Welcome to My Blog!
The Very Latest…
My Ultimate Documentary Job
Create your own opportunities, and you won’t have to fight the rabble for a bidding war to the bottom.
Just Before that…
At Heart, It’s All About Story
Put the most powerful communication tool to work for YOUR voiceover business!
Benefits of Custom E-Learning Solutions Companies
Get to know one of your best sources of solid VO clients.
5 Ways to Appropriately Give Demo Feedback
Lord knows it's hard enough to be honest with YOURSELF about your demos. It's even harder to be candid, yet diplomatic with your peers when they ask you for an opinion about THEIR demo. And yet, the call eventually comes...that email with an attachment. Someone...
Your Greatest Hurdle on the Road to VO Success
So simple, you won’t believe it, and on this one, I speak from ultimate experience. Read on…
S’all About ME (not!)
We all struggle in our isolation to do what’s right and still pay the bills. The temptation to underbid, accept less for money good work, and to undervalue our worth is strong.
Here are 7 proven reasons it is a hollow misconception.
How COVID-19 Gave New Life to Radio Dramas
Covid – its tendrils reach into all parts of our life and culture….even radio drama. Read on.
Voice Over Education
A Defense of the “First Take”
The main point of this blog is not going to sit well with many...least of all the accomplished voice coaches I've worked with. So, consider this point of view more as an idea I'm floating out there as an alternative. It's a counter-argument to the other end of the...
Don’t Buy New Recording Equipment. Do This Instead.
Dan Lenard made me a believer.He makes a strong case that very few audio engineers are equipped to adequately give technical advice for today's home-based freelance voice-actors.The proliferation and the challenges of today's individualized recording booths are a...
Cipriano Career Consulting
Ha!..and you thought he was only a pretty face!OK, so maybe you thought he was just one of those uber-successful and ubiquitous network promo voices.You'd be right on both counts, but you also know there's a depth and a generosity to Joe Cipriano that harkens back to...
The Case For Face
Everything you do online for your VO business: Demos, Blogs, Twitter posts, FaceBook updates, profiles, newsletters...even email signatures should have a picture.I used to sit on the fence on this debate...you know...the debate over whether a...
The Voice-Actor’s Law of Diminishing Returns
Franklin wanted to better his chances at getting documentary voiceover jobs, and sought out a top producer to help with a killer demo. He was taken aback by the quote he got. Would it be worth it?Barbara just knew she'd improve the sound of her VO auditions if she...
Don’t Dread Drymouth
Tonight, I'll climb into my studio, and once again face the spectre of dry-mouth.Dry mouth equals mouth clicks, and mouth clicks equals a noisy recording, and a noisy recording means longer editing time. Yes, I drink gallons of distilled water every day (I get...
Incoming!
Two Things:#1Anytime Pat Fraley shows up in Las Vegas, it's a good thing.Everybody's favorite VO Coach is making his appearance in So NV in early October for an AudioBook Narration Master Session. 'Not sure how Pat does it, but no matter how many times you've...
VO Rates Roundtable
Don't fault me or WoVO for focusing so much on voiceover compensation rates lately. We're only trying to keep up with the crazy pace of this industry. No one topic garners more interest among freelance voice actors than this issue. World-Voices Organization members...
Pudding Proof FAILURE… (and a WoVOChat invite)
To recap: 1) Last week I called to task a certain hi-profile VO coaching school for utilizing a series of increasingly rude autoresponder emails to coerce wannabe VO talent to sign-up for their program. [WHEN DOES AN OFFER BECOME OFFENSIVE?] 2) I followed up the...
Pudding
What's the old saying? "Fool me once, shame on you...fool me twice, shame on me".This has been a week of discovery, admonition, and contrition. Tuesday, I came down hard on what I believed to be a certain sector of the coaching marketplace that takes unfair...
World Voices #WoVochat
Ethics in Voice Acting
Ethics? Really? I just need VO jobs! OK, I hear ya, but believe it or not it's all tied in together, and it's also best described in the context of community. Next week at VoiceOver Atlanta, J Michael Collins is moderating a panel on this very topic. As an intro to...
Latest Rates Roundtable – Feb 2017
This one's a gem, folks. I know I probably say something close to that for everyone RR that's come down the pike, but the information shared on this particular panel seems to be more needed than ever. The discussion went way beyond the scary realities of...
2017’s First Rates Roundtable
Most of January was taken with the effort of getting through January. But that's water under the bridge. February is here, and World-Voices Organization is back with a brand-spanking new panel discussion on voice-over rates. From what we're hearing, the new year...
December 2016 WoVO Rates Roundtable
. Listening to our astute panel for the December WoVO Rates Roundtable talk about the realities of being part of the Spanish-speaking and bilingual marketplace, I was struck by the sameness of their challenge for all voice-actors. Target audience Client relations...
Skype Real-Time Translator
Think synthetic voices aren't a part of our reality yet? Check out Skype's new feature, providing a real-time spoken word translation from one language to another. Now, mind you...no one seems to be saying how well this works...but kudos to Microsoft for moving...
The Votes Are In….
...and World-Voices Organization has two new board members! They are familiar to most of you: Liz de Nesnera Anthony Gettig Both were approved by an overwhelming majority in a vote of the membership, and were nominated in the first place for a...
October Rates Roundtable: Usage
We enter a world of arcane language, conflicting buyouts, and digital media streams this month on our Rates Roundtable. "Usage" was something agents handled for their talent...buffering them from predatory and unscrupulous clients -- and they still do that (should). ...
This Only Happens Once a Year
April 2012. Four-and-a-half years ago WoVO was born. Today more than 800 voice actors are members of this organization, and we couldn't be more proud of the progress we've made. Much of the last four years has been taken with laying groundwork. Creating by-laws, an...
August Rates Roundtable Here: Solving the Startup Voice Actor Compensation Conundrum
World-Voices Organization's popular "Rates Roundtable" series kicked off it's second year of monthly episodes yesterday...and it was a zinger! Our topic surrounded the paradox of newcomers entering the business, seeking experience AND reasonable rates, and not often...
Remember Your First VO Job?
Now...do you remember what you got paid for it? I do: $25...and I was on cloud nine! Would l do that same job today for that rate? No way. Then would I have gotten the experience if I HADN'T TAKEN the $25? Probably not. This is ever the predicament of the creative...
VO Business & Compensation
A Message for People Who Hire Voice Actors
The voice hirer is stuck. Here’s how they could help themselves get unstuck.
The Value of Your Talent
Anger is the new currency. That, or rampant self-importance. Why it never works.
These Hours Are Ours
Is our English language really ours? It took me hours to think of that.
Voice Over Education
The Antidote
Clearly, the topic in yesterday's blog touched a nerve. See: "When Does an Offer Become Offensive"Nearly 800 readers voted with their visit. This is an issue people in our business care about...or they should.That was inconsiderate of me, though, to admonish, but...
When Does an Offer Become Offensive?
There is no VoiceOver University. There's not one single higher learning institution with a curriculum major that results in a VoiceOver Bachelor's Degree...to my knowledge.That's why there's the Nancy Wolfsons and Pat Fraleys and Marice Tobias' of the world. They...
Marking Digital Copy
Three things I had to get used to when I began making the switch-over from TV News Anchorman to voiceover talent:I could do more than one take of any particular copyI could mark-up my scriptsI could gesticulate all I wanted when delivering linesI still struggle with...
Optimizing Your Remote Coaching Session
The email came from Malden, Missouri. Deep in the "bootheel" of the Show-Me state.A budding voice actor had just finished reading my book, and was taking seriously my admonition to get good coaching before going much further down the road to VO success.Not that it's...
P2P SlideShare
Are you familiar with SlideShare? Acquired by LinkedIn not that long ago, SlideShare is an online service that lets you share your presentations. Upload or download in almost any format (Keynote, PowerPoint, etc), and share to almost anywhere. The free service is...
Predatory Coaches and Demo Mills
Yin/Yang Right there are two incendiary terms. They don't always go hand in hand, but they rarely tell a positive story. Oddly enough, not everyone agrees on who is or who is NOT a predatory coach. Nor do some coaches SEE themselves as "predatory"...so there is...
Let’s Get Dialectic
Many voice actors think that you're either gifted with the ability to do dialects or you're not. I suppose it's true that some might grasp the nuances of dialects faster than others. But that's also true of audiobook narration, videogame voice-acting, and promo...
LA is Nice This Time of Year…
....and so is the opportunity to sit in on a worthwhile VO workshop this weekend. Why worthwhile? 'Cause it's being organized by Bill DeWees! For quite some time, now, Bill has been working quietly behind the voice-over scenes as a real force in the business. Just...
Sound Newsletters
My mailbox fills with plenty of stuff everyday. Some of it gets automatically deleted...others get only a cursory look...and a good many are important - deserving more time. Among those in the cursory view category are a number of newsletters that come from audio...
Black Friday VO Special
EVERY ONCE IN A GREAT WHILE...like...almost never, I'll openly endorse -- even sell -- something on this blog I think will have good value to the voice-over community. This is one of those times. Most of you know of Bill DeWees. I write a blog. He video blogs. His...
Voice Over Hardware & Software tools
CRM = Clients Really Matter
Everybody THINKS they should be using a CRM – a customer relationship manager. Trouble is, which one? Here’s a great list.
Does Craigs + List = VoiceOver Opportunity?
Is Craigslist a viable means to find voice-over jobs?…or to post your services to get jobs? Not just any jobs…GOOD-PAYING VO jobs. Seeking your responses to my query.
You Gotta Try This (Be “Open”)
Connection Open is not just another ISDN pretender. It’s your connection to something entirely all its own.
Hacks, Plosives, DAWs
So much good stuff to be found on the internet. This kind of bounty deserves to be shared.
ipDTL Improvements
What? You think any remote connection service as advanced as ipDTL is gonna sit on their hands? Not a chance. See what you’ve been missing.
The Skinny on Voiceovers.com
Matt Dubois stepped up with VoiceCastingHub. Now he’s stepping in with Voiceovers.com. Here are the facts from the source.
Dealing With Dialects
Delivering esoteric accents can be learned. But where to turn for a resource? Inquire within.
‘Best of the Web
Stuff too good not to share.
Great Voice Overs – It’s Not About the Mic!
Stop spending big bucks on fancy mics. Here are the three things you SHOULD be focusing on.
ConnectionOpen: Free Day Passes
Sure they want you to try out their new product. And once you see how amazing it is, then you get to give it to others.
Voice Over Events
December 2016 WoVO Rates Roundtable
. Listening to our astute panel for the December WoVO Rates Roundtable talk about the realities of being part of the Spanish-speaking and bilingual marketplace, I was struck by the sameness of their challenge for all voice-actors. Target audience Client relations...
Skype Real-Time Translator
Think synthetic voices aren't a part of our reality yet? Check out Skype's new feature, providing a real-time spoken word translation from one language to another. Now, mind you...no one seems to be saying how well this works...but kudos to Microsoft for moving...
October Rates Roundtable: Usage
We enter a world of arcane language, conflicting buyouts, and digital media streams this month on our Rates Roundtable. "Usage" was something agents handled for their talent...buffering them from predatory and unscrupulous clients -- and they still do that (should). ...
August Rates Roundtable Here: Solving the Startup Voice Actor Compensation Conundrum
World-Voices Organization's popular "Rates Roundtable" series kicked off it's second year of monthly episodes yesterday...and it was a zinger! Our topic surrounded the paradox of newcomers entering the business, seeking experience AND reasonable rates, and not often...
Remember Your First VO Job?
Now...do you remember what you got paid for it? I do: $25...and I was on cloud nine! Would l do that same job today for that rate? No way. Then would I have gotten the experience if I HADN'T TAKEN the $25? Probably not. This is ever the predicament of the creative...
One Year of WoVO Rates Roundtables!
At first, we weren't sure it would take hold...now, we think maybe it's among the best of our outreach efforts.World-Voices Organization launched the first R.A.D.A.R. Rates Roundtable in July of 2015. We've been trying to keep the pace of producing one hour-long...
July 2016 Rates Roundtable: SAG-AFTRA
One year ago this month, WoVO began sponsoring a series of "R.A.D.A.R. Rates Roundtables". RADAR stands for Rates And Digital Ad Reform...a fancy acryonym warning us to be aware of compsation challenges/changes in the marketplace, especially as it concerns new...
VOXing
The premier voice-over conference for voice actors in Britain happens this month. It's called VOX.The organizers have been in touch about spreading the word, and I promised them to post the Q & A they participated in when I had questions about the event. You can...
Rates Roundtable: eLearning
When the big national TV spots are not hittin' like they should...or even as a VO career mainstay; eLearning projects pay the bills.People don't talk about it all that much, but eLearning -- or Elearning, E-Learning (whatever) -- often constitutes steady work, with...
Categorizing Voice Over Demos – Genre/Category/Specialty
how to categorize VO demos…. This was one of the most challenging ideas to come out of the World Voices (WOVO) conversation … how to categorize VO demos…or how to describe that. Genre’s? Specialties?
Listen to my Commercial demoVoice Over Niches
The Only Thing That’s Constant…
You know how this adage ends…but you DON’T know why I would write about it.
At Heart, It’s All About Story
Put the most powerful communication tool to work for YOUR voiceover business!
Benefits of Custom E-Learning Solutions Companies
Get to know one of your best sources of solid VO clients.
Voice Over Hardware & Software tools
A Bounty of Choices
Mmmmm, the latest mobile recording devices
“…the best of the best of the best…”
A classic line from one of my fave movies.
Can you guess what flick?
Polly Want a Crack at VO?
One of the world’s biggest-ever companies is making voice-syth technology available to the masses.
Gear Drooling
A decidedly geeky affliction that hits whenever drool-worthy gear is revealed.
Dissecting the Compilation Demo
Aren’t ALL demos, by dint of necessity, compilations?
Pronounceology Proud
Adam Verner did it, and it looks great!
Give it a try?
Gmail Users Only
The sheer amount of Gmail add-ons can make your head spin.
Here are the cream of the crop.
3 Incontestabe Facts About Choosing Mics
…three facts that have nothing to do with polarity, capsules, or name-brands.
Will CourVO Make it on COVOCO?
The greater questions might be: Will Courvo WANT to make it on COVOCO?
A Browser Just for Us!
…and isn’t it really about time?
Get the download links here.
Are VoiceOver Newbies Welcome?
Newcomers to the promise of voice-over success gotta start somewhere. Along the way, though, they can fall victim to predators, challenge compensation rates, and remind us of our own early beginnings.
Reframe Your Voiceover Outlook
Career Reframe Christian Kolberg used to work for the local newspaper publisher. Then he realized he had a knack for auctioneering. That's him to the right, and him with me on the far right at the recent "Chefs for Kids" Gala fundraiser...dressed as Cap'n Hook for...
Situational Awareness
Now...Our Top Story! Almost every day, I get a request from someone who wants to join the online VO community I once created on Google+. Situational awareness, people! Google announced late last year that it's going to do away with their G+ social network. Why would...