Kim Handysides-Award Winning Female Voice Over Artist-Logo

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mentoring

Dream Counsel: How to Find a Mentor in the Entertainment Industry

Voiceover Coach, Voiceover Coaching

The Dream Counsel Kim Handysides
Credit: Travelled Earth

Breaking into the entertainment industry whether voiceover and acting or music and producing is not a clear-cut path. It’s not like medical school or studying for the bar. The road is circuitous and different for everyone. Like the traditional professions, it does take an investment of time and money and a coach or mentor that offers good advice. Good counsel.

 

When I was asked to be part of TheDreamCounsel.co I jumped at the chance. I’ve been in the entertainment industry and specifically as a voice actor for over thirty years. I’ve set and met goals and have carved out and kept a six-figure salary for over half that time doing what I love, watching the industry shift and flow, riding the waves and staying on top. And as I continue to create and take on exciting, challenging voice work for myself, more and more I find myself mentoring others who want to do the same.

 

Enter Dream Counsel Mentors

 

The Dream Counsel Kim Handysides
Darryl Duncan

Darryl Duncan, a top-of-his-game composer and music producer of Game Beat Studios in Chicago, enlisted me and five others (an actress/model, a dancer/choreographer, a songwriter/poet, an entertainment lawyer & a business/deals maker) to become a team of personal consultants or mentors. Together, we help those new to this world get a leg up in the entertainment industry with one-to-one advice, guidance and direction.

 

How Does Dream Counsel Work?

 

The Dream Counsel Kim HandysidesAll you need to access the Dream Counsel is a phone and a way to pay. Sessions are broken into 15 minute “talk blocks.” You can schedule your mentor/advisor for 15, 30, or 45 minutes any time within the schedule they set up on the site. You prepare your questions and then ask the mentor what you need to know during your call. Simple as that.

 

The Dream Package

 

The deluxe version offered is the Dream Package and comes with as the name implies, a bunch of goodies. A 45-minute session, a 15-minute talent review or coaching session, where you can perform and get immediate feedback/direction on where you stand, and 15 minutes with an entertainment attorney (learn how to protect yourself and your creative efforts going in). You also get a number of lists and directories. They’re full of tips, advice, contacts, industry events, books, podcasts, apps and resources specific to the branch of the entertainment industry you want to be part of. On top of that, your mentor will offer a written critique of your talent (strengths/weakness/areas to polish your craft, etc.) demos and marketing material and you get to showcase your material on the Dream Counsel website. Lastly, it comes with a 10% discount on future Dream Package consultation.

 

The Cool Thing about Dream Counsel

 

The Dream Counsel Kim Handysides
Credit: cataputlpr-ir

Accessing thedreamcounsel.com brings the kind of advantage that separates the wannabes from the be’s. Entertainment is a tough industry to break into because there is no road map and the ground is always shifting. Getting advice from a respected professional will only help make your path more solid and sure, show you safe, time saving shortcuts and ensure the work you do brings value to your craft.

 

A heavy hitter voiceover artist and keen supporter of next Gen talent, Kim Handysides coaches, directs, mentors and leads workshops on voice acting in Canada, the USA and internationally on the Internet.

10 Easy Hacks to Make the Most of Your Professional Community

Voiceover Business

Your peeps. Your gang.  The guys and gals in your field who support you, maybe sometimes compete with you, but also cheer you on when you succeed. Listen to you, or take you out for drinks when you need to complain. This is your professional community. One of your greatest business resources.

Make the Most of Your Professional Community
Make the Most of Your Professional Community

But are you using this resource to the fullest? Your relationships with the people in your industry can help you in more ways than just being sympathetic to your problems or sorting out a project together. Here are ten easy hacks to form stronger alliances, become more efficient, help each other stay on track and even help each other get more business.

1. Mentoring Group

Create a group of people who you can learn from and can learn from you. Maybe of you is more skilled at marketing, another at IT, another at whatever service you’re selling. Help each other, formalize it. do

2. Accountability Group

Again, a small group (more than 3 and less than 8) that meets once a week, reveal goals and hold each other accountable for meeting them. The practice of having to report in, helps push each other, gives each other a lift and helps you become aware of what areas you may need to put more energy into.

Make the Most of Podcasts for your Business
Make the Most of Podcasts for your Business

3. Podcasts

These little audio gems are popping up like Orville’s in the microwave. There’s most likely at least one in your industry and lots on all the various aspects of business. (i.e. CRM, marketing, cold calling, supply chain, etc.) Download and check one out while you’re driving or exercising.

4. Chats Skype/Zoom

If you are a one man or one woman band (aka business) meeting other people in your industry to hang out or inspire each other, resolve issues. A couple of my colleagues lead biweekly chats and I pretty much always learn something from one person and share something with another.

5. Staying on Track  (Sprinting Groups)

If you need to produce something like a number of words if you’re a writer or auditions if you’re a voice over actor, like me, or perhaps layout pins if you’re a graphic or web designer, try a sprinting group. You meet in a chat room, set a timer and go. Then check back in after the set amount of time and report what you got done. Knowing someone else is working along at the same time I am, helps keep me on track.

Make the most of your Street Team
Make the Most of your Street Team

6. Street Team

These are people who spread around how cool you or your product is by word of mouth. i.e. on the street. This works really well for artists, writers, musicians, and P2P business owners. Your street team gets excited about what you’re doing because they think It’s All That. They usually get something (small, but exclusive) for helping you out with an event or spreading the word about your cool news. (i.e. back stage passes, entertaining backstory from books, etc.)

7. Social Media

You have to pretty much be living under a boulder if you’re not using some form of social media nowadays. Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube, they’re all great ways to engage and stay in touch with contacts, colleagues, help and be helped. Make sure you engage in Groups and Events, too.

8. Marketing Groups

Look over your friendly competitors. Could you package your services with a colleague or two? Pool your marketing budget to get a bigger bang for your buck and appeal to a greater proportion of your market together. Major corporations do it. Why not individuals providing a service?

People who make the most of your conference
Make the Most of your Conference

9. Workshops, Conferences

Workshops and conferences are also great places to make connections among your industry, learn what’s trending and what’s disappearing, what people are talking about and what is missing. Perhaps even identify a need – something you can create a workshop about and present to your peeps yourself.

10. Hiring Within

Create your support list. Always have a ready capable solution for a client who asks, “Do you know someone who…” Have a ready two or three contacts who provide related services you can recommend or work with together on projects. Invite them to be reciprocal. Ask the people you recommend, to recommend you back.

I’m a female voiceover actor marketing my talents to producers of commercials, narrations, eLearning and pretty much anything else that requires a creative, confident, conversational voice. I coach, direct, produce and perform. I’d love to connect with you if I can help your business in any way.

18 Months with My VO Peer Mentoring & Accountability

Voiceover Business

Kim Handysides Accountability group hug
I can’t wait for every Wednesday at 8 p.m. I marinate and soak in a total a love fest, complete with slobbery cyber kisses and virtual hugs and goofy grins, chatting with 5 other voiceover artists for an hour. Our mentoring and accountability (M&A) group is our regular check in to revel in each other’s success, mete out advice if we have any to offer and gently, but firmly hold each other accountable to complete or report in on the status of tasks from the previous week.

The go-getter millennial in our group, Samuel Fleming launched Let’s Do This (as we dubbed ourselves) just before the first days of 2016. We were ten then and since then have settled into a consistent six and occasional seventh member (yes, I mean you Scott Chambers). Hug. Kiss.

 

Being an almost 30 year voice artist in the VO industry,  I was dubious about the amount of support I’d get versus what I’d give, but I had been missing out on socialization BIG time, since the whole machine shifted to virtual home studio the past few years, and so keenly agreed to participate. Little did I know how much I would learn from each and every member of my awesome M&A group.

 

Diana Birdsall, Susan Mazel, Bill Russell, Kath Crumrine, and the aforementioned Sam. These people scattered over the continent have become some of my new best friends, but more than that there is magic in being accountable to a group of peers. We set goals in several areas: financial, equipment, physical, marketing, and craft.

Breaking it down. Financial, that’s obvious, right? It’s our target of how much money in voice work we hope to make in the coming week. We are all at different levels in our careers, so the number is different for each of us, and the work comes inconsistently, so some weeks are better than others. The point is, have a goal. Reach it. Or do your best, trying.

Equipment? We help each other with whatever sound chain/Digital Audio Workstation/room/connections/FTP share info we’ve gathered and our shared goal is to ever improve the sound we deliver.

Physical? We spend a LOT of time stationary in small padded cells. Fitness can suffer. Health can suffer, and hey, if you don’t have health, you’ve got Diddly. And that ain’t beau (Bo).  So we push each other in that quarter, too.

Marketing? A briny pickle for most of us without biz degrees. I.E. Artists. Voice over marketing involves an array of ingredient-solutions. Looking for work from agents, pay to plays, tending to our existing clients and ICE or Ice-cold Calls & Email marketing. Oh, mustn’t forget the ever hoped for Powerball of SEO. When clients walk into your virtual sound booth on their own! We give each other a step up by sharing whatever we’ve tried that works.

Craft? How we get better at what we do. By telling each other about classes, workshops, people that we learn from. Summarizing blogs, books, methods. Setting goals like working on that conversational voice over delivery, creating 5 new characters to be able to pull out at will from our Voice Actor’s toolkit or perfecting 5 different Asian accents, something I recently completed (Chinese-Mandarin, Korean, Vietnamese, Filipino, East Indian)

In all, now that I’ve experienced life with my own personal M&A group, I can’t imagine working as a virtual voice over artist without their support, encouragement and gooey cyber love.

I challenge you! See if you can’t also find the amenity in accountability and the magic in mentorship. I bet it takes your micro-enterprise to the next level.