Career Advice

James Alburger and Penny Abshire have been teaching voiceover workshops for years. They are two of the three very nice people who presented the VOICE conference (the third being Frank Frederick) in Las Vegas and will be presenting the VOICE 2008 conference in Los Angeles.

So, now that you know something about James and Penny (follow the links to learn a whole lot more), here is most of the contents of an email I received from them a few minutes ago. If you’ve wished you could find a way to participate in an interactive, group, voiceover training for under $100 a class, this is going to come as very good news indeed.

We’ve spent a great deal of time working on a Voice Acting Telecourse that will give you the essential information you need in order to master the craft and business of performing for voiceover – whether you’re just starting out . . . or a seasoned pro. You’ve probably noticed that there aren’t very many voiceover classes offered as a Telecourse – and those that are available are quite expensive – often more than $100 per class!

For most classroom voiceover training, you must deal with local traffic or travel to a different city. We still plan on teaching our San Diego and Roadshow workshops – and we’d love to see you there – however, we know hard it can be to learn the subtleties of performing for voiceover . . . especially if you live in a city far from the nearest VO coach, or if you’re not in a position financially or timewise to attend a classroom voiceover workshop. We’ve solved your problem!

We’ve studied just about every other VO course out there and we’ve come up with a Telecourse that will give you the basic skills and essential information you need – and more important – our 8-week Telecourse is very affordable!

No traffic.

No traveling.

No hotels.

No high tuition.

No hassles.

No kidding!

All it takes is a phone call! Actually two phone calls – one to register, and another to attend the Telecourse each week.

Here’s your official invitation (ed: and FAQ):

What?: The Art of Voice Acting 8-week Telecourse – a teleseminar focusing on the craft and business of voiceover.

When?: Every Wednesday evening beginning September 5th, 2007

Where?: Your telephone

What time?: 5pm Pacific Time (8pm ET)

How long?: This course runs for 8-weeks. Each class is approximately 90 minutes in length.
What’s the content?: The Art of Voice Acting 8-week Telecourse will include most of the primary lecture material we cover in our AOVA 8-week and Weekend workshops, plus a few surprises. Complete information is at www.voiceacting.com/training/teleseminars.

How many in the class?: The AOVA Level 1 basic 8-week Telecourse is limited to 25. There will be assignments each week, and some submitted files may be played during a Telecourse session. There will also be on-mic coaching each week. Our Personalized on-mic coaching is reserved for our Level 2 class, which is limited to only 8 people per call. You must be a graduate of the basic 8-week Telecourse or one of our other 8-week or Weekend workshops to participate in our Level 2 personalized coaching Telecourse.

How will it work?: As soon as you register, you’ll receive an email that includes all the details for the first Telecourse call, PLUS a link to your Telecourse Yahoo Group for messaging, downloads, and uploads. Your first download will be an MP3 file that will give you an overview of voiceover and prepare you for the Telecourse. Each week you’ll receive a special phone number to call along with a password for each class. To attend, you simply make a phone call from the comfort of your home . . . or wherever you are.

Who teaches the Telecourse?: Each call is hosted by James Alburger and Penny Abshire, two of the top voiceover coaches in the US. You can learn more about Jim & Penny at www.VoiceActing.com and you can read what their students think of their workshops at www.voiceacting.com/testimonials.

How much?: A ridiculously low $47 per session -which includes access to on-line workshop notes and other materials. Of course, the cost of a long-distance call will also apply. (For most, that’s well under $5.00 for a 1-hour call).

Note: If you were an attendee at VOICE 2007, we have a very special price for you for this Telecourse. Please call Penny at 858.484.0220 for details.

What else?: As a Telecourse graduate, you’ll be entitled to our AOVA Graduate “Serious Discount” for future AOVA Weekend Workshops. That means you’ll be able to attend ANY of our live Weekend Workshop in the future at a “serious discount”!

Anything more?: Each class will be recorded and will be available on-line for about a week after each class. Download the MP3 file to your computer, put it on your IPOD, or burn it to a CD for future reference.

Why are you doing this?: Our goal is to provide you with the best information and training possible to help you learn the critical skills for working as a voice talent. The Art of Voice Acting book has become the most popular book on voiceover, and our workshops have gained a reputation for being among the best training in the country. Now, it’s time for us to make our training available to more people who want to learn about voiceover.

How do I register?: Call us at 858.484.0220 to register. Sorry, but due to the nature of this Telecourse, we can’t take on-line registrations.
As a registered student of our Art of Voice Acting 8-week Telecourse, you’ll receive critical information, performing techniques, tricks of the trade, and insider business secrets that will get you started on the road to being a successful voice talent.
For all the details, visit www.voiceacting.com/training/teleseminars right now, while you’re thinking about it!
Or call us at 858.484.0220 to be among the first to register. Please call only between 9am and 5pm Pacific time M-F.

Stay in Character!
James R. Alburger & Penny Abshire
VoiceActing.com ~ We make you sound great!
13639 Freeport Rd.
San Diego, CA 92129
voice: 858.484.0220
fax: 858.484.7493
e-mail: info@voiceacting.com
visit our website:www.voiceacting.com – Training and Resources in The Art of Voice Acting

Email submissions become the property of VoiceActing.com. We reserve the right to re-print any questions and our reply in any media. If you prefer to remain anonymous,

please let us know. Please include the original correspondence in your reply.

Get your personally autographed copy of James Alburger’s book, (The Art of Voice Acting, 3rd edition) and Penny Abshire’s book, (Demo & Marketing Magic for Voice Actors), on-line at www.voiceacting.com.

Subscribe to the free Art of Voice Acting newsletter by visiting www.voiceacting.com/elists.

The first half of this day was given to writing. But, as is nearly always the case when Dan O’Day is teaching writing, much of that time included opportunities for us to get up and read what we’ve written. Taking part in those exercises this year were my friends Donovan Corneetz, Dick Terhune and Pam Tierney. Here the three of them are waiting in line for their turns to read.

Donovan does his read.

And Pam follows.

Pam got a chance to work one on one with Dan O’Day at one point as well.

And Dan was nice enough to take a moment to pose with my friend Mike Carta and me.

In between sessions, there was plenty of times for conversation. Here Pam is talking with Chris Wagner and Melanie Myers.

The final 3 hours were given over to casting director Terry Berland.

She gave us a great look behind the scenes of the way casting works in the highest echelons. And then worked with many of us as we read copy she’d brought along. It was great fun to experience reading for someone of her stature and talent. And Terry’s description to us at the end of her presentation was that it was great fun for her as well.

Another great year is in the books. I hope you’ll join us next year. And as time permits over the next couple of days, I’ll add some further descriptions and details from some of these sessions.

This year is another great experience at the Dan O’Day Summit in Los Angeles. We began on Thursday evening with our annual closed door session for those of us who have been to previous Summits. Dan calls us “Repeat Offenders.”

The main events kicked off this morning with Dan O’Day presenting a superb session about writing powerfully. It’s a seminar he calls Hypnotic Advertising. Lots of insights into the way people understand and receive information.

Then Pat Fraley came and presented a pile of terrific ideas drawn from his Slick Tricks Smuggled Out of Hollywood seminar. Excellent, with loads of valuable information for voiceover work, as well as tips for directing. (By the way, Pat gave an update on his wife, Renee. She’s not completely back to full health, but is doing much better. He offered his thanks for all of the prayers and kind thoughts.)

After Pat’s presentation he joined us for lunch. Here are a few shots. In the last photo are James Alburger and Penny Abshire talking with Pat.

Don LaFontaine had to cancel his appearance at the last minute because of a family medical situation so Dan was able to arrange a last-minute substitute: Harry Shearer.

Dan was also the presenter on the final session of the day, which focused on Directing and Thinking About One’s Career. These 2 hours were worth the price of admission, alone. Very thought provoking and helpful. In fact, I think this was probably the best presentation I’ve ever heard by Dan and after 11 years, I’ve heard a lot of Dan’s presentations.

Anna Vocino and Nancy Wolfson have a new teleseminar coming up later this month, which I mentionedd just a couple of days ago. Go to their Break Into Voice Over site to sign up. Price is just $39 this time. It’s taking place Wednesday, August 29, 2007 and starts at 6:00 PM Pacific, 9:00 PM Eastern. The title is Acting for Advertising, part 2. Again, details on how to register are at their web site. I’ve already paid my registration. I hope you will join us, too.

Speaking of Anna Vocino, she’s a graduate of Nancy Wolfson’s voiceover training, and has been working in partnership with Nancy on a site they call Break Into Voice Over. More importantly, they have a new teleseminar planned for Wednesday, August 29, 2007. The class starts at 6:00 PM Pacific, 9:00 PM Eastern. The title is Acting for Advertising, part 2. The price is just $39.00. All details on how to register are at their web site. I will be there. I hope you will too.

Anna Vocino is a friend and an inspiration in the voiceover world. A few weeks ago she was featured in one of Bonnie Gilespie’s The Actor’s Voice – POV pieces. While the focus of her article is on voiceover work in Los Angeles, there’s a ton of great information that applies to anyone interested in getting serious about voiceover work.

And while you’re poking around that site, be sure to visit Bonnie’s main section with all of her The Actor’s Voice columns. There’s an amazing amount of wisdom and insight archived there, including lots of good material for us working as voice actors.

Sometimes you have to let someone else say a thing for you, because you’re too close to your own situation or opinions to be able to express what you mean as clearly as you’d like. That was my experience today reading an article from last month on the Future Now blog called grokdotcom.

Bryan Eisenberg wrote this post in response to a question posed by one of the site’s readers, about competition. Here is how Bryan began…

For the better part of a decade, we’ve published hundreds of articles, several books–including 2 New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestsellers–trained thousands of people, and consulted with the goal of educating the entire marketplace (including competitors) about the value-of/how-to convert website visitors into sales, leads, subscribers, etc.

During this time, we’ve armed our subscribers, competitors, licensees and friends with powerful ideas on how to better use web analytics, design more effective landing pages, how to use Google Website Optimizer, what makes people buy, why people share things through word-of-mouth, how to make your pay-per-click and search engine marketing more effective, and even about our methodology for pulling all these things together: Persuasion Architectureâ„¢.

We do it happily! As our friend Sean D’Souza likes to say, “Give the ideas. Sell the system.“

This is the key fact at the heart of this blog. I link to all kinds of other voiceover talents, including lots of other men. I link to every voiceover blog and forum I can find. I post ideas here as often as I can, either things I’ve thought about or things I’ve gleaned from other sites, articles and documents because helping you get better at voiceover helps us all, including me. As does helping you find the voice you need for your project, and then directing that voice to give you the performance needed to tell your story as effectively as possible.

You are not my competition, even if you’re auditioning for the same job that I am. If the clients decide they want Bob Souer, there’s only one voiceover talent on the planet who can pull that off…me. If they want you, it really doesn’t matter how well I did on my audition, you’re going to get the job.

I’m not going to keep the juicy stuff to myself and share some fluff now and then and try to dress it up like it’s juicy stuff. I’m going to give you every idea I have, because, as Bryan says so well in his post…

If you gave away every idea you ever had, people would still step up to ask you to help them, or do it for them. The same can’t be said if you don’t share with them at all.

Read the whole article. Then come on back because I’d love to hear your thoughts and comments.