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Movember 2015 day 8

General, People

When I agreed to take part in Movember this year, I knew that this day was coming and that I would most likely have a pretty scruffy looking upper lip when it arrived. And that’s exactly the case:

Movember2015_day8
You see, I’m preaching at our church today. It’s not something I do on a regular basis, but as one of the deacons of our church it is something I’m prepared to do. On the off-chance that you both see this note before 10:30 in the morning (Eastern time, US) on November 8, 2015 and you would like to watch and listen, you can do so because our church streams the service live. And if the service isn’t live, the archives of previous services are listed on the right side of the page.

I do hope, whether you have any interest in my preaching or not, that you will consider contributing to the fight against prostate cancer and other men’s health issues through my page at Movember. Clicking the link will take you right there. And thank you for your support.

Filed Under: General, People

Movember 2015 day 7

General, People

While a friend of mine and I were both donating blood this morning, he asked me: “what exactly are we supposed to see in all of these close-up pictures of your face that you’ve been posting?” I pointed at my upper lip. He leaned over closer to me and said. “I see. There is something growing there, isn’t there.” (Sorry if I got the quotes slightly off Paul.) We then talked for a moment about Movember.
Here is day 7’s look:

Movember2015_day07

Give it another week and I think it will be clear to everyone that I’m growing a mustache for Movember and hoping as a result that you will help join the fight against prostate cancer and other help challenges for men. I’m doing this campaign this year in cooperation with my Male Voice-Over Guys group. Please join us in this fight.
MVO The Voice-Over Guys Movember TAGLINE
By the way, my plan is to create a GIF when November is finished to show the day by day progress through the month. I think it should be fun. I will post it here in early December, assuming I’m successful in creating the GIF in the first place.

Filed Under: General, People

Movember 2015 day 6

General

I can tell this Movember thing is leaving some folks cold, based on the half-dozen or so “unsubscribe” notifications I’ve received thus far and those are only the email subscriptions. By the time this month is over it’s entirely possible I will have no readers left! Hopefully not, because at least part of the reason I’m doing this is to see if I can discipline myself to do a blog post every day again after a few months of no posts what ever and a few years of only one or two posts a month.
On the other hand, the main point of all of these Movember posts is to ask you to support the fight against prostate cancer. My Movember page is here. And this is what Day 6 looks like:

Movember2015_day6

I’m taking part in Movember along with some of my friends who are in the Male Voice-Over Guys group. You can give to the entire group on our Movember group page.
MVO The Voice-Over Guys Movember TAGLINE

Filed Under: General

Movember 2015 day 5

General, People

This is going to be very quick today. Here is the latest upper lip photo.

Movember2015_day05

Please contribute to the fight against prostate cancer through Movember. My father is currently battling this dread disease, so this Movember cause hits close to home. And thank you for your support.

Filed Under: General, People

Movember 2015 day 4

General, People

I realize this series of blog posts may be even less exciting that watching paint dry, but the cause is truly excellent. The funds we raise through this Movember campaign help the fight against prostate cancer and other men’s health issues.
Here is day 4;

Movember2015_day4

If you would rather you can support our entire Male Voice-Over Guys team.

MVO The Voice-Over Guys Movember TAGLINE

Filed Under: General, People

Movember 2015 day 3

General, People

There is a little bit of visible growth now on my upper lip, as you can see:

Movember2015_day3

Why am I calling attention to my upper lip like this? Because it’s Movember! I hope you will click the link and donate to the cause through my page. Or if you’d rather give to the entire Male Voice-Over Guys group, you can do that too.

MVO The Voice-Over Guys Movember TAGLINE

Filed Under: General, People

Movember 2015 day 2

General, People

As much as possible this month, I am going to do my best to post a Movember update each day, including a photo of how my upper lip is developing. Clearly from one day to the next, the change won’t be all that dramatic. Here is how things look after one full day.

Movember2015_day02

Like I said, not much change from yesterday. I hope you’ll consider contributing through my page at Movember. Or if you’d rather, give to the entire Male Voice-Over Guys team.

MVO The Voice-Over Guys Movember TAGLINE
And thank you for your support!

Filed Under: General, People

Movember 2015

General, People

Today I am bringing my blog out of its state of neglect to kick off a month of fundraising for Movember, an organization dedicated to fighting cancer among men (especially prostate cancer) and helping improve men’s health.

MVO The Voice-Over Guys Movember TAGLINE

As I do this, I’m taking part with a group of talented fellows with whom I’m associated professionally, The Voice-Over Guys. Click the link for our MVO group on the Movember site. If you would rather just donate directly to me, you can also do so, here on Movember.

Movember2015_day01

So, here is photo one. I will do my best to post a new photo every day. Or at least as often as I can this month. Thanks in advance for your help!

Filed Under: General, People

I’m on a podcast.

General

Michael Lenz has been on his voiceover journey for nine years and for a few years has been blogging about his experiences along the way. He has also started a podcast to help folks who are getting started in voiceover. The podcast is called A Journey into Voice Acting, and is on iTunes as well as his site, Facebook and Twitter.

The fourth edition of the podcast, released today, features an interview with me. I hope you enjoy the conversation. I sure did.

Filed Under: General

Bit by bit

Career Advice, General

It’s been just under 2 months since my last post. I have no excuse for my neglect, but today is a new day so here we go.
I was reading a blog post a few days ago written by my friend Amy Dallis called The Secret of Micro Movements. (Amy, her daughter Carissa and her husband Tom write a blog called Creative Crosswalk that’s well worth your time.)

Amy’s comments in that blog post reminded me of a Monday Morning Memo by Roy H. Williams from over 10 years ago. It’s called Exponential Little Bits.
Both of these point out one simple fact. If you take even a tiny step toward the goal you are trying to reach, every day, you will be amazed at the kind of progress you make. Not tomorrow. Not even next week. But stick with it, making those little steps day after day and before long you’ll look back and realize you’re much further along toward your goal than you thought you ever could be.

I am taking this advice to heart. Starting today.

No matter how well things are going right now, change happens. Things that are hot as can be, eventually cool. Clients leave. Or go out of business. Or get bought out by some company with whom you don’t have a relationship. The landscape of the voiceover world continues to shift. Which means that if you stop making progress toward your goals, stop cultivating new clients, just coast for a little while … things can get very tough, very quickly.
But they don’t have to. With the power of micro movements, or if you prefer, exponential little bits, coupled with persistence progress is closer than you think.

Filed Under: Career Advice, General

Working with the Giants

General

One of my favorite clients for the last several years is the currently defending World Champion San Francisco Giants, winners of the 2014 World Series. The 2015 baseball season is about to kick off, which means there are new commercials coming for the Giants. Here is a feature I narrated about the production of those commercials.

Filed Under: General

Added to the blogroll today

General, People

I discovered today (when he emailed me to let me know) that I had somehow failed to include a link to the incomparable Johnny Heller on my blogroll. That oversight has been corrected.

Filed Under: General, People

Registration is now open for ACX Master Class

Career Advice, General, People

If you have watched the videos I have posted about over the last several days, or even if you haven’t the window of opportunity to register for the 2015 ACX Master Class is now open.
It’s not cheap, but if you put into practice what you will learn, you have a good shot at making money narrating audiobooks. If that is what you are hoping to do, then click through and register for the ACX Master Class.

As I’ve mentioned previously, there is a $200 commission I will receive from Dan O’Day and David H. Lawrence XVII if you mention that you signed up for the class because you read about it here. Please only mention me if you strongly wish for me to get that commission.

Filed Under: Career Advice, General, People

Ignore the naysayers, or not

Career Advice, General, People

No matter where you go in life and no matter what you do with your life, you will always find people who will be happy to tell you “you can’t do that” or “it’s too hard to get into that” or some other kind of negative verbiage. Words that attempt to put artificial boundaries around what you can or cannot do.

Now and then, you may also find a few voices who encourage you pursue your goals and dreams; but it seems to me at least that the negative voices always outnumber those that are positive.

So, if you have been giving some thought to narrating audiobooks, you are facing a crossroads right now. It’s not the only crossroads you’ll ever face, not even the only one regarding whether or not you can or should pursue your goal of being an audiobook narrator. But it is a real crossroads.

You can click through to watch the third and last of these preview videos from Dan O’Day and if you like what you see and hear, you can then sign up to learn more about the ACX Master Class.
Or not. As you wish.

If you do watch that third preview video from Dan O’Day, you’ll see and hear a number of suggestions about how to pursue your goal of being an audiobook narrator. You’ll also see a number of graduates of last year’s ACX Master Class, who have all ready starting narrating audiobooks, with some solid advice on how you can do what you want to.

And once again I’ll mention that Dan and his teaching partner in the ACX Master Class, David H. Lawrence XVII, have offered to give me a $200 commission for every person who signs up for the class and identifies me as the one who recommended them.

Please, unless you really want me to get that commission, don’t mention my name. That’s not why I am posting on my blog about the videos or the class. I’m writing these posts because I believe what you will learn and put into action will prove to be well worth what you pay for the program.

Filed Under: Career Advice, General, People

Trust, Dan O’Day, Lies and other thoughts

Career Advice, General, People

(UPDATED NOTE: The links should now all be working again.)

A year ago my long time mentor Dan O’Day reached out to me to ask if I would be willing to link on my blog to some videos he was preparing about a series of teleseminars on audiobook narration and production that he was going to conduct with David H. Lawrence XVII.The series was and is called the ACX Master Class.

I watched the videos and, though I didn’t agree with every word, thought they were worth sharing. So I did. A few people clicked through and I know at least one of my friends signed up for the ACX Master Class. I also know she enjoyed the experience a great deal and has good things to say about the value of the experience and what she learned.

On the other hand, there have been lots of words spilled by way of attack on what Dan and David are teaching, and in particular on the way they are presenting and promoting these classes.

As I said above, I don’t agree with every single thing said. (Or, maybe it would be more accurate to say that I personally would have presented some of the information in a different way.)
One specific example is in the new video that Dan has prepared to answer some questions that have been raised and to respond to some of the criticism leveled at the class and the promotion of it. Personally, I would not have included the names and/or images of the people being critical of the ACX Master Class or its promotion.

If you would like to know more about the specific approach to audiobooks that Dan and David are teaching again this year, check out the latest video.
By way of a conclusion to this blog post, I want to offer a few thoughts for those who wonder about my connection to Dan and why I am posting these messages and links to these videos. The fact is, Dan has offered to pay me a commission of $200 for each person who signed up for the ACX Master Class and identifies me as the reason they are taking the class.
But I am not posting this information in hopes of getting lots of commissions. In fact, if you decide to sign up for the class, unless you specifically and fervently want me to get that commission, I’m asking you not to put my name down as the reason you made that decision. This blog is not a source of revenue for me. I don’t do affiliate links except under very rare circumstances and then only when I identify that exactly is going on. Though as I am typing this note, I realize that I failed to make note of this information in my blog post from a few days ago. This blog has always been a place for me to write about what I have learned in my 30 plus years of doing voiceovers professionally and to link to things I think you might want to know about.
So, back to Dan O’Day. I have known Dan personally since the summer of 1997. I met him online in a forum on CompuServe a couple of years before that. Over the years, every time I have signed up for one of Dan’s classes or seminars, I have received value well above what I paid. I know Dan to be a man who consistently delivers what he says he will deliver, and most of the time more than that.
While I don’t know him as well as I do Dan, I know David H. Lawrence XVII to be a person of significant talent and insight, with a reputation as an excellent teacher.

Filed Under: Career Advice, General, People

Where do audiobook narrators come from?

Career Advice, General, People

For the last 8 years I have been consistently working in audiobooks. Starting in 1983 and through 2006 I had been making a good living in voiceover, but I knew nothing about narrating audiobooks. I also worked in radio for some of those years. Had done some professional theater. And worked a corporate day job for a while.

Then, through a series of circumstances, I was given an audition to narrate the entire Bible for Thomas Nelson Publishers. (The world’s largest publisher of English language Bibles.) When I was hired for the job, I had recorded a few short stories for a small publishing company; but really I knew essentially nothing about narrating audiobooks.

Now, starting my first full audiobook project with the Bible (774,000 words, many of them in ancient languages!) was like learning to swim by jumping in the deep end of the pool. I was either going to succeed, or die in the attempt. Needless to say, since I’m here typing this note to you in January of 2015, I did in fact survive. But, I most definitely do not recommend that as the best method for starting your journey as an audiobook narrator.

Here is a better plan. Check out this video which features a number of people who took advantage of an opportunity to learn about narrating audiobooks through a series of teleseminars last year. Among the people in this video is a retired air traffic controller.

Air traffic controllers are forced to retire at age 56, but this guy wasn’t ready to just sit around twiddling his thumbs all day. So he started narrating audiobooks. A year ago he was a complete beginner just like you are today. Now, he has more books waiting for him to narrate than he has time to get them all done.
Don’t jump in the deep end of the pool. Really. There are better plans.

Filed Under: Career Advice, General, People

Inspiration from Jay

General, Getting started in Voiceover, People

Jay Britton is an award-winning voice actor now, but that wasn’t always true about him. Here is a video that tells his story:

And be sure to catch Jay’s full story on his blog about how this video happened.

Filed Under: General, Getting started in Voiceover, People

Instead of an Avalanche …

General, People

What if what’s coming for your voiceover business isn’t an avalanche? What if it’s a tsunami? I started thinking about this blog post after reading my friend Jeffrey Tobin’s post called Your Tsunami is Coming.

As I read, I thought back to what I see as a vivid example of a tsunami hitting the voiceover business as a whole. The strike of 2000. Until that year, while there had been some significant shifts of one kind or another (one example would be how auditions were being done at agency offices rather than in recording studios), most voiceover work (especially work that paid well) was was booked way it had been for a very long time, through an agent. And much of the time after submitting an audition.
Then the strike.

Suddenly, the amount of good paying non-union voiceover work exploded.

There were a number of factors involved, most of them related to the explosive growth of the Internet. Anyone remember the dot com bubble bursting in 2000? Yes, the bubble burst, but it was a bubble in the first place because of how rapidly the Internet had grown. It was now possible for someone looking for a professional voice to search and find good, quality voice talent who had their own web sites. With demos.

My friend Connie Terwilliger started her site in 1996. I posted my first site in 1998. Back in the late 90s there were not huge numbers of  voiceover people with their own websites, and the majority of us who did have sites were working pro voices. So, someone searching for a voice was likely to find a professional. No need for an agent. Or an union. Or even a contract. Just connect via email or telephone. Work out the details. Email a script. Record at home. (I built my first studio in 1986.) And deliver the audio. Send an invoice. Deposit the checks when they arrived in the mail.

So, back to the tsunami. What does a tsunami do? It creates massive devastation and destruction. Which is, at least at some level, what happened to the careers of many voiceover people in the aftermath of the strike in 2000. No, it wasn’t as swift as a tsunami, but the aftermath was just as complete.

Loads of very talented people were booking less and less work. A decline that has continued for many. And for all of us, the levels of pay have never returned to what they once were. Oh, individual jobs can still pay very well. But the playing field today is very different than it was 25 years ago when I was still in my first decade of doing voiceovers.

Here is reality: some kind of destructive storm (or maybe tsunami) is ahead of each of us. How are we going to deal with the aftermath of whatever that turns out to be? What we can’t know is exactly what will happen. What we can know is how well prepared we will be to deal with it. Or them, if the trouble turns out to come in multiples.

Many of the people that have thrived in voiceover in the last 15 years have been people who have learned to ride the waves of change that have swept through the business. They have a professional website. They don’t sit back and assume that everything is going to stay the same. They know it won’t.

Learn to be flexible. Pay attention to the shifting landscape. Adapt as things change. As you do, you’ll see that everything works out.

Filed Under: General, People

Spotlight on Anthony

General, People

My friend Anthony Mendez in the narrator for the new CW show Jane The Virgin. Check out the extended trailer, also narrated by Anthony.

Filed Under: General, People

What if you just get better?

General, People

So here’s a question every one of us who works professionally in voiceover needs to wrestle with: how do I make my business bigger and better? Or another way to put it would be: how do I become more successful?(What follows was prompted by Seth Godin’s recent blog post Dumb down and scale up and I warmly recommend you spend a few minutes reading that post before you continue here.)

If you’re not thinking about these questions pretty often, you aren’t thinking about your voiceover business as a business. Maybe it’s just a hobby? But if you’re doing voiceovers professionally, whether you count your income totals for the year in 4, 5, 6 or 7 figures and whether you do mostly radio commercials in one local market or audiobooks or promos and trailers for the top studios and networks in the world, moving toward greater success is something you think about.
Right?

There are a couple of elements involved here, of course. How do you define success? Is it more money? Or, more money for each session? So that you have more time available to spend with the people you value most. Or, maybe it’s the kind of clients you have; and the amount of money you make isn’t the primary factor?

Another element has to do with the question, is bigger always better? For me the answer to that question is, yes! But your answer may be different from mine.

Here’s what I mean. My voiceover business now employs, at some level of involvement, all four of my children, my wife, my mother and two of my best friends. Some of these, pretty much every week. Others only a few times a month and a few just a time or two each year.

Thirty-one years ago when I started doing voiceovers professionally on a steady basis, it was just me. And my business stayed that way for a bit more than 20 years. It wasn’t until about 10 years ago that I started adding my wife and then my son Eric and daughter Karen into the mix.

As I look back, I can clearly see that while there was some fluctuation in my voiceover income from year to year, it was all within a pretty narrow range. There was a bump to a new range about 20 years ago when I started working with my agent in Pittsburgh, but it wasn’t a huge jump. Just a nice bump.

But 10 years ago, two key things came together that have made a huge difference for me. First, by adding in help from my wife and my kids, I was able to concentrate more of my time on the thing that only I could do: the actual voicing. As I moved editing, writing, proofing and so forth off my plate, I was able to be both more efficient with my time and more productive with my work.

The second thing that was added in to the mix was to start studying with some top voiceover coaches, thus raising my ability to tell stories more and more effectively and professionally.
I don’t think I’m being too immodest when I say that the fact that I had been working steadily as a voiceover professional meant that I wasn’t a disaster for the first 20 years; but it’s also clear to me now that I had a lot to learn. And like most people, I had no idea how much I didn’t know.

So, my suggestions for growing your business come down to two simple suggestions: find people (like my daughter Karen obviously) to whom you can outsource some of your work. And either start studying with a truly excellent voiceover coach or get back to doing so.

I do something at least several times a year to keep my tools sharp and polished. I don’t ever plan to stop. Because while getting bigger might or might not be right for you, but getting better isn’t an option. It’s a requirement. At least it is if you want to continue to consider yourself a working voiceover professional.

Filed Under: General, People

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