It occured to me last night that I have a third service offering that I haven’t thought of in years: voiceover!
When I was in Hollywood (and later, when I returned to the Pacific NW), I was trained in voiceover (cartoon voices, commercial voicing, narrative voicing) by a consummate professional, Nigel Neale, who encouraged me to enter the profession. So did a casting director for a sitcom I was working for as a secretary, after I was asked to stand in for a voice actor who didn’t show up one day (and aced the task).
The people in the production booth said I took direction like a dream and yes, yes, yes, they underscored that I should definitely get into the field. Which was the impetus that drove me to seek out Nigel Neale and take his courses. After which I dropped the ball because I landed a job as an executive secretary in Hollywood and everything else went right out of my head.
So, in a way, I’m kind of a one-stop shop for people who need scripts, sales copy and/or content, presentations and/or help getting over stage fright, and voiceover skills. And my power partner, Lisa, is a web designer and a book cover and video producer (in addition to numerous other creative things).
So you’d think we’d both be in over our heads with work, wouldn’t you? It’s kinda weird that we aren’t…
AND THE REASON WE AREN’T IS…
Neither of us enjoy being the center of attention. Working behind the scenes is where our comfort zones are. So, marketing ourselves feels too “self-promotional,” too “out there.” It’s a real pickle!
We can promote other people’s products and services like there’s no tomorrow.But, when it comes to promoting OURSELVES — EEEK!!! We much prefer leaving that up to our clients and readers. (Hence, the Testimonials page on this website and on Lisa’s website at https://dancinggoatwebdesign.com/.)
Alas, not many clients think about spending a few minutes putting into words (or into a video) ways in which we’ve helped them. And fewer still think about mentioning us to others when they hear of a need that we can fill. Neither of us send out newsletters to keep our offerings top of mind so our clients can’t forget about us. That, too, feels unnatural to us. “Please keep thinking of us!” has never been a part of our personal repertoire.
But the truth is this: it’s up to us to keep putting our names out there so more people can discover us and see what we offer.
But, oh, man, we’d rather be doing almost anything else! Mostly, we want to be helping clients get where they want to go, not spending time getting ourselves where we want to go.
It’s a conundrum.
