Hey, welcome back. Here we are lesson two of week three finding the work. So this lesson is about finding the work through word of mouth. Do you know anyone that works at like a big company or corporation in your city that might need voiceover for some corporate videos? Do you know anyone who maybe works at a gaming company in your area? think outside of the box here on how you can get into the same room as these people who work at places where they would need voiceover work.
One time, for example, actually, way more than one time, but several years back I knew about the Game Developers Conference the GDC down In San Francisco, and I knew that it was the place where a bunch of game developers congregate to talk about how to better make games. And I know that there's a lot of voiceover work in video games. So I went to San Francisco, weaseled my way into the rooms, finagled a pass somehow, and got myself into a workshop that was literally entitled, how to better talk to your voiceover actors in voiceover sessions. So I'm sitting in this audience of a lecture and everyone around me are people who hire voiceover actors. And I just like, told some jokes and rub some elbows. And by the time I went home, from the Game Developers Conference, I got three new clients, not just three new jobs, but three new people who hired me shortly after the GDC and then new about me and my work and hired me several times after that.
Voiceover demo CDs, as I said in the video before, are really dated these days. And I don't really feel like anyone ever listens to them anymore. I have major guilt issues. If somebody hands me their CD, I look at it. And I'm like, I don't even know if my CD drive works anymore on my computer. And then I put the thing on my desk.
And then I keep seeing it on the corner, my eye like, Oh, God, I've got to get to that, oh, I need to listen to that thing. And then enough months goes by where I'm like, God, dang it, get this thing off my desk. It's collecting dust, and I throw in the garbage. It's no offense to the person who gave it to me. It's just it's like a dead medium. You know, I recommend something that's more clever than that.
That will once again break through the clutter. Maybe go back to the old school of just a simple business card, but something that's cool and snappy and snazzy. Something that I did when I was at the Game Developers Conference, was I made a template email, right that said like, hey, just met you at the GDC Below and attached are all of my relevant credentials and demos. And then when I met them, I would get their email address. While we were chatting, I'd pull up that draft email right there from my phone. And by the time I shook their hand and walked away, I had already sent them that email, which is in their inbox, which is way harder to ignore, and much easier to listen to.
So that worked really well for me, I would say a business card, some kind of link. And then another way, as far as word of mouth, which honestly I never thought would amount to what it has, for me, is your own personal website. They're so easy to make these days. You can make them for free and you can make them look darn good. really easily. I mean, just do a Google search on how you want to do it WordPress.
I don't even want to be that person to name websites. You can figure it out on your own, but your own personal website does generate a lot of work. I get a lot of just direct contacts. from people who found out about me that way so that's it onto the next video.