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Nancy Wolfson Audition Critiques – one last chance!

Career Advice, General, People

Nancy Wolfson did something pretty exciting this week: A live teleseminar where she spent 2 solid hours reviewing real voice over auditions just before they were submitted. It’s too late to take part in the live teleseminar because that was Tuesday, but until Friday you can still get an MP3 copy of the entire event.

Here are all the details about getting this teleseminar as an MP3.

Registration is open for Faffcon 3

Career Advice, General

And I hope you will join us in Hershey/Harrisburg, PA for this exceptional voiceover unconference called Faffcon, September 24th and 25th. Registration is under way and getting your early-bird discount now means you won’t have to rush at the last minute.

Maybe you’ve never heard of Faffcon? Or even that term “unconference.” You’ll find comments here from a number of attendees at previous Faffcon events. And there’s also more information about who should come to Faffcon on the site.

If you’re a working voiceover professional, you’re welcome. Come to learn. Come to give. You will leave with more than you expect, no matter how high your expectations.

Perspective on failure

Career Advice, General

There’s a phrase that’s become quite popular in the last several years …

Failure is not an option.

Really? Are you a human being like I am? Then failure isn’t just an option, it’s a slam-dunk certainty.

Now, let me be clear. I don’t mean that you will always fail at everything you attempt. Of course not. People are capable of amazing achievements, but only when they put failure into the right perspective. Failure will happen. And the more successful you are, the more frequently you will fail.

You see, the reason I don’t like “failure is not an option” is because of something I heard from Zig Ziglar years ago.

Anything worth doing is worth doing poorly … until you learn to do it well.

Now there’s the point of view that makes the most sense to me. You have to learn to fail in order to learn to succeed. Otherwise, the first time you fail you think it’s all over. It’s not. It’s how you react to failure that makes the difference between never reaching your goal and eventually reaching it.

Why am I talking about failure so much? Because our lives in voiceover are filled with failure.

Filled with failure? Prove it.

OK.

Do you book everything you audition for? Do you get work from everyone you contact about doing voiceover work? Do I really need to ask any more questions?

My friend Pam Tierney wrote a blog post the other day called Falling that captures the essential truth of what I’m trying to say. Put your failures into perspective. Your voiceover business doesn’t rise or fall on any single failure. Nor any single success. This is not a sprint. We’re in this for the long run. Learn from each failure then put it behind you and move on. Stay with it. Keep moving. Make some kind of progress every day. You’ll get there.

Do the Work

Career Advice, General, Getting started in Voiceover

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.

What matters

General

In the world of voiceover, does it matter what you look like? Most people would agree with me that it matters not at all. Does it matter what you sound like? Now there’s a horse of a different color, as the old saying goes. (Bunny trail: I’ve always loved that “horse of a different color” in the Wizard of Oz. Don’t know why, but it always makes me smile.)

Let’s think about this for a moment. Does it matter what you sound like? Well, sometimes the answer is “yes”. For example, if you audition for voiceover job and the sound of your voice doesn’t match with what the people making the casting decision want, then you don’t get the job. Another example, if the client is looking for a baritone male and you have a female soprano voice, again, you don’t get the job.

Turn this question around a little differently. Is there a sound to a voice that prevents someone from getting voiceover work? Yes, if you can’t read out loud well, you’re not going to get much voiceover work. Of course, technically that’s not the sound of the voice that’s in question in this case. But, I think it’s close enough. Or if you have a strong regional accent and you can’t shift your sound out of that regional accent, you may get some work specifically for that region; but you’ll have a very tough row to hoe.

What about this alternate question: Is there a vocal sound that will guarantee success in voiceover? NO! There isn’t. Many people believe that to be successful one must possess a voice that is beautiful and smooth and clear or some other batch of characteristics. But you know what? That’s simply not true. People with all kinds of voices do really well in voiceover. And lots of people with really beautiful voices don’t do well.

In the end, the question isn’t what kind of voice you have; it’s what do you do with the instrument you have and the story that’s in front of you? Do you tell that story well? Do you have a recording environment that’s clean sounding and quiet? Do you deliver your work on time? Do you stay in touch with the people who hire you, while not making a pest of yourself? Chances are, you are going to do OK or maybe better than OK.

But, if you waste time wondering if you have the kind of voice you need? This isn’t going to be a productive use of your time at all.

Sometimes nice people come for a visit

General, People

Many times in the last 6 years, I’ve posted a note here about some nice person I’ve had a chance to meet face-to-face while I’ve been traveling. Earlier this week, I had sort of the reverse experience. That is, I was home and once of those nice people I’ve had the chance to meet before happened to be here in Pittsburgh.

Bob Souer and Patrick O'Connor in Pittsburgh

My friend Patrick O’Connor happened to be traveling through Pittsburgh and we shared a very nice chat over drinks. (I’m on the left, Patrick is on the right.)

Quote for the day

General

From my friend and manager, Stacey Stahl:

“Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that,
but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.”

–Mark Twain