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Archives for December 2018

Use your (Inner) Voice to Elevate You!

Uncategorized

If you have been in the voice over business for more than a month, you know that voicing is a great way to connect and compel feelings through voice.  But, it is also a profession of ups and downs, highs and lows and mistakes and rejections.  So make sure that while you are perfecting your vocal delivery, you are developing your inner voice to support you through the hard times.

Most talents are sensitive, heart feeling people.  Because we are sensitive, we may take rejection and mistakes personally and want to give up.  Don’t!  Develop your elevator speech to elevate your attitude and to keep you moving forward in your voice acting career.

Here are a few tips to perfecting your inner voice:

  • Remind yourself that you are nurturing the unique gift of your voice: Becoming your best voice talent is a journey.  Practice becoming better as you learn through the ups and downs of your journey.
  • Record your own compassionate encouragement:  Make a five-minute recording of self-encouragement.  Make the recording after you have had a big win (any win) when you are on top of your game.  Your voice speaking back to you during the hard times will help you remember that you can and will win again!
  • Promise never to put yourself down:  I once heard a preacher say, “Don’t talk negatively about yourself; others will do it for you.”
  • Meditate on and review your situation:  Positively determine what you can learn from a setback.  If you did your best in an audition, that’s great. Keep up the excellent work.  If you did not do your best, determine why and write one to four improvement statements.  Read the statements daily for at least one week to help change your behavior.

Remember that each day is a gift that can only be received once.  Don’t waste time with negative self-talk that will keep you from moving forward.  Challenge you to perfect your inner voice to support and elevate you through the hard times.  Be there for you, no matter what.

Go ahead and break that lip!

Escaping Your “Who-are-you Ville”

Uncategorized

“I’m here!” One, two, ten, ten-thousand-how many voices does it take to hear one?  How can you be the voice that stands out in the voiceover market place?  Well, it takes work. If you have ever seen the movie (from the book) “Horton Hears a Who”, there is a scene where all the citizens of Whoville are screaming to the top of their lungs “We are Here.” but they can’t get their message through. Their voice was critical and had to be heard to prove they existed and to save their very lives!  Building a voice over business can feel like being one of citizens of Dr. Seuss’ Whoville community with almost no way of being heard (individually). Well, your voice is important and you can have a place in the voiceover world.  Try a few of these to get your VO heard and get a response to your “I’m a voice talent and I’m here!”

  • Become Loud by Association Are you a part of a group, church or, organization?  What are you doing as a part of that association? Do you volunteer for outreach?  Make an effort to meet people with and outside of your group and let them know that you are a voice over professional. Develop a public service announcement for your group or even develop artwork or an article for your group. Just make sure your name is on the product along with your organization.
  • Share Social Media DeliberatelyWhat’s hot with you and your associates?  Share a popular social media post or blog.  I’ve share on Twitter items from NASA on launches to breaking news from Reuters.  Share and positively comment on items from voice over talent or groups.  The point is to be heard by association with voice talent and others.
  • Speak Publicly If you’re a voice talent, you’re or can become a public speaker.  Does your local high school need a speaker? What about your civil organization?  Is there a topic that you are passionate about?  Look for a forum and make sure you let them know that you are also a voiceover talent.
  • Teach a Class (something fun)Are you an expert on something or things other than voiceovers?  Look into volunteering at community colleges and local clubs to teach what you know.  Develop a good lesson plan and teach a short course.  (If’ you’re going to teach something physical, remember to get those signed releases before you start teaching your class.) What about teaching “Why Not to go into Voiceovers.”  Different, yea, but folks will take notice of the title.

Now, go and get heard!  You’re here!

Voiceover Conferences-Your Right Fit

VO Business Tips, Voice over Training

With a new year comes a fresh look at one’s long-held hopes, dreams, and goals. If voiceover conference attendance is a part of your yearly goals, you may be rummaging the Internet for upcoming voiceover events. You’ll have a LOT of choices. But how do you choose the right event for you? I offer this list of tips to help you narrow down the best use of your time and talent in choosing a voiceover conference.

Support Your VO Goals 

Outline what you want to learn in voiceovers. While many new talents wish to do everything voice related, that is just not realistic. Focus on what you want to do in voiceovers. For example, are you interested in audiobooks? What skills do you need i.e., audio engineering, acting, or marketing? Note one to five primary voiceover goals and then develop a sub-list of what you want to learn about your specific purpose or genre.

Shop for the Right Fit

Look over each voiceover conference’s agenda. See if you like the topics and if they are the subjects relevant to your goals. Will the discussion areas further your career progress and do they relate to what you want to learn (the specifics in your list)? Your takeaways should be viewed as a part of your road map for the coming months or years in your voiceover career.

Read reviews from earlier conferences and look for endorsements. Ask your VO colleagues where they have attended. Look at voiceover social media chatter and comments on upcoming events. Conference credibility is just as important as training content.

Look for Voiceover Superstars

Read each presenter’s bio and visit his or her website. What are their specialties and how long has each speaker been in the voiceover industry? Experience is still the best teacher for voice actors. Note the presenters’ projects and if they are in line with the areas you want to pursue in voiceacting.

Pace your Budget

Is the event near you so you can commute? If not, how much travel can you afford? As a voiceover professional, you should budget for one to two conferences per year, so choose wisely. If you must travel away from home, try to share the expenses with another VO talent (room, board, drive, etc.). Some of these costs are a part of doing business, so your voiceover business should pay its own expenses. If your budget is not there yet, you may need to get creative on financing your conference attendance.

No matter the conferences you choose, the experiences will enable you to network within the voice acting community and with other talents. Take advantage of these times as you build relationships and learn from the novice to the seasoned voice actors. Make each event a productive voiceover conference experience.

Have fun, and break a lip!

 

Competitors or Colleagues (Knowing the difference is critical)

Voice over Training

You’re up for another voice job that’s just right; you already have a passion for the subject, and you know it like the back of your hand. You know others who are auditioning for the same job, and you’re nervous. What if you don’t get the job? Have you lost to a competitor? Or, have you lost to a colleague? As a successful voice talent, learn how to turn your voice over competitors into voice business colleagues.

It’s about the “Right Voice” (not you)  

Believe it or not, most managers looking for a voiceover talent usually have a voice in mind for a project. Your voice may or may not be the voice in his or her head. We typically have no idea of what or who that voice is. Your voice is your personal style, so don’t get hung up on not having the “perfect voice” or not getting a particular job. It could just be that your voice is not the “voice” in someone’s head.

Know your Real Competitor

Your real competitor is quality and service. A successful professional voice actor knows that having a “great voice” is not all that what is essential as a voiceover professional is an excellent delivery, connection with the script and good business service. You’ve got to give your customers first-class service at all times. Good voiceover service is not an option. Producers usually continue to choose and use voiceover talents who get the job done and are easy to work with on jobs. If you don’t practice the basics of excellent customer service including improving your skills as a talent, you’re only defeating yourself.

Embrace your Colleagues (figuratively speaking)   

Voiceover talents are a wealth of knowledge and support. We all have to start from some point, and you can always learn or teach someone along the way. If you lose a job to a fellow talent, be happy for them, and keep building your business. You need friends in this business, so look to your voiceover community for recommendations on the talent and service you need.

Most voice actors that I know are unique, artistic, and sensitive folks. Voice actors usually want to please their customers and provide the best services. This spirits of giving and serving are rare and unique in today’s society. Embrace your voice over competitors and make them your voice business’ best colleagues.

Break that lip!

Seating Your Voiceover

Voice over Training

Reading a voiceover script is not just what comes from your mouth. Our entire body supports how sounds come from our vocal area. Seating in your booth affects the sound and feeling of your voiceover.

You may wonder why I’m addressing seating in the voiceover area. Well, you may have noticed by now that the way you sit can affect your voice. For example, if you sit on a stool with your feet and toes on the floor and with no back support, you cannot help feeling a little tension and alertness. Your body is focused on supporting your upper torso. Therefore, you cannot help but to voice in a more commanding, serious, and attentive voice.

When you sit in a comfortable, relaxed chair with support for your arms and back, you physically respond by relaxing, slowing your pace, and voicing in a warm and more comforting tone.

Your seat is important because if you are voicing a warm heart felt story, you need to sit in a comfortable chair to subconsciously communicate warmth and comfort through your voice delivery.

If you are voicing something that is important, commands attention, or is a call to immediate action, sitting on a stool or in an upright position will help communicate your message in a subconscious manner.

Try changing your seats from a stool to a chair. Change your position on your seats. Record and listen to your voice. You will surly notice that your voiceover delivery automatically changes and is modified just by your seating choice.

Seating your voice can help or hinder your vocal delivery. Making the right choice could cut your vocal work in half.

Voiceover’s Spring Cleaning

Voice over Training

Spring cleaning can take many forms. Take some time to do a little voiceover business cleaning too. Now is an excellent time to review your business and see if a bit of cleaning up is overdue. Here’s a reminder of some things you may want to put on your cleanup list.

Computer review: If you have a PC, take time and do a De-frag to recombine old or scattered files.

Review your computer’s records, hard drive, and storage. Are there files that need to be moved from your computer’s drive to your external drive? Voiceover recording files can take up a lot of memory, so reviewing and purging your drive’s storage should be a regular habit.

What about those old voiceover scripts and other files that you have not looked at in years? If you’re not sure whether you’ll need the data and files later, archive them in an external drive. Label the files by date or subject just in case you may need to locate them in the future.

Workspace Use:  Do you have files all around you as you work? Voice acting is a creative business, and creativity needs a calming and inspiring workspace. Clean out those old papers and files from your area and studio. You will find that a clutter-free workspace helps clear you mentally and will improve your focus while working.

Effective Website: Review your demos to make sure they are up to date and marketable. Compare your site to other sucessful voice-over talents’ sites. Review the positioning of your texts, demos, and other information. Make sure you have the information a voice talent seeker needs like your direct email address, phone number, and remote direction capabilities.

Phone Files and Memory: If not done already, clean out your phone’s old photos and download them to your laptop computer. If you’re like me, you use your phone for voiceover practice and audio recordings. Over time, those files can take up a lot of phone storage. While you may or may not have space on your phone, if the items are essential, back them up to your external drive just in case..

Update Business Plan: Are your business goals for this year on track? Do some review to see if your plan needs updating, revising, or rewriting. This exercise will also help refocus you mentally as you work your way through a successful spring season and year.

Take time for this review regularly so nothing holds you back as you…break a lip.

Beware of Voiceover Scams

VO Business Tips

If you’re a voice talent with your contact information on the web, you may have seen some of the recent rash of email scams. Over the last few weeks, many of my VO colleagues (including myself) have received some type of email from a potential scammer. You never know where one or many may strike. Always practice safety online and in business; it may keep you from being scammed.

Scams are serious and you should practice safety on and off-line. Voiceover talent Doug Turkel writes in his April 2016 blog, Anatomy of a Voiceover Scam about scammers targeting #VO talent. His story is eye opening as to some of the tactics used by scammers. It’s a must read.

Today.com’s article, 10 Simple Tips To Avoid Being Scammed tells us not to assume things are always as they seem:

Question everything: phone calls, mail solicitations, email offers, links on social media.
Don’t take things at face value. Con artists know how to make their scams look and
sound legitimate. They can doctor pictures, copy logos, fake testimonials. It’s also easy
to “spoof” caller ID and create fake websites.

I encourage you to practice the tips and habits noted in the articles. I know you want to grow your business, but smart safety should never be an after thought.

Be safe!

Voice Talent: Just Read it!

Uncategorized

I’ve heard talents comment on the writings of potential clients. Some talents have a vast knowledge of proper English grammar and note the “obvious” mistakes made by some book authors and copywriters. While this may endear a talent as a shrewd and skillful grammar expert, is it a talent’s place to critique his or her client’s writing? Knowing when and when not to comment as a voiceover talent could go a long way toward future success.

Talents sometime express their frustration with the writings of clients on the web. As a voiceover talent and while your comments may be correct, you must consider if commenting is appropriate. If you have accepted a voice over job and later find that you “cannot possibly” live with the way the copy or book is written, I suggests the below actions:

  • Politely contact the writer and ask for clarification. The writer/author may have made a mistake and may want to correct the copy in question. If the copy is not an error, continue and read as specified by the client.
  • If you cannot quickly reach the writer, note your comments separately, but still read the copy as written.
  • Forgive the writers; hold off on negative social media or web comments. None of us are perfect, so let’s do our jobs and move on. It’s great that you have knowledge of proper English writing and grammar usage. Perhaps, you can volunteer as a freelance editor in another venue.  Still, give the copy your best voiceover skills as if Shakespeare wrote it!

Conversely, reading copy is a type of taking direction. As a voiceover talent, we know how important it is to take direction well when doing a job. Knowing what is required in a voice or acting job is important. Voice actor Tom Deere notes this point in his article,  If You Can’t Or Won’t Listen As A Voice Talent, You Won’t Make It.

I believe it’s better to seek and respond to jobs that are suited for you and your delivery than to just apply because they are looking for a talent. Both you and the client’s time are valuable; try not to waste what is valuable. You’re a superstar!

(By the way, the image in my above graphic is originally from a well-written book. It’s just an illustration. )

Don’t Beware January and June, Renew!

Voice talent renewal

In the voiceover world, they say, “Beware January and June.” So, if your June is not what your other colleagues may be experiencing business-wise, you need to come up with ways to regroup. Regrouping should lead to more jobs, better auditions, and more revenue doing what you love. Unconventional methods of regrouping can lead to better creativity and a renewed focus for business success.

Regrouping does not have to be boring. The more exceptional your activities, the better. Use this slow time for decisive actions that can keep you going through the slump and emerge as a powerful voiceover talent. Below are some ideas on how to regroup to keep you going and working your daily voiceover business tasks:

When it comes to renewing, think out of the box. Voiceovers should not be arduous, although sometimes it can feel that way. There is no downer as marketing for work and not getting the results you want and need. So use these times to change your thinking and regroup your world.

Need more? Trent Hamm’s “The Frugal Introvert: Fifty Ways to Have Fun By Yourself on the Cheap,” gives ideas for having the fun solo.

Now go out there and be like other folks for a while. Come out of your vocal booth and use this (unplanned) little break in June for a mini-renew time. It will refresh your spirit more than you can imagine.

Have fun!

Financing your Audiobook

Book Authors' Business Tips, VO Business Tips

Library of Books

You’re book or “baby” is ready for publication. You know from your fellow authors that the next step is an audiobook version. You begin to look for a narrator to produce your book, but you’re stunned by rates quotes upward of $400 per finished hour (PFH). Do you look for a cheaper narrator? Should you offer a lower price? You may think it’s time to panic but don’t. With a few creative steps, you can retain and finance a quality narration of your audiobook.

Before discussing funding, let’s examine the logic behind that $400. PFH rate. What does it cost the narrator to produce your book? You have a deep connection with your project. Those on your production team are in business to help you and to feed their families. The production team members may have different reasons, but the combined goal is the success of your book.

Audiobook Creation Exchange (ACX) notes that it takes the average narrator at least two hours to read one hour of a book. But that is just the beginning. It takes two to three additional hours to proofread, edit, mix, and master one complete hour of an audiobook. Quoted narration rates can range from $200-$400 PFH, which may seem like a lot. With the work needed to develop your “baby” into an audiobook, paying a reasonable rate makes fiscal sense for a quality finished product.

Now that you see the rationale behind production costs let’s look at a few ways to fund your book project.

Online Grants

Foundation Grants to Individuals Online, a service of the Foundation Center, is a subscription-based program that allows you to search for funding sources based upon topics, interests, and other criteria. Subscriptions are available for a variety of periods depending upon your needs.

Crowdsourcing

Crowdsourcing, as defined by Merriam-Webster.com, is the practice of obtaining needed services, ideas, or content by soliciting contributions from a large group of people and especially from the online community rather than from traditional employees or suppliers.

GoFundMe.com and IndieGoGo.com are two popular personal online fundraising websites. Crowdsourcing is a great way to reach out to those who have read or know of your work and would support efforts toward your audiobook production.

Deferred Payments

Consider negotiating a deal with your audiobook producer to take partial payments. You can develop a contract and set up regularly scheduled payments through PayPal or another source that allows you to pay your vendor in increments. Be sure to pay the audiobook producer timely. Everyone knows everybody on the Web.

Charge Cards

While not my first suggestion, if you have cash advance capability or can pay your audiobook producer directly by credit card, this could be a good way to cover the PFH rate.

Royalty Shares

Most producers like to have royalty shares in their recording deals. This way, you can pay for your project over time if you can also budget an initial PFH rate for the development of your project.

Help from Friends and Family

Sometimes you just have to ask.  Friends and family may give or loan you the money necessary for the audiobook. Your supporters jointly may provide all the funds you need.

Support from Groups

Ask for assistance from your civic group, organizations, clubs, and church, especially if the subject of your book is relevant to your group’s purpose and goals.

Other Funding Idea Sources

The American Express Open Forum article, 10 Alternative Ways to Raise Cash Fast for Your Business, notes a couple of funding ideas that could work for your audiobook project.

  • Microloans. Microloans are a specific category of small loan—usually under $50,000—usually are easier and simpler than traditional loans. The Small Business Administration has a microloan program, which uses 150 approved microlenders.
  • Loans From Online Loan Sites. You may be able to arrange for a small loan from your bank, or you can reach out to a web-based financial institution. A growing number of sites have simplified processes for submitting and applying for a loan, some with expedited processing.

Once you’ve secured your funding, reach out to the most qualified voice actor/producer to develop your audiobook. You’ve put too much time into your project, so it’s no time for bargain shopping. A good, quality narrator will give you excellent service at a fair price. Remember, he or she also has a business reputation and wants to do a good job. It’s better to budget for the best production at the onset. Your book is your baby (or one of your babies). Treat your little one with the best care, so it will be a finely produced audiobook of which you can be proud.