Get a Kick in the Pants! Get the New Edition of “There’s Money Where Your Mouth Is”

I just sort of fell into the voiceover business. I really didn’t have any training. No school of broadcasting. No acting classes (well, none since the 2nd grade). But I had done a bit of radio in college and that led to some staff announcing while I was in grad school. Grad school led to a job in a TV station, first as a director, then, after deciding that was something that I didn’t want to do for the rest of my life, as a staff announcer. A live staff announcer.

A live staff announcer who didn’t sound like a typical announcer – so the door to my little closet-sized booth would open on a regular basis with people  handing me commercial copy. After a period of time, I decided that I might need to learn a bit more about this voiceover stuff – and bought my first book –

If it starts out badly…

If something starts out badly, chances are it is not going to get much better. In the case of a movie, we keep hoping it will get better, because we just spent a whole bunch of money to see it, plus the popcorn and beverage.

You can do your research, but talent can be very subjective, so something someone else says is great, may not be great to your ears and eyes. Now, testimonials can’t hurt. And referrals are usually helpful, especially if you trust the person giving you the referral.

So, tonight I decided to do an On Demand movie – checked out the new releases and popped over to Rotten Tomatoes to see what they said about the movie before pushing the BUY button.

93% positive! Wow, boy was I looking foward to seeing this movie, despite the fact that it had an actor in it that I have never thought was […]

2018-02-06T06:48:19+00:00December 25th, 2011|Categories: Musings|Tags: |

Priorities – Fun!

My niece (German-American) moved in with me in October. She wanted to see what life is like in the States. And life as I know it has changed forever. Well, OK that is probably a bit more dramatic than it really is, but things sure have changed around here.

The past couple of years I have been watching the balance of personal time and work time change as my mother’s needs have changed. And despite a dramatic uptick in personal time things are going pretty well with things on the work side.

Now, with a wonderfully wacky and semi-wild adult child living with me, my fun time has increased as well. It could be that the fall is filled with opportunities to party. Opportunities that I simply have not taken advantage of for a while.

Has all of this fun time impacted my business?

Yes. New clients every week. Repeat clients coming back with new […]

2018-02-06T06:48:19+00:00December 20th, 2011|Categories: Business, Musings|Tags: |

Put the pot on and bring it to a boil

Many voiceover people use various kinds of nasal rinses to keep their sinuses clean and clear. I use one of those plastic squeeze bottles. Others use a Neti Pot.

But a story in the news recently points out that this can be a dangerous habit unless you take some precautions to sterilize the water.

Two people were found dead in Louisiana after using unclean water in their Neti Pots.

http://thechart.blogs.cnn.com/2011/12/16/two-dead-in-louisiana-after-unclean-water-used-in-neti-pots/?hpt=hp_bn10

I had heard about these deadly amoebas when I took a canoe trip down the Colorado River from the Hoover Dam. All the way down to the water, they repeated the admonition not to dunk our heads under the water in the hot springs. They seemed pretty serious about it – and now I know why.

These amoebas can get into your brain and are 95% lethal.

So, even though it is probably a pretty low risk, I’ll be using distilled water or boiling it before rinsing […]

2018-02-06T06:48:19+00:00December 18th, 2011|Categories: Announcements|

Be Picky!

I pay to play on Voice123. And as each month passes, I am more and more picky about the time I spend auditioning. And yet, I am still auditioning a bit more than all Voice123 Premium Subscribers that also speak English – North American.

I just counted up the auditions I’ve done in the past 6 months…63 auditions. I think I’ve had 2 bookings – could be more, I’d have to do a little database research. A lot of Finalist rankings, but the phone hasn’t rung yet with the gig – and maybe never will. Too soon to tell on some of them and relationships are bubbling I am sure.

Frankly I would be thrilled to have 10 auditions a month from my agents. I’m up to about 8 per month with one agent and the others? Not even close. Of course, I do get booked through agents without auditioning, which is […]

2018-02-06T06:48:19+00:00December 9th, 2011|Categories: Auditioning, Marketing, Musings, Negotiating|

The VO-BB Takes on New York

Is it almost Wednesday? I’ve been back from New York and the 2011 New York Voiceover Mixer created by my friend Erik Sheppard – this year co-sponsored by my friend Marc Graue – for two days now, but I am still reveling in the sights, sounds and feelings of being in New York City with a wonderful group of people who mean quite a lot to me.

Professional voiceover folk. People who do what I do. Who understand what I do. From all around the world. From small towns to the Big Apple, they all understand what it means to get a an email with a script from a client who trusts you to “do your thing.”

But it is more than that. These are virtual friends who became real friends. Friends you can hug.

The road to the mixer started with an old message board called the Voiceover Cyberstation. The host at […]

2018-02-06T06:48:19+00:00December 6th, 2011|Categories: Musings|
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