I'm usually not like this, but I've been getting a little discouraged lately about the voiceover business.

We are hearing stories of lots of people potentially being allegedly hornswoggled by a particular coach. People are making up Zoom calls with celebrities that probably didn't happen. There's La Niña and war and unrest on the world stage and I'm feeling it all heavier in a way that I probably haven't since maybe 2016.

So when that happens, one of the best strategies I've found to manage it myself is to go hard in the paint on my gratitude practice.

Consistently practicing gratitude does a world of good for my mental well-being. It boosts my overall mood, it lowers my anxiety and my depression. And it's not just about feeling good. It improves my relationships, my sleep. It's good for the immune system. Lots of good stuff there.

So, as we head into Thanksgiving week here in the States, I thought it would be a great time to remind myself and count down the top five things I'm grateful for in the voiceover business.

Here we go…

Number 5: Voice Over Conferences

We are all so incredibly siloed in this business. We all by definition we’re freelancers and all of us voice actors, we work alone. And ours is a fairly niche profession, and not many of us have spouses or partners that understand what we go through on a daily basis.

And that, in my view, is the biggest reason this community of voice actors is so amazingly supportive, especially when we come together. Getting out of the booth and joining physically in this community of voice actors, if you've never done it before, I promise you it will be a game changer.

My first conference was MAVO back in, I think, 2018, and it changed my career and my life. Now, I already knew that I wanted to be a full time voice actor, but I met so many incredible, amazing and talented and supportive people who still support me to this day. So, it was it was at MAVO where I knew beyond the shadow of all doubt that this was my calling and this was going to be my path.

And I now, years later, have literally hundreds of friends that I didn't have before that that, you know, I got hooked in with the right people, right practices, the right kind of preparation because of the people that were at that conference.

Now, since then, I've been to VO Atlanta and One Voice and MAVO multiple, multiple times and every single time it fills up my soul to be around these incredibly kind and generous and character-driven people.

And believe me when I tell you, that is not the norm. This community is special. It is unique. And at no time is that clearer than when we're all in a room together at conferences.

I've been lucky enough to go to Uncle Roy's, which is not even technically an industry event. It's just 200 people gathering around to spend time with each other, catch up on what's going on in each other's lives to eat and drink and listen to good music and spread love.

And, yeah, we just all happen to be in the voiceover community.

Number Four: The GVAA and the GVAA Rate Guide

I can honestly say beyond the shadow of a doubt that my career would be vastly different and yes, worse off were it not for the folks at the GVAA and the gift that they've given this industry in the GVAA Rate Guide.

Nowhere else that I know of do creative nonunion professionals in other lines, say you know graphic design for instance, they don't have an industry rate card as nonunion creatives that they can present to clients and prospects that's user-generated by a committee from across the industry that they can present to people as industry standards.

We as nonunion actors can look with confidence, our clients and prospects in the eye and present reasonable, professional appropriate rates as standard. We don't have to guess. We don't have to make them up. We don't have to ask around. We don't have to pull them out of our rear ends. And clients can rest assured that what they're being presented is fair and reasonable and objective.

I'll be forever grateful to David Toback and Christina Milizia and David Rosenthal and all the folks at the GVAA for solving this, what used to be, a really complex problem and in the process provide professional nonunion rates as a complement to SAG after rates.

Number Three: Artificial Intelligence

Alright, before you start swinging, hear me out.

In 2023, AI exploded and the specter of what we all kind of saw coming for years, as you know, the boogeyman that was going to take our jobs, started to be concrete in some very real ways in 2023.

But I am also grateful in some very real and concrete ways for the pressure that AI has applied to the voice-over industry.

Now, to start for some, frankly, it's scared them off, and I'm grateful for that because this business is not for the timid. Now, the specter of AI, the boogeyman that it is probably scared those people off and quite frankly, probably saved them a lot of heartache. And maybe a lot of financial expense.

And for others, AI is forcing people to understand that if you're not well-trained as an actor, then AI can probably do what you do cheaper than you can do it.

So, for me, it's been a personal reminder to train as hard and as well as I possibly can to be the best voice actor I possibly can be.

Now, I also think it'll take away a lot of the low-end, monotonous, low-skill work that many human voice actors we don't enjoy anyway. And for that I'm grateful.

And let's not forget, AI will also present opportunities, for example, for us as voice actors to, with consent, fair compensation and ample control over our licensed voices, our licensed synthetic voices, will give us the opportunity to make some passive income.

Now, while AI have some negative effects on human voice actors? Of course, it will. Every new technology has positive and negative consequences. I'm choosing to try and focus on the positives.

Number Two: SAG-AFTRA

And you say, “Well, Paul, you're a nonunion actor. What do you care?”

Here's why I care and here's why I'm grateful. Because what happens in the union world directly affects what happens in the nonunion world. What happens in SAG negotiations helps or potentially hurts us all the rates and the precedents and the terms that are negotiated by SAG-AFTRA and their negotiating committees on the different contracts have both direct and indirect effects for all of us.

For example, the GVAA Rate Guide at its core is a direct reflection of the SAG-AFTRA rates because for decades the SAG-AFTRA rates were the only collectively negotiated rates there were. The recent advances and protections that were negotiated in the TV theatrical streaming contract by SAG-AFTRA will have direct and indirect effects on contracts in other creative unions.

And all actors, both union and nonunion, we owe a debt of gratitude to the Writers Guild of America, who were the first to establish protections and win significant concessions from the AMPTP regarding AI.

And it was the momentum from the Writers Guild negotiations and that contract that got ratified that energized the SAG-AFTRA membership and its negotiating committee.

And number one: I'm grateful for NAVA - The National Association of Voice Actors

Boy, oh boy. This. This one's a biggie.

We're filming this in November of 2023. So, NAVA just turned a year old and what this tiny group of incredible people has done in 12 months is nothing but superhuman.

There was such a gaping hole in this industry for advocacy and NAVA and the folks that founded NAVA, Carin Gilfry and Tim Friedlander, stepped in and stepped up

In just the first year, this is just some of what NAVA has accomplished.

They've met with legislators on the state and federal level.

They've written an AI rider, which can be added to any contract and that's been used successfully by hundreds, maybe even thousands of voice actors, that provides real protection against misuse of artificial intelligence.

They've presented to the Federal Trade Commission, they've presented to the European Union.

They've established a legal aid fund for voice actors.

They've donated over $7,500 for financially needy voice actors.

They helped to found UVA, which is an international group of voice over associations and unions and trade groups.

And let's not forget, they opened up group health access to voice actors for health, dental, and vision with no earnings requirements.

If there were a Nobel Peace Prize for voice over, it would go this year to Tim Friedlander and Carin Gilfry, the founders of NAVA.

Now, in their first year, NAVA gained around 800 members and about $72,000 in membership dues and fees. But even in the first year alone, expenses were around $178,000. And they made up for what is essentially a little more than $100,000 shortfall by working free hours, by paying for expenses out of their own pocket.

And they also got creative and offered donation-based classes and events. and I'm grateful for you because your donations to the NAVA Foundation have helped with that shortfall tremendously. So thank you.

Just in the last couple of days, Erikka J, who is one of my newest friends. We've just gotten to know each other a little bit. She had a great a fantastic idea, and she posted it on Facebook the other day.

“I want to challenge everyone in this group and all members supporters to set up a recurring donation to Nava of at least $1 a month. These trips to advocate for us are not free. And when we can support Tim and Carin and the whole NAVA team's blood, sweat, and toil with our dollars, if each of the nearly 1000 NAVA members could make it $5 or $10 monthly, we could pump an extra $5,000 - $10,000 into this amazing nonprofit organization monthly. Imagine if we could support them with an extra $1,000 a month just by all giving $1 each. And who couldn't use another tax deduction?”

Fantastic idea, Erikka J. And I'll put the link to make those recurring donations so you can link directly to and donate directly to NAVA.

And if you're not a member already and you're a voice actor, I highly encourage you to join. NAVA is our voice as voice actors at the federal level and at the state level. And to have a voice means putting some skin in the game.

That's my big five gratitude list for now. Thank you for allowing me to share it and for more information on the VO Freedom Master Plan, which teaches voice actors a proven system to market their service directly to clients, so they don't have to rely on the pay-to-plays and their agents, click that link.

And to get my Thursday Move, Touch Inspire Newsletter For voice actors that comes out every week, click that link… It's free.

As always, thanks for continuing the discussion here on the channel in the VO Pro community and in the voiceover community at large.

The more we talk amongst ourselves, the better we can solve issues, the more we can come together, and the better industry we can have.

Thanks so much. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving and a beautiful holiday season.