When I first started auditioning I eagerly went after EVERYTHING but I wasn’t landing anything. I’m talking about a dozen auditions or more every single day. It was fun, exciting and it gave me a reason not to get to the marketing chores. I mean the auditions were coming in. That’s what I was marketing for, right?

Well, here is one of those lessons you can only learn the hard way. You will NOT be right for everything. I am now admitting to feelings of failure, frustration, panic and less and less confidence. I can’t even count now the number of auditions I’ve submitted! What am I doing wrong? Well, my agents and coaches helped me discover I was trying to be all things to everybody. I know I have talent. I know it! But stepping back I realized that my unconventional sound and take on things was quite distinctive and put me into a niche all of my own. A blessing and a curse!

So, I made a list of types I probably WOULDN’T be hired for. People like a no nonsense business woman, lawyer or doctor, a black woman, a banker, tech narrator or accountant type, unless they were supposed to be neurotic characters. You get the idea. Normal successful people! So who am I left with?

I revisited my brand to find out. Wit and whimsy is my selling speech. Well, all those business people and their market are not looking for wit and whimsy. Duh! For now, I’m believable as a dumb blonde, country bumpkin, a frazzled housewife, a drama queen, a mouthy teen, a flirt, a Southern pageant queen, a cheerleader, a child, a critter (I did a gig playing a talking pickle half dill and half sweet and also a sexy skunk in love with the pickle), animation characters, old ladies, British and New York low lifes. I’m also a very good mimic so it doesn’t take long to master an accent.

As you can see, I’ve been wasting time competing with professional VOs who already do business types. To sell my wit and whimsy I’m becoming more selective in the material I submit. Plus, I try for both a fairly straight forward read and then turn on the wit and whimsical version. Guess which one is harder?

You hear it all the time! Be yourself! To thine own self be true. There’s no one else like you. Just do you. Why is that so hard? Its because we want all people to like us! With age you’d hope you had the ability to not care about that so much. But I definitely want to care if I like ME. To answer the previous question, reading a straight forward take is actually the more difficult version. It just isn’t me!

The gigs and clients I want are those who I’ve managed to convey who I am and can draw my listener into wanting to hear and know more about me and the product. So they love me! Wit and whimsy! A gig! Signing on that dotted line!