Career Advice

Jeremy Jacobs, British speaker, presenter and host, writes about keeping your voice sounding great on his blog.

The bright folks at Fame Foundry have published a very interesting article called Eight Steps to Conquering Local Media. It’s well worth the few minutes of your time it will take to read.

Bob Bergen did a “Voice Acting for Animation” teleseminar with Dan O’Day this week. It went 2 hours, 10 minutes and was very, very good. Dan is releasing the MP3 recording for only 3 days and he tells me these are the only 3 days he will ever make this recording available for purchase. All the info is here.

It a teleseminar on Wednesday, Bob Bergen will answer 30 of the most commonly asked questions about voice acting for animation. It’ll be in a live teleseminar that’s expected to last at least two hours. The deadline to sign up is tomorrow, Tuesday, March 22nd at 7:59 PM Eastern Time. After that, it will to too late to sign up. And yes, there will be a recording made of the teleseminar with Bob Bergen. All the info is here.

Next week, Bob Bergen will answer 30 of the most commonly asked questions about voice acting for animation. It’ll be in a live teleseminar that’s expected to last at least two hours. All the info is here.

Of all the people who have appeared as special guests and speakers at the Dan O’Day Summit’s in the 14 years I have attended these wonderful events, one of my favorites is Christine Coyle, the long-time Creative Director at The Famous Radio Ranch of Dick Orkin and company. Chris has a remarkable ability to bring out the best performances from us standing behind the microphone. So, I’m delighted to let you know that Dan O’Day has released an MP3 audio seminar featuring Christine Coyle. Details are here. This audio seminar on text analysis comes with my warmest recommendation.

One of the key ideas who cherish at Faffcon is the idea of golden nuggets. Each of us has at least one golden nugget for someone else, some valuable bit of information or insight that someone else needs to hear or learn. Someone also has at least one golden nugget for each of us. Also, we don’t know who needs our nuggets and who has our nuggets, nor can we anticipate how or when the nugget sharing will happen. Our task at this working pro voiceover unconference is to chat with as many others as possible to be sure we give and receive as many golden nuggets as possible.

Five different people have all ready told me they received golden nuggets from me, none of which I realized were taking place at that moment. For myself, I continue to gain insights about how to more effectively communicate via social networking, among many other things. It’s because of all the gold floating around that I have committed myself to being at every Faffcon.

With thanks to my friend Pam Tierney for pointing me toward it this morning, you need to read what Seth Godin says today “On Pricing Power.”

With thanks to my friend and manager Stacey Stahl who emailed this link, take about 10 minutes and watch this wonderful TED video from Nigel Marsh:

You still have an opportunity to register for Faffcon 2 in Atlanta and we hope you’ll make plans now to join us there the last weekend of this month.

Faffcon 1 in Portland last fall was a game-changing experience for many of us. We picked up gold nuggets all weekend as they were shared from one peer to another. Insights about places to find work. Ideas about working with agents. Working without an agent. How to use our websites to greater effect. How to start a Mastermind group. And the list goes on. The price of admission will be worth it no matter what.

If you are a working professional voiceover talent, full or part-time, you don’t want to miss Faffcon 2, February 25 through 27, 2011 in Atlanta. All the details, including registration information is at the Faffcon site. I hope to see you there.

Join Nancy Wolfson and Anna Vocino tonight, February 2nd at 9pm Eastern/6pm Pacific for Acting for Advertising Part 10.

This is not a sequel. Each of these Teleseminars reveals a chapter from Nancy’s core curriculum, useful Q and A from your peers, plus more marketing and business tips that you can put to use immediately.

Each moment offers unique behind the velvet rope of the agency/casting scene advice not available anywhere else.

60 minute lecture, 15 min Q and A…so bring your questions and notebooks!

Just $49 gets you on the call.

Go to www.breakintovoiceover.com to sign up.

Here are just a few of the topics to be covered:

* PATTERN RECOGNITION 101: Standard sentence structure contains word(s) you should NOT emphasize. Hit ’em, and you’ll miss the mark, big time.

What to hit instead? And how?
Hint: Rhetorical Antithesis.
(we’ll wait while you go fetch your Shakespeare Studies manual).

* FOLLOWING UP ON YOUR AUDITIONS Do’s and Don’ts.
* WAYS TO GET BETTER AT RESPONDING TO A LINE READ.
* HOW TO INTERVIEW WITH A NEW AGENT WITHOUT LYING. – You might be surprised by what’s okay to mention.
* Don’t Pretty Up the Mom (and how this applies to you GUYS,too).
* Three reasons why demos will never go away.
* Plus, a killer Q and A!!!

Go to www.breakintovoiceover.com to sign up!

There are a lot of people these days who have hung out a shingle proclaiming themselves voiceover coaches. I’m not writing this post to criticize any of them specifically because honestly I don’t know anything specific about the vast majority of them. I’ve personally studied with (in chronological order) Dick Orkin, Pat Fraley, Nancy Wolfson, Marla Kirban, Marice Tobias and Richard Horvitz; and I’ve worked extensively with only Nancy Wolfson and Marice Tobias.

Again, this post isn’t about specific coaches, but rather an attempt to help you figure out who you should study with. Or maybe more to the point, who you shouldn’t study with. One of the blogs I read frequently is called The Simple Dollar, a blog about frugality and personal finance. Trent writes a review of a book every Sunday and this past weekend his subject was a book by Barbara Ehrenreich called “Bait and Switch,” a book about getting a white-collar job in the USA. Take a few minutes to read his review, and in particular his summary of the key points from the book at the end of the review. Now, think about what he’s saying in the context of voiceover coaches.

• Don’t try to get jobs you’re not really qualified for; instead build up your own qualifications.
• Don’t believe that coaches and workshops will put you where you want to go. Coaches and workshops can help, but you have to do the work of building your business yourself.
• Networking events aren’t the magic answers either. Networking is something you do, not something someone else sets up and does for you.
• Success comes from a long climb up a ladder, not an immediate leap to the top.

Yep. Sounds about right to me.

If you’ve thought about attending Faffcon 2, you can still register after tomorrow evening; but at an extra cost. The price for registration goes up again Tuesday. Faffcon is the one event I will not miss, no matter where it’s held or how often. If you are a working voiceover professional, full or part-time, I strongly encourage you to attend. Meanwhile, a press release has just been issued by Faffcon’s public relations manager, the lovely and talented Pam Tierney. One bit of good news I was especially delighted to see is that registration for Faffcon 2 is up 30% over the first Faffcon. Here’s the full release:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Registration Up 30% for 2nd FaffCon Voiceover Unconference

(Los Angeles, CA January 31, 2011) With 4 weeks to go until FaffCon 2, registration for the unconference for working voice over artists has risen 30% over last September’s inaugural event. Participants from 19 states, the District of Columbia and Canada will be attending the February 25th-27th unconference to be held at the Westin Peachtree Plaza hotel in Atlanta, GA.

With a focus on performance, business and marketing, and technology, FaffCon follows a highly-interactive, peer-to-peer learning format. Previous session topics have included performance techniques, setting up and troubleshooting home recording studios, and finding new business.

Presenting sponsor Voicebank.net is once again on board. Voicebank’s VP Stewart Wilson-Turner says “one of the primary reasons Voicebank chose to partner with FaffCon was its demonstration of professionalism and genuine effort and desire to promote constructive dialogue amongst working voice over artists in the industry.”

One of FaffCon’s missions is to leave a positive footprint in each of its host cities by making a donation to a local communication-related non-profit. FaffCon’s organizer, voice over talent Amy Snively, selected Everybody Wins Atlanta as FaffCon 2’s charity partner. “As Voice Artists, literacy is extremely important to us,” Snively says. “Partnering with Everybody Wins Atlanta and their mission to get kids reading, and loving it, is a logical extension of that priority.” A portion of each FaffCon registration fee will be donated to EWA.

Space is still available for FaffCon 2: Electric Boogaloo with regular registration open until 1/31/11. There is limited availability for the Friday Fieldtrip, a VIP tour of the CNN Center and dinner at Max Lager’s with stand-up comic Mrs Hughes performing a live set. Dinner only tickets are also available.

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FaffCon is a participant driven peer to peer event for working Voice Over professionals. It is an open space unconference revolving around a dynamically generated agenda to share tips, generate ideas and have fun. Unconferences are an emerging way to meet fellow professionals to share ideas and problem solve with others in the trenches.

Launched in 1998 and recognized as the service that “put the voice over industry online”, Voicebank’s voice-over audition system is the most widely casting software on the Web. It is the primary casting and project management tool used by more than 1600 top Ad Agencies, Animation Houses & TV/Film Studios, Independent Producers, Production Facilities and Casting Directors (voice over & theatrical) around the World.

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Contact: Amy Snively, Event Producer
E: Info@FaffCon.com
Pam Tierney, Media Liaison
P: 773-883-9084
C: 312-636-3174
E: Pam@PamtierneyVO.com