Beginning a relationship with a new client means, of course, that there’s a certain amount of risk involved. After all, going in you can’t know if someone is planning to take advantage of you. However, as Seth Godin points out brilliantly, beginning with anything other than genuine trust is likely to poison the relationshp at the very start. Extend trust and you’re much more likely to receive it in return. This is the way I try to operate all the time.
Blog
"bridges" Vol. 35 is released
The Office of Science and Technology at the Embassy of Austria in Washington, DC has relased Vol. 35 of “bridges” their online journal of science and technology. Once again it has been my priviledge to narrate and produce the podcasts for several articles.
Future, smuture
My friend Jeffrey Tobin offers some cogent things are life in a blog post provocatively titled You Have No Future. In spite of, or maybe because of, that title I commend it to you, heartily.
A bit of wisdom from a former President
“Give me six hours to chop down a tree, and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.”
– Abraham Lincoln
A blogiversary for Ralph
My friend Ralph Hass is celebrating his 6th blogiversary today. A milestone certainly worth celebrating. Kudos, Ralph!
Voiceover class with Harlan Hogan and Dan O’Day
Three years ago, the first time it was presented, I took the voiceover class taught by Harlan Hogan and Dan O’Day. I found it very useful as I was making my transition from doing voiceovers as one of the things I did to doing voiceovers exclusively.
For folks like me who are all ready working professionals in voiceover, it’s important for you to know that there are a number of people who take part each year who are brand new or just getting started. But the information that Harlan and Dan present is useful for everyone, or at least for everyone who can take the ideas presented and adapt them to his or her own specific situation and experience.
Harlan and Dan have offered me a commission if you mention me in the comments section of the registration page, but honestly it doesn’t matter to me if you mention my name or not. I just want you to know about these classes that I found helpful and worthwhile and I hope you will too.
Spotlight on Joe
My friend Joe Geoffrey is featured as the narrator of this video.
Mighty nice work, Joe.
Remembering
Each day I make a point of checking my Plaxo address book to find who among my friends has a birthday coming up. When I find someone who has a birthday, I prepare an ecard for her or him as a small way of staying in touch with the many people I have connected with over the years. Today, one of those reminders came up for a long-time friend of mine who died unexpectedly earlier this year. She and I had worked together over 30 years ago and had stayed in touch via mail and phone and email and, more recently, Facebook.
How appropriate that this startling reminder of my friend’s unexpected and untimely death should happen on a day filled with remembering the shocking events of 11 years ago today.
Take a few minutes today to not only remember the pain of the past, but to embrace those who are important to you either in the real world if you live close enough, or virtually. We don’t know how many days we are given. Let’s make the most of the ones we have.
September baseball
I just noticed this morning that the San Francisco Giants have released this spot on YouTube!
It’s a fun little something I recorded for them not long ago.
Thinking about moving to LA?
If your plans include a move to Southern California, you might want to make a point of catching the live video chat this weekend when Kevin Delaney talks with Ed Victor.
Your chance to VOAT begins today
Voice actor, Blogger, TV News Anchor, and Social Media advocate Dave Courvoisier announces a September promotion to help build an informational database that benefits voice actors everywhere, while encouraging a sense of community and providing a fun program offering valuable prizes.
By lending a “VOAT” to a specially-designed website, voice-actors can contribute to a shared informational resource based on their answers to weekly questions. Doing so automatically puts their name in the running for some handsome weekly prizes specifically designed for voice actors.
VOAT in 2012 — building on last year’s success — plays off the ‘VOTE’ homonym by asking voice actors globally to ‘VOAT’ on 4 different issues impacting voice actors…one for each week of the month. The ‘VOAT’ consists of an answer to a “question of the week”. ‘VOATing’ in this manner allows the website visitor to be eligible for specific voiceover-targeted prizes provided by well-respected voiceover equipment, service, and client-seeking providers.
As an example, the question being asked of visitors to the site during the first week of September will be:
What does your recording studio look like? Provide a picture and a brief description, history, or special features of which you’re proud.
People responding, are required only to provide their name, and an answer (email is required to be eligible for the prize). No data is collected on the visitors for marketing purposes. The site also allows respondents to upload a picture or soundfile to accompany their comment if they wish.
“All the responses will be listed in a thread-like format for all to see on the website, creating a collective knowledge-base that will benefit the entire community of voiceover artists,” adds Courvoisier, “each week a new question, new comments, a new set of prizes, and a new winner.”
Prizes for the month-long event are generous.
High-profile businesses readily recognized by voice actors everywhere are contributing substantive prizes, including for instance, a free year’s premium annual membership to Voices.com, an annual subscription to Voice123.com for both male and female, a choice of demo or consulting services from Edge Studio in NYC. In addition, John Florian of VoiceOverXtra, is offering a free pass to an upcoming webinar, and Cliff Zellman, Founder and Organizer of the Dallas Voice Acting Meet Up Group (DVA) is contributing gift certificates from an online equipment site. EWABS’ George Whittam & Dan Lenard, and the Voice Acting Academy are also contributing. This is not a complete listing of prizes. We’re also pleased to announce that Harlan Hogan’s Voice Over Essentials.com is donating a new 3rd generation Porta-Booth Pro audio studio…just now being released!
Sponsors include: Voices.com, Voice123.com, Bodalgo, World-Voices Organization, Harlan Hogan’s Voice Over Essentials.com, VoiceOverXtra.com, The Dallas Voice Acting Meet Up Group (DVA), Bettye Zoller, The Voice Acting Academy, EWABS, and Edge Studio, Julie Williams, Deb Munro, and Bob Bergen.
“Voice actors are an extremely supportive, encouraging and giving people. Many of them have enabled and sustained my VO career, and this is an attempt to celebrate the generous nature of the business, while helping to inform and create a community of like-minded peers,” adds Courvoisier.
The site is “live” as of today, Labor Day, Monday, September 3, 2012.
http://www.VOAToday.com
Quote of the week
“Nothing in the world is worth having or worth doing unless it means effort, pain, difficulty… I have never in my life envied a human being who led an easy life. I have envied a great many people who led difficult lives and led them well.”
– Theodore Roosevelt
Quote for the week
From Trent Hamm’s Simple Dollar blog:
“A single act of kindness throws out roots in all directions, and the roots spring up and make new trees.”
– Amelia Earhart
What’s important?
The pace of life for just about all of us is more frantic than ever, isn’t it? A perfect example of the consequences of this accelerated pace is this blog, which I have been writing now for over 7 years. I have not given it the time and attention I once did, at least in part because of the press of other parts of my life and work.
My friend Jeff Tobin, business coach and speaker, wrote this week about staying focused on what’s important in a piece he called How to Make a Baby. It’s well worth a few minutes of your time.
How to find your passion
I hear from folks from time to time who read this blog and think “I’d like to do that voiceover thing, too.” Some of them have been thinking about that for a long time. Some have been thinking it for only a short while.
Whatever the case, one thing is for sure. If you’re going to make a living doing voiceovers you have to be passionate about doing so. Like any other business venture, and especially a business venture involving some kind of performance, the lows are too low and too frequent to endure if you aren’t passionate about that venture.
With that set-up, I offer this bit of advice about how to find your passion. Read Roy H. Williams’ Monday Morning Memo from May 14, 2012.
Done? Good. There’s nothing more I need to say. You all ready know everything you need to know.
Quote for the week
With a tip of the hat to Trent Hamm and his Simple Dollar blog, comes this quote worth remembering:
“We cannot, in a moment, get rid of habits of a lifetime.”
– Mahatma Gandhi
Quote for the day and a bit more
I ran across this quote today, which I thought all of us in voiceover can certainly take to heart:
“I never learned anything while I was talking.”
– Larry King
As I thought about this comment, I thought “no, actually I’ve learned a lot while I was talking because there are many things I’ve learned while recording voiceovers.” But, upon further reflection, I realized that in each of those cases what really happened is that I learned things while I was reading, just reading aloud. Not while I was talking.
Quote for the day
Words to live by as you contemplate your voiceover work, especially in light of the way things have changed in the last dozen years or so:
“In times of change, learners inherit the earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.”
-– Eric Hoffer
A tip of the hat to Trent Hamm and his Simple Dollar blog for posting this quote.
A new “bridges” has been released
The Office of Science and Technology at the Embassy of Austria has released Vol. 34 of their online journal “bridges“. Once again it’s been my priviledge to narration several podcasts based on the articles in the journal.
What makes you, you?
My friend Jeff Tobin is a business coach and speaker with some rather profound insights about how to run one’s business. His blog post today A Converse-ation with Yourself is well worth a few minutes of your time.
After you’ve read Jeff’s insights, take a few minutes to reflect on what it is that makes you stand out. Or, does anything stand out? And then, take action on what you conclude.