The email goes like this:

We are excited to officially announce the Voices affiliate program and we are inviting you to become a part of it. You're already getting paid for doing what you love, so why not get paid twice as a Voices affiliate? Refer your network to Voices and receive a commission when they hire their first voice talent.

Learn more about the Voices affiliate program here and apply now to start earning.

Let's click that apply button and see what this is all about. And here it is.

Become a Voices Affiliate.
Join the Voices affiliate program and start earning. Earn 50% up to $100 in commission when your referrals hire their first talent.

It pays to connect creators to their perfect talent.
Earn when your traffic converts get 50% off the first hire job spend up to $100 for every new client referred to Voices.

Hold the phone.

You do understand what's going on here, right? Voices.com, in yet a new all-time low, is asking you to refer your clients, the ones you didn't get from their platform, the ones you worked so hard to accrue, the ones you've worked to develop relationships with, and the leads you've yet to even develop a profitable relationship with over to them.

So now they can take 25 to up to 80% of the budget from that client and have you compete with thousands of other voice actors, all for the wealth-building, life-changing affiliate fee of up to 100 bucks a client.

They clearly believe you to be an idiot

Only an idiot would trade a years-long relationship or a potential years-long relationship for 100 bucks.

Only an idiot would say, "You know what? I've enjoyed a profitable relationship with this client over the years. Why don't I put them in front of thousands of other voice actors, lose 25 to 80% in the process, even when I win..." and let's be super generous here... "the 5 to 10 jobs I auditioned for."

Only an idiot would say, "You know what? Rather than promoting my own business, let me promote Voices.com, by their own numbers by the way, over 2 million other voice actors worldwide and forfeit thousands or tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars in the process to make up to 100 bucks.”

Only an idiot can't do that math. Only an idiot thinks that's a good idea.

Only an idiot thinks that Voices.com has the best interest of the client and voice actor at heart, and only an idiot would do business with a company that so clearly devalues and commoditizes not just your work anymore, but now your most valuable relationships.

Let's dig into this steaming pile a little bit more. I suggest you grab a hazmat suit and a respirator because this shit stinks.

“Create a new income stream in three easy steps. Apply...” (because they have to confirm your stupidity). “Start referring. Receive a custom tracking link and get access to creative resources to help you promote. Get paid. Earn 50% up to $100 in commission when your referrals successfully hire their first talent.”

So the ass-backward value proposition they're trying to get you to buy into here is that you're going to make some chump change even when you don't win the work.

And while that's true, it's nothing but sleight of hand. “Look at this shiny thing over here while I steal your kidneys over here.”

So let's say you refer a client to Voices, right, and the next job comes up that normally would have been handed to you. Or maybe you would have had to audition with a small number of other voice actors. And let's say that job is worth $500. Now that job is going to Voices, and now Voices is going to take 100 up to $400 in fees and hundreds of voice actors will audition.

Chances are that even if you do audition for the job, you won't win the work.

So what happens? Who wins here?

• The talent who wins the work gets 100 to $400.

• Voices gets 100 to $400.

• You get $100. That's the cap. And that's only on the first job.

What do you get on all future jobs they do with Voices?

You get nothing. You lose. Good day, sir.

So congratulations. You just traded your entire future of working with that client for 100 bucks, max.

And what do you think your client is going to think of you siccing Voices.com on them? If they don't value the relationship, well, you never had anything of value there in the first place.

If they do value the relationship, their first thought will undoubtedly be, “Why are you doing this? Don't you like working with us? Have we not treated you well? Do we not have a solid partnership?”

Once that bridge is burnt, it's burnt. You're not getting it back. They may stick with Voices. They may not, but they're likely not coming back to you because you have demonstrated with your actions that you don't value the relationship you had with them.

You sold it for 100 bucks or less, and that makes you an idiot.

I've said ‘til I'm blue in the face that time is your most valuable asset. But why?

Because the focus of your time should be spent building valuable, long-term relationships which lead to the long-term stability and profitability of your business. Time is the planning and nurturing, and relationships are the fruit.

Don't sell your fruit for pennies, keep it, eat it, grow more of it, feed yourself and your family with it.

"But Paul, you say, where's the harm in promoting Voices to clients and leads and people I haven't even worked with yet?"

Aha, very astute of you. Congratulations. You have made the shift from idiot to simpleton.

Look, this isn't Amazon. You're not promoting someone who sells khakis or teddy bears. You're promoting millions of other voice actors who do exactly what you do on a platform whose sole goal is to do it cheaper than you.

Why? Why would I? Why, why? Why?

You're choosing to put those leads in front of millions of other voice actors rather than starting and growing a relationship into a profit center for your business.

Yes, Ross, why would anybody do that? You'd have to be. Well...

And to those of you on Voices.com, let's forget about the damage they do and have done to the industry. Let's forget about how they take exorbitant fees.

Let's focus on your career. Is trading relationships and potential relationships for pocket change good for you? Is doing jobs starting at $5 good for you? Is competing with hundreds and hundreds of voice talent on every job good for you? Is paying hundreds of dollars a year for that "privilege" good for you?

No, it's not good for you. It's not good for anybody.

But they're playing on the fear in your head that if you don't work on their platform, you won't work. And that's not true.

If you're untrained and incompetent, you won't work. But that's different.

There are tens of thousands of successful voice actors that don't work on Voices.com, Fiverr, and so on.

The single biggest difference between the 15% of voice actors making $75,000 or more and the 85% making less than that is the ability and know-how to market their services directly.

They know whom to target, what to say, how to say it, when and how to follow up. And they know how to do it all at scale because that's what it takes to build a solid, sustaining, lucrative base of clients.

If you don't know how to find your own work, you're always going to be vulnerable. If you don't own your own relationships, you're always going to be vulnerable.

If you struggle with marketing your voiceover business, with starting and growing your own relationships, I invite you to check out the VO Freedom Master Plan. I developed it to take voice actors from having no plan or process to having a system to start and grow relationships at scale that lead to more consistent booking business, revenue, and income. If you don't have a marketing plan, if you're relying on the pay-to-plays, click the link above. And to get my Move Touch Inspire Newsletter for voice actors...comes out every Thursday. It's just for you and it's free. Subscribe below.

If you found value in this video, if you learned something, if it inspired you, help us get the word out to other voice actors. The way to do that is to click like and subscribe and maybe even clang that notification bell so you'll be the first to know when we publish a new video.

Thanks again so much for your support. I am super, super grateful. Have a great week and we will see you back here soon.