Yes folks! I’m still alive and quite busy these days. Due to the coronavirus I have a bit more time on my hands. I felt it best to update my Voice Over Knowledge Shared list as many things have changed. There are people on the old list I no longer associate with due to paying them for services that they did not deliver and thus have blocked me rather than handle the situation like a mature adult. People are scrambling to get into voice over more than ever before and competition is beyond challenging. You not only need solid acting skills and great demos. You MUST be able to record from your house and the audio needs to broadcast quality. No “ifs” and no “buts”. The biggest companies in the world are learning to record talent remotely and for a while, this is how it’s going to be until a miracle emerges for the human race.
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Do you have a thick skin to work in Voice Over?
They are out there lurking around the Internet waiting for the right opportunity to strike you down with malicious criticism. Yes, I mean the trolls. The online bullies. The ones who look for any excuse to ruin your day or your whole life. They love to linger on YouTube so they can dislike your videos and post cruel comments. And when you succeed at something they post taunts and in some cases death threats just to unnerve you. [Read more…] about Do you have a thick skin to work in Voice Over?
Demo Critiques: Quality Does Matter
Above you can see two sets of macaron batches. These are my pictures from when I was practicing and then perfecting my technique. Can you tell which one is bad quality?
If I told someone that I make macarons despite not having sales or proof that I know what I’m doing, and they wanted to buy some from me, what do you think would happen if I took their money and gave them the poor batch?
There’s a reason quality matters. And in voice over, quality demos and quality recording DO matter!!
We all want critiques of demos, especially those of us starting out. The problem is, too many get demos made when they’re not ready. And what’s most heartbreaking is that the talent don’t realize how bad they sound until it’s too late. What do I mean by that? Well, there’s two ways.
Why do I have a Voice Over blog?
Two weeks ago I was part of a marketing group led by a well-known VO talent. When I was asked what I was doing to get my name out there I mentioned my demos, my website, my rapid growing list of connections on LinkedIn and my blog. The leader of the group stopped me and said that blogging was a huge waste of time and that I needed to abandon it and focus more time on marketing myself. “Blogging won’t help your career. No one cares what you have to say,” She said. That’s ok. Everyone is entitled to an opinion; however, it was the verbal approach that caught me off guard. Her tone was harsh and her criticism malicious. I wanted to explain why I blogged but she quickly moved on to someone else. Some time later I combed through the auditions I had to get done for the day and found myself thinking about my blog. Could this marketing expert be right? Was it worth continuing? [Read more…] about Why do I have a Voice Over blog?
Voice Over and the importance of Marketing, Marketing, Marketing!
This is a topic that goes on and on and on and on because there’s just too much information and commitment involved. Thus, it’s the reason why every year new books are published on the subject of marketing with hundreds of pages of new data collected. [Read more…] about Voice Over and the importance of Marketing, Marketing, Marketing!
Reasons why Voice Over can be hard work
Please forgive me for such a long delay. October is my busiest month, not just for voice over but for my other careers. I am a severe workaholic, but I’ll my best to keep up with posting every 1-2 weeks.
So for today’s post, as always, please read but keep an open mind. The information here is based on my own experiences and that of some of my colleagues and friends. I don’t speak for everyone. And don’t let what I have to say discourage you from your VO journey. My only goal here is to share knowledge.
“I’m a Voice Over and I feel like I haven’t worked a day in my life.” When I first started in VO, a teacher actually said those words at the beginning of the workshop. Looking back, I would have started laughing out loud if I knew then what I know now. [Read more…] about Reasons why Voice Over can be hard work
Voice Over Life: Building My StudioBricks Booth part 2
Continuing from my last post with Part 2 of putting my StudioBricks booth together. If you haven’t read it yet, I suggest doing so to keep up with what I’m sharing here.
I had put my studio together with the help of my brother, my boyfriend and my Dad. It looked amazing and was quite cozy inside. However, after all the unloading, and putting it together one section at a time (which took maybe 3 hours), there was a problem.
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Voice Over Life: Building My StudioBricks Booth part 1
Alright folks, many, many people have been asking for this and it’s finally here: my StudioBricks booth.
Expect quite a few pictures!
You can find another post about why I chose StudioBricks over other sound booth products on my blog.
For this post, I’m discussing the process of putting it together in a two-part series.
Ready?
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Embrace the Art of Learning Voice Over
Patience is a virtue often underrated due to a fast-paced society we live in. People want to be famous right now so that others will grovel at their feet and pay money to see them at a convention. They want to be rich so that they never have to get a 9 to 5 job or splurge on ridiculous luxuries. The list goes on of course.
However, if everything happened quickly, how would you handle the consequences of what comes after?
Using Linkedin for Voice Over
The internet is a treacherous playground, but it’s also fantastic and an absolute necessity for any business in general. And not only that, Voice Over work is more plentiful than ever because of ads, interactive games, industrials, web series, and so much more being broadcast online. It’s the perfect time to take advantage of pursuing VO work. You’ll most definitely need to make friends, build relationships and research, research, as well as research some more. By that I mean finding ways to connect with people if they don’t want to connect online (there are quite a few), so you’ll have to explore other ways to approach them without making them feel uneasy. [Read more…] about Using Linkedin for Voice Over
