How To Be Successful in VO Working From Anywhere with Jesse Adam

Stephanie Ciccarelli:

Hi there, and welcome to Vox Talk, your weekly review from the world of voice over. I'm your host Stephanie Ciccarelli from Voices. Do you need to live in a big city like New York, LA, or Toronto to be successful? Joining me today is Jesse Adam, a voice over professional who's worked with such some of the world's biggest brands, including Lego, Coca-Cola, Sony, Amazon, Under Armour, Honda, and DoorDash, to name just seven, all from the comfort of his home studio in a city that's decidedly not New York or L.A. Welcome to the show, Jesse.

Jesse Adam:

Thank you so much for having me. It's a pleasure and a treat.

Stephanie Ciccarelli:

Oh, so much fun. I'm so excited. Obviously, people in the office were like, ‘you've got to have Jesse Adam on the show. You've got to bring him on.’ So here we are today. So, Jesse, you live in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. That's a city with a population of approximately 330 or so people. What's a day in the life like for you in your studio?

Jesse Adam:

Yeah, I mean, in my mind, it's pretty average. I wake up and grab some breakfast and get ready for the day. And then I hop into the studio, into the booth and basically spend the most of my day auditioning. Getting as many auditions done as I can. And then when jobs come in. Working on those. And then typically wrap up around dinnertime. Go and have supper with the family and then hang out with the family or do whatever needs to be done. And then if the odd job comes in or audition comes in later when things have kind of settled down, then I'll jump back in the booth and try to get as many auditions in in a day as I can.

Stephanie Ciccarelli:

Sounds like a really good day. And also, how close is your home studio to the kitchen? Just curious.

Jesse Adam:

It's literally ten steps.

Stephanie Ciccarelli:

Oh, wow.

Jesse Adam:

Very nice.

Stephanie Ciccarelli:

Not much of a commute to get to lunch or to have that breakfast and to go home for dinner. So I'm sure your family appreciates that.

Jesse Adam:

Yeah, they do. And it's been awesome. From working in a larger city back in the day and having to commute to being at home with the family, it's been just a huge blessing and just an awesome thing in our family's life. It's been great.

Stephanie Ciccarelli:

That's fantastic. And I was going to ask you, why don't you you're so successful, Jesse, why don't you live in a big city? But I think you just answered it right there is that there's far more living and life and love to be had when you can spend more time with your family. So totally get that. That's amazing. So, Jesse, along the vein of time, how many auditions are you doing in a day?

Jesse Adam:

My goal is to get between 30 to 40 auditions done a day. That's kind of what I strive to do each day. Some days it's less than that. Some days, it's more, depends on what's going on. Or some days there's just additions that come in and you're not quite a fit for and you're just not able to do as many. But typically 30 to 40 is what I'm aiming for each day. And some days are 20, some days are 50, but that's my goal at 30 to 40 each day.

Stephanie Ciccarelli:

Whoa, that's a lot like, you've got client work to do. No doubt you're doing a little marketing. So how long does it take you to do your auditions? Like, do you batch what you do or what's your process?

Jesse Adam:

No, I just do them one at a time, and I think I wasn't able to do 20 to 30 or 30 to 40 when I started. It was three or four a day when you first start. But as you do it more and more, it becomes more comfortable. You know when you look at the auditions, okay, I'm a fit for this one, and I know exactly how I want to read this before you even start recording. And so a lot of auditions, honestly, from the time you see it to the time you hit submit, can be that three to four, five-minute mark. And so if you get on a roll, if you get in the zone, you can get 15 to 20 auditions done in an hour if you're really just trucking through them. And so I think it's come with time, that's the ability to do that many. There are also days now that I get lazy, and I just don't do as many. So it's about working hard and realizing that I heard somebody say once that auditioning is actually the job, and landing jobs is actually the bonus. And it's true. So when you look at it like, auditions are your job and that's what you're supposed to do, it makes it that much easier just to check through them and to get them done.

Stephanie Ciccarelli:

I like that. I like that there's some flexibility that you have, some kind of, like, I guess space to say, you know, it's not a problem if I do 50 auditions a day, or, you know, I can do 20 in one day if there isn't anything that matches what I'd like to do. And what you said was, like, if you're a fit. And I think a lot of talent struggle with that. They don't know, maybe what criteria they should be using to know if they're a fit. So what is it that you do, Jesse? How do you know which ones that you put in for?

Jesse Adam:

Yes, and I get that. I remember when I first started, I was auditioning for everything, and I apologize to any past clients that are listening that heard terrible accent attempts and all these other things that I did, but I think it really comes with time. I think when you're just starting out, you really don't know necessarily where your wheelhouse is or what you're really going to be good at. But the more you do it, the more jobs you land, you're going to find your niche and what fits you best. And so for me, typically for me, it's that casual conversational read or the real person type of reads. Those are kind of the ones that I tend to land more often, and I get excited about those because it's almost not work. It's like, okay, I'm just going to go read this as myself and be me. I think it's hard to know that right away, but it does come with time. You kind of figure that out. And there's some surprises, too, where you're like, oh, for some reason it's weird, but I get a fair amount of Deep South Texas roles, and I'm a prairie boy from Canada. I don't have that naturally, but I just I tried it a few times at the beginning when I was auditioning at the start of my career, and I got some jobs. And so for whatever reason, so I say that to encourage people to not just stick with one type of read or one type of job, like do branch out and try different things. You never know what's going to stick.

Stephanie Ciccarelli:

That's exactly it. You don't know until you know, sometimes it takes, like, being coached or so many auditions. I think some of the best feedback that a voice talent can get is actually the booking. Right? You're like, oh, I did something right, and they really liked what I did here. So, yeah, I think that I'm glad to see you agreeing. I think it is really a trial and error thing at first. So obviously you went through a lot of trial and error. You grew as an artist. How did you get the opportunity to work with such big brands?

Jesse Adam:

Well, honestly, it's through Voices. Like, again, being in this little city that most people don't even know how to pronounce or where it is, getting to work with production companies and clients in New York and LA, Australia and Europe and all that stuff, it's all through the Voices platform. I never would have gotten in front of those clients if it wasn't for Voices. So that's what I love about it, is I don't necessarily need, like, Voices is an agent, one of my agents. That's how I look at it as Voices gets me those opportunities to get in front of big brands that honestly, back in the day, I never, ever would have thought I'd be able to read for or work with. So, yeah, it is the Voices platform that has enabled me to work with those brands all around the world, and I'm so thankful for that.

Stephanie Ciccarelli:

Oh. It really does warm our hearts to hear stories like yours, Jesse. Because it's like, you know, two people at their kitchen table when they thought they wanted to tell people at work just to be able to be part of your success. But also of the success of so many other people who have used Voices as a client and they wanted to find the right voice or they wanted to hire someone amazing like you and to do it from Moose Jaw. Saskatchewan. To do it from wherever you might be. Right? And it doesn't matter. I think that a lot of people, they have this preconceived notion that unless you're in New York or Los Angeles, maybe Toronto, Vancouver, London, UK, whatever that capital business city in your country is, you don't actually have to live there to benefit from the opportunities that are available to you. And, you know, like, as we were talking, I just thought, OK, well, you know, you're in Moose Jaw and you've got obviously there's 33,000 people there, so I imagine there's some good internet service where you live. It's not like you're out in the middle of somewhere, you're not on the tundra somewhere. But what are three must haves, Jesse, that your voice over business needs to succeed?

Jesse Adam:

Yeah, for me, the must haves are first of all, a side note is that internet connection, obviously you got to have that, otherwise it's not going to work. But just obviously a good set up for your recording. You got to have a decent quality sounding area that you're recording in and some decent quality equipment doesn't have to be top of the line. But when I started, I just had a blanket for it. It was nothing special, it was just blankets hanging to kind of deaden the room. So that's the first thing. And then the second thing that I really strongly believe in is coaching. I had my brother, who is an amazing audio engineer and voiceover artist on Voices.com. He actually just recently won an Emmy for his work doing sound design for the Olympics.

Stephanie Ciccarelli:

Oh, my goodness. Good job, Jordan!

Jesse Adam:

Just throw that out there. Yeah. Good job, Jordan. He was there at the start to help me understand. I had a background in media, video production and that kind of stuff, but I really didn't know what I was getting into in the voice world. And he just stepped up very graciously and helped me understand, taught me the things I needed to know to make it so that I could be successful, so that I had that chance. I think if I didn't have coaching, if I didn't have Jordan, my brother, there to start, I think I probably would have tried and probably would have failed because I just wouldn't have known some of the ins and outs of Voices.com and just voiceover in general. So coaching would be number two. And then the third thing, obviously is for me is a site like Voices.com. Without it, there's no way – you could have the best sounding booth, the best sounding equipment. You can have the world's top coaches coach you on how to do voiceover, but if you don't have a way to get in front of the clients or audition, there's no way you're going to land any work. You can try cold calling, you can try marketing yourself, but I think that there are so many voices out there right now. Audition is king. And if you can't audition, you're not going to land work.

Stephanie Ciccarelli:

That's true. If you don't audition, like, if you don't show up right, like 50% of everything is just showing up. So that all said, and thank you for sharing your three must haves, I think that just to sum it up, the technology has got to be in place, you've got to have good coaching, and you've also got opportunities available to you through an online marketplace. So for someone who's living outside of a big city as you are, does it make it any harder to get work. Are you finding that you're sad that you're not called in to Saskatoon to do something? Or like, why can't I go to Edmonton or Calgary today? What are you missing, if anything, from not living in a big city?

Jesse Adam:

I don't think much personally now, I can't say that for sure because I've never lived in those big centers to know what I'm missing, almost. But the odd time you'll see a job posted that says must be in LA or must be in New York, and so you miss out on those ones, and sometimes you feel like, I wish I could be there to do that. But then again, for me, going back to what we talked about earlier, having the freedom to live in a smaller area, the time with my family, it's a little cheaper to live here than a lot of places. So financially it makes a little more sense. And again, for me, being a prairie boy, I lived in Calgary for several years. It was nice. Calgary was great, but it was a big city that I just didn't – I enjoy the openness and a little bit of a slower pace. I probably missed out on a few opportunities that come up in the bigger cities where you actually have to physically be there. But for me, it balances out for sure with the freedom and the ability to be less busy, less crazy. And in a smaller town.

Stephanie Ciccarelli:

Yes, in a smaller town. And there are people who definitely live in places smaller than Moose Jaw.

Jesse Adam:

Absolutely.

Stephanie Ciccarelli:

And I think that the biggest struggle for them would probably be just access to some of the three things, actually, the three things you mentioned, like being able to have all the tech that you need to set yourself up properly to have access to coaching, which I know can be online. And there are a lot of great people you can find online, but it's not the same as being in community with other people, like in real life. And obviously you have your brother and he's been instrumental in helping you with what you're doing and just thinking like if someone lived in a small village or they were somewhere remote from pretty much anybody, could they experience similar success provided they have the tech, they have the coaching and they are using an online marketplace?

Jesse Adam:

I think absolutely. I think it doesn't matter. Again, as long as you have that internet connection and you can somehow manage to get the tech. Maybe Amazon doesn't deliver to your little town, but eventually it'll get there or you go and find it. I think absolutely anybody that has an internet connection and it has the three things we talked about will be able to find success in voiceover. And that's what I love about the Voices platform. And just the way voiceover is right now is it's accessible to everybody. I grew up watching cartoons and movies and all this stuff and I loved – me and my siblings spoke in, we communicated in quotes from movies and shows. That's how we talk to each other. And I always wondered who the other people were on the other side of the mic, like who the people that actually voiced these characters were. And I always thought, man, that would be so cool to be able to do. But at the time that wasn't possible. You had to be in a big center. Right? And so what I love now is the fact that you could be on the farm somewhere in a little tiny town in Saskatchewan or near a tiny town and you could still find voiceover success. You could be working with the biggest brands. It is absolutely possible.

Stephanie Ciccarelli:

Yay. Because it dispels the myth of you must be in New York or LA. I know there are certain parts of the Voiceover industry that are very much entrenched in those cities. So let's say it's animation. Maybe you can't actually do certain work for let's say a Pixar, unless you show up in studio or whatnot. But there's like the world is your oyster in so many different ways with just the great work that's being made in Europe in animation and in South Africa. I know they've got a good market there and they're not looking to hire voiceover talent necessarily to come into the studio because they're trying to get the North American voices to reach our market. And so there's no hiring talent who live obviously in our lovely continent here in North America, so I know, yeah, that's amazing. I'm just so happy to hear you say that. Especially given all of the clientele that you have. Anyone just needs to go to your website will let you plug in at the end to go and see. I literally just picked seven. OK guys, I picked seven and they're just amazing company after company after company that Jesse's worked with. So like what factors then? Obviously you've told us what is kind of important for you to have in place for your business to succeed, but what factors do you attribute your own success to?

Jesse Adam:

For me, first and foremost, I got to give credit to God. Every day I wake up, I thank Him for this job, and I thank them for the work that comes in. And just the road He’s had me on to get me here. I give credit to Him. So that's first and foremost. Second again is the coaching that I got from my brother. And not just my brother. I reached out to other coaches, too, and got coaching, and that made a huge difference. If I hadn't had that again, I think I probably wouldn't have found success. Not to pump your tires too much, Stephanie, but Voices, honestly, the platform, Voices, is where I get most of my work. Most of my clients have come from there, and without it, there is no way I would have found success. Living in Moose Jaw and trying to reach out to agents without any type of portfolio or any client list would have been impossible. And not even just the platform, but the people there. I got so much encouragement from account managers and from the different people at Voices.com just saying, hey, how are you doing? Great work on this. And they even taught me things at the beginning, too, that I didn't know. They're like, hey, maybe try this or do this, and just the talent support, because I don't know, you might want to edit this out, but I'm on a few other sites as well, obviously just to spread out. But the support and just the overall care of Voices for the talent makes such a huge difference. And you can tell that Voices want talent to succeed, because I used to work for WestJet and I did marketing there. The motto there was, we succeed because I care. So the idea was that if the employees of WestJet cared, then we would succeed. And you can see that. I feel like that's the same culture at Voices where it seems like if the workers at Voices, they know that if they care, if they take care of the talent, if they take care of the clients, there's going to be success and success for everybody, not just the business. So, yes, Voices. So God, my brother coaching and Voices.

Stephanie Ciccarelli:

Wow. That really is so amazing to hear. Thank you for sharing that. And I'm so happy that we're here with you on this journey, too. I don't know if there are words to express it, just how much it means to hear that you're doing well and that we've played some small part in your success and what you're able to do. So thank you. And I also wanted to work toward a conversation a little bit here on community because I know that that's really important, especially when people are isolated, as we have been, especially over the last couple of years in particular, just thinking, like, for you living in Moose Jaw, I'm sure it's a different kind of voiceover community that you might have. It might not be as much in person, maybe more online, but how important is having that community to you? And how do you connect with other voice actors when you are living outside of a major center?

Jesse Adam:

Yeah, it is important to me. It's hard. When I first started and was going, there was no one that I knew other than my brother to talk about it, and so I tried to talk to my family about it, and they'd be like, what are you talking about? It kind of felt a little isolated. So connecting with other Voice talent online has been awesome and so good, and it's needed, I think, because you can encourage each other, you can learn things from each other, and it's just fun to talk shop with somebody who's in the industry, right? So Moose Jaw doesn't have a very big voiceover community at all. It's probably well, there was one other guy who I helped get into Voiceover, and we would talk all the time, and then he moved far away. I know. Sean Guernsey.

Stephanie Ciccarelli:

Yeah, Sean.

Jesse Adam:

I miss him. But we still connect online now probably at least once or twice a month. We connect through it with a FaceTime call or a Zoom call, and we just talk, work and how each other are doing and what's going on. And then I've been able to coach the last several years, too, and so made some really good connections that way with people who are in the industry and who are learning and growing, and some of these people are just doing amazing. So it's fun to watch them and see them grow and then talk about trends in the industry or things that are happening. That community is super important, I think, when you're in a smaller setting like this. Yeah, it is mainly online, and that's okay. The odd time that you're able to connect with someone for a coffee or a lunch or something in person, it makes it more special, I guess, because it doesn't happen very often. But no, that community is so important.

Stephanie Ciccarelli:

Oh, for sure. And I imagine part of that voiceover community in Moose Jaw would be people who are in broadcast because that's very close to voiceover. So I imagine there are a bunch of radio folk and TV personalities who are kind of part of that fabric as well. So I hope some of them are listening and kind of hear that they've been shouted out, to. We know you're there. We know that you're part of it. Because actually, I was just thinking, we used to have a group here, Jesse, at Voices, that would meet a bunch of local voice talent, and it was like a long time ago and another office ago, in fact, before we moved into where we are now in downtown London at this address. But it always comes to my mind, like, you know, I think we should really have talent we should have everyone come in for like a meet and greet. We should do something. And especially with things being a little easier these days to do that, that come on my heart again to kind of say, okay, well, we need to bring people together. So I don't know if we can get you on a plane from Moose Jaw to come to London, but we're going to plan some stuff.

Jesse Adam:

That would be awesome.

Stephanie Ciccarelli:

Yes, that would be amazing. Because that's great, because community is really important and I think that it's about time that we all started getting out and seeing each other again. So, Jesse, there's just so many wonderful tips and insights and also your experiences that you shared today with us. It's just like, I hope that if someone is listening and they've had these kind of fears that they couldn't make it because they didn't live in the big city or that there weren't jobs for you or don't do that. Like, you'll never succeed because how could you? You know, you're in this little pocket of the province. Well, none of that is true because you have so many amazing tools you have access to, as you've said, if you've got an internet connection, a solid one, of course you don't want to have one that falls in and out, but a great internet connection, you've got access to coaching, which everyone can get from anywhere now. And also, just like the opportunities, access to opportunities, you can really make something happen and step out in the voiceover world.

Jesse Adam:

Absolutely. 100%. Yeah, it's an amazing time to be doing voiceover. And it's doable like you said. I echoed your statement. Anyone with a somewhat decent internet connection can find success in voiceover. Absolutely.

Stephanie Ciccarelli:

Wonderful. So, Jesse, that brings us to the end of our conversation, for now at least. But other people may not know how to find you. Obviously I do, but they don't. So where's the best place then they can go to learn more about you and what you do?

Jesse Adam:

Yeah, they can go to JesseAdamVO.com. That's my website. You can see some of the demos and clients and stuff if you're interested, and also offer coaching there. If people are interested in doing some coaching, wanting to learn just the basics or dive into some deeper stuff on different types of leads and how to navigate like a voices. So, yeah, that would be where to go. JesseAdamVO.com.

Stephanie Ciccarelli:

Wonderful. And if we ever get out to Moose Jaw, I think you and your family, you got to take us to see that giant moose, right?

Jesse Adam:

Absolutely.

Stephanie Ciccarelli:

Yeah. His name is Mac. All right, well, I think that's a wrap. But the next time we have a voiceover meetup, we are going to swap some stories and talk some shop and just get to know everybody. I think that would be really wonderful. Thanks for coming on, Jesse.

Jesse Adam:

Thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate it.

Stephanie Ciccarelli:

And that's the way we saw the world through the lens of voiceover this week. Thank you so much for joining us today and listening to some amazing insights on what it actually means to work in voiceover professionally from anywhere that you might be. We had Jesse Adam on the show today. Thank you so much to Jesse for coming on and joining us today. If you're in the London area, near Voices, near Toronto, wherever you might be, Detroit, we would love to see you. Let us know if you want us to throw a meet up. We want to hear about that from you. So for Voices, I'm Stephanie Ciccarelli. Vox Talk is produced by Geoff Bremner. Thank you so much for listening and we'll see you next week.