Confidence with No (or Little) Experience – Paul Schmidt

One of the most common concerns for a new voice actor as they begin their voice-over journey is, “I don’t have any (or very few) credits to my name. I haven’t worked with anyone (or very many) clients yet. How do I still market myself and what do I do?”

It’s the classic college grad’s dilemma, right? “How will anyone hire me with no experience and if no one hires me how will I get any experience?”

I understand the concern. One of the most powerful ways voice actors market ourselves is through what’s called social proof.

Psychologist Robert Cialdini, in his 1984 book, Influence: Science and Practice, says social proof is one of the six key principles of persuasion (the others are reciprocity, consistency, authority, liking, and scarcity). 

Social proof is a psychological and social phenomenon wherein people copy the actions of others in an attempt to execute behavior in a given situation. Simply put, people are more comfortable making a decision or taking an action if their peers have made a similar decision or taken a similar action.

According to Wikipedia,social proof is prominent in ambiguous social situations where we’re unable to determine the appropriate mode of behavior, and so we assume that surrounding people know more about the current situation. Candid Camera, a popular TV show started in 1948 by Allen Funt, showed a hilarious instance of one of these ambiguous social situations, which you can now watch on YouTube.

As voice actors and marketers, we use social proof all the time. Testimonials, references, recommendations, and client roster lists are all forms of social proof. We use our past client experience to extract social proof in these forms to then market to new leads and prospects with the goal of further persuading them to work with us.

Make no mistake, social proof is a powerful way to persuade people. In voice-over, it can absolutely lend credibility to your name and reputation when you have abundant social proof which you can present to new leads and prospects. Social proof not only shows our experience, but, in the case of testimonials and recommendations, it can demonstrate our clients’ satisfaction with our work and the process of working with us. 

That’s powerful, persuasive stuff, to be sure.

But here’s the thing: Experience is not essential to getting hired. But how can that be right?

Experience is great and does help – and for some gigs, it’s more important than for others. Having a solid body of work is more important if you’re being considered for the voice of a national brand in an ongoing marketing campaign than it is if you’re being considered for the same brand’s internal employee onboarding video.

But as a new voice actor with zero experience, it’s not essential to get that first gig. If it were, no one would ever get that first gig.

When we go to the hospital with an urgent medical problem, do we screen the young doctor to see how long they’ve been working with patients? When we board an airliner, do we stop in the cockpit to ask how many hours the pilot has logged in this specific aircraft? When we eat at a restaurant, do we summon the chef to see how long they’ve been cooking for customers? No. We generally trust that they’re well trained and skilled enough to do the job.

The same is true for voice actors: our demos and auditions are the main sources of proof that we are well-trained and skilled enough to handle the work.

In fact, clients largely don’t care how much or how little training and experience we have. I’ve been doing this a long time, and never once have I ever been asked by a lead, prospect, or client about my training. Maybe twice ever have I been asked about my voice-over experience in a particular category. I do get compliments on my experience occasionally, but it’s not the primary reason people hire me.

It’s tempting to look at the experience and resumé of an accomplished voice actor and think, “Well, they’ve just got so much experience, that’s why they get hired.” There are lots of experienced, accomplished voice actors often competing for the same gigs. They get hired because they nail the audition and have a killer demo.

Experience and social proof can help, but they’re not essential. You’ll get that first gig. And then the second, and third, and at some point, you’ll have a few clients whose brands you can present to help persuade others. You’ll collect final cuts to build  your portfolio; it just takes time and work.

You have to trust in your training and yourself to deliver the goods to clients. If you don’t trust and believe in yourself, how can anyone else?

Check out our free PDF with pro-tips from real working voice-over actors here!

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