Client Relations: When to Suck It Up and When To Turn The Page

I am not in the habit of telling business to take a flying leap but I am also not in the habit of being abused.  Don’t abuse me verbally or financially and the big one, don’t abuse my time.  It’s the one resource that I can never get back.

When I was in radio I had a motto that I still live by today, “I won’t waste your money or my time”. A good example of this motto in action was back in 2001 when I was hired to be Program Director of a talk formatted radio station.  I was reluctant to accept the job but the GM of the station told me at the time of my hire “We need someone like you to come in and shake things up.” I can quote that, not from memory but from the letter he gave me offering me the position. In reality what they wanted was to fill the spot with someone who would complete quarterly reports, shuffle paper and make a schedule.

After 8 weeks on the job I had done a great deal of research on how we could add revenue and fine tune, tweak and IMPROVE the stations standings in the market without losing any staff, spending any money or losing listeners while trending the core demo down from the 75-100 year old to the 50-75 year old (that is a a sarcasm). Understand, one of the objectives in my job description was to improve the stations position in the Arbitron ratings.  So I took my thoughts, research and data to the GM of the station and after a meeting where he was “very impressed” he said “let me spend some time with this”, I thought, no problem, get comfortable with it and give me feedback.  The feedback arrived through resounding silence and eventually he admitted to me that he never took the time to look at the data because he was comfortable with things the way they were. I take time now to remind you that this is a guy who hired me to “shake things up”.  Seriously?

Well, if I couldn’t shake anything up, nothing was going to change one way or the other. By this time I had 6 months invested in the station and was very frustrated and decided, if all they want to do is waste my time, I’m out of here.

It was at that time I elected to go to work for myself. First as a stand up comedian then adding Voice Over to the mix a couple years later.

So what is the moral of the story?

The customer (in my example the radio station) may not always be right but the customer is ALWAYS the customer. If you tell one to kiss off, make sure you can afford to cash the check you are writing.  Be consistent in your standards. If a client is more high maintenance than what you want to deal with or not really in touch with what they actually want, DO NOT BUDGE not even a little bit or you will find yourself being pushed and pulled all over the place. They will eat your time and cost you any margin of profit in reality these people are not looking for a quality job, they are simply looking for the cheapest deal. Forget them, turn the page and do not look back

Marty Daniels @ The Circleville Pumpkin Festival

A couple years back I started creating video shorts for my website…my website crashed and I didn’t have it backed up…WELL…I was able to find one of my videos online. Hope you like it.

BTW, the guy that is laughing while I am standing in line at the bank….I have no idea who he is and before I started recording this he wasn’t speaking to us at all. In fact, he was yelling at his son about throwing rocks while he was waiting in line.

I’m a Voice Over Actor!

It’s a common oversight by most people who don’t realize that voice over artists are essentially, actors. I think it is because the only manifestation of what we do is what you hear, it is impossible for anyone outside of the industry to know that we invest in our craft by taking acting classes, vocal training and study the various techniques offered by voice acting coaches so we can deliver the subtle nuances that make up a great delivery of your script.

If you’re looking for a voice over talent to work with and you are not using an agency, make sure you get to hear their work and ask yourself these questions…

• When evaluating the work does it meet your expectations?
• When you close your eyes do you feel like you are PART of the read or simply hearing someone talk?
• Is it how you want others to find out about your product, business or cause?

Something I like to do is to provide a custom demo for potential clients. The process is quick and easy and it costs nothing.

A potential client will contact me and provide me with their script. I go through the script marking my notes and then record a voice only demo.

The entire process from the time I receive the script to when I deliver it to my potential client takes under 6 hours, depending on my work load when I receive it. By doing this you get to hear how my voice will match up with your project. If you like my read, we discuss what sort of production you need including music, sound effects, etc and I produce the entire spot.

When I first started doing this I was a bit apprehensive because I didn’t want someone taking my work and using it without paying me. I am happy to tell you that NOT ONCE since I have been doing business this way have I been “taken”. How do I know this? every demo I have done has been picked up by the client I have demoed for, so it works out great for you and it works out even better for me and my family. I also think the process has made me a better voice actor and businessman because it really forces the ACTOR/ARTIST in me to focus and not chase rabbits.

So what do you say? Contact me so I can help you take your message to the masses!

Reach Marty Daniels directly to get your custom demo Marty@MartyDaniels.com.

THIS CLOSE!

UGH!  I was “THIS CLOSE” to getting a really huge break. I was a finalist for a voice over gig after 5 call backs…yeah, 5!

The competiton (as it were) started with me and 97 other hopeful voice over talent, then down to 20 then down to 10 then down to 5, 3, then me and one other person and sadly (for me) the other person got the gig.  I suppose it is nice to be considered that strongly when you knwo so many other talented people are going after the same prize but ya know,  I didn’t get it and I wanted it.

A lot of folks would say being second place just means you are the first loser and I suppose that is true if when you finish a race such as this you don’t gain anything from it.  Me, I got a lot of good out of the situation.

1. I got a lot of experience taking A LOT of direction from a client on the other side of the globe.
2. I got exposure to a huge production company that has dozens of programs on tv worldwide and they are always developing more.
3. I made contacts. Really good contacts for potential work in the future.
4. I got a boost to my confidence that lets me know I am not only good enough for the local market but also the national and international markets.
5. My voice was called “familiar without being common”.
6. I was told that my “sense of humor and natural ad-lib abilities were a real selling point” for my talent.
7. I was told that it was “OBVIOUS” that I am a “reader, actor, observer who is eager to listen” because of the way I “interpreted scripts and then adjusted my delivery with direction.”

So why haven’t you hired me or given me a shot?

Want a demo?  No worries, send me your script and I will knock that bad boy out ASAP and you can take it too the bank that I will bust my butt to give you the read you want.