A very happy birthday today, the 7th of October, to two of my favorite people. First, is my daughter, Karen. Second is my good friend and fellow voiceover talent, Donovan Corneetz. I hope you each had a great day.
Career Advice
Connect with your customers
Viewpoint Business is a new podcast focused on how you can improve your business world. Their first episode is posted. It’s an interview with Geoff Burch, a business guru from the UK who offers some solid and cogent suggestions on how to really connect with your customers.
This site and podcast is presented by Graham Jones and Jeremy Jacobs. Well done, gentlemen. Thank you for the solid and practical information.
17 Words
There are in fact more than 17 words in this blog post, but the title refers to something well worth seeing over at my friend Bobbin Beam’s blog. 17 words, in fact, that she keeps with her all the time. 17 words I think you’ll benefit from reading. Thanks for the good thoughts, Bobbin.
The right voice for the project
My friend Jeffrey Kafer has posted some cogent thoughts about how different voice actors are cast for projects on his blog. I think you’re exactly right, Jeffrey. It’s pretty much never about who has the best voice, it’s about who has the voice and performance that’s the best match for the project.
What’s a SaVOa?
The Society of Accredited Voice Over Artists is a new project you just might want to check out. Like any new enterprise, no doubt it will take a while for things to really get moving, but I think there’s a huge potential upside for this new organization.
Dialects and Accents and Voiceovers, oh my!
Pat Fraley, one of my favorite voiceover teachers has two new posts you should check out. First, read through his take on Vox Daily about why studying dialects and accents is so important for voice actors in the 21st century.
Then, when you’re done reading through that post, check out Pat’s Voice Over Experts podcast on Accents and Dialects.
The brick walls are there for a reason
They are there to let us prove how badly we want things.
The title and first line of this post come from a lecture given by a 47-year-old professor at Carnegie Mellon University who is dying of pancreatic cancer, giving, literally, his final lecture. Watch the report of this amazing, exuberant man. You will not be sorry you spent the 4 minutes and 40 seconds that it takes.
(If the video player doesn’t show in this post anymore, you can click here to see it.) My thanks to my friend Peter O’Connell for posting the link to this remarkable video on the VO-BB.
Want to be a voiceover in games?
Or, are you looking for voices for your game that’s under development? Then check out the the Game Developers Conference Radio podcast featuring my friends and mentors DB Cooper and Pat Fraley. And my thanks to DB for posting the link to this excellent material on the VO-BB.
Voice123.com makes an important change to their rating system
For some time now, when I receive a lead from Voice123.com that has “To-be-defined” as the budget amount, I delete the lead without reading further. I give credit to my good friend Amy Snively for being the spark that helped lead me to this decision. (Thank you, Amy for consistently demonstrating a professional attitude about your work. You are an inspiration.)
On the Voice123.com blog yesterday, Alex Torrenegra has posted information about a change they’ve made to the way the ratings mechanism at Voice123.com works for folks who post jobs with “To-be-defined” budgets.
From now on, the first time a voice seeker rates an audition/proposal with one or two stars we show them a large message asking them if their decision was based on the quoted price. If so, we ask the voice seeker to delete the audition/proposal instead of rating it low. This message will be seen by voice seekers in projects with budget “To-be-defined”.
I know there are lots of folks who are unhappy with the rating system at Voice123.com. I really don’t worry about it too much. There are most important things in life and work than worrying about how someone rates my auditions at Voice123.com.
Solid Gold information about audiobook narration
Since July of 2006 when I flew out to Los Angeles to take Pat Fraley’s Audiobook Master Class, every time someone involved in voiceover work asks me for suggestions about how to get started doing audiobooks my answer has been the same: Take Pat’s class. Here’s what I mean, quoted from a comment I left on the Vox Daily blog…
less than a month after I took Pat’s seminar, I had signed with an audiobook publisher as one of their house voices. In the following 12 months, I started working with 3 other publishing companies. One of those jobs is a massive project cast through Voices.com. Or to put it another way, I made back the money I spent on his seminar multiple times over in the first year after taking Pat’s audiobook class.
Now, maybe you can’t afford to get out to LA (or sometimes NYC) to take Pat’s class in person. Then, this post is for you. Because Pat has captured the essence of his live Master Class in a CD and 50 page Companion Workbook called Billion $ Read, How to Make Money Reading and Recording Books. Details on how to order are on the Store page of Pat’s web site. And depending on when you read this note, you could pick up the book at a $10 savings.
Keep your voice in shape
Jeremy Jacobs is a professional speaker and presenter in the UK. He often posts valuable ideas and suggestions on his blog, including this superb collection of suggestions on how to keep your voice sounding great. Thank you for passing along this excellent list, Jeremy. First class stuff.
Your brand isn’t about you
As I’ve mentioned before, Tom Asacker is a very bright man with some profound insights about branding. He offers some thoughts about branding in light of the controversy in the NFL over the New England Patriots and their coach Bill Belichick.
The details of the controversy aren’t vital for you to know, if you don’t already, for you to get the value of this post. (And read Tom’s entire post for most of the pertinent details.) But, here’s the key thought from his blog entry…
A brand is an expectation of someone or something delivering a certain feeling by way of an experience. And that feeling is always self-reflective. It’s always about the identity of the chooser. Today, the feeling of being a Patriots fan is a conflicted one, at best. And make no mistake about it, it was Belichick’s smug response that tarnished that feeling. As Jennifer Wielgus of phillyBurbs.com so aptly summed it up:
“When somebody acts like they’re smarter than us, or better than us, or above dealing with us, or don’t have to follow the same rules as the rest of us, we relish any opportunity to knock them down a peg or three. We want to see them walking in our shoes – the ugly, ill-fitting loafers of the admittedly imperfect.”
The current leaders of the Patriots have proven that they know how to win. Now let’s see if they truly understand what makes a brand great; and that’s being something to aspire to, something that makes us feel good about our imperfect selves in their bigger than life presence. Because we can’t all be winners in life, but we can play the game with passion, integrity, humility, and humanity.
Your voiceover sessions aren’t about you, they’re about your client and the story they’re trying to tell, the message they’re paying you to deliver effectively. Just so, your brand isn’t about you. It’s about how you make your clients feel.
Self-evaluation
One of the most important keys to your success as a voiceover talent, especially with the way things work in the 21st Century, is self-evaluation. During VOICE 2007, my friend Connie Terwilliger presented a fabulous pair of sessions on this subject. Now, there were only a couple hundred of us at VOICE 2007, so you probably didn’t get to see and hear Connie’s presentation. Why bring up that painful point? Because Connie has now distilled much of her valuable information for the Voice Over Experts podcast.
Great stuff, Connie. Thanks for sharing so generously with us.
It’s not about me
Those simple words, it’s not about me, are words to live by if you wish to have a truly successful career as a voiceover talent. My friend Peter O’Connell has written a potent post on his blog underscoring this important point. It’s not about me. Peter credits our mutual friend and one of my mentors, Philip Banks with reminding him of this phrase the other day on the VO-BB. So, my thanks to Philip and Peter for bringing this point freshly to mind.
Getting paid, part 3
With thanks to my friend Mary Serra for posting a link to this article on the VO-BB, read this article for some solid advice on how to make sure you collect the money you’ve earned in your voiceover work. The article is for small businesses in general, so the advice makes all kinds of good sense for folks involved in voiceover work and production.
Actor’s Tool-Kit #18
THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING CONFIDENT
by Bob Fraser
If you’ve spent ANY time waiting to audition, with dozens of other actors going in before you, you know what it is to feel the ebb and flow of that crucial feeling of confidence.
I’m sure you know that confidence is the actor’s special need. We all know, almost as if by osmosis, that confidence is the key to everything. Confident actors win auditions.
Confidence is coin of the realm in show business.
We know it.
Our problem is that no one is explaining how we can become confident. Sure, we’ve heard all the stories – Lincoln lost every election, Edison tried over a thousand times to invent the light bulb, Harrison Ford struggled for over a decade — yeah, yeah, we know. We get it.
Persistence.
But, the thing those stories don’t tell us is… HOW?
How did Lincoln, Edison and Ford face all that failure and remain confident? Did Lincoln stand in front of a mirror chanting that he was worthy while people told him to go
back to his log cabin.
Did Edison wear a t-shirt that said, “What I really want to do is invent?”
Did Ford recite life-affirming haikus every morning of the ten years he worked as a carpenter — and watched lesser actors rise to stardom?
We already know they DID it … we just don’t know HOW they did it.
HOW TO BECOME MORE CONFIDENT
How people become confident is left out of these darn stories. We actors already know that we should be confident people. But would someone please show us HOW to do that?
Well, as it happens someone has written a book that is a seminal work in this area. Her name is Rosabeth Moss Kanter, she’s a professor at Harvard Business School, and her book is called (cleverly enough) “Confidence
Professor Kanter has taken the time to investigate the “how” and written it down in a clear, straight-forward way.
She started by interviewing lots of athletes and business leaders and in the resulting study she has managed to organize and illustrate the behaviors, habits, attitudes, skills and core beliefs of highly confident people. (That highly confident people are highly successful is a given … again, we know it.)
The good news? Anyone can become confident. The bad news? It takes a lot of work.
Pick me up platitudes are fine, but the real work involved, in order to become confident, is what sets the pro apart from the ‘wannabe.’ Ms. Kanter’s premise has it that confidence is not simply a frame of mind or attitude but a collection of habits, characteristics and behaviors that set events in motion in one of two directions: winning and losing.
Winners act and react to their world in one way and losers in another. Most importantly she points out that there are concrete, identifiable, signposts along the way — signposts which determine what path you are on.
For instance:
Confidence that isn’t supported by hard work and realistic expectations is nothing but wishful thinking. Success comes with its own problems of sustaining and improving results. Confidence is complicated and cannot be taken for granted.
There are different kinds of confidence for different kinds of attainments.
And those are just a few of the important insights that are illustrated by real-world examples in this study.
In order to help as much as I can, in a short article, here’s a short list of habits I’ve paraphrased from the book. Habits that you will always see in confident (and therefore successful) — oh, let’s say ACTORS, for instance:
1. Confident pros are open to criticism or suggestions.
2. Confident pros are honest about their own abilities and limitations.
3. Confident pros seek the advice and input of others.
4. Confident pros learn from their mistakes.
5. Confident pros set realistic goals, and have realistic expectations.
6. Confident pros are willing to work hard to achieve their goals, and DO.
7. Confident pros take personal responsibility for their fate.
8. Confident pros embrace new challenges and take reasonable risks.
9. Confident pros replace bad habits with good habits
10. Confident pros EXPECT good things to happen.
OR …
The opposite side of the theatrical coin is the perennial wannabe. These are almost precisely wrong habits and behaviors:
1. Wannabe’s react defensively to criticism
2. Wannabe’s are not honest about their abilities or limitations.
3. Wannabe’s shun the advice or input of others.
4. Wannabe’s tend not to learn much from their mistakes.
5. Wannabe’s set unrealistic goals and have unrealistic expectations.
6. Wannabe’s use problems (it’s hard) as an excuse not to try.
7. Wannabe’s blame others for things that go wrong.
8. Wannabe’s avoid new challenges and want to play it safe.
9. Wannabe’s repeat self defeating habits over and over again.
10. Wannabe’s expect the worst and often get it.
If you are interested in learning about the “how” of confidence I recommend Ms. Kanter’s book unreservedly. This is a book every actor should read who wants good instruction on having confidence and keeping it.
One caveat: what might look easy to do, on the surface, is often the hardest thing to actually attain.
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PERMISSION TO REPRINT: You may reprint articles from Actor’s Tool-Kit, on your website or electronic newsletter. However, in order to comply with my copyright, you must also include the following paragraph with your reprint: “Reprinted from ACTOR’S TOOL KIT, the email course just for subscribers of Show Biz How-To — The Free Actor’s Monthly. Get your own free subscription by going to: showbizhowto.com Copyright © 2006 Bob Fraser Productions All Rights Reserved”
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PRIVACY STATEMENT: Bob Fraser Productions will NEVER share your personal information with anyone. Ever. Period.
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Superb audiobook narration information
With thanks to my friend Joe Rodriguez for posting the link on the VO-BB, here is a place on the AudioFile site called Narrator’s Corner. If you want to narrate audiobooks, you’ll find a ton of valuable information.
Litterboxes and life lessons (updated)
One of the things I love about my friend Kara Edwards is her ability to take different sorts of life situations, from worm poop to bee stings, and as she tells these stories on her blog, draw some valuable lessons for both life and business from them.
In some private correspondence with Kara, of which I’ve been able to take part, she’d discussed some challenges she and her husband were facing with one of their cats. Without recapping all of the various details (Kara can do that on her blog if she wants to tell you about it. Update: And she has!), the cat was acting out of control and Kara was at her wits end what to do about it.
She took the cat to a holistic vet to whom she’d been recommended and at that office received some interesting information that has made a profound difference in the situation. The answer, it seems, was in the litterboxes. Adding one more, on the other floor of the house, removing the covers from them and changing to a different kind of litter and no longer using liner sheets in the boxes. As Kara was describing all of this to us in a recent update as part of our private correspondence, she closed with this comment…
Who knew litterboxes were so important??
As I looked at that question, a thought popped into my head that I just had to send. Here’s what I wrote…
Kara,
The first thing that popped into my pea-sized brain in answer to this question is: think about what sort of impression it makes on you when you’re visiting someone and they don’t have a clean, tidy bathroom for you to use? I mean, I know cats aren’t human (I’m sure they’re convinced they are the superior species!); but it seems reasonable that this kind of situation would be important to every creature.
I suppose the larger application is that when we do things for our own convenience, we’re seldom serving the needs of (clients? family? friends?) others.
I guess reading Kara’s blog has influenced my way of looking at the world.
It’s not war
My friend and mentor Roy Williams has posted a thought-provoking article about the often overlooked truth that there’s really no such thing as thinking “outside the box,” the best we can do is find a different box in which to think. He then makes a very powerful point about one of the boxes we in the business world tend to occupy without giving thought to the implications. Here’s the key thought…
In the male-dominated world of business we tend to use battlefield metaphors and sports analogies, not because these metaphors are particularly accurate, but because we are hairy males. The Wall Street Journal is filled with reports of “hostile takeovers†and best-selling business books include Marketing Warfare, Corporate Combat, and Leadership Secrets of Attila the Hun. But by choosing to do business from within the box marked “battle,†we adopt not only the outcomes but the value judgments of those who have occupied the box before us. In doing so, we unconsciously create a business environment that is hostile and defensive and find ourselves using words like “strategy,†“tactics,†“targeting,†and “dominating the competition,†never once considering that injury, sacrifice, destruction and loss are also part of that package.
I wonder what sort of difference it might make if we were to adopt a cooperation metaphor rather than a battle metaphor for our work?
Take a few minutes away from the rat race
Join me in reading Kara Edward’s blog post about perfection. Kara is a fabulously gifted story-teller. You’ll be glad you took a few minutes to read what she’s written.
Update: I’m delighted to note that Tim McLaughlin has read Kara’s thoughts. I agree Tim. Time for at least a short break to Stop and Smell the Roses.