Podcast Length: 5:38

Regardless of your experience, you’re expected to carry yourself with the composure and confidence of a professional even if you’re just starting out. After all, who would hire some one they didn’t feel they could rely on, for voice acting or any other profession for that matter?

No matter the industry, commerce is confidence. It’s imperative you instill confidence, often when you feel anything but. And while I’ve never been a fan of the phrase “fake it till you make it”. The fact is, even from the very onset of your career as a talent, involves making those who hire you feel secure they’ve made the right choice is in part the job.

Here are 10 dependable ways to increase your confidence and make yourself a reliable talent:

1. Be prepared.

Nothing undermines your confidence more than your lack of preparation. As the saying goes, you make your luck. And luck is when preparedness meets opportunity. Preparation means training. It means study, researching the backstory, investing in yourself, and continually building your performance agility so that you’re ready at a moment’s notice.

2. Expose yourself to as many opportunities as possible.

Audition for scores of projects, especially the sort of work you intend to land most. If you’re a voiceover, you want your demos to be included where there are lot of quality voice talent. This is how you build experience which is the ultimate confidence builder.

3. Be passionate!

Concentrate on what you can agree with about the situation, the production, the script, the cast, the director, the scene, the take, the class, the production. It may be work, but it beats digging a ditch.

4. Stay current.

Most direction is based in current, pop-culture references. By today’s standards, with so much media, social and otherwise, that can be a tall order. Concentrate on what interests you most. This makes you more social, as well as easier to direct because you’ll understand the reference when offered.

5. Be authentic.

There’s nothing more valuable than you being you. Attempting to second-guess what a casting director or producer might be thinking is a fruitless effort. The truth is they aren’t thinking about anything until you give them something interesting to think about. That’s literally your job as a talent. Bring your point-of-view and imagination into the session. You’re paid to have a pulse!

6. Be the person you’d want to work with most.

Be the voice actor you’d want most beside you in the trenches, not the person who creates unnecessary drama. Life’s tough enough. Keep the drama on stage, in the commercial, on film or TV. Be a trusted colleague.

7. Focus your best efforts on the aspect of the industry you intend to work in most. Far too many get side tracked from their initial goals. It’s easy to do in this business. Wherever you put your attention, that will be what you’re known for; it can become your legacy. If you concentrate on writing, you’ll be a writer. If you want to act and do voiceover, you have to act and do voiceover.  Stay in your lane!

8. Learn from your mistakes.

If you concentrate solely on what not to do, that’s inevitably what will transpire. If you’re transitioning out of a bad situation, ask yourself, “What would you do differently?” The fact is you can’t help but learn from every situation you’re in, no matter what happens.

9. Risk!

The only way to condition yourself to rely on your impulses is to use them. Therefore you must make a habit out of taking risks and surprising yourself. Make a habit of continually challenge your comfort zone, there’s nothing but discovery and creativity in it if you do. A steady diet of risk will result in greater trust of yourself in nearly any situation. This is why Improvisation is so valuable.

10. Commit yourself to elevating the production.

Dedicate yourself to the idea that this production will benefit from your presence, then set out to ensure that’s the case. Work very hard to make that so. No need to declare this commitment to anyone but yourself. It’s your promise to you: If you’re associated with this project, then you’re committed to do everything in your power to elevate the experience. Period. Before long, you will achieve a body of work you can be proud of from this simple, heartfelt commitment… to you.

Copyright © 2021 by Kate McClanaghan. All Rights Reserved.

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