S4 E2 | Robb Moreira
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Show Notes
Stephanie talks to Robb, a bilingual voice actor who has over a decade of experience working in several VO genres including commercials and more recently, audio books. Robb's acting background and friendly demeanor has helped him grow and maintain his voice over business.
Links:
Abacus Audio: https://www.abacus.nyc/
Robb's Website: RobbMoreiraVO.com
Instagram and X: @robbmoreiravo
Making It To The Mic Website: www.makingittothemic.com
Instagram: @stephaniepamrobertsvo
Email: stephanie@stephaniepamroberts.com
Full transcript:
Stephanie Roberts 0:00
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 Rob Moreira. Though I've known Rob for years in the VO social media groups before this interview, we had never officially met or talked one on one, so it was so much fun to chat and get a look inside his business and hear his story. So let's dive in. Here's my conversation with Rob Moreira.
Stephanie Roberts 0:33
Hey, Rob. How are you today?
Rob Moreira 0:40
Pretty good, not too bad, thankfully.
Stephanie Roberts 0:42
So welcome to the show. I'm so excited. Before we started recording, I was saying that you're on the list of people that I feel like I know through the internet, even though we don't really know each other personally. So thank you so much for being here today. Y
Rob Moreira 0:55
Yeah, absolutely. My pleasure. Thanks for having me.
Stephanie Roberts 0:57
So I like to start every episode by asking everyone the same question, which is, tell us about your journey. How did you make it to the mic, and what did you do before voice over?
Rob Moreira 1:06
Well, I've been studying acting since I was in junior high, so it started as kind of like a fluke. You know what class is easy that I could get an easy grade on. And drama happened to be that one, and it started with that, and then after a year or two, I joined the after school drama club in my junior high. And then I kind of fell in love with it. I really enjoyed it. My drama teacher told me about the La Guardia High School of Performing Arts here in New York. I auditioned, and I got in. So I was very surprised by that! LaGuardia High School is a conservatory style High School in terms of your training. So you're doing five subjects of regular school stuff, and then you're doing another four periods of just straight drama style, theater style. We would have two periods of acting every day, and then we did dance, we did voice and diction, we did a play analysis improvisation, and I did that for four years. So that was incredible for a teenager. I graduated, and I thought the world was my oyster, and I was going to tackle the world and become a huge, famous actor. And then I went to the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, also here in New York, to continue my conservatory training. Because I, I'm, I'm a strong advocate for consistent training throughout your throughout your career, regardless of how successful you are, it's always good to kind of keep those tools sharpened, and you can never learn too much.
Rob Moreira 2:41
So I did that. I did some off off Broadway, way off Broadway work. And by off off Broadway, I mean that I was spending money and making none to do it. But it was great, you know, because I stayed practiced and I was on stage, so I was still learning and using my craft at the time. Now, while I was doing that, I did have to eventually make money. We got bills to pay, so I became I worked at a call center for a wholesale travel company, and I did that for a while. I was 30 at the time, when I was doing a show, and a fellow actress in the show that I was in, I saw on her Facebook that she was speaking about booking these projects. And I was like, "Oh, what are these?" You know, it caught my interest. I was like, "What are these projects that you that you're booking? What like, what is that? Is that like a commercial?" And she told me, yeah, it's voiceover work. And I was like, oh, voiceover like, you know, if you don't really pay attention, you never really think about it.
Rob Moreira 3:47
You know, even when you tell people that don't know or haven't heard a voiceover, when you tell them that you are a voiceover actor, they're like, "Oh, what is that?" Because they never think about those voices on the radio or the voices in commercials. They never think of that as a job for some reason? But those are, those are clearly people that are doing this job. So I was kind of in the same boat at the time. I was like, "okay, so what? What does that entail? Like, what does that do?" So she started breaking it down for me, and while she was explaining it, she cut herself off, and she looked at me, and her eyes just opened super wide, and she said, "well, you know what, you would be great at this. You should really give it a go". And I was like, "Oh, okay. Like, where do I start? Like, like, what's my next step? If I was interested?" And this was, I mean, we're talking almost 11 years ago now. She told me, like, "listen, there's this website. Check out actors connection here in New York City. They have workshop"s.
Rob Moreira 4:48
And she just totally laid down like an easy path for somebody new to kind of follow. She was like, these are the workshops. Look out for agent night so you can meet the agents. Get to know them. Get yourself a USB microphone so you could record yourself at home. Mind you again, this was 11 years ago where recording at home was still pretty unheard of. So I started doing a couple of workshops just to kind of get my feet wet and see if this was even something I was interested in. So I did one with Abacus Entertainment and, Bryant the he's one of the guys that works at Abacus, He told me. He was like, Hey, listen, have you ever done this before? And I was like, No, you know, I've just been, you know, I've been acting, so I'm not necessarily out of practice. The acting isn't anything new for me. Just acting behind the mic is new. And he said, You know what, I think you'd be pretty good at this. You should really consider it. And after hearing it now a second time now from somebody else that's like, you know, he produces and he's behind the scenes, right? I was like, huh, maybe I should start to kind of take this seriously. So I told him that I wanted to cut a demo. We did a couple of sessions, just one on one, so you can hear my reads and just kind of clean up the theater. The natural theater person who wants to blow out the mic because they're trying to hit, you know, seat 100 in the back!
Stephanie Roberts 6:11
Right? I think we all struggle with that.
Rob Moreira 6:13
I feel like that's every theater person's struggle when they get behind the mic is like, right, tone it down. Your audience is like six inches from your face. So that took a little, a little practice, a little practice to kind of get used to. And I cut a demo, and then I sat on the demo for like, a year. I didn't know what to do from there. And at the time, I wasn't on socials for voice over at all, so I didn't know any other actors that were doing voice acting, besides that one friend who she and I, we were acquaintances, but we weren't necessarily the closest, so I didn't want to, like, bother her. I kind of felt like I might be bothering if I was like, hey, but why?
Rob Moreira 6:55
I just kind of sat on it, and then I went back to doing workshops again and but I became a little bit more strategic on my plan. I was like, I'm gonna do workshops, but let's not just go willy nilly and just do these acting workshops. I'm confident in my craft. What am I looking to get out of being in these in person workshops? What is it that I'm trying to gain? I started to specifically pinpoint agent workshops so I can start meeting these agents. Not so much in the interest of hopefully I get signed, but more of maybe I should start getting some advice and insight from people that are actively booking this work and looking for talent. That might be the advice that I need right now. At least they'll be able to guide me a little bit better. And then, in one of the workshops that I did, Linda Weaver, who, who used to be one of the owners of Access Talent here in New York, she, she was actually at this agent workshop. I went up, I read my commercial copy. And Linda, she kind of had this interesting look on her face when she was kind of looking at me, and she just out of the blue said, Do you speak Spanish? And I said, Yeah, actually, I do. And she was like, Are you fluent? I said, Yes, yes, I am. She was like, Oh, okay. And then I told her, I actually have a Spanish commercial copy in front of me, if you want to hear that? And she said, Yeah, you know what? Give it a go. I just want to hear what it sounds like. I said, Okay, so I read it for her. And then she asked me, Do you have a demo? And I said, yeah, yeah, actually, I do. Thank God I had one. She said, Okay. And then that was kind of it.
Rob Moreira 8:37
Two days later, I get a call from Linda, and now I'm at work. I'm a manager at this point at this call center. I'm like, All right, sorry, guys, I gotta, I gotta, I gotta run because I see who this is coming from, and I need to see what's going on. I take the call and I remember, she tells me, Hey, listen, I just played your demo for the rest of the folks here at the office, and we absolutely loved it. Now, one thing I want to highlight about this demo that was different, that I'm so happy I wasn't on socials at the time because I did something that apparently is very unorthodox, but as an actor who doesn't have a ton of funds and was looking to make the most out of what he had. When I cut my demo, I actually did a bilingual demo. I had six spots, three of them were in English, two of them were just in Spanish, and one of them was a hybrid to show that I can shift mid commercial if needed. So that's what I did, and this was my first demo, and one that I used for four years straight with no other demo, and it booked me tons of work and got me loads of attention because it was so unearth, unorthodox, and she loved it. She loved it. The other agents at Access loved it, and she wanted to have a meeting, and I went. I met with her the following. Week, I signed with access talent, October, mid October of 2014 and I've been with them ever since. And it's quite literally been non stop ever, ever since I got that.
Stephanie Roberts 10:15
Amazing. So yeah, I feel like for you, getting that representation right away was key...
Rob Moreira 10:21
Absolutely. And it was interesting, because it was kind of like being thrown into the big leagues right off the bat, which, again, if, if you remember from seeing in the socials, nine times out of 10 people say, Don't do that. Don't start with an agent, right? That's like, not the thing to do. So I did two things that were not the thing to do. Apparently, in common given advice, which is, don't mix your demos and don't start don't start contacting agents or start with an agent. And I did both. In doing that, it actually created a really great career for me, and really being bilingual is what helped the most, because I didn't realize how separated the English voice acting scene is from the Spanish voice acting scene, and that there really was, there really wasn't an In between scene. There weren't many actors that were that were kind of living in both worlds, and I was one of very few that was able to do it with a natural accent, fluently in both languages. So I was a bit of a unicorn in that regard, at least back then. It's definitely more common, more commonplace now, because again, you know, there is, there is a need for it. And truth be told, I'm absolutely still reaping the benefits of that, which is great.
Stephanie Roberts 11:49
I literally have on my question list "being bilingual. How is that helpful?"
Rob Moreira 11:53
Yeah, it's, it was incredibly helpful in just an example of one booking that I got and again, just because I happened to be bilingual, and it was a, this was three, maybe four months into me, having signed with access, I did an audition for McDonald's, and I did the audition, sent it off, and my agent, she called me back. This is Linda still, and she was super excited, because this was my first union gig, also. And then at the end, she goes, Oh, by the way, this is in Spanish. And I said, Oh, didn't I audition in English? And she said, yeah. So what happened was, is that they really liked your English read, but it was between you and one other guy, but because of the way you slated, because when I slate, I don't say Rob Moreira in an anglicized way. I pronounce my name Rob Moreira. So when I say Moreira, you can hear that obviously I am fluent in another language. So they asked, does he happen to speak Spanish? And she said, yeah, actually, he's fluent. Here's his demo. This is him speaking Spanish. And then they kept the other guy that they had in the running for the English, and didn't even audition for the Spanish. They just gave it to me.
Stephanie Roberts 13:12
That's amazing!
Rob Moreira 13:13
Yeah. So it was really wild, you know, again, just like those small, little semi potentially unorthodox things that I did happen to kind of push my career forward that much more.
Stephanie Roberts 13:25
Are there times where you get booked on both like, how often does that happen, where you do get to do both sides of it?
Rob Moreira 13:32
Surprisingly, in the commercial realm, very infrequently.
Stephanie Roberts 13:36
That's so interesting, you would think that they would like that brand consistency. And if you can do both, they might as well.
Rob Moreira 13:43
Yeah, interestingly enough that it doesn't happen as often as you would think. I thought that may be the case, because again, if you have the one actor, you know, do the one session, bang out both commercials, do the two buyouts, and boom, done. Like, Oh, we just saved a day of of, you know, coordination, but, um, yeah, that doesn't that didn't happen too frequently. It has, but again, not, not as much as one would think. I would say at best, maybe a dozen in my 10 years of doing it.
Stephanie Roberts 14:14
Interesting. So when did you reach that six figure mark for the first time, and how did that feel, were you was it like kind of quick, or did it take a while?
Rob Moreira 14:24
It was interesting. So it did take a bit. It is, it is a grind. It is a grind. And that's just voiceover in general, as as you know, you know it is, it is work. It takes time before you really see the fruits of your labor. But it's staying with it, you know, keeping that drive, and then eventually you'll kind of see things, you know, shift for you. I feel like you can almost kind of, in your like, in your spirit. You feel something moved in your business. You don't know what it is, but, you know, something changed. You just, you just feel it like, Oh, I feel like I've just hit a new threshold in this business.
Rob Moreira 15:02
Now, when I was doing voiceover I was still working that day job. So I was doing both in tandem. So I was kind of doing two full time jobs somewhat at the same time, right? So while one was paying my bills, the other one was, I'm not gonna say my fun money, but it was the it was the VO money. So basically, everything I made from voiceover was kind of getting poured back into voice over, doing more workshops, getting better microphones, getting better a better setup. And that's and that's basically how I built to what I currently have as as my setup right now, is by reinvesting whatever I made.
Rob Moreira 15:39
So it was 2019 at this time, I was already made. I was making a pretty healthy five figures. I would say this was a from voice over. I was making about as much as I was making at my day job. And I was a business manager, so I was up in the high 70s at this point. So I was making about the same amount in both but the as a sales manager, they were having a sales meeting that was going to be in Mexico, and this was going to be in October. And my manager at the time, he told me, Hey, listen, we need you to go. We need you to go out to this to this conference, to the sales training. Now, at the time, my wife was pregnant. She was about to pop my my youngest. And I told him. I was like, listen, that's not gonna happen. Unfortunately, like that, that's just, there's no wiggle. So he was like, Okay. He was, he was very understanding. He said, absolutely, totally understand. And he went back to his higher ups. They came back and they were like, can you at least go for a day? I was like, guys, I'm not leaving the States for a day. My manager, he's like, listen, they're kind of deadlocked on this. They really need you to be there. So I hit that crossroads, you know, what? What am I gonna do? They're telling me I have to do something that I've already told them I absolutely cannot do. I'm making really good money in both what I'm making in voiceover. Technically, I could survive off this. Could I do this again next year? I guess that's the question, right? Can I replicate what I did this year, next year? Can that happen? So I had a talk with my wife. I was like, listen this, this is where I'm at. And she said, Well, where what's your what is your thought process? Where are you at? Mentally? I was like, Well, I know that if I stay with the day job, I already don't like it, but I'm making a really good amount of money. But in terms of how much I can make, this is probably as high as it'll go, unless I get promoted somewhere else down the line, and I don't even know if I want to be higher up than where I am right now.
Rob Moreira 17:47
While with voice over, I'm making about the same amount, but in terms of scalability, I could audition a lot more. I have a lot more free time, I think. I mean, there's no ceiling on how much I can make. She was like, Okay, well, it sounds like your mind is kind of made up. I don't want to pull the trigger on this kind of a decision, you know, without your input, because it could be potentially impacting if things go the opposite way. And she said, Well, I trust your talent. If you trust your talent, I say, go for it. So that next day, I called my boss, I let him know, and now at this time, I had been doing voice over now for about five years, I told him, yeah, listen, I'm, you know, I got to give my two weeks. I got to head out, because I'm going to pursue voice acting full time. And he and I'll never forget this. It was such a great thing to hear. And he said, first thing he says is, you know what, it's about time I was wondering when you were gonna leave. And I was like, What do you mean? And he was like, Dude, you're the voice of Armani. You're doing incredible things. Now I knew it was just a matter of time that you were gonna leave. I just was waiting for you to kind of realize it. And I was like, Wow, that's crazy to hear from your boss, who you just told I'm leaving. You know what I mean? And that that that really kind of helped a lot in in solidifying that decision. So now I just bought a new booth that November of 2019 and then we all know what happened March 2020. Pandemic hit, Covid shut down everything. And if there was anything that clients were looking for were people that had home setups that knew how to work their equipment, and the fact that I was able to do this in two languages that opened up the floodgates. Now it was that on top of the fact that now I was available, and I literally went from around that 70k mark to doubling it that following year. So I finished year that, that following 2020, with at a at around the 140 150k mark.
Stephanie Roberts 19:59
It's so funny. It's like everybody has their own version of, like, how the pandemic affected their business. And like, what you know factors were there already in place. And I think it was, sounds like it was just the perfect storm for you that you suddenly had the time, you had the equipment.
Rob Moreira 20:15
The timing of everything was, is a little eerie. It almost seems like I knew what was going to happen. It just everything felt like those dominoes couldn't have fallen down more perfectly. It was wild, and I was incredibly, incredibly fortunate, you know. And to say, you know, not, obviously, not to make light of that year either. But it was really tough too, being that successful and having a bit of that guilt of success, yeah, because of what happened, totally you know what I mean. And that kind of lingered for a while as well. But I paid my dues as well. I did my work, so I should enjoy it. I shouldn't feel bad because of my success, so I kind of had to talk myself, you know, out of that mentality, because, if not, the work would have suffered. So, you know, it was, it was very, it was very much kind of refocusing and telling myself, No, you did this work. You're not taking away anything from anyone. You paid your dues. As everybody says that anybody should, when finding success, you should pay your dues and then find success. I did pay my dues, and thankfully, I found that success, and I was incredibly fortunate for that.
Stephanie Roberts 21:34
Yeah, thanks for sharing that. It's, it's, I feel like there was again, you know, everybody has their own version of the story and so many feelings. And for me, I think I've said this on the podcast before, but my husband is a Broadway sound engineer, so he was out of work sort of like, suddenly it was like, oh, you know, we're gonna take the next couple of weeks off and we'll be back in a couple of weeks, very shortly after that was clear that that was not going to be the case. So I too, I was thankful I had the setup already. I had clients, and I was able to reach out and say, Hey, because suddenly I was the primary income provider, because he was on unemployment. But it was a different, you know, our our whole balance shifted right, especially 2020 and 2021 were my, some of my most successful years, both financially but also business wise, because I had the time. I suddenly had full time childcare. There he was all day, every day, just like you take our daughter now and I'll go work. And that was a big shift, you know, for me to have that dedicated time basically whenever I wanted it for free, yeah, makes a big difference. When it started, she was two and a half. It's just so interesting to hear everybody's version of the story and how 2020 either boosted their business or for whatever reason. And and I'm curious if you felt too that there was like a push for more e learning stuff or other genres that maybe were just sort of like, oh yeah, I do a couple of those things. But then the pandemic really pushed that forward for you.
Rob Moreira 23:09
Interestingly enough, at the time, at the at that time, no, I was very entrenched in the commercial realm and I lived in that realm for a while. I probably was predominantly commercial for maybe the first, like, seven or eight years. Really, the majority of my career was mostly commercial. I didn't start really broadening out until about year seven or year eight. Realistically, like I would do a couple of things here and there, but it wasn't as frequent. The push, really was for people again, from just from my end, that what I saw was the fact that you can use your that you had a setup, that it was a good setup, and and the fact that I was bilingual, just kind of just kind of clinch the deal ultimately.
Stephanie Roberts 24:02
You know, since then, do you feel like, each year, you kind of feel that feeling of like, oh, here we go. Is it going to happen this year? Do you feel kind of like, settled? I don't know if that's possible, but settled and like, I know I'm going to make this money this year.
Rob Moreira 24:18
That's a good question. It at this point, it's I know I'll do well, whether I'm going to do extremely well or good enough that I don't think I could get that specific. Now, granted, I do have a spreadsheet where I kind of have everything broken down, but it's difficult to forecast when you're not really entrenched in the advertising world, you don't really know what's going on, like, while we do work the ads, we're not really in that realm. We don't know what's what's popping, what's hot, what's moving. It's a little difficult to forecast, but it's really just a matter of being able to to shift when needed, be available, when something new is available. And, yeah, you know, being open to anything.
Rob Moreira 25:09
The biggest thing for me, really was that, you know, that I had years where, for the again, for the first, like, chunk of my career, it was very commercial heavy, but then at some point I felt a shift where the commercials started to kind of slow a little bit as more actors were getting were kind of kind of moving into the industry, especially around the 2020, 2021, because while there was a big loss of in person work, there became a huge surge of now online voice actors that kind of came into the industry that I'm sure you've noticed, you know, through socials, you know, there was a huge surge now, especially for any on camera talent or on stage talent, this what we do became the, well, this is all that's available. Now, let's do this. So I started to feel the shift of commercial to slow. But in that happening, video games started to expand for me, those started to open up for me, which was great as about a year or two ago, then I felt that shift again, because now, as things are kind of shifting back to quote, unquote normal in LA and Texas, video games are slowing down a little bit because now they're looking to do things more locally and on site. So those virtual opportunities are slimming again, just from my perspective, and I, you know, I fit a niche that may not be the case for females or any other marginalized groups, they may see more opportunities, I don't know, but audio books has actually taken off for me.
Stephanie Roberts 26:48
Yeah, I saw that you had posted something about audio books, and I then when I looked at your website, I was like, Oh, cool. Like, that's an interesting shift to get into kind of later in the business. So what a cool message that like, this far into your career, you could be like, what else? What else is out there in voiceover that I can, you know, dive into, I always say, and I'll say it again in case this is somebody's first episode. I do not do audio books. You may pick and choose what genres of the business you want to be in. It is not required to do all of the things for all of the people. It's definitely not for everyone. The the actor in me thinks, wow, that would be a really cool opportunity. Because, you know, sometimes the corporate scripts, after a while, you're like, what am I even saying? I don't know anymore. You know, the audio books feels like a really cool thing for for the actor in me. But I just, I don't know. I think it's too much time for my brain.
Rob Moreira 27:39
I hear you. I hear you. I think part of the reason why audio books kind of stayed out of my radar for a while, also was because once I started to get onto the social landscape of voiceover, you know, on the Facebook groups and whatnot, there was a lot of talk about how time intensive they are and how tech savvy you had to be to be to do audio books.
Stephanie Roberts 28:02
Right. Because a lot of times you get paid per finished Hour, which if for those actors who are listening, who may not know what that means, it means that you get paid for the time that it is when it's done. So if it takes you four hours to read a one hour chunk, you're not getting paid for the four hours. You're getting paid for the one hour. So it behooves you to not only be a great actor but a great sight reader and a great technician, to be able to edit and know what you're doing quickly so that it doesn't take you know that much extra time.
Rob Moreira 28:36
Exactly. So that was kind of what kept me apprehensive from doing audio books. And you know, I know about ACX, where you know, you audition for books, you know, for any independent authors and whatnot. And I was like, Man, that just sounds like a lot of heavy lifting that I'm just not interested in, especially as somebody who's been doing commercials for the last eight years, where you know, they'll book you for an hour, and depending on what it is, if I'm really in the zone, I'll crank that session out in 10 minutes. You know what I mean?
Stephanie Roberts 29:08
Right? I think that's part of my hesitation is like, but I could be done in 11 minutes. Why would I want to spend five days in my booth?
Rob Moreira 29:15
Exactly! So that was kind of my mentality going into it. And then I ended up I did audio descriptions for a while, which, which was really nice, not crazy high paying, but great work in terms of getting your sight reading down, because you're reading all these scripts cold. Yeah. So it was so that's why I enjoyed it, besides the fact that, you know, you were helping out, you know, the the blind or hard to see audience, it was, it was really great exercise for for my eyes, and being able to read cold quickly and efficiently, and knew what I know, what I was saying, just, you know, right from looking at the sentences, just, you know, a couple of times. So that was really great. One of the directors there, she put me in touch with publishers that she knew, she kind of spread my name around. She was like, you really should get into audio books. Which was, which was fantastic. I ended up doing a book with John Marshall media. It was my first one. It was, it was on site, so I had no engineering to do, which was great. And I was like, you know what this I could do. Because then all I literally do is I just went into their office and I just read.
Stephanie Roberts 30:24
Because now you're just the actor!
Rob Moreira 30:25
Yes, so the stress, yeah, the stress was way down. I could just focus on my acting, and I'm good. So I did that one book, and I was like, okay, cool. Like, that wasn't so bad, you know? Yeah, it was time intensive, but I wasn't doing anything else. So yeah, all right, cool. That's, that's a nice way to kind of fill out the time. Then, I ended up getting contacted by a producer from Audible, and then I was like, how do you know who I am? And they were like, well, you know, we heard about you from a narrator who was that director that I was telling you about, Eliza Foss, and she passed along my name. They contacted me again because I was Latino. They brought me in to record sections of a book. So I went into their offices in New Jersey, which is an incredible facility, if you haven't been it's, it's like, it's like another planet in Jersey. It's wild. But same thing, I didn't have to do engineering. I just had to go in read my chapters, and I was done in a day. So I was like, cool, that wasn't so bad.
Rob Moreira 31:26
And then audio books got quiet for a little while, and then about a year, maybe like, two years ago, I got contacted by Macmillan, who's another publisher. And again, I was like, how do you know who I am, because I'm getting contacted out of the blue. How do these people know me? Same thing, my name. Apparently, the producer at Audible knew a producer at Macmillan. They passed along my name because they were looking for a Latino narrator and who was quick, and they mentioned my name so he, you know, he sent me the the the producer from McMillan contacted me, told me what the book was about, laid it out, you know, gave me and then he asked me, you know, what would my per finished hour be? And I remember, when I saw it, I was like, Ooh, this is recording at home. Okay. This is a new this is a new experience. Do I want to do this? I don't know, I was still very apprehensive, yeah. So I was like, you know what, let me just, let me just throw out at high number and just see what happens. You know, because usually they would say, if you're a new narrator, you don't charge more than, like, $175 per finished hour or something at the time. You know, you don't go too high because you're still fairly new. And I was like, You know what? Let me just say $275 which is kind of the regular for a steady narrator. Mind you, I only got like, two books under my belt. I'm only gonna record raw, I'll punch and roll, no engineering on my side. I was like, worst case scenario, they say, no, I'm not all that interested in doing it anyway.
Stephanie Roberts 32:57
Sometimes it's the zero Fs quotes that come through. And you're like, Okay, well, there it is.
Rob Moreira 33:04
Yeah, so I sent it, and then they came back, and they were like, cool - sounds good. I was like, oh, crap! Okay, I guess I'm doing an audio book now, and that's how I did my first audio book at home. And since then, since then, I've been incredibly fortunate, you know, they consistently reach out to me to audition. I've done a couple of books with them. One of the books, actually, I did for them, the Golden Gate, was nominated for an Audi last year, which is amazing. And since then, a couple other publishers have reached out because they've heard my name from other producers. And it seems like this is kind of like a common thing. You know, a lot of producers, they're not siloed. They all kind of know each other from all different publishers. They all kind of speak to each other. So if they're ever like, Hey, you happen to know somebody who fits this kind of demographic or type or whatever, because I'm working on this book and I need somebody that's good, they'll pass your name along very easily, because they're looking for somebody that's going to make their life a lot easier, right? So if you're a great narrator, you're a great actor. You know, keep your cold reads well, your reads in general, your sight reading like, really clean. I mean, they they worship that kind of narrator. They're like, man, this person goes in. They know what they're doing. They bang it out. They do their own pickups. Rarely do it. I mean, the easier you can be, the higher the praises are, and the more likely you are to be referred so it's really keeping those acting skills really sharp, because even outside of the audio book industry, just that industry of the you know, outside of us as voice actors, but those that produce the work and do the work, they all kind of talk to each other, yeah. So if you're known as somebody who really just hits home runs every session, they will absolutely pass your name along. And I've got, I've gotten a lot of clients. That way is usually to me out of the blue, because they just reach out, but it's because they heard of me from somebody else.
Stephanie Roberts 35:07
And I always like to imagine, like, what was the chain of events, chain of emails that was like, oh, man, I need a this and a this and oh, I've got the perfect person for you. And then, like, six days later, you get an email. It's just a funny thought that somebody somewhere is throwing your name around.
Rob Moreira 35:24
Yeah, it's just so, so wild. And occasionally I'll ask a client, you know, if it seems so out of the blue that I can't even track how they found me, I'll ask them, you know, because it doesn't hurt to just be like, Hey, how'd you hear about me?
Stephanie Roberts 35:39
And I think that's an interesting kind of piece of the puzzle to a six figure income is repeat clients or word of mouth and stuff. So how do you keep those relationships kind of fresh and sharp with those repeat clients? Not the people that you don't know where they come from, but the people that you know come back to you month after month with regular you know, jobs or auditions. How do you maintain those relationships?
Rob Moreira 36:03
Well, honestly, I know the thing that they appreciate the most is that I'm kind of on call at all times I feel like I'm kind of like a doctor. You know what I'm saying? If I have a client that hits me up at 9pm, I'm responding. I know there are many voice actors that say not to do that. Keep strict business hours because you don't want to create bad habits, yada yada, yada yada. But the clients that I've that I've had appreciate that I'm so fast at responding and sending back work. I mean, there are times that you know and it's and it still happens, even with clients that are that have been my regulars for years, now that they'll send me something, and they'll tell me, Hey, take your time. You don't need to send this for like, a couple of days, and an hour later, I'm sending them the finished product, and they're like, Geez, you're so fast dude. And I'm like, if I have the time, why not? Yeah, and it's great, because it makes them feel like, even though they gave me a 48 hour like deadline, or even a week deadline, and I have that to them within the within the hour, they're like, man, he must, really, he must. He appreciates us, right?
Stephanie Roberts 37:14
And it makes them feel like they're very important to you.
Rob Moreira 37:19
Exactly. I'm not doing anything crazy. I'm literally, like, I got 10 minutes. I know I could bang this out in 10 minutes. Why would I make them wait? Or there have been times where I'm like, home. I'm hanging out. I'm playing a video game with my kids. It's like, eight o'clock, and I'm like, Oh, snap, I got this. You know, this Cali client just asked me to record this thing. I'd be like, Hey, girls, Is it cool if I step out for if I step out for like, 15 minutes, I just got to record some real quick. They'll be like, Yeah, okay, cool. I'll pop in, record it, send it off, and then I'm back playing games with them, and then I'm getting an email saying, like, whoa, thanks so much. That was so quick. We appreciate you. And I was like, I appreciate you. Boom, done!
Stephanie Roberts 37:58
Right, right. I sometimes fall into the category of the procrastinator and I, I have so many times when I do that, it always backfires. Somebody gets sick. I get sick all of a sudden, like the computer is acting up whatever it is. So I've, I've really tried, and especially in the past year, this year, to be like, if the job comes in, or the audition, and I have no reason to put it off. I better do it so that it's done and I can, you know, like, bank that, like, good karma with the client or with the agent and with myself, so that I'm not stressing out being like, Oh crap. This audition is due tomorrow, and now I sound like crap because I'm sick, because kids, man, kids,
Rob Moreira 38:40
Yeah, or, like, even in the spring, I have terrible allergies. I know that when I wake up that first hour and a half I sound awful, yeah, so I know I gotta wake up a little bit earlier to get myself warmed up and for those allergy meds to kick in, so I could sound like me again. I know that, so I need to take that responsibility for my clients, so that I could do that, especially since I have a client in Dubai where, if they need me, you know, at 4:30 their time, I better be up at 7am so that I could get to them at 8:30 and be ready to rock, you know what I mean? So it's like, you know, it's just showing that little bit of extra care for your client. It goes a long way.
Stephanie Roberts 39:24
Yeah. And what about during the slow times? Because we all have them. And, you know, this week has just been like crickets from agent auditions.
Rob Moreira 39:33
I think this, I think this year, like after since, like October, is when I felt it. I felt a heavy shift in the biz. And, yeah, I don't know what it is, but I felt thing like things take a drastic slowdown right now. It's starting to pick back up again for me. But yeah, since October, it's been it's been pretty quiet. And as a creative I feel like it's easy for us to kind of. Fall down that mental wormhole of like, Man, am I doing enough? Did I mess up? Did I lose clients? Is it me? Are my reads bad?
Stephanie Roberts 40:09
Is my studio suddenly? Like, not, I've changed. Not a thing in here, but all of a sudden I'm like, Oh, my God, it's my sound quality.
Rob Moreira 40:14
It's clearly me, yeah, like, we're very quick to blame us. And that's just the nature of the creative, you know, like we can't help that. It's the perfectionist in us. If things go wrong, it's clearly our fault that, and that's, that's just how we think. So it's really kind of being self aware and not letting yourself fall down that trap, that mental trap. Because if you do, and it is just the business, it's, it's not us, something shifted, and that is, and it is a common thing ask other actors. That's what I always do. I ask other actors, I'm like, hey, how's business going for you? It's always good to kind of get, you know, a pressure gage of what's going on from other talented to make sure it's not, it isn't just you.
Rob Moreira 40:55
So when I when I felt that, I kind of asked around. And first thing I did was I asked my agents, hey, how's the market looking? And thankfully, you know, Roger Becker, who now owns Access Talent, you know, he lays it out, very open for me, and he's like, no, it's not you. You're doing fine. And truth be told, that's the one only opinion I should worry about are those of my agents and my managers, and I did the same thing with my managers at ACM, like, hey, like, my reads still on point. They're like, Dude, your reads are great. Like, okay, cool, so as long as I know it's not me, then, then, then I'm okay.
Rob Moreira 41:34
So at that point, because it is slow, it's kind of like, so what do you do? All right? Now what? So what I have been filling my time up with, besides doing audio books, which are very time intensive. I mean, there was about eight weeks where I was just recording audio books. I did about four audio books back to back, and that filled out a lot of time, thankfully. So I'm extremely happy and fortunate that my business kind of moved in that direction, because now I don't feel so bad while the commercial side of things kind of take, you know, kind of taken a bit of a, I don't want to say pause, but a little bit of a drip, as opposed to the full flow it used to be. But I also do read on my own to kind of keep myself up to snuff. I do stay more engaged with other voice actors on socials to kind of keep networking and just, you know, stay in contact. Sometimes we get so work heavy that we kind of forget to be peo.
Stephanie Roberts 42:33
Totally. I love that. Yes, you're in your own little boxes, literally.
Rob Moreira 42:38
So it's like, listen while you have the time take, this time to get back to talking to your people again, and, you know, just keeping the positivity up, and that's something that I feel like I like to take on, is that I like to keep things positive. And you know, some actors aren't established as I am, or have been doing it as long as I am, so I already know the mental pitfalls that one can come across, especially with social media, just in general. I mean, people you know fall into those traps, just in their own personal life, with things you know, comparison is the you know, is the killer of joy. You know what I mean. And we do that. And being on socials and being exposed to that. It happens, especially on Twitter and Facebook, I mean, on all of them, because when people book things, they post about it, and then you see it and you say, well, I'm not posting. I'm not booking anything. I'm not posting. I'm miserable. Now, what am I doing wrong? You know what I mean. But just because they post it doesn't necessarily mean that they're not going through a slowdown. And the reason they post it is because this may be the only win they had this week. You know what I mean? So they're posting it to lift themselves up. Like we don't know when it slows down. Jump back into the community. See what's going on. Go back to those people that you haven't spoken to in a while, that you know you're friendly with, and say, what's up? And say, Hi. Have a quick convo. You have a zoom, even if it's a phone call, whatever, just get, get back into the community and just lift each other up, because we're not alone, considering we're so alone throughout the day, we're not actually alone. We're all doing the same thing. We're all in the same fight. We're all trying to get we're all trying to get work. And, you know, there's a lot more people going through a rough patch than you think. We just don't talk about it. And I think we need to talk about it to keep ourselves out of the negative headspace.
Stephanie Roberts 44:31
I think I had said to people too, my speculation was, I wonder if, you know, companies just spent so much money and time and resources during the pandemic, changing things, advertising new things. We're wearing masks. We're not wearing masks. Get your vaccines. You know, like all of these things had to be. There was just so much more to tell people absolutely and then when things kind of really started to go back to normal, and things were just not as necessary, like new videos weren't as necessary. I feel like companies were like, Oh, thank goodness we don't have to spend all this money. And I totally agree it was. It got real slow and it was very disconcerting, but you're right, and I think that's part of my impetus to restart the podcast too. Is just like, you know, hear what other people are doing, because you're right. We're all in our own headspace. And then you start talking to people, and you're like, You the people you think are just constantly working all day every day, are like, Oh no, is really slow this week for me. I'm like, thank goodness. Okay, it's not just me.
Rob Moreira 45:30
Yeah. I mean, I can't tell you the number of times where, you know, actors have asked me, like, Hey, how's business going? And when I say, you know, it's a little slower than normal, and then you see that kind of look of relief on their face, like, Oh yeah!
Stephanie Roberts 45:44
Right. Like, if Rob thinks it's also slow, then like, I'm okay!
Rob Moreira 45:49
Yeah, exactly. And it's, it's wild. You know what? I mean, it's so wild to see that. It's like, Nah, man, it's, it's not you, we're all kind of feeling it. You're definitely not alone. You're not doing anything wrong. It's just something in the business shifted, and we got to be prepared to shift along with it. And, you know, keep ourselves available, keep ourselves well trained, and keep those tools sharpened, you know, as you're doing with the podcast, and keeping your skills up to snuff, everybody should everybody who has some talent outside of just their acting should keep all those skills sharp, because, again, you know, you never know when that stroke of opportunity is going to make its way, and you need to be prepared to capitalize on it.
Stephanie Roberts 46:37
Yeah, is there any like kind of last tips that you have about maintaining this income and feeling like you said, like, okay, sure, we can't put a number. Like, for sure, this year I'm gonna make X number of dollars. But is there anything that you feel like really helps you just kind of maintain the income and mentally relax and say, Nope, I don't have to worry. I know I'm gonna make a good amount of money this year for my myself, my business, my family...
Rob Moreira 47:06
I think the biggest thing is that we all need to remember that we are running our own businesses. With that being said, 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, because none of them are dealing with your clients, none of them are dealing with your schedule, none of them are dealing with your home situation. So however, it makes the most sense for you, is right? Because you're you, and nobody else is I. You know, I have three kids. I have one going to college.
Stephanie Roberts 47:54
I didn't know that. That's amazing and terrifying. I can't think my daughter is going to be seven in June, and I can't even think that far in advance.
Rob Moreira 48:02
My oldest, yeah. So you know, again, this is my situation, and it's very unique. I have one that's starting kindergarten next year, so it's like, I'm ending one cycle and starting another. So it's, it's really, it's really wild. I'm also an amateur kickboxer, so I work out very regularly. I'm at the gym every night. And then I also have this six figure business that I manage. I have a wife that I make time for. I have, you know, my other kids, all my kids that I make time for. There's a lot to juggle. I have to make it make sense for me, so that I'm not stressed for myself and my own mental health. So how I run it is the way that it makes the most sense for me in my situation. So it's a give and take. You know what I mean?
Rob Moreira 48:54
My business is not my identity. It doesn't run my life, and neither do I sacrifice my business for anything else? You know, every there has to be a harmony. You have to find the harmony. For you, some people do 10 billion things. Some people are very task driven, and have to finish one thing before they move on to the next. You need to figure out and do what makes most sense for you. That's going to keep you sane, that's going to keep you stress free, and that's going to keep you loving what you do. There's nothing worse than putting yourself into a position or running your business in a way that's going to make you resent being this because there really is nothing better, and I'm not going to say that there's nothing better than being a voice actor, but there is nothing better than doing the thing you love. So if you love voice acting, you love acting, and you get to do this, you know, for a living, we should be so lucky, because there are so many actors that wish they could have a fraction of the success that we've seen.
Stephanie Roberts 49:54
Yeah, and you know, when I was doing musical theater, I was making nothing. And, you know, unless you reach that Broadway status or that big, major national tour, and you're right, like, the ceiling on the income here is much higher, and that feels really cool to know that that's, that's something that's attainable for us.
Rob Moreira 50:15
And you know what? What's one thing that always kind of keeps me going. Now, I'm sure, I'm sure you can relate. But like, as someone who's had the dreams of being an actor for as long as we have, and now that we're living it, we're like, man, we did that thing. You know? We landed where we wanted to be. Like, that feels amazing. Yeah, now we know what we've been through. We know what we've gone through to get to where we are, right? We remember that all the work that we've done now, look at your look at your life now through the lens of your little one, they only will ever know me as a voice actor. They will only ever know that I worked doing my dream job. How crazy is that?
Stephanie Roberts 50:59
That's so cool. Yeah, that's awesome.
Rob Moreira 51:02
And I think that's so cool, and it's such a great message for them. If you have that dream thing that you want to do, whatever it is, if you work hard at it, it could happen. We are the living examples for our kids that you could potentially attain your dream. And I think that's kind of amazing.
Stephanie Roberts 51:22
I love that. Well, thank you so much for chatting today. I feel like that was a really cool perspective on, you know, different parts of the industry joining some parts of the industry later, and, you know, having that positive mindset. So thank you so much.
Rob Moreira 51:36
My pleasure. Thanks for having me.
Stephanie Roberts 51:41
Rob has such a great energy, and I loved that a huge part of his business is exceeding client expectations and being awesome to work with, both of which have resulted in lots of repeat work and referrals for new work. That's definitely important when you're running a six figure business. If you'd like to learn more about Rob, I'm linking his website and socials in the show notes, which you can find at my website, makingittothemic.com. Please make sure you follow or subscribe to this podcast wherever you're listening, so you don't miss an episode. And if you're enjoying the podcast, please leave a rating or review at Apple podcasts so I can reach more people. Thanks so much for listening. And here's a little preview of the next episode you
Danielle Famble 52:23
Making your humanity part of your business model is so important.
Stephanie Roberts 52:29
That's next time on Making It To The Mic
Transcribed by https://otter.ai