Getting started in Voiceover » The Voiceover Boblog

VO for video games

Posted January 15, 2012 by Bob

Kevin Delaney starts an online course on voice acting for video games this Sunday. Details are on his website VOforGames.com

Category: General, Getting started in Voiceover | Comments (1)
New additions to Pat Fraley’s Free Lessons

Posted January 12, 2012 by Bob

Pat Fraley is a top flight voiceover talent, a superb and thoughtful coach, and a friend. He’s also prepared a number of free voiceover lessons on a page at his website called, originally enough, Free Lessons. He’s just recently posted 3 new lessons on demos, confidence and flow, but really if you haven’t visited the page in a while, it’s well worth exploring.

Category: Career Advice, General, Getting started in Voiceover, People | Comments (0)
Invite the Avalanche – part 2

Posted October 10, 2011 by Bob

The power of accumulated time is something most of us don’t understand or if we do, we don’t really want to. My friend Dan Friedman blogged today about this subject with great eloquence in a post called The Most Difficult Part to Being in Voiceover. I’ll wait a minute until you’ve had the time to read and absorb what he said. When you’re done, click the “back” button and we’ll pick up again.

Good, but a little difficult to swallow in some ways, isn’t it? We don’t want to have to wait, but Dan’s right. Waiting is part of the deal. By the way, the waiiting bit is true for those of us who have been doing voiceover for years, just like it is for those who are just getting started or who’ve been doing voiceovers for a short time. And not just in looking back. We all have to wait, sometimes for a long time, in lots of different ways. It’s part of the deal.

The cool thing is that there’s something you can do to make the time pass a little more quickly. It’s to harness the power of the magical little E.L.B.s. You can read about these magical little creatures in the archives of the Monday Morning Memo, if you’d like to know a bit more. But, here’s the short version.

Every day, every single day, don’t go to sleep until you’ve made at least one step forward on your journey. It doesn’t matter how big or small the step. It doesn’t matter if it’s publicly visible or something only you know about. But every day you have to take some kind of action, move at least some tiny bit in the direction you’re going. If that’s success doing voiceovers then that’s the direction you need to head.

And the cumulative power of those little steps, taken one day after another, day after day will amaze you because it’s not one day’s action added to the next day’s and the day after that and so forth and so on. They don’t just add one to another. They begin to compound and multiply and before you know it, you’ve made an amazing amount of progress.

For 26 years I worked on voiceover as much as I possibly could, and things have gone pretty well for years; but it wasn’t until just the last 5 years or so that things have really taken off.

If you really do want an avalanche (remember I’ve all ready warned you it’s not fun to be sitting until that avalanche when it falls on you), you’re going to have to work at it every day, one little bit at a time. Unlike a real avalanche, which can be accelerated by explosions and the like, the avalanche of work has to be started one little bit at a time.

Are you ready to do the work? The only thing necessary is for you to start.

Category: Career Advice, General, Getting started in Voiceover | Comments (2)
Pat Fraley and his character voices are coming to NYC

Posted September 21, 2011 by Bob

Pat Fraley is making a trip to the East Coast next month. If you are interested in character voices, audiobooks, animation and games you really should study with Pat. Details are on his web site.

Category: Career Advice, General, Getting started in Voiceover | Comments (3)
So where are the dominos?

Posted September 3, 2011 by Bob

The other day I posted some thoughts that flowed from a Seth Godin blog piece at The Domino Project about luck and work and the old way of doing things in the publishing business. I made the analogy that auditioning for voiceover work is, in some ways, similar to the way the publishing business was run.

Now, I have nothing against auditioning as a way of getting voiceover work. I audition for things myself and in fact book work from auditions multiple times each year. But, auditioning is a process that leaves only one person with a job when many applied for it.

It’s much better when the work comes directly, without an audition, through relationships all ready established; or through relationships based on referrals from existing clients. This works very well for those of us who have been doing voiceovers for a while. But, as one of my good friends pointed out the other day, what about those who are just getting started? They don’t have a pool of existing clients from whom to get work or referrals.

Those comments from my friend have led me to think about this subject quite a bit in the last few days. I certainly don’t want to leave anyone with the impression that building relationships and getting work repeatedly from clients happens by magic or just by thinking about it.

Actually, thinking about it is important. But, after the thinking comes the doing.

For example, are there things you could do based on your own creativity that can lead to work? One friend came up with an idea to market her voiceover services directly to a category of businesses in her area. Made some phone calls. Put in some effort turning her idea into something practical and useful to those businesses. It didn’t happen overnight and it took some concerted effort and persistence, but it paid off.

Or, are there people who write about marketing (on a blog or in a freely distributed newsletter for example) from whom you can draw some ideas that you can implement yourself? Now, people writing for the general marketplace probably won’t offer an idea that can be used directly. You’ll probably have to think about how to adapt their ideas to the world of voiceover, but you’re a creative, intelligent person. You can do this.

What are the businesses that hire the kind of work you do or want to do? For example, let’s say you want to narrate audiobooks. There are a few big players that you can find with little effort; but what about the other publishers who are in the second or third tier of the business? It may take some extra digging to find those companies and, having found them, to learn how to submit to them. Everyone wants the low-hanging fruit. Your goal is to find the fruit that’s not so easy to pick.

I hope these few random observations help you start thinking about what you can do to move forward. And I’d love to hear how you make strides. Comments are always open.

Category: Career Advice, General, Getting started in Voiceover | Comments (2)
Dominos and luck and voiceover

Posted August 30, 2011 by Bob

One of Seth Godin’s newest enterprises is The Domino Project. Several days ago Seth posted on their blog this question: Are you feeling lucky? Now, because The Domino Project is an effort to reinvent publishing, the most obvious point of that blog post about feeling lucky has to do with publishing. But the application to voiceover is equally important and valid.

In voiceover, the obvious parallel to the publishing model is auditioning for a job. Just like there would have to be a bestseller every week, there is going to be someone who books the job when auditions are sent out.

Now, this is not a rant against auditioning. I’ll leave such literary explorations to others. The point I’m trying to make here is that if you build your voiceover business on the basis of auditioning for work, then you’re always operating from the position of being “one of many” and only some of the time are you going to end up as the one who books the job. Sure, in an ideal world, auditions are only sent to a select number of talent; but in the real world where we all live and work, that’s not how it always happens.

There are lots of factors that contribute to the way things are. Again, I’ll leave the enumeration of those factors to others. What I’m hoping to persuade you to see is that auditioning isn’t the only way to book work.

Last year was a good year for me. And over 80% of my income came to me directly. An email or a phone call arrived with a message to the effect of: “Dear Bob, we’d like to send you a significant sum of money. Would you record the attached script for us?” This experience isn’t unique to me. Many working professionals in voiceover have learned the value of building relationships with people who want to work with them.

It takes time, a deep commitment to excellent service, and hard work. Put in the time and effort and you, too, can get those kinds of calls or emails. As you do, I’d love to hear from you.

Category: Career Advice, General, Getting started in Voiceover | Comments (3)
Generosity and genius

Posted August 19, 2011 by Bob

It’s not always the case, but sometimes in our world of voiceover the brightest people are also the most generous. Case in point? Pat Fraley, who is one of the brightest and most talented people I know. He has just updated his “Free Lessons” page. It’s a treasure trove of good stuff and I warmly commend Pat to you.

Category: Career Advice, General, Getting started in Voiceover, People | Comments (0)
Myths and Mistakes and Voiceover

Posted August 17, 2011 by Bob

Jeff Hixon, CEO of Voicebank writes about some of the myths about and mistakes made by voiceover people, that’s published at Back Stage. My thanks to Bobbin Beam for mentioning this article on her blog.

Category: Career Advice, General, Getting started in Voiceover | Comments (0)
Vocal training and breathing

Posted July 14, 2011 by Bob

My friend Jane Ingalls emailed me a link to an excellent article on breathing at eHow. Jane and I share a common background in musical training, though she’s done far more with hers than I have with mine.

Category: Career Advice, General, Getting started in Voiceover, People | Comments (3)
Are you on the right path?

Posted June 30, 2011 by Bob

Seth Godin, a very bright man, has started a new venture called The Domino Project. The newest release is called Anything You Want by Derek Sivers, the brains behind CD Baby. Derek is creating animated videos to illustrate some of the key points of his new book. This one is called If It’s Not a Hit, Switch.

If it’s not a hit, switch from Derek Sivers on Vimeo.

I don’t know if Derek realizes he was aiming this one at voiceover people or not, but wow does that hit the mark.

Category: Career Advice, General, Getting started in Voiceover | Comments (3)
Character voice actor or doing funny voices

Posted June 17, 2011 by Bob

Kevin Delaney speaks about the difference between working as a voice actor doing a character and just “doing funny voices” at his blog.

Category: Career Advice, General, Getting started in Voiceover, People | Comments (2)
A coach for all time

Posted June 13, 2011 by Bob

I’ve mentioned voiceover coaches here a number of times, but today I’d like to point you to a blog post by my friend Dan Friedman that makes a very good point about “The best voiceover coach.”

Category: Career Advice, General, Getting started in Voiceover | Comments (1)
Do the Work

Posted June 12, 2011 by Bob

Several times in the past I’ve written about one of the key truths of voiceover: “It’s not about you.” And it’s not. It’s about your client and his or her or their story.

I’ve been reading a fabulous new book from Steven Pressfield called “Do the Work” (link is an affiliate link to the Amazon Kindle edition) which is published by the new publishing project from Seth Godin called Domino. In the middle of the book I ran across this quote:

A professional does not take success or failure personally.

That really hit me between the eyes. It’s so easy to imagine that all the hard work we put in (to find new clients, to delight our existing clients to encourage them to keep coming back, to meet or exceed deadlines, etc.) somehow means that we are personally responsible for whatever success we experience. On the other hand, when things are quiet and the phone isn’t ringing at the same time the inbox is strangely empty of anything but notes from your family and the occasional bit of spam that slips past your filters, we are again personally responsible.

Now, there’s some value to taking responsibility for our own behaviors that are either productive or destructive. But it seems to me, ultimately, that Steven Pressfield is right. It’s not about you. Success. Failure. You can’t really control this stuff. All you can control is what you are doing.

Are you keeping your promises? Are you doing everything possible to delight your clients? Are you moving forward and making progress toward your goals every day? Then keep it up. If you’re not, then start.

Meanwhile I highly recommend Steven Pressfield’s book “Do the Work. You can get it from Amazon in Kindle format or as a hardback book.

Category: Career Advice, General, Getting started in Voiceover | Comments (3)
Voiceover is a wonderful way to make a living

Posted May 11, 2011 by Bob

It is a wonderful way to make a living. I deeply and profoundly love telling people’s stories for them, no matter how short or long the story is. And right now there are a lot of folks who are interested in “breaking into” voiceover work. More than ever, it would seem. But here’s something most people won’t tell you. While it’s a great way to make a living, it’s a terrible way to make a living quickly.

If you’re recently unemployed, no matter how much you want to start doing voiceovers full-time, unless you’ve all ready been making decent money doing voiceovers for a while, this is not the time to make that move. It took me 26 years of steady voiceover work to finally move into doing only voiceover work. No, I’m not kidding. 26 years. From 1983 to 2009. Now, it doesn’t have to take everyone that long. I had a family to support and I was very cautious, maybe too cautious; but I’m not looking back on the decisions I made along the way with regret. I’m just saying, it’s not going to happen overnight.

Are you serious about doing voiceover work full-time? Then stick with it. Get the training you need. Practice. Keep pushing yourself to make at least a little progress every day. You’ll get there. But in the meantime, make sure you have shelter, food, clothing and the other essentials of life. Don’t rush. When you get there, it will be all the sweeter.

Category: General, Getting started in Voiceover | Comments (10)
The business of voiceover

Posted April 25, 2011 by Bob

Dan O’Day and Harlan Hogan present a four-week series of tele-classes on the business of voiceover again this year. Classes start May 10, but registration closes the week before.

Category: Career Advice, General, Getting started in Voiceover | Comments (0)
Keep in Touch

Posted April 15, 2011 by Bob

Alan Sklar, award winning voice actor, written a brilliant piece for VoiceOverXtra called VO Marketing 101: Keep in Touch … Innovative Ways to Sell Your Sound. Very well worth your time.

Category: Career Advice, General, Getting started in Voiceover, People | Comments (0)
Laughter and sunshine

Posted March 2, 2011 by Bob

That’s a mighty powerful combination. You should get plenty of both if you head to Pat Fraley and Rob Paulsen‘s Get Funny Fast Master’s Event in Los Angeles, Saturday March 19, 2011.

Category: Career Advice, General, Getting started in Voiceover, People | Comments (0)
Want to get into voiceover?

Posted January 29, 2011 by Bob

My friend Smith Harrison has written a superb article on the subject of getting started in voiceovers. If that’s of interest to you, take some time to read and absorb what Smith has to say. It’s well worth your time.

Category: General, Getting started in Voiceover | Comments (0)
Sound Advice about voiceover demos

Posted January 27, 2011 by Bob

My friend Dan Friedman has written an excellent post about voiceover demos on his Sound Advice blog. Well worth a few minutes of your time.

Category: Career Advice, General, Getting started in Voiceover | Comments (0)
Start the New Year with a new Acting for Advertising teleseminar

Posted January 6, 2011 by Bob

Yes, I’m delighted to let you know that Nancy Wolfson and Anna Vocino have put their heads together and are planning Acting for Advertising Part 10 on Wednesday, February 2, 2011 at 9:00 PM Eastern / 6:00 PM Pacific. Nancy is going to cover 2 chapters of her core curriculum this time, so you’ll get double value for your money. Price to get on the call including an MP3 copy to keep is $49. Reserve your spot at Break Into Voice Over.

Category: Career Advice, General, Getting started in Voiceover | Comments (0)
A spalsh of cold water

Posted January 1, 2011 by Bob

My friend Paul Strikwerda has prepared this video with some troublesome truths about a voiceover career.

Category: Career Advice, General, Getting started in Voiceover, People | Comments (2)
10 ways to fail in the voiceover business

Posted October 28, 2010 by Bob

My friend and mentor Philip Banks has started a discussion on the VO-BB about this topic. We’ll worth your time.

Category: Career Advice, General, Getting started in Voiceover | Comments (0)
Conversational

Posted October 20, 2010 by Bob

Kevin Delaney offers some good insights on being “more conversational” in the audio clip in this post at his voiceover blog.

Category: General, Getting started in Voiceover | Comments (5)
SEO goodies at VoiceOverXtra

Posted October 11, 2010 by Bob

There’s a very comprehensive review of Search Engine Optimization (with lots of voiceover specific information) from Nikki Saco at VoiceOverXtra. Well worth a few minutes of your time. The first article leads to a second article with information specific to WordPress and more. Lots of good reading.

Category: Career Advice, General, Getting started in Voiceover | Comments (0)
New voiceover demos teleseminar!

Posted September 8, 2010 by Bob

It’s been a while since Dan O’Day held a new voiceover teleseminar, and his latest sounds like a “don’t miss” event:

VOICEOVER DEMO SECRETS:
Sneaky (Yet Totally Legit) “Tricks” To Make Your Demo Stand Out

Tuesday, September 14, 2010
9pm Eastern / 8pm Central / 6pm Pacific

All the details: here.

Category: Career Advice, General, Getting started in Voiceover | Comments (0)
Added to the blogroll

Posted August 29, 2010 by Bob

Added to my blogroll is Internet Voice Coach, an interesting site with a good deal of free information as well as additional material available to subscribers.

Category: Career Advice, General, Getting started in Voiceover | Comments (1)
The color of grass and …

Posted July 1, 2010 by Bob

My friend Moe Egan offers some cogent thoughts about your voiceover business at VoiceOverXtra today. Well worth a few minutes of your time.

Category: Career Advice, General, Getting started in Voiceover | Comments (0)
Making room

Posted June 15, 2010 by Bob

My friend and mentor Kristine Oller has been mentioned a number of times here. Every time it’s because she’s written or done something well worth your time. Today she republished an article that is going to take you several minutes to read, but truly is worth every one of those minutes. Especially if you are serious about pursuing your dream of working in voiceover.

Category: Career Advice, General, Getting started in Voiceover | Comments (2)
There is no map

Posted June 13, 2010 by Bob

Or perhaps more to the point, there is no single map everyone can follow to get to a successful voiceover business. You could do everything I’ve done for the last 27 years and you might be wildly more successful than me, or you might bomb completely. But since you can’t transport yourself back 27 years into the past, you can’t follow my exact path. The same is true for every other success you know in voiceover.

There are foundational things. Like getting the training you need to operate at a professional level. Making sure your demos are first class. Always being on time. Always performing at your highest level. But, there’s no map.

Now, you can take this news one of two ways, and here’s part of what I promised when I said I was going to write more about anxiety and fear. You see, I allowed my own anxieties and “what if” fears to keep me from moving forward full speed many times during those last 27 years. If you’re inclined in that same direction, that not having a map is bad news. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if you could just take a class, or a series of classes, learn everything you need to know to be successful in voiceover and then just become successful because you do what you learned?

Actually, I don’t think that would be wonderful at all. That would be like working at a drudge job in a factory. One step, followed by another step. And another. And another. On and on. You see, not having a map means you get to make your own road. You get to draw your own map. I think that’s really good news. I hope you do too.

Category: Career Advice, General, Getting started in Voiceover | Comments (11)
Added to the blogroll

Posted June 5, 2010 by Bob

At VOICE2010, my friends Dave Courvoisier and Terry Daniel presented a ton of excellent material about social media and voiceover. I missed a large chunk of it because I was doing a voiceover session; but what I saw was superb. One thing I was there for was the announcement of a new website called Social Media VO. I’ve just added that site to my blogroll. I hope you’ll visit often.

Category: Career Advice, General, Getting started in Voiceover, People | Comments (1)

Bob Souer

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