I hope that’s not your goal when you’re in a social situation. But as Karen Commins points out in a blog post here, it’s actually pretty easy to do.
Along with her story, she makes some sage observations that you might want to remember. Read the whole thing.
General
Remarkably unremarkable, and that’s a good thing!
A little earlier today I was thinking back on some of the lessons I learned at the 11th International Radio Creative and Production Summit in August of 2006. (Search on the word summit here and you’ll find my reports not only from 2006, but also 2005; and references to experiences from earlier years.)
Anyway, I realized that I hadn’t given sufficient thought to some things I learned from Harlan Hogan in his session. This relates to Harlan’s fundamental approach to the business part of this voiceover business. He said…
Keep your current clients, expand the work from those clients and get new clients.
Simple, isn’t it? Actually doing these three simple things, that’s what separates the professionals from the pretenders.
And while I’m writing about Harlan, check out this interesting article about him. It’s well worth your time. (And while you’re at his site, check out the other interviews and articles about Harlan, here.
One, actually two more things. I have and high recommend both of these books from Harlan Hogan. The Voice Actor’s Guide to Home Recording
Insights from an imaging lady
Jennifer Vaughn is a top flight voiceover talent, especially in the field of television and radio station imaging. She’s also the feature of an interview that Ryan’s done over at the Voicemarketer.com blog. Check it out here.
In the most unlikely of places
If you keep your eyes and ears open and your mind active, you can find lessons for your voiceover career in all kinds of places. Karen Commins, for instance, was on vacation in Egypt recently. The day she and her husand spent at the Great Pyramids turned out to be full of lessons, as she relates brilliantly in this post at her blog.
Here are a couple of key points.
In this setting of vendors barking their prices at us as we passed them, my marketing mind couldn’t help but think: How does a person selling a product that is the same or similar to his competitors distinguish himself in a saturated marketplace?
Karen has 10 observations in response to that question. Every one is well worth your time, but I want to be sure to highlight observation #3…
If you give away something for free, you can’t have any expectation of getting anything in return.
And observation #6…
Just because everybody else in your sandbox is charging low prices and negotiating price cuts with every new prospect doesn’t mean that you have to follow the trend.
As I said, it’s an excellent article. Read the whole thing.
And my thanks to Mary for reminding me to look at Karen’s post again.
Dangerous Dreamers
John Cassidy-Rice offers some stirring words about dreamers and when they are dangerous is this excellent post on the American Small Business blog. My conviction is that, to be a success in the voiceover business, you must be at least somewhat of a dangerous dreamer.
What do you think? I’d love to read your comments.
The Year of the Apology
One of the blogs I visit on a fairly regular basis, that has nothing directly to do with voiceover work, is The Nice Blog. It’s a blog presented by the folks who wrote the remarkable book The Power of Nice
I mention all of this because the post today has much to say about what being nice really means, and what it doesn’t mean. Which is important, because I firmly believe that being nice is the best way to live.
Read the whole thing. You’ll be glad you took the time.
He’s fond of penguins
That’s just one of the things you’ll learn about Chris Flockton, in this interview with the actor and voiceover artist at ActorsLife.com. With thanks to my friend, Joe Rodriguez again for pointing out this interview on the VO-BB.
There’s so much to learn
The great Daws Butler has left behind many wonderful voices and characters, including Yogi Bear, Huckleberry Hound, Quick Draw McGraw, Snagglepuss, Wally Gator and many, many more.
You can hear him at work here, (though you’ll need to register for a free PRX account to do so.)
My thanks to my friend Joe Rodriguez for letting me know about this online service and this specific release on the VO-BB.
More excellence on display
I’ve interviewed Mary C. McKitrick and I’ve written here a few other other times about Mary’s great work ethic and how seriously she takes the process of marketing herself and her voiceover services.
Now, thanks to her latest blog post, you can see for yourself. As I told Mary in a comment, I think the most important line of her entire post is this one…
I would absolutely love to be able to write a newsletter, click Send, and be done with it. That would certainly be easiest for me.
But, staying in contact with your clients and potential clients isn’t about what’s “easiest for me.” It’s about what those clients and potential clients prefer. And there’s evidence to support the email rather than newsletter approach. For example, one of Mary’s clients who writes and distributes a newsletter was in need of some voiceover work. He told Mary…
…that he appreciated my regular emails and that I was the first person he thought of when he needed female voice talent. I had first written to him at the end of March 2006, and his first response was 6 December, with a work proposal.
The title of Mary’s post is “How do you stay in touch?” What ever methods you use, finding work is always going to be a substantial part of your professional efforts. If you don’t put effort into marketing yourself, you won’t be doing voiceovers for a living very long.
Don’t believe me? Try it and see.
Excellent thoughts about excellence
Karen Commins is a talented lady who lives and does her voiceover work from her studio near Atlanta, Georgia. (Listen to her demos here. You’ll see what I mean. Talented.)
Recently Karen posted some thoughts on her blog about providing excellent service to our voiceover clients that really resonates with my own point of view.
I strive to ensure that every client is totally delighted with the work I perform.
Like Karen, I want to leave every client completely delighted with my work. And as she points out, sometimes that’s more difficult than others…
Delays are an inescapable fact of life. Have you thought about safeguards so that you don’t cause a delay?
Your contingency planning for delays and other unavoidable problems can be your saving grace in the eyes of your client.
What will you do if your Internet connection suddenly goes down, and you can’t deliver your recordings when you promised? Do you have some sort of back-up delivery method?
These are really important questions. I have two back-up plans for delivery, and two back-ups for those back-ups. If you haven’t thought about the answers to these questions, I hope you will. (I’ve had to use one of my back-up plans twice in the last year.)
Another question Karen asks is…
What do you do when a client contacts you and needs a recording that you can’t produce in the time allotted because you are ill, on vacation or swamped with other projects?
About 3 months ago, I was the recipient of a job for exactly this reason. A good friend was so busy he couldn’t take a specific job. The friend recommend the producer contact me. I did the job. The producer was happy with my work. Everyone wins. And you can be sure that friend is at the top of my list of people to recommend if the situation is ever reversed.
I commend Karen’s entire article to you. It’s well worth your time to read. It’s even more worth your time to formulate answers to her questions, and even to try to come up with a few more of your own.
If Brian recommends her…
Insights from the voice of Bart Simpson
With thanks to my friend Joe Rodriguez, click here for a terrific interview with Nancy Cartwright.
It’s not too late to get involved
A couple of days ago I noted Dave Christi’s request for volunteer voiceovers for a Public Service Announcement he was creating for a charity called VoicesForAChange.org. It’s not too late to get involved. More importantly, it’s not too late to sign up to donate your services going forward. I’ve already done so. I encourage you to do the same. You’ll find a link on how to sign up at VoicesForAChange.org.
Google Audio Ads
Kudos to my friend Brian Haymond for getting some international press on the ZDNet web site. Brian was interviewed as part of an article about the new Google Audio Ad marketplace by Donna Bogatin.
Like Brian, I’ve applied to be one of the Ad Creation Specialists. I figured I might as well since I’ve spent many years writing, voicing and producing radio commercials both locally and nationally. I have no idea if I’ll make it past the first round, but it will be interesting to see how it goes. I’ll update this post when I learn more.
Meanwhile, good for you, Brian!
The new podcast is online
One of my favorite, on-going voiceover projects is the podcast edition each quarter of the “bridges” newsletter from the Office of Science and Technology at the Embassy of Austria. Science has been an interest from my youth, so it’s a delight to record the articles and stories for each edition.
You’ll find the current edition, Vol. 12, of “bridges” here. And you can listen to the podcasts either through the links with each individual article, or all collected on one page, here.
Contest winner (updated)
I’m a few days late and no doubt at least a few dollars short with this post, but congratulations are in order to Pamela C., the winner of the Minewurx Project voiceover contest. You’ll find details on Mike’s Studio Echos site here.
Good for you, Pamela. I wish you much success.
Update: There’s more information about Pamela on the Minewurx Echos page here. And Pamela has begun blogging about her experiences here.
Don’t sweat the small stuff?
While this post at the American Small Business blog isn’t about voiceover, I think there’s a vitally important point to be drawn from it.
It’s extremely easy to imagine that little things aren’t important. Yet, as Jane’s post makes clear, often it’s the little things that influence how other people perceive us. And those perceptions have a powerful influence on whether or not we’re hired again.
My goal with every voiceover session I do is to leave my client deliriously happy with my work. No doubt, I miss that mark much of the time; but it’s still my goal. And as evidence that I don’t always miss the mark, a fair amount of the time, when someone casts me once they do so again.
For example, the very first real voiceover client I ever booked in 1983, still casts me for voiceover work. In that particular case, their business model has changed in the last 10 years, so we don’t do as much work together as we once did. But, I still get work from them every year. Several other clients go back more than 10 years as well. And I’m deeply grateful to every one of them. Of course, I’m equally grateful for even the newest clients.
Hopefully, every one receives the same level of care and attention and passion. That is always my aim. So, how are you “sweating the small stuff?” I’d love to read your comments.
The playground just got a lot bigger
My friend Brian Haymond believes (rightly so, I think) that with the advent of Google Audio Ads, the world of voiceover and audio production just got a lot bigger. Because suddenly there are a bunch of advertisers who need audio production and voiceovers, many of them for the very first time.
Brian offers some good words for both voiceover talent and for advertisers on his blog, here.
And, if Brian’s not the voice you’re looking for, you can hear my demos with the flash players on the upper right side of this blog. Or there are dozens of links to male and female talents over on the left.
Jack London as Voiceover Talent (updated)
Take a few minutes and read the story at the top of this thread at the Voiceover Bulletin Board. Enjoy the latest fruit from the mind of Philip Banks!
Update: And while you’re there, be sure to download the amazing audio piece done by Travis in the second post of the thread. Wow! There are some mighty talented people who hang out at the VO-BB.
Why do a voiceover for free? (updated)
Because it’s for a good cause. Which is exactly what I’ve done today. And if you do voiceovers, at whatever level, I encourage you to do the same. Check out VoicesForAChange.org.
My thanks to my friend Dave Christi for letting me know about this opportunity.
Update: Stephanie at Vox Daily, the voiceover blog of Voices.com, as interviewed Dave Christi about this project. You can read the interview and learn more about what, how and why Dave is starting this service, here.
And by the way, it’s not too late to volunteer your services, either for a second (or third) version of the PSA that’s started this whole thing or for this project as a whole. Click through to VoicesForAChange.org.