724-613-2749

bob@bobsouer.com

People

A high compliment

General, People

As I’ve previously written, the Office of Science and Technology of the Embassy of Austria in Washington, DC has hired me as narrator for their podcast called “bridges.” Vol. 9, the current release as of this writing, can be heard here.

One of the articles I narrated was written by Roger Pielke, Jr., an Associate Professor at the University of Colorado. Roger has posted a comment on a blog called Prometheus about his article. And in the comments below his post you’ll find a very kind comment (third one down) by Roger about my narration work. Thank you, Professor Pielke.

Share this post

It’s that time again

Career Advice, General, People

The 11th Annual International Radio Creative and Production Summit is coming August 18 and 19, 2006. It’s presented by Dan O’Day and features a stellar line-up of presenters, as it does every year. Sign up to attend before June 9, 2006 for the best deal. But, whatever you do, sign up.

And if you decide to attend, please say “hello” to me while you’re there. I’ve been every year since 1997. Look for the large guy in the long-sleeved white shirt and tie. That will be me.

Share this post

Voice-over success in any market, yes!

Blogging, Career Advice, People

In my last post on this subject a couple of days ago, I gave a thank you to my friend Charlie Glaize for pointing me to an article in a Utah newspaper about folks who are making a career of voice-over while living in that western State.

That post prompted a comment from Stephanie Ciccarelli of InteractiveVoices.com, which you’ll find in the comments section of that post, just below this one. Stephanie has also posted some thoughts about that article, which you can read on the InteractiveVoices.com blog here. Stephanie was nice enough to give me a “thank you” in her post, which I only just discoverd this moment while looking at her post.

Share this post

You can be successful in voice-over in any market

Career Advice, People

It really doesn’t matter where you live anymore. You can be successful in voice-over anywhere. Once upon a time, if you wanted to make a decent living in voice-over, you had to live in Los Angeles, New York City or Chicago. But, not any more. While ISDN made some difference for people, it’s really the Internet that has broken the game wide open.

From the pages of the Salt Lake City Weekly, here’s proof: A wonderful article about several voice-over talents who all live in Utah. The key paragrah…

…the Internet and digital-media technology…as they have done with so many aspects of modern life…changed the voice industry completely. The introduction of ISDN lines in the early 1990s allowed for the high-quality long-distance transmission of recorded voices; MP3 allowed digital voice files to be transmitted instantaneously. Agents created studios in their offices so their talent wouldn’t have to go to cattle calls, and some higher-level talent built their own home studios. It was only a short step to realizing that the “home” didn’t have to be in suburban Los Angeles. It could be literally anywhere in the world.

But, read the whole thing. It’s well worth it. And a big thank you to my friend Charlie Glaize for bringing this article to my attention.

Share this post

If you are just getting started

Career Advice, General, Getting started in Voiceover, People

If you are just getting started in the voice-over business, you will want to watch for the start of a contest sponsored and hosted by MineWurx Studio. I’ve written about Michael Minetree, the owner of MineWurx Studio previously, in a post title A Kick in the Pants.

As I write this, Michael is in the preparation stages of a contest that will be open only to folks who are just getting started in voice-over, or who’ve been trying for a while with no real success. You’ll find his blog post about the contest, here. Just look for the post(s) about the contest.

In the interests of full disclosure, you should know that Michael has asked me to be one of the contest judges. I’ve agreed to be one and in fact told him I’d be honored to do so.

Share this post

Awards, not

General, People

For years now, I’ve had the great pleasure to work with a number of very fine people who have won awards for their writing and/or production work, at one level of remove or another.

An example of someone a step or two of remove would be Blaine Parker, the Creative Services Director for Salem Los Angeles. (Here’s his Amazon profile. He doesn’t seem to have his own website.) He’s a Mercury Award winner from a few years ago, and for a few years he and I both worked for the same company, Salem Communications. While we never worked in the same building together, we did collaborate a few times via email.

More directly, I worked for a number of years with Darren Eliker, about whom I’ve written before a time or two (look through the archives around the middle of 2005). He was a Mercury Award finalist and has won numerous awards in Pittsburgh for his writing and production.

I work with Cliff Barrows just about every week on his radio program Hour of Decision. His most recent award was the Milestone Award given by the NRB for more than 50 years of continuous radio ministry. According to his official bio, he’s also in the Gospel Music Hall of Fame and the NRB Hall of Fame.

And also given an award for his production and writing work is Albert Swanson, who received an iNRB award for Best Radio Drama in February of 2006.

I’m sure the list goes on with other names that I can’t bring to mind at the moment. But, the point of this post is to give just this little bit of extra attention to these fine men with whom I work or have worked in the past. It’s an honor knowing you guys and an even greater honor to be numbered in your company.

Share this post

One way to get into radio

History, People

The year was 1979. In May, we purchased a townhome in Warrenville, IL (a suburb west of Chicago) from the Pulte Home Corporation. At the time I was working as Classical Records manager for the big Rose Records store at 214 South Wabash Avenue in Chicago’s Loop. (I’ve just learned in my web search for information about Rose, that they evidently sold the company to Tower Records some years ago.)

Through a series of serendipities, I was hired by the new Vice-president of Sales for Pulte to work as the Sales Manager for our sub-division. I went from having a 45 minute train ride to work every day, to having a 30 second walk across the street! What’s more, I was making more money than I had ever made. The job went pretty well. I sold nine houses between June and December of 1979. One of the m was to Frank Dawson and his wife Cindy.

Frank, Cindy and their two kids walked through the door of my office in the first model home. I greeted them, and invited them to walk through our three models and asked that they stop back in if they liked what they saw. The two kids (one boy and one girl, as I recall) took off through the door that led from my office into the first model. Cindy was right behind them. But Frank Dawson stopped just as he was walking through the door, turned and asked me the question that ended up changing the direction of my life.

“Have you ever worked in radio?”

“No, I’ve always been interested in it, but how do you get into radio?”

“Well, my name’s Frank Dawson, and I’m the program director of WKKD Radio over in Aurora and I’m looking for some part-time help. Why don’t you come by and audition?” He reached into his pocket and handed me his business card.

I thanked him and said maybe I would.

As I mentioned, Frank and Cindy bought a house from me, in fact they bought that model house we were standing in at the time of that conversation. Over the course of the following few months, Frank asked me a few more times if I would come audition to be one of his part-time announcers. I actually thought he was kidding at first, but after 5 or 6 times, I realized he was serious.

So, one morning in mid-November, I finally drove to the station and did the audition. It consisted of reading a few news stories, the weather, and a commercial script. He told me to read everything twice and to stop the reel-to-reel recorder when I was finished. So, I did and then walked down the hall to his office when I was done. He introduced me to Todd Beezley, the production manager of the station as I was leaving.

A few weeks later I was sitting in my office when Frank Dawson called me. He said that 7 people had auditioned for the job and five of them had previous radio experience. I was sure the next thing he was going to say was that he had picked one of them, but instead what he said was, “And the best of them was you.”

“You’re kidding!”

“Nope, you were the best. Can you come to the station Monday evening around 6 to start training? Dave Fischer will be here and he’ll show you what you need to know.”

I agreed to be there on Monday, hung up and sat in stunned amazement for a few minutes. I then called my wife to tell her what had happened. It was now the middle of December, 1979. If you’re old enough to remember that year, what happens next won’t come as a big surprise.
About two hours later, the VP of Sales walked into my office and sat down with a heavy sigh.

“Bob,” he said, “There’s a recession on. The president of the company has just been fired. I’ve been demoted to your job. And we have to let you go.”

Bang! That was the club God used to help me see that my life journey was now headed in a new direction. I would no longer be in Real Estate. Now, I was going into Radio and from there, as I’ve written previously, into voice-over.

That’s my story. What’s yours?

Share this post

A kick in the pants (updated)

Career Advice, People

I’ve written a number of times about my generally happy experiences with finding work through Voice123.com. A few months ago they added a blog to the services they make available, with posting priviledges for those of us who are premium members.
Since my blog is mainly about voice-over, I read the posts there from time to time and today came across an excellent, and lengthy post by Michael Minetree. I encourage you to read the whole thing, but here are a couple of highlights, that really gave me a kick in the pants.

All one has to do is watch the new season of American Idol to witness how people throw half hearted attempts at getting to the big leagues. At times all of us are guilty of it. I noticed a while back that I myself had gotten “a little lazy” in the audition process. After 10 years, you tend to develop a routine where by you do everything the same.

Whew! As I read those words I realized that I had certainly fallen into the habit of routinely doing my auditions the same way each time. In fact, I had been wondering to myself just a few days before why the response rates for my auditions via Voice123.com and Interactive Voices seemed to be falling off lately. Duh!

Auditioning is also one of those things we have to do in order to get any work, so after a while it becomes like taking out the trash. If we don’t do it no one will – and as long as no one is watching, we can let it pile up for a while. What happens after it sits there for a while? It starts to stink. Much the same way our auditions do after we begin to see them as a chore, or something “that is beneath us” because we have been doing this long enough and we know what we are doing.

I generally try to do every audition that comes my way as quickly as I can, so I don’t really let things pile up; but the point here about seeing auditions as a chore, again really hit me. Pat Fraley said in a seminar I attended last year that auditioning is the real work of the voice-over artist. (update: The actual sessions are just the times you get paid.) I have been allowing myself to forget this truth.
There’s a lot more from Michael, so like I said, read the whole thing.

Share this post

New class from Pat Fraley

Career Advice, General, People

I’ve written before about Pat Fraley and what a tremendous amount I’ve learned from him in the two classes I’ve taken from him in California over the last two years. And earlier today I received an email notice from Pat about a new class he’s teaching this winter called The Disney Way. It’s a master class on ADR and looping and if you have any interest in this kind of work, you should click through on this link and sign up for the class. It will be time and money well spent.

Share this post

A very good idea

Career Advice, History, People

I received a note today from a friend named Dick. Here are the salient comments:

Just wanted to let you know I’m starting to get a little business. Voice123.com has produced two projects so far, and I’ve done a corporate narration for GlaxoSmithKline. Also doing some pro bono radio spots for a local Christian school’s basketball team. I’ve been signed on to the roster of an audiobook publisher in England for when they need an American voice, but no actual work yet from them. They’ve said I should be seeing something early next year.

And my reply, picking up on a memory sparked by the “very good idea” I noticed in Dick’s comments:

The pro bono work is a good idea. There’s a young lady in Pittsburgh named Kelly who did some pro bono voice-overs for our station for about a year, just to gain some “real world” experience. She is now a busy and well paid female talent in Western Pennsylvania. The experience you’re gaining can only stand you in good stead going forward.

Yes, if you’re just getting started in voice-over work, and you can find a radio station that will help you gain real experience, that’s a very good idea. Indeed, were I in that situation today, I would listen to the various local radio stations and pick the one that’s doing the best local production and volunteer there.
Two reasons: because they almost certainly need more decently talented voices because of the amount of work they have to do and because the direction you get will more likely be the kind that you need. Gaining experience doing cheezy, crummy voice-overs is worse than no experience at all.

Share this post

What business are we in?

Career Advice, General, People

My eyes have been opened regarding the answer to this question. The occasion was a webminar hosted by Voice123.com. The presenter was Freddie Bell, a long time pro who not only is a voice-over talent and radio personality; but he’s worked in radio sales and station management as well.

Freddie’s notes and the audio of the webminar will eventually be posted here. What follows are my notes taken during the presentation, typing as quickly as I could, then going back and cleaning up the notes. I’m sure there’s much that I didn’t capture, but this is what stood out to me. (You’ll find the answer to the question posed in this post’s title near the end.)

—notes begin—

We begin with an important definition: Prospecting is the process of meeting people who will purchase our product.

Types of prospecting:

1. Cold canvassing – This method assumes that everyone is a prospect. And if you make enough contacts you’ll eventually reach good results. It’s very time consuming because there are lots of people who don’t need our services right now.

2. Internet (for example: Voice123.com) – This method provides a steady stream of non-qualified leads. It’s more targeted than cold calling. One advantage is the constant presence of the Internet. 24 hours a day, prospects can find me. Also, contacts can be instant. There are no geographical limits. And I get plenty of practice doing and delivering auditions.

3. Mailings – Direct mail is also effective, assuming we mail to select target markets. This may be one of the best ways to solicit an agent. Include a return card for replies. Use in conjunction with cold calls and Internet.

4. Referrals – This method is based on building relationships to so that we can leverage those relationships to find leads.

Ratios: what are my numbers.

1. Number of opportunities I create each day.
2. Number of appointments.
3. Number of auditions (may be the same as appointments)
4. Number of paying jobs booked.

Let’s look at some sample numbers. If I find 100 unqualified leads per month. Of those, I do 35 auditions. And of those, I book 1 sale per month, at a session rate of: $100. I will be making less than $3.00 per audition. Not a good ratio. However, if I double the number of auditions I do, that should should lead to double the results. (It takes 2 prospects to replace one sold client.)

Referral and Non-referral leads: Referral leads close twice as often as non-referral leads. So, to dramatically improve my business I need to look for more qualified or referred leads.

Here are ways I can increase my voice-over earnings:

1. Increase the number of non-qualified auditions.
2. Increase the value of the quotes, or the amount I bid for each audition.
3. Increase the number of referred, qualified leads.
4. Find more streams of income.
5. Or, spend more time on any or all of the above.

Referral prospecting. What do I use it for?

1. To find an agent.
2. To find business directly.
3. To find a producer.
4. To grow my business exponentially.

How? Let’s say I wanted to specialize in car commercials. I would pick a car dealer. I would then call and say something like: “Hi, I specialize in voice-overs for car dealers. Could I send you a demo of my work?” If the answer is “yes” then ask if they want an MP3 or a CD. If they say they work with an agency, ask for the name. Then ask if I can use his or her name as referral for why I’m calling the agency.

At that point, call the agency. Again, explain that I specialize in car commercials and ask if I can send a demo. Regardless of the answer, follow-up with a note to the person I spoke with at the agency. Also, follow-up with “thank you note” to referring person at the dealership.

Another idea: List everyone in businesses that I know. Call and ask for information about people who could use my services. Ask if it’s OK to use their name.
More: At the end of a live audition, ask for referrals. Send a note of thanks to agent for audition opportunity. Send a thank you note to the engineer/producer. [ed. note: I strongly agree with this suggestion. I’ve booked many sessions because I made friends with engineers over the years.]

To review, we’ve discussed several different methods of prospecting. Using just one method will lead to large gaps in my income. Use the prospecting methods with which I’m most comfortable, but use more than one.

The voice-over business is a sales business. I need to calculate my ratios, just like I would if I were in any other kind of sales work. Then find ways to improve the ratios that need work. Use a follow-up and tracking system.

80 percent of our time is spent looking for work in the early stages of our career. But that ratio gets better and we learn to prospect more effectively. Become proficient at various prospecting methods. (Mailings, which should include a response card, are one method of cold prospecting.)

—notes end—

Again, the presenter of this information was Freddie Bell. You can email him at: freddiebell@voiceunique.com or check out his web site at: www.voiceunique.com

Share this post

Passion

Career Advice, General, History, People

I ran into a friend today that I haven’t seen in years. His name is Kenny Marks. When I first met him in the mid-1980s, Kenny was an artist on the Word Records label. You can find chord information to a number of Kenny’s songs here.

But, this is a blog about voice-over; not Christian music. So, why mention running into Kenny? Because as we talked this afternoon, I was reminded afresh about one of my convictions: you have to be passionate about what you’re doing. Kenny isn’t a full-time musician signed to a record label these days. What he’s doing is good stuff, things that he enjoys and it stretches him in ways that his music didn’t. But, as we talked I could hear that he misses being a musician, a full-time musician. He even said so at one point, confirming my guess.

I had a similar conversation yesterday with another man. Years ago he worked “on the air” on radio. His career path has taken him away from that for a long time now, but it remains one of his abiding passions. He very much wishes he could still do a live radio show. For my part, I told him that from the time I first learned about production and voice-over work, I lost nearly all of my desire to be “on the air” live.

But, giving voice to someone’s story, either through the crafting of the words or even more through the telling of that story in a recording studio? This I love with a deep and abiding passion.

Share this post

Summit 2005, Day 2 cont.

General, People

Now that several more days have passed, I want to offer some further thoughts about the second day of this year’s Summit. The seminar with Pat Fraley was completely original, with virtually no overlap with the presentation from last year. Both the 2004 and the 2005 Summits are available through Dan O’Day’s online catalog. It took up the entire morning on Saturday.

Now, to the substance. One of my key observations is that it’s amazing how great minds parallel one another. For example, Pat talked about 3 key questions to use when examining copy. Those questions are:

1. What?
2. Who?
3. Where?

To flesh out those questions: (Much of the following is paraphrased and or quoted from Pat Fraley’s notebook handed out at the Summit.)

The first question is “What’s the story?” Pat said all other analysis of copy depends on clarifying the story. If we’re not clear about what the story is, we cannot clarify the story with any other skills. Nor can we make any performance choices.

The second question is “Who are the characters?” Who am I playing? Who are the other characters? Or, who am I speaking with or to? Background clues are sometimes included in notes with the copy and others are included in the copy itself.

The third question is “Where does the story take place?” In other words, what’s the scene or what’s the geography? The scene guides us toward a specific way of delivering lines.

Now, take a moment to look at this previous post and notice the remarkable convergence between Dick Orkin’s three questions and Pat Fraley’s three questions. (When you’re done reading that post, click the back button on your browser and continue from here.)

One comment made by Pat Fraley that I think is extremely important: warm and friendly is dead! Why so important? Because “warm and friendly” is my “default” read and I’ll bet maybe yours too. Or, if you’re a woman, “warm and sexy” which he didn’t say, but I suggest is just as dead. So, if you want to keep your voice-over career alive and moving forward, then it’s time to push yourself (myself!) out of the comfort zone and into something more intentional.

By the way, why is “warm and friendly” dead? Because, while at one time that sound meant “sincere” or “trust-worthy”, today it means “fake” and “insincere.” Really.

Share this post

Summit 2005, Day 2

General, People

It’s been a week now and I’m still trying to get my mind around everything I learned during this second day of the Summit. Mostly because of the 3 hour Super Session on Saturday morning, featuring Pat Fraley. If you don’t know who Pat Fraley is, read his bio; which gives you only a tiny glimpse of all that he’s done. You’ve heard his voice hundreds, more likely thousands of times in the last 25 years. You just didn’t know it.

What a remarkable experience it was learning from this guy who is one of the true masters of the art and craft of voice-over.

The single greatest contribution Pat made during his 3 hour session was through the tools he gave us to analyze copy. Not only how to read the copy and understand it; but how to make slight adjustments during the audition process, to stand out from the crowd and book more work.

I’ll come back and edit this post with more detail in the next few days, as I continue to absorb everything I learned and more importantly as I begin to incorporate what I learned into my own auditions. Meanwhile, let me close for the moment with this suggestion: Invest $25 and get yourself a copy of Pat Fraley’s book “The 9 Critical Skills to Voice Over Excellence”. It’s available in Pat’s online bookstore. And most likely, it will be the best $25 you spend this year, at least professionally.

Share this post

A painful lesson

History, People

One of my mentors taught me an important but painful lesson years ago. Armand remains a good friend today. He’s now the General Manager of WWCA in Gary, Indiana. When we met, it was while we were both working at a now defunct radio station in the Western Suburbs of Chicago, WKKD-FM.

Armand had been a Program Director and had worked in sales for several radio stations at the time I met him. He sized me up right away as someone who needed a lot of help. And he was very willing to share his knowledge and experience.

We worked together again a couple of years later at another now defunct suburban Chicago radio station, WCRM-FM, where he was the Sales Manager. I was working as Afternoon Drive jock and Production Manager and one day as I arrived for work, the General Manager called me in to his office to tell me that he was promoting me to Program Director. Whew!

Thankfully, Armand was there. He coached me through the next several months of baby steps as I learned how to lead a staff and oversee the programming of a station.

So, what was the painful lesson?

Armand is also a very talented voice-over guy. His voice is pitched a little higher than mine, but he understood years before I did that the “big announcer” thing was going away.

So one time, back when we lived in the Chicago area, Armand and I both auditioned for a voice-over job. A couple of days later, he called me very excited, because he got the job. My reaction? Oh, it was very mature. I believe my exact words were, “That’s the last time you’ll ever beat me.” That’s right. I might as well have stuck a knife in his back.

He was quiet for a moment, and then simply said, “I’m not so sure that’s true.” As soon as he said that, I realized how hurtful I had been. And more importantly, a moment later I realized that my arrogance might well have been part of the reason I didn’t get that job. I had just assumed that I was so good I didn’t really have to work hard on the audition.

I’m very grateful for all of Armand’s help years ago. And even more grateful for his enduring friendship (and patience with me) to this day.

Share this post

How to sound like a real person

Career Advice, People

I’ve written before about working to get out of the traditional ‘announcer’ mode and into something that sounds more like a real person.

Maybe you’ve smelled the coffee brewing and you’ve realized that the voice-over business is moving away from announcers. And the pace of that movement is growing with each month. And before long, you’re not going to get any decent paying work anymore. So, you want to start on this journey too.

Here are a few concrete suggestions, some of which I’ve done. Some of which I wish I had the time and/or money to do. But, all of which, I’m convinced, will help you. They are in no specific order.

1. Listen to people. Real people. When you’re in an airport, a bus depot, the grocery story, a restaurant. Listen. How do people really say things to one another. (We’re the weird ones, you know. The ones who actually pay attention to the commercials on the radio and TV. And if you mostly listen to commercials, especially radio commercials, all you’re going to do is make it harder for yourself.) Listen, especially, to situations where someone is telling a story. Maybe it’s about the ball game, or the dance, or getting plastered. The point isn’t the content of the story, it’s the way people speak when they’re telling stories. Especially telling stories to their friends.

2. After you’ve trained your ears for the way real people talk. They way they slur through certain words or sounds, but not others, that kind of thing. Then listen to yourself. Listen. Do you notice how ‘good’ you sound? Only, in this case, good isn’t really good. It’s fake. Phony. And it’s hurting your career. Identify what separates you from real people.

3. Take some acting or even better some improv classes. This is a site with some intruction on learning improv. Even better would be to take a class from someone who really knows his or her stuff. Like Pat Fraley. Or Susan Berkley.

No doubt there’s a lot more. I’ll add as I think of them.

Share this post

Mr. Alexander

History, People

One of my greatest influences was a quietly excellent radio man named Ken Alexander. He was the Operations Manager of the station once know as AM82 WAIT, Chicago. I had the great good fortune to work with Ken for two years in the early 1980s.

Ken was the man who taught me that witch and which are not pronounced the same. That diamond has 3 syllables. And a million other little details that have given a polish to my voice and speech that I could never have learned without someone like Ken to make it possible.

I wish I had some links to direct you to, but WAIT is no longer. Even the station where Ken went after WAIT (WNIB) is no longer. And Ken was such a self-effacing, humble man, he was almost invisible…unless you knew where to look. I’m so very grateful that I learned where to look.

Share this post

Never stop learning

Career Advice, History, People

The 2004 International Radio Creative and Production Summit in Los Angeles was notable for a couple of things. It was the first time that Dick Orkin officially didn’t co-present the event with Dan O’Day. And it was the first time no live critiques of attendees work were done, what had been known at the Critique-A-Spot-A-Thon.

However, in spite of these elements that were missing, there were several excellent reasons to attend. Not least was the workshop on creating characters and the voices that go with them, presented by Patrick Fraley. It was excellent, and I say this even though I don’t do cartoon/animation voices. (Not professionally, anyway. However, I have been known to come up with a few goofy voices for my children while reading them stories.)

Let me put my thoughts about Pat Fraley this way: If you get a chance to take a class from him, do it. He will be presented a completely different seminar at this year’s Summit. It will be worth the price of admission. I’m sure of it. You might even want to buy one of Pat’s books or CDs.

Share this post