,000 job for Nature Made. That was my second job ever. And I got the call from Laura at Go Voices, and I started crying when she told me. I had been a stay at home mom for 10 years. And I was like, yes, being a mother is, you know, the most rewarding job, but it doesn't send you any money, you know, like I had really missed that external gratification of being paid like I had done that for a long time. And so I went to my husband, who makes an excellent living, and he's like, you know, I have meetings. I've got, I've got three meetings. I don't know that I can take the kids. The kids were younger then, and and I said, you know, this is a $40,000 job that I'll make. I'll make this in about three hours tomorrow. Stephanie Roberts 11:21 Oh my gosh. Jessica Taylor 11:22 And he was like, Okay, let's see. I'll see what I can do. It was just the funniest moment. So I went and recorded that job. I really started voice over, full time is the answer to your question. So it's not a typical start. I just think, like everything was really in alignment for me to get going, like it just was, everything was a yes, yes, yes, yes. That didn't last forever, though. Stephanie Roberts 11:53 It never does! Jessica Taylor 11:54 As we know yes, and I would say, I would say that in a way, while it was so exciting and it's such a cool story, it kind of made me start with false hopes, like, Oh, I'm just gonna book A $40,000 job every, you know, once a month. And it wasn't like that. So I booked that job the next month after that, I was excited to do a voicemail for $100 for a company in Dubai. And it was like, the biggest I was like, oh, oh, this is a roller coaster, this is not steady income. This is up and down and up and down. And that is pretty much all it's been. Jessica Taylor 12:33 It's mostly been up, but the last two years, I've come down a bit. I don't have any every year I've had some really big campaigns that have renewed. This is the very first year since I started that I don't have any big renewals. So I would say, like, really big, like, you know, 1000s of dollars, you know, like, in three years in a row, right? So I've called this 2024 is like my first honest year of voiceover, it's like, okay, now I really need to be marketing more. I can't simply rely on those bigger projects. So it's been more of a hustle. And while those renewals are, of course, no one's gonna say that those aren't fun, it has really made me dig into marketing more, which is really what I learned that I loved when I had my massage business. And all along I've been marketing, but things just kind of fell in my lap for for a while, but now I'm having and also with AI, yeah, one of my big projects, like national campaigns, was for Dixie paper plates, and they renewed that for three years in a row as a multi spot campaign, and just this last year they didn't renew it. And I went and looked the spot up on iSpot, and it was the exact same campaign, same format of the commercial, and it was an AI voice on the tag. And I was just like, Oh, my God, you have to be kidding. Jessica Taylor 14:02 So I've been strategically, I'm trying to move to places where there's less competition from everything. I've moved into political, which is, I love it because it can be a little more, you know, come from theater. So, like, my, sometimes my persona is a little big for the mic. That's been one of my challenges performance wise. So, but political can be really dramatic, and, like, you can really go for it. And I love that about political and also medical narration. My brain just loves, I love the tough stuff, like give me the big words, give me the technical stuff. And that's a smaller segment of vO talent who either like it or can do it, and I actually love it. It's so much fun. So that has been just a strategy of going where people aren't as much that's been a way for me to, you know, find, find my work. Stephanie Roberts 15:05 I feel like that's so smart because, you know, there's a lot of a lot of us doing direct marketing, and a lot of people out there that I think are probably lining up, sending the same emails to the same people. So I like, I like the zig when others are zagging, or vice versa, you know, to make, to make yourself have an your own little spot. Jessica Taylor 15:23 Yeah, it's, you know, you have to find like your mix, your marketing mix. So I do, I still do cold emails. I've tried a few lately that are more like, is this the 10th email from a voice talent you've received today? Stephanie Roberts 15:39 Has anyone responded to that? Jessica Taylor 15:41 No, not really, which kind of surprised me. You know, I thought it would be like people be like, Oh my God, that's so you know, thank you for acknowledging the fact that we're fielding these talent emails all day long. No, it actually hasn't tested that well, but that's okay. I'm learning to get well, not learning. I mean, I've been pretty good at just getting past rejection. I mean, if you can't handle rejection, I would not suggest being a voice talent, yeah? Because, you know, even for the most confident, this can be hard, can be really hard, yeah? Stephanie Roberts 16:12 And I think it's like, back to what you were saying about the ups and downs. Like, financially, it can be hard in that way too. I think all of us that have been doing this for a while have some story of a year that was awesome and a year that was terrible. My daughter was born in 2017 and the biggest job that I had had to date was a virtual assistant like TTS voice. And I had a ton of session fees that year and a buyout for $60,000 and I was like, this is awesome! And then that buyout was supposed to be for a couple more years. I think it was like three years total. And then after that, I was like, Oh, I have to make up for that income, because that's not there anymore. And I think that that is really tough, and especially because if you book a large campaign, sometimes you don't know the final total, oh yeah, and you don't know how long they're gonna play it, and you don't know how many weeks it's gonna be renewed for. And then all of a sudden, you're like, you're still getting checks. And then all of a sudden the checks stop, and you're like, Oh, was that it okay? I guess, I guess we'll cap it there for this year. So yeah, that can be really, really challenging, especially for people who I know, like, I love to have a plan, and there's not much financial planning that you can actually do in this career. I've decided I think you can, you can hope and you can, you know, do your best goal setting. But at the end of the day, if you book a SAG, you know, national campaign one year and you don't book it the next year, that's going to be a difference of income. Jessica Taylor 17:45 Well, in full honesty, about six months ago, I was like, maybe I need to be a day trader. Now, you know, there are moments where I've been like, maybe, maybe I've ridden this wave and I'm not, and I'm not, you know, the sound anymore. But then, like, as soon as I have that, when I truly feel that, the next day, I'll book something, it's like, the universe is like, no, no, you're good. Keep going. Keep going, um. But it knows when I've hit. Like, you know where the confidence is really low? Like, ohgod. Stephanie Roberts 18:16 How do you mentally deal with those ups and downs? Jessica Taylor 18:20 For me, it's, it's really, well, I will say, coaching. I have worked regularly with Nancy Wolfson, and she has helped me out of some tough moments. I will say, you know, she'll just be like, you can't complain until you haven't booked anything in 200 auditions. I'll be like what, you know, and I'm complaining after 50, you know, if you have a coach who can give you a really good pep talk and remind you of what you're good at, which she has been really good at doing, for me, I think that can help. Jessica Taylor 18:56 Yeah, I love that just someone else to bounce it off of, because I feel like we can really get in our own heads. This is such a solo business, and all of a sudden I'm like, Oh, my, my audio must not be good anymore. Like nothing has changed. But I start second guessing every little everything. Jessica Taylor 19:10 Yep, yeah. It's like, the spiral, the doubt spiral. Stephanie Roberts 19:13 Yeah, I find that too when I when I'm like, that's it, I'm never booked in voice over work again. And someone's like, oh, by the way, we have a job for you. I'm like, Oh, thank goodness. I'll stay. I'll stay! Jessica Taylor 19:23 I really enjoy the roster work. I like to get on. I like to be on companies rosters, just kind of like you get that short list. You're automatically on a short list because the roster is small. So I've focused on doing that kind of work. And for me, that kind of work is worth less money because I don't have to audition. I don't have to go find it. And not that. Rosters pay less, but they do. I mean, yeah, they pay a bit less because they're bringing the work to you. Rarely do I have to audition for it, just in terms of marketing. Things that I've done, one. One thing that I think is maybe, maybe different some talent feel this way, but we've done, we do a fair amount of traveling, and I don't travel with equipment. Stephanie Roberts 20:09 Me either. It stresses me out. Jessica Taylor 20:12 I have three kids, like, I'm not going to try and get some quiet in a hotel room with three kids, and I want to, like, go and do what I want to do. So this last fall, we were, we go to every Rugby World Cup. It's every four years. So we were in the one in Japan five years ago. And then last year, in the fall, it was in France and Switzerland. Well, it was in France, but we traveled to Switzerland and France. And, you know, I booked, I booked two, three jobs while we were gone, and I just went to a studio and paid them for their time. And it is the best marketing to do that instead of for me. I guess I can't speak for everybody, but to go and pay somebody they work with you, and then they're like, wow, you're pretty good. Jessica Taylor 20:58 Instead of sending an email to those people, this one company I had been trying to get on with them for five years in France, a studio. Well, guess what? I was in France. I booked a job, I contacted them. I said, are you available, I have a project I need to record. They he ended up not getting my email in time, and I ended up going somewhere else, but it was just then he took me seriously, because I had a job that I needed recorded, and I was going to be a customer, and I was there for the Rugby World Cup, and he was like, you're a rugby fan, you're American. You're not supposed to be a rugby fan. And it started this whole like chat, because I was in his country, interested in what he was interested in, and I ended up recording a project with them a couple weeks ago. Stephanie Roberts 21:43 Oh, that's so cool. I love stories like that. Jessica Taylor 21:46 The studio that I actually ended up recording that project at, they loved my work, and I've recorded three or four projects for them. You know, you're paying for studio time, but you know, when you give people money, it's like this reciprocal, instead of just sending an email asking for something, you know, can I be on your roster? Stephanie Roberts 22:06 Yeah. And then you're also, like you said, just furthering the relationship and showing them exactly what you can deliver, instead of just them having to take your word for it by reading your email saying, I'm great. Hire me. Jessica Taylor 22:17 Yeah. So I turn those situations into marketing opportunities whenever I can Stephanie Roberts 22:25 Do you tell your clients that you're going away still and that you could potentially book a studio like do you still give them a heads up, or you just figure if they need you, you'll book the studio, and they don't have to know? Jessica Taylor 22:35 If I am kind of in the middle of a project, I would let my client know that we either need to wrap this we need to wrap it up before I leave. This is the date I'm leaving. I'm giving you 10 days notice. Or there's a possibility I might need to book a studio while I'm gone, and then I could tack that work on while I do that. And obviously I only book a studio for a really a good paying job that's worth interrupting my vacation and paying for that studio time. So those are usually agent jobs or pay to play things. But then usually clients are like, yeah, we can wrap it up before you leave, or we can do it when you get back. So I just kind of expect that it's going to work out, and it kind of always does. I've never really disappointed anybody. Stephanie Roberts 23:23 Yeah, same once, before my daughter was born, I took a laptop. First of all, I don't even own a laptop anymore. I have a desktop computer, but when I did have a laptop, I took the laptop and the hard drive and the M box and the microphone to we were meeting family in Banner, Elk, North Carolina, and we were staying in, like, an Airbnb, so it was, you know, no kids or anything. And I thought, Oh, this will be great. Like, I'll knock out some auditions while we're there. And we drove, so I didn't have to worry about flying with equipment. I had one agent audition, but I was, like, on my like, sitting down, like, holding something over my head, trying to hold up the paper, trying to read, and, oh, it's the worst. I just said, like, I can't this is not my best work, and this was even before home studios and you know, your sound really needed to be top notch, even in auditions. And it was just too stressful since then, like, now we have a kid, and it just feels like these times that we can get away, you know, his he works on Broadway. His schedule is wacky. So when we take a vacation, it is a vacation. And I've emailed clients and agents and I just say, hey, I'm going on vacation. And most of the time, they either write back, oh my gosh, amazing. Have so much fun, or they write back, oh, I love whatever... Disney World. We just went there. Here's some recommendations I have, or they'll say nothing, and then that's it. But I think it's encouraging to hear other voice talent kind of setting those boundaries as well and saying it's okay, because I feel like as a solopreneur, we're often and especially as theater people too, I feel like it's ingrained to just say yes to everything. Jessica Taylor 24:57 I feel like I'm pretty good at setting boundaries but also wanting to serve when I can. So I go to Minnesota a lot. That's where my family live. So I have, like, this one studio that I go to mostly every summer, and, you know, we usually road trip there. And literally, I'm booking jobs on my phone, and I'm like, okay, I've got, if I do all three of these, then I definitely justifies me getting a studio. So I will book studio time for when I'm there for one afternoon and my mom comes with, and she sits in the control room, or one of my kids comes with, you know, because usually I'm recording from my home studio, so it's not that exciting, but, yeah, they're like, ooh, Mom's going to a studio. And they'll sit in the control room and and then what I do is, if I have auditions that come in, I will, then at the end of that session, I will record those auditions in the studio. Stephanie Roberts 25:52 Oh, that's so smart. Jessica Taylor 25:53 And I got, I got a great job doing that, and I tend to book them, because it seems like I book a higher percentage of those, and I feel like it's because I'm just at the tail end of a directed session, like you're really dialed in, yeah? So, you know, you just try to, like, make the most of your time. And then sometimes, if someone really wants an audition, I'll just say, you know, I'm traveling. Are you okay with a phone audition? And most times they say, yeah, yeah, you know, like, especially if it's on a roster, they know I have a great studio. Or I'll say, you know, if you're worried about my sound quality, you know, all of my demos were recorded in my studio. So if you listen to those, that's representative of what my studio sound is like. Stephanie Roberts 26:31 Oh, that's really smart. How do you find all of your work? Besides, I know you said you like to be on rosters. Jessica Taylor 26:37 So I am on a good number of rosters. I have a hand 5, 6, 7, agents, different sizes. Like some are really small, you know, they may send me three things a year, and some are bigger. So I definitely focus on agent auditions. But you know that that's not the bulk of what I'm booking. I'm on Voice 123, I'm a platinum talent on Voice123, and I book there regularly. I would say I book more directly than actually, through auditioning more just people messaging me, saying, We've got this project, you're gonna be perfect, you know. Are you available? Stephanie Roberts 27:19 Because you're a platinum member, do you come up higher in searches? Do you know? Jessica Taylor 27:22 Oh, yes, you're paying for that. I don't know that I'll continue as platinum next year. I'm not sure. Because, in a way, I'm not, I'm not the kind of talent who where I am sitting in my studio like from nine to five every day, right? Because, again, this career is to support me being a pretty involved parent and doing things with my kids. So, you know, I'm not, you know, I feel like the Platinum is probably ideal for people who are literally sitting in their studio, like, ready for the next audition. So sometimes I feel like I'm paying more than I need to for things that I can't even take advantage of, right? If I were one step down, I think I would still get them early enough. But, I mean, I get, I get the these auditions, and there are no submissions. I'm like, I am seeing them first. I'm and it also I'm top 10% and you combine that with platinum, and I mean, that is what I'm paying for. So I literally have, it's like pick of the litter, but I'm not always here to take advantage of pick of the litter, so it might not make sense for me to keep paying for that, because I think if I stay 10% and I'm one tier down, paying probably half of what I'm paying now, I think I would still get them early enough that I can take advantage of it. Stephanie Roberts 28:42 I'm in that whatever that next level down is, I don't get as many direct messages. I think that is the difference from anyone that I've talked to that's platinum. I feel like that's a big difference, but you have to be accepted to the Platinum Membership, right? You can't just pay for it. Jessica Taylor 28:55 You do have to be accepted. And they look at your audition history, and I think what percentage you are, I think they may even like, look at your website. There's definitely more of a vetting process. Yeah, I don't think it's just, do you have 5k you can throw at us? I think it's, it's a little more involved in that. Because the funny thing is, is when I, when I decided to try for platinum, I sent them an email, and they're like, Yeah, we have a wait list. And I was like, great, put me on the wait list. And then they emailed me, like, two weeks later and said, we have an opening. And I've heard all these things where people have been waiting for years. So then I'm thinking, well, maybe I shouldn't drop it, you know, but I also, you know, I hate spending money on things that I'm not really capitalizing on, the direct the direct invites, that might be where I'm, you know, getting that value. Stephanie Roberts 29:25 Yeah, I do get, I do find that I'm in the first group sometimes, but it depends, and it also depends on, like for me, so I'm on the East Coast, and so sometimes I'll get direct invites overnight, and then I'll wake up and I'll be like, Oh, I have like, 15 auditions in my inbox, and they all have very low or no submissions, but by the time you get them, that might not be the case in that lower group. Jessica Taylor 30:12 I could see that that would make a lot of sense being mountain time. I really should be like, get up at four o'clock. Stephanie Roberts 30:21 I'm not a morning person, so Jessica Taylor 30:23 I'm not really either. Unless I'm gonna book a session, I'll get up and do a session at seven, because my kids will still be asleep. And, you know, I'm not like before they're they're going off to school. So sometimes it's nice to get that done before. You know, it's like kind of chaos in the house. So sometimes it's worth it to wake up really early and and do those sessions, especially if it's somewhere overseas. I really like working with overseas companies. I love it, I think just because I like to travel. Stephanie Roberts 30:56 I think that's probably a cool selling point for them to know that you like to travel. Jessica Taylor 31:02 Yeah, and that I lived overseas for four years. So I kind of understand, like, their mentality. You know, it's different from Americans. They're much more life first than Americans are. We're like work first. So I like that. I will say that the budgets aren't as big. That doesn't always, doesn't always bother me. Something that I book without having to audition for makes me really happy, because auditioning is such a time sink that booking something directly, without all that back and forth is just like you have a reasonable budget. Let's do it Sure. You know, I'm much more willing to say yes. Stephanie Roberts 31:42 And what percentage of your work, round about, do you think comes from agent auditions like that you actually book. Jessica Taylor 31:49 Actually, let me look it up. I have my Voiceover View thing. Stephanie Roberts 31:52 Oh, nice. See, we all have a spreadsheet on this podcast. Jessica Taylor 31:55 Wow, actually, this year, it is 1% 1% my client direct is 40% my online casting is 15% production company roster, 10% self marketing, 24% interesting. Whenever I come back and look at this, I'm always like, I know where I need to be spending my time. Stephanie Roberts 32:19 And that's so amazing, because I feel like every part of this career can become a time suck, whether it's auditions or invoicing or direct marketing, and if you're doing, you know, hours and hours of direct marketing, but that's really only 1% of your business, then that isn't a great way to spend your time. Jessica Taylor 32:37 Yeah, I will say that the other thing that I see when I see that is that I need to be working on my reads more more with commercial trends, which I'm starting to come back to, because that should be higher. I think my overall booking rate is 7% which isn't terrible, it's not amazing either. I don't think I'm a great auditioner. Stephanie Roberts 32:59 I would agree that I don't think I'm a great auditioner either. I think once I get to the session and I have another human being, I think I would be a great auditioner, and I've proposed this before, maybe you're the one who's gonna take me up on it that we audition together, like voice actors, pair up and audition together and give each other feedback and be the other person and be the director. Sometimes I audition with my husband. It hasn't happened in a while, but he sometimes he'll, especially if I'm in a rut, he'll be like, All right, I'll sit in and he doesn't know, I mean, he knows a lot from being married to me for so long, but, you know, he doesn't really, he's not a casting director or anything, but, but sometimes I just feel like that, especially, again, theater people like that, human to human connection just fuels us in a different way than when you're just standing just standing in front of the script by yourself. Jessica Taylor 33:45 Absolutely. Actually, I recently have, I've been working through Tina Morasco's Library. It's, it's really good, especially for conversational for me, again, the theater thing can really make me more presentational. So this whole peer to peer thing is kind of my blind spot, but she advocates for getting together and auditioning with someone else. And I actually had never thought of it. One thing I learned from Tom Pinto. He's a fantastic coach, by the way. He's amazing. He does this thing where he has a folder on the desktop of his computer called Winning auditions. So I started doing that maybe four or five years ago, and I have every single one of my auditions that I've booked off of in a folder, and I can go back and listen to them like in retrospect, it's really interesting. I think there was something about when I started that I sounded I sounded like I was not a voice talent, yeah, and I think that was what booked me that huge job. I mean, if I had got, if I got that script today, there is no way I would have approached it in the same way as. That funny. It's almost like I've been indoctrinated into the voice over sound, you know? Stephanie Roberts 35:06 Yeah, I feel like it's hard to break that no matter how, no matter how we try, it's like, it's, we hear commercials all day. We're told to watch commercials and learn and, you know, study your craft. And then when you do, you're like, Oh, this is the sound that they want, and so I'm going to give it to them in the audition. And sometimes that can work against you. Jessica Taylor 35:26 Oh, completely. Well, I will say, you know, in Tina, I've learned a lot in Tina's Library, because she talks about how the read that books the job is not very likely not the read you're going to hear on TV. And that booking the job is a different mentality from doing the job, which is quite a riddle for us all to unpack. It's, you know, and that's one casting director. She's one casting director, so the other casting directors may have a different feel about that, different advice. So lately, I've been feeling like, do I need to know what casting director this is going to because they all have a different way of directing, how to get to the read that they would want to hear in an audition, every single one of them. And they all have different advice. Stephanie Roberts 36:12 I know, and I think if you've taken enough classes, you've got enough notes, it would be helpful. Some of my agents do tell me, and some don't. And I don't, like, when I don't know, they'll just say, like, here's the audition. And I'm like, Oh, who's it for? I need to know. Jessica Taylor 36:26 I mean, sometimes it's obvious, Sound and Fury. Obviously those are, you know, the formatting. And she goes in and explains the entire reason it was really helpful to and that actually, what's funny is, whenever I see a Sound and Fury audition, I'm always kind of like, okay, let's give it a shot. But do you want to know what that Nature Made job I booked was a Sound and Fury audition. There's something about about like, that fresh, that fresh new, like, non voice over person sound. I mean, just yesterday, I had a live session I auditioned, and the audition sounded nothing like what we did in the session. I was so confused! Stephanie Roberts 37:15 You know, I was thinking back to when I asked you your percentages, and I realized that that those numbers are also just so in flux, because if you book a national SAG job tomorrow through your agent, then those numbers are going to skyrocket the other way. Jessica Taylor 37:32 Oh, they will, yeah. So quickly I'm looking at my top 10 clients. My first my top client is an IVR roster I'm on. It's my biggest client ever. Cumulatively over I've been with them for like, six years. Second one is this company called Urgent Vet. And I got on with them when they were just starting to expand and they were looking for a voice for like, one or two new locations. Now they have 50 locations. I voice all their phones, and I voice, I just did two more social media commercials for them yesterday, and that was just, like, just a direct, you know? And that's why my client direct is like 40% of my business. It's amazing. Stephanie Roberts 38:20 And so you know, with that being said, what do you do to maintain those repeat client relationships? Because, as I've heard many interviewees say, that's a huge part of their business, and a huge part of the guaranteed, quote, unquote, guaranteed, as much as we can be guaranteed income over the year is a repeat client basis. Jessica Taylor 38:42 I would say for me, it's just giving them the best service and becoming friends with them. I genuinely like those people who run urgent vet, and it's like this development of a relationship. It's me like they opened a new location. I was like, when are you coming to Colorado? And and the Director of Marketing emailed me the locations for, like, the the new telephone scripts. And I was like, Oh, my God, you have a location in Colorado now. And she said, Yeah, we're going to be there for an open house coming up. I went, and I brought my puppy and introduced myself as the voice of Urgent Vet. And it's, it's doing things like they needed. They changed the the prompt on one of their the main prompt on all their locations. And I just do that for free, like, I just try to be helpful. And, you know, deliver quickly. Deliver good work and not like, be a money grabber. I get paid very well by them, so I I just want to be like, it don't worry. This one's on me. Like, if I have clients who are coming back to me years over years, like, I'm not going to be just, you know, trying to get every one. little red cent. Stephanie Roberts 40:01 Yeah, I know Carin Gilfry talks about that too. She's mentioned that a bunch of times when people have posted in Facebook groups about what their retake policies are and things like that. And she's always like, if it's gonna take me three seconds and you just, you know, they changed one tiny sentence or one tiny word, or I messed up something, then no charge. I think that speaks a lot to people who are working at that high level, like who have that six figure income, or who are living in a place where they don't have to nickel and dime for each little tiny thing. But yeah, I think it does create a nice rapport, and I'm always pleasantly surprised when I'm about to do something for free, but like thinking, you know, as I'm reading through the email, like, oh, okay, no problem. I'll do that. And then they're like, we can offer you 50 bucks for this. Is that good? And I'm like, Yes, great. So, you know, it works both ways. I think they people appreciate your good work, and so they are happy to pay you for your time. And then, on the other hand, sometimes you can give them a freebie here and there. Jessica Taylor 41:01 Yeah, I did that production company roster I'm on. It was in December, and it was a pickup on a previous project. And at the end of the session, I was just like, you don't, you don't have to pay me for this. Like, you know, happy holidays. And they were just like, Oh my gosh. They couldn't believe it. During the holidays, for bigger clients, I make a donation in their in their name, like for Urgent Vet. I donated this year, I donated to the Humane Society. And they were just like, they were so happy like that, that money went to something that was so in alignment with what they do, or like production company I donate to the food bank in their neighborhood. Stephanie Roberts 41:42 That's a great idea. Jessica Taylor 41:44 Something that's local to them. So it's kind of like, you know, benefiting their community. So yeah, I think everything is about relationship, and I'm not. The most important thing to me is that the client is really happy with what they get. So like, the last sentence in my when I when I'm sending someone a file, I attach my invoice. It's a link to the we transfer to download the WAV. And then I say, if there's anything here that isn't sounding like what you were hoping to hear, just let me know. Like, you know, like I know, some talent really get into. I'll do one, one reread for tone, and then it's gonna cost more. And, you know, like, I'm here to deliver a product, like, end of sentence, like, if I can't give you what you want, then I'm probably not the right person, you know, but I'm gonna try. Stephanie Roberts 42:38 I think that's, again, like, such an open, collaborative way to communicate with the client, instead of being like, well, here are my files, period. If you need something else, you'll, you know, you'll be charged. Jessica Taylor 42:48 Yeah, I just don't want it to feel like this is the end. I'm done. I'm not doing anything else. Here's your file. Because if they're not happy, like, what, you know, it's just like, you know, I'm a picky consumer myself. I'm picky, you know, like, things cost a lot of money these days, and if I get something and I don't feel like I really got what was promised me, I'm gonna, I'm gonna complain. You know, things are it's an expensive time that we're living in, so every people should get what they're needing for what and get what they're paying for. Stephanie Roberts 43:23 Well, this has been such an awesome conversation. I'm curious if you have, like, one last piece of advice for the voice actor who might be listening thinking like, Oh, I'm not at six figures yet, but, you know, I'm hoping to get there in the future. Jessica Taylor 43:33 I think I see this myself...you know, people look at other people who they deem to be a success. And I think sometimes there's this expectation that that was easy. Nobody sees the work that goes in to creating. They just see oh so and so was nominated for an award. Oh so and so is the name of of this. They don't see all the coaching sessions all the time, obsessing over audio quality all the you know, marketing and developing relations, relationships with people, literally over years. It's just that it has to be a long term focus. And I know my story is is not the typical and so I don't I sometimes I don't like to share it because I don't want it to sound like you're gonna make a $40,000 in your first month of doing voiceover, like it was a really unusual circumstance. That is not typical. Jessica Taylor 44:33 And I've had plenty of down times that have made me go, oh, wow, that really wasn't typical. It's just such a roller coaster. You can go so far down, and then you can come so far up, and you just, I think, you just have to stay on the ride. So okay, if I could, if I could distill this, I actually wrote this down. There are days where I am so tempted to do every single audition I can, every single agent audition, every single Voice123, everything that I'm emailed from a production company, and there are some times where I just know that the best thing I could do that day is simply respond to people, chat with people on LinkedIn who I already have relationships with, find new companies to send an email to, or to get in touch with or send a letter. I like to send letters, send a letter to or a postcard, or to write a thank you note, or to send a gift card for coffee, and that, I think, is a longer term focus. It's like, I'm planting a garden, because one audition is one job, but a relationship is many jobs. So having that longer term focus. It's like really planting seeds and and getting to know people. Stephanie Roberts 45:44 I love that. I think that's such a perfect note to end on. Thank you so much for doing this. I really, really appreciate it. And hearing, hearing your story. Jessica Taylor 45:52 Thanks, Stephanie, this was fun. I love talking about voice over, geez. Stephanie Roberts 46:01 As a mama myself, I love Jessica's perspective on family time and how she uses her career to support being an involved parent, even if you're not a parent. I think this applies to partners, other family members, even your own hobbies outside of voiceover. I also love the way she spoke about how the business and the desired sound has changed over the years, which I know I definitely can relate to as someone who's been doing this around the same amount of time as Jessica has. If you'd like to learn more about Jessica, I'm linking her website and socials in the show notes, which you can find at my website, making it to the mic.com. Thanks so much for listening, and here's a little preview of the next episode. Tim 46:42 But for me, like I just love doing audio books so much that I'd rather spend my time doing audio books and making money that way than like auditioning for all the other stuff Stephanie Roberts 46:53 That's next time on Making it to the Mic.