The answer to the question posed in the title to this post can be found in large part in this post on the InteractiveVoices.com blog (soon to be the Voices.com blog). Read the whole thing, but here’s one key thought.
Competing means that you are jockeying for the top position, and that there can only be one winner.
The term “Competing” gives permission to the client to treat voice talent like dirt, and to be frank, abuse you, your time, and your skills. For the client, it’s a passive experience. For you, it can be demeaning and stressful.
It doesn’t help anyone, clients or talents, to be in the mindset that this is a competition where it is okay to ‘let talent compete’ for voice-over work…
Exactly. I don’t see Charlie Glaize, Ross Bagley or any other voice talent (male or female) as my competition. There’s plenty of work for all of us. Plenty. Thousand and thousands of opportunities for professional voices. My voice and my interpretive ability is right for some of those jobs. But I’m not right for many, many others. And somone else should be cast for those jobs.
I find it fascinating that much of the time when I’ve been cast from an audition, the person who hires me says something like, “When we heard your voice, we knew you were the right one for the job.” Now that rings my chimes.