VO-BB - 19 YEARS OLD!

Lee Gordon · Posted: Tue Sep 24, 2013 6:42 pm Post subject: Did You Jump, Or Were You Pushed?

In another thread, we've been discussing the various paths we took to become the voiceoverists we are today. Rather than derail that thread more than it already has been, I'd like to pose the question to any and all full-time voiceoverists:

Did you quit your "day job" and plunge into VO when you thought the time was right? This also applies to anyone for whom VO might have been their first full-time job and thus did not have a prior job to quit.

Or, like me, were you working at another job, only to suddenly find yourself fired, laid off, or downsized and in need of a new career path?
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Lee Gordon, O.A.V.
Voice President of the United States
www.leegordonproductions.com
Twitter: @LeeGordonVoice

Mike Harrison · Posted: Tue Sep 24, 2013 7:21 pm Post subject:

A little of both, for me.

I was working toward taking VO full-time when I felt the time was right... I had (thankfully) already purchased all of my gear... but the timing decision was made for me when the radio station I was working for at the time decided they no longer needed a Production Director.

(They were wrong, by the way. I'm hearing what they're producing these days.)
_________________
Mike
Male Voice Over Talent
I have taken leave of my sensors.

Jeffrey Kafer · Posted: Tue Sep 24, 2013 7:49 pm Post subject:

Pushed after 10 years at Microsoft.
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Jeff
http://JeffreyKafer.com
Voice-overload Web comic: http://voice-overload.com

Jason Huggins · Posted: Tue Sep 24, 2013 8:11 pm Post subject:

I quit. And it was a glorious day!

todd ellis · Posted: Tue Sep 24, 2013 8:21 pm Post subject:

pushed --- with an anchor tied to my waist. fear of starvation is a hell of a motivator.
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"i know philip banks": todd ellis
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Rick Riley · Posted: Tue Sep 24, 2013 8:57 pm Post subject:

Having laid out the majority of my story in another thread http://www.vo-bb.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=16277&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight=rick+riley&start=30

I had no day job to quit at the time, so I just had to refocus and get back to my roots. Audio has been my life and it's the only thing I know well enough to be considered a professional. I've loved it since I was an eight year old kid playing with my Grandfather's tape recorder and watching that little green light vacillate with the noise it was hearing. When I had cleared away all the clutter of ideas that weren't working after radio left me, I guess I was 'pushed' back into the 'arena' that had been my home for over thirty years. Now I'm just occupying a different part of the landscape than I used to, and finding life very rewarding my new digs.
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Never do anything you wouldn't want to explain to the Paramedics

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Kim Fuller · Posted: Tue Sep 24, 2013 8:58 pm Post subject:

The way things are going, I'm going to find out in a couple of months.

cyclometh · Posted: Tue Sep 24, 2013 9:57 pm Post subject:

Nudged, with a bit of a jump. My wife had a stroke a while back and she has some problems that require support, and it was getting harder and harder to work away from home.

So, when a giant raft of work came along early this year I jumped on it, and went full-time. It's not been totally smooth; but things are looking good for the near future at the moment (knock wood). Still eating, have a house and lights, at any rate.
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Corey "Vox Man" Snow
http://voxman.net

Rick Riley · Posted: Tue Sep 24, 2013 10:06 pm Post subject:

Diane Maggipinto · Posted: Tue Sep 24, 2013 10:11 pm Post subject:

jumped.
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sitting at #8, though not as present as I'd like to be. Hello!

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Philip Banks · Posted: Wed Sep 25, 2013 12:02 am Post subject:

Pushed ....It was character building.

Yonie · CM Joined: 31 Aug 2011 Posts: 906

Don't know, I'm still falling.

Jacob Ekstroem · Posted: Wed Sep 25, 2013 12:56 am Post subject:

Since I decided to move from Denmark to Sweden and commuting to and from my then day-job would be very time consuming I took the plunge and quit to become full-time.

In hindsight it went okay for a few years, but now I'm actually working full-time again and VO is no longer my main source of income.
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Regards,
Jacob - Danish Voice Overs (try it... it sounds really funny, too!)

Bruce · Posted: Wed Sep 25, 2013 5:46 am Post subject:

I was a victim of my own success I guess. I made my living for decades doing a mix of VO and on-camera including commercials, industrials, small parts in big movies and TV shows, big parts in small productions, and the like. My agent began to find it hard to get me work. "They like your voice. They just think your over exposed." I guess I was. There were times I was on radio and TV spots for as many as 12 different clients at a time in the our area.

Then I started losing VO work to people in other cities and realized I had to start reaching beyond Phoenix and built a home studio in 2001. Ever since it has been a mad stumble into the self-propelled voice acting world.

Which leads me to add, I don't like being my own agent very much. I've got agents, but they sure don't do what agents used to do.

B
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VO-BB Member #31 Enlisted June, 2005

I'm not a Zoo, but over the years I've played one on radio/TV. .

Rob Ellis · M&M Joined: 01 Aug 2006 Posts: 2385 Location: Detroit

pushed---out of a job that I really hated but felt obligated to do.

Things just kind of serendipitously fell into place to allow me to get on this path. And even if it ends tomorrow, I am eternally grateful for the opportunity, which was a distant dream back in my early radio days
when I marveled at "those people" who did the "network" and "national" commercials