As we kick off the expanded offerings at thevoiceovercommunity.com, I wanted to take a quick moment to thank you for being a part of The Voiceover Community.  Our members comprise a truly cool tribe of talented folks from around the world.  It’s always my objective to offer up as much value as I can in our neck of the webbernet.  So, thanks for being here…and for being the best part of The Voiceover Community! 🙂 

Today, I wanted to take a moment to address a couple of related topics…time management and forward momentum.  Back in drivers ed, we all learned the Zen of checking your mirrors while driving.  It is all about staying safe through maintaining situational awareness.  However, your focus and navigation should mostly be on the road ahead.  How does this apply to voiceover?  It’s very simple…stop looking in your rearview mirror!

I am referring to this rising paradigm of talent fixating on completed auditions, “short listing” and other similar results and metrics.  This holds especially true for pay-to-play and casting sites.  Yes, P2P sites can offer some value as a spoke or two on your marketing wheel.  However, P2P sites have attempted to inject a new paradigm into the discussion…a paradigm that many talent have grabbed on to as being a “thing.”  This would be the metric and term “short listing.”

What does short listing mean?  Basically, depending on the platform, it essentially means that you have made an initial “cut” of talent that the buyer eliminated from the casting process.  That’s more or less the definition.  Now, what does it REALLY mean?  Nothing of any real actionable value.  What is a better metric?  Casting!

P2P sites are built as a means of bringing buyers and talent together.  Yet, don’t forget that they are a business and are focused on their bottom line.  A paid subscription based site shares some functional DNA with dating and social media sites.  They inject elements into their platforms that keep you on the platform…interacting and paying your subscription fee.  One such tool implemented by P2P sites is the “short list” (or something similar, depending on the platform). 

Ultimately, this is a nebulous metric.  It will not give you any actionable information.  What good does it do to look back…to hypothesize as to where you fall in said “short list” of potential candidates for a gig, and why?  Why should you engage with a platform and burn time and energy looking back at a completed audition?  The process of auditioning is one where you prepare, deliver and then move on.