Today we’d like to introduce you to Laura Doman.

Hi Laura, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
Sometimes I like to joke that I’m in my second childhood, finally pursuing the passions that I loved as a kid. Or if I’m being more serious, I’ll say that I’m reinventing myself later in life, turning those passions into a viable career after following more conventional paths as a corporate IT sales exec and a stay-at-home mom.

I’m a film/TV actress, a voice talent, and a content writer. And I’m having the time of my life. Here’s how it came about:

The acting bug bit me as it did so many kids. I loved performing and did so whenever I could land a role in a school production. I even enjoyed the audition process, with all the excitement of receiving the script, working furiously to master it within a short time, and competing for the juiciest roles. Many actors see the audition process as a hurdle to overcome, but even today, I still see it as an opportunity to perform, whether or not I’m cast in the role.

I also discovered that I loved using my voice alone to inform and entertain. In high school, I was the reader of the morning announcements over the PA system. (Note to all those born in the age of the internet, personal computers and mobile devices: the public address (PA) system was the only way back then that school news was broadcast to teachers and students.) I’d like to claim it as my idea and my idea alone, but credit goes to the assistant principal. You see, I was the kind of kid who was involved in just about every after-school club. With all the homeroom noise drowning out the PA system, I’d get so frustrated at not being able to hear when and where these activities were meeting. I began stopping by the school office on a daily basis to read over the announcements and someone took notice. Perhaps they thought that students might pay more attention to another kid’s voice and actually take interest in what was going on at their school.

It was serendipity. I loved using the PA system and making a small name for myself. Before I knew it, everyone WAS listening and they all wanted their turn at the mic, too. I ended up training a large group on how to properly use the mic and care for the equipment and, in the name of fairness, found myself soon out of the job so that others could have the experience. Oh, well, it was fun while it lasted. And though I had no idea what voice over was at the time, the experience stayed with me and sparked my interest in professional VO.

Forensics (speech) competition in college opened my eyes to different ways to use the voice to inform, entertain, and educate. My favorite events were informative and persuasive speaking and impromptu and extemporaneous competition. The first two were prepared speeches, often with accompanying materials, on topics of my choice. The last two were more improvisational in nature, with topics randomly selected during each round and competitors given only a few minutes to prepare 5-7 minute speeches. It was challenging, it was a bit scary, and it was totally thrilling. It sparked my love for improv and speaking in front of groups on non-scripted topics. How wonderful to inject my own personality and sense of humor into a presentation! It prepared me well for a career in sales.

And that’s where my first career took me. With a finance degree backed by heavy duty computer science and statistics studies, I quickly discovered that I belonged not in systems development, but in corporate sales and marketing. I specialized in selling leading edge technology to corporate and IT executives, educating (and entertaining) them along the way. My inner actress saw it as an audience around every corner, every sales presentation a (paying!) audition, every sale a booking. The work satisfied my ambitious, competitive nature and my creative self who didn’t mind being in the spotlight one bit. Along the way, I also did some community theater and booked professional acting jobs in film, TV, and commercials, juggling my business and artistic personas as time permitted. I worked within both Fortune 100 companies and tech startups until my first child was born.

What can I say? I looked into my new baby’s eyes and my heart instantly turned me onto a totally divergent path. In that moment, I became a stay-at-home mom, albeit one who (when I caught up on my sleep!) was also a part-time freelance content writer and marketer. My proudest achievement was creating and leading a marketing channel for a non-profit organization, which grew significantly in membership over several years due to that initiative.

The opportunity to move into acting, and later voice over, came as my youngest entered her teens. She also loved acting and was very active in professional musical theater throughout elementary school. She wanted to expand into film and TV, and her agent was looking for “older” actors at the time. Together, we signed with a theatrical agency and began auditioning and booking films, TV, commercials, and industrials.

I’ve been pleased to grow my career as a professional actress over the years, adding voiceover training, VO agents, and jobs in both genres to my resume. As a voice actor, I’ve worked in commercials, corporate narration, eLearning (training videos), telephony, and short films, with clients in the US and overseas. I have a broadcast-quality home studio from which I can record and edit finished audio files or alternatively, work with clients in directed sessions through the internet.

And I’m enjoying the fact that my VO business is, well, a business. While my best film/TV options are found through my agent, and thus largely out of my hands, my VO work comes from multiple sources, particularly those that I cultivate through direct marketing and referrals. It’s funny how it’s an inverse of how I started my work life. Then, my business career was supported by my communication skills. Now, my performance career is supported by my business know-how. Except that I’m having a lot more fun!

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
The creative’s path is rarely smooth! Perhaps the biggest struggles lie in realizing and accepting that this is truly a subjective business, totally dependent on the tastes and opinions of others. It’s an industry full of rejection, which can be hard not to take personally. And there is often little to no feedback on your work.

As an actor, you never truly know what the casting director, producer, or director have in mind for the role. Oftentimes, they’re not even sure themselves, just confident that they’ll know it when they see/hear it. There are so many interpretations possible for even the smallest role. They also have to consider how each actor fits within the storyline and within the overall cast. So many criteria factor into the casting decision, and they’re almost all outside the control of the actor. Things like height, age, weight, shades of eye and skin tone. Considerations that you’ll never be told about, such as if you remind the director of his ex, if you look too much like the lead, or if someone else has a special connection to the producer. If you’re auditioning to play a child or parent of a lead, or an older or younger version of another character, then you must look enough like them to be convincing.

All you can do is to do your best. You do your homework to understand the story and your character’s place within it. You research the creators behind it to know the proper tone of the piece. You give your truest, most authentic performance possible. And you bring your unique self to every role and show the decision-makers your version of your character. They’ll either buy it or they won’t. And since you won’t know unless you book it, you learn to forget about the audition and focus on to the next opportunity. Unlike corporate sales, follow-up calls are highly inappropriate. It’s strictly a “don’t call us, we’ll call you” business.

A lot of actors struggle with the lack of feedback. And it’s impossible to gauge the reaction of the casting director because, thanks to Covid, most auditions are no longer in person, but submitted online via self-taped videos. We in the Southeast have actually had a head start on this; we’ve been submitting self-taped auditions for years as a matter of practicality due to the geographical size of our market, even before Covid hit. But it doesn’t make the process any easier.

Voice actors get to do all this within an even greater space of isolation. We work in small recording booths, which oftentimes are converted closets. Primarily, we have only our imagination and a few written words to guide us.

Perhaps the biggest struggle is the challenge to make a living from your craft. Only an estimated 2% of on-camera actors can do so. As with professional athletes, attention is placed on those at the top of their fields and the glitz, glamor, and high salaries they command. Little is noted of the masses who struggle on a daily basis. Voice actors, with so much work available in the non-broadcast (corporate) and video gaming arenas, enjoy a much higher probability of booking and financial success. I know quite a few who earn a good respectable living, even into six figure income. These are people who have worked years at their craft, though, investing time and money consistently in good equipment, top notch training, and a robust website showcasing their abilities.

My biggest struggle is a common one: frustration at not seeing faster progress in my career, especially in relation to the amount of work, time, energy, and investment that I’m pouring into it. Intellectually, I know that input does not automatically equate to output; most actors devote ten, twenty, or more years to this business and don’t see the rewards of their efforts, despite their talents. This is clearly a career for enjoying the journey – the opportunities to tell stories, to express creative and artistic talents – rather than focusing on the destination. To quote a favorite mantra within the industry: it’s a marathon, not a sprint. All true, but it can still get under your skin!

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
As an on-camera actress, I like to play sweet and sour. I’m often cast as the loving, concerned mom or grandma, but I’ve also had great fun playing the villain or stiff, disapproving authority figure. My favorite roles are those of more complex characters: the sweet, harmless-looking soul who turns out to be the embodiment of evil or the flawed antagonist who reveals a deep secret that totally changes your opinion on the character. I played the lead in an independent short film, “The Colored Girls Restroom,” a period piece set in the South during the Civil Rights era that was showing (and still may be) on Amazon. My character appeared to be a hardened racist, who was later revealed to be something more. She was great fun to play, especially in those rawer moments.

As a voice actor, I lean into corporate work because of my previous business experience. These include corporate narration videos, training videos, medical narration, explainers (short, often entertaining commercials), and telephony. I’ve also voiced commercials and off-screen characters for films (like 911 operators and neighbors calling from afar) and a short audiobook essay. The most interesting VO on film was when I voiced a goldfish that was the reincarnation of the owner’s deceased and incessantly nagging mother. And no, the nagging did not end when Mom came back as a goldfish.

Recently, I was able to pull out my witchy voice for a couple of radio ads promoting a Halloween theme park. And earlier this year, I had a wonderful opportunity to combine my work as both a film and voiceover actor in an interactive corporate training video. The project combined animation, special effects, and real people (the actors) to create a futuristic setting in which new employees had to make hard choices and watch the consequences play out.

As a content writer, I enjoy using my sales and marketing experience in conjunction with my storytelling skills as an actor to promote the work of small businesses and independent artists. I’ve always loved writing, whether it’s for engineering journal articles (as I had early in my career), my website’s blog, or clients.

So what sets me apart from others? I bring a lot to the table! Communications in many forms, with experience as an actor, host, voice talent, writer, and IT sales exec. I know how to tell stories, either fanciful or of the business world, and how to inform, educate, and persuade in an interesting, entertaining manner. I understand the primary business concerns of suppliers and clients alike, and can readily explain complex technological ideas to a lay audience. The corporate gal in me understands how to deliver quality materials with fast turnarounds and top notch customer service. I have a broadcast-quality home voiceover studio that can accommodate remotely directed sessions. My video recording space is fully equipped with lights, camera, teleprompter, various backdrops, and a green screen.

And I do it all with a smile! Why? Because I love what I do. And I think it shows.

How do you think about luck?
Lefty Gomez, an all-star pitcher for the NY Yankees in the 1930s, is credited with saying, “I’d rather be lucky than good.”

Well, luck is great, but I wouldn’t depend on it. As the pragmatic sort, I hope for the best but plan for the worst, which means that I think that we each make our own luck through a lot of hard work. And in my field, that means constantly training to become the best I can be.

There hasn’t been any particular event that I would point to and say was entirely due to luck. Rather, I keep my eyes and ears open for opportunities, such as finding an on-camera agent who was looking for older actors. Such as asking an actress friend, when she was talking about voice over, how she got into the field; taking her advice; and meeting some amazing people along the way who opened a few doors of opportunity for me. There is luck in being at the right place at the right time. I just haven’t experienced it in such a huge way that it blows my socks off.

There’s another saying that I think calls it about right: Roman philosopher Seneca observed that “luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.” That’s pretty much been my motto. Of course, I’ll take luck when it comes my way! It never hurts to keep your fingers crossed, especially when a big opportunity presents itself.

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