When it comes to your voiceover career, of for that matter any freelance career, we’re all farmers. Growing up, I lived in the farm country of Central Minnesota. Every spring, along with lots of other things, we always planted the seeds. If we didn’t plant the seeds in the spring, we would have had no business looking for crops to harvest in the autumn. Which seeds you sow, and in what fields you sow them, is up to you.
Tracy Pattin’s blog post about an opportunity that didn’t result exactly the way she hoped, but which was still a seed planted, was the germ that lead to this post.
You see, when we plant the seeds, some of them bear fruit very quickly. Others take a while and some incubate for just about forever. You don’t know which is which, in fact you can’t tell. So, you can’t worry about what the outcome will be from a specific seed that you’re planting. Just like Tracy took the risk to ask for that interview, the immediate outcome isn’t the focus, taking the risk. It’s planting the seed. And just like the farmer, if you plant the seeds, you will get a harvest. Some years will be bumper crops. Some years will be pretty meager. But, ever year you’ll have a harvest. And of course, for us in the voiceover business, we don’t have to wait until Spring to plant or Autumn to harvest. We can plant and harvest any time of year. Not to mention, voiceover work is much easier than working for a living.