Archives for 2010

Julie and Julia cook up 5 voiceover tips

13 February 2010

Bonjour! You may think the movie Julie and Julia is only about Julia Child, Julie Powell, Paris, and cooking. While those are reasons enough to watch this excellent and highly enjoyable movie, you may be surprised to learn that the movie also contains 5 lessons that will benefit voiceover artists:

1) Neither Julia Child nor Julie Powell became cooks and writers simply to make money. Both answered an inner calling and pursued their passions. Both women also had additional income to support them when they started their endeavors.

Many people enter the voice-over industry under the mistaken belief that it is an easy way to make money. They view voice-over like a part-time job at a fast food restaurant, where they have no start-up or ongoing costs and need no particular skills in order to make money. Anyone could come in off the street, fill out an application, and begin work.

As I’ve written numerous times, voice-over is a business. I wouldn’t say it follows the 80/20 rule; it’s more like the 95/5 rule — 95% of your time is spent in activities to develop and enhance your delivery and interpretation skills, market your services, and build client relationships that will enable you to obtain the 5% of the jobs where you actually work as a voice talent.

2) Julie didn’t give up her day job. I know this item seems like take two of the same script. However, I added this tip to remind you that there’s no shame in having a day job. It can actually enable you to pursue your voiceover dreams.

3) When Julie compared herself to her friends, she felt small, insignificant, and depressed. I know of no quicker way to feel bad than to start comparing myself to other people. The cure for these spiraling negative thoughts is to take charge of your thoughts and words, which should inspire you to take positive action.

4) Both women created their own work. Did Julia Child wait for a restaurant manager to hire her to cook? Did Julie Powell wait for a magazine or book editor to hire her to write? Figure out the kinds of projects that you enjoy voicing and create them yourself. You can create your own commercials, movie trailers, audiobooks, or whatever you desire.

Whether you show the finished product to anyone or make any money from it is irrelevant. The point is to feed your passion and exercise your creativity on a regular basis. The more you do what you want to do and enjoy it, the more you become the person you want to be. Also, I’ve had a couple of occasions where I created something for my own enjoyment and skill practice. I loved the process and ended up using the finished piece as a demo from which I landed new clients.

5) Julie and Julie exemplify Thoreau’s famous quote. Henry David Thoreau wrote this gem, which is as true now as it was in his time:

If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams
and endeavors to live the life he has imagined,
he will meet with success unexpected in common hours.

To me, it means that the energy you put out in the world will come back to you in ways you didn’t imagine — and be better than you could ever dream possible!

May all your voiceover endeavors bring you joie de vivre!

6 ways to show you respect another person’s time

19 January 2010

Yet another person called me today because of a desire to get into voiceover. While I have always endeavored to provide assistance to people considering a voice-over career, several things about this exchange left me feeling more irritated than helpful. Therefore, I want to turn my negative thoughts into some tips to help others approach me and other voice talent in more respectful manner.

1) If you must leave someone a voice mail, tell them the purpose of your call in your message.

2) If you leave a message and must leave the phone immediately, state a good time to return the call.

Today’s caller left me a message saying she wanted to talk to me. I called her back a mere 13 minutes later and had to leave a message. In my message, I said she could send me an e-mail to cut down on phone tag. (Phone tag is a HUGE time-waster!) As Murphy could have predicted, I was unavailable when she called the second time. Again, she didn’t tell me the purpose of her call. I knew at that point she was either trying to sell me something or wanted to quiz me about becoming a voice talent.

3) Get on-line.

After I told her in my voice mail that she could send me an e-mail, she stated in her second voice mail to me that she didn’t really care for e-mail. Since the entire voiceover industry is increasingly on-line, you will quickly be left behind if you don’t want to communicate through e-mail. When people send me e-mail expressing interest in working in voiceover, I can respond at my leisure — requiring less time on my part — while also offering far more details and links to info than I could give to a prospective voice talent over the phone.

4) Do your own research.

Drew is now working for me in my voiceover business, so I asked him to call her back the second time. He also had to leave a message. (Did I mention that phone tag is a waste of time?) Once they finally were on the phone together, he spent 14 minutes patiently answering this newcomer’s various questions, like:

Since LA and NYC are the big spots for voice-over, can you do it anywhere else? What’s the market like in Atlanta? (Drew’s answer was the same as mine would be — are you currently working in voiceover, or are you looking to get started?)
Who’s a good agent? (I mentioned agents on my advice page on my web site. Basically, you need to have appropriate training, a well-produced demo, marketable skills, and probably a number of bookings before an agent will even listen to you.)
Can you make $50,000 a year? (Yes, but most people starting out don’t make that much.)
Is it possible to make $100,000? Did he know anyone who made that much in voiceover? (Yes, anything is possible. Your earnings are based on a wide number of factors, not the least of which is your audition ratio. A voice talent’s real jobs are auditioning and self-marketing to generate work and consequently income.)
What’s the phone number for Nancy Wolfson (after Drew said I had been studying with her)? How much does Nancy charge? (If you want to talk with Nancy or any other voiceover teacher, look them up and contact them personally.)

Drew referred the caller to my advice page, but she said it looked more like a blog. Obviously, she had not read that page, any of the 100 or so articles on my blog, or any other of the millions of pages on-line that could have answered the questions she was asking.

5) Request an informational interview.

If you want to have an informational interview with anyone currently doing a particular job, send a courteous request for an appointment that has a pre-defined amount of time of no more than 15 minutes. Calling a person and expecting them to take time from their busy schedule just to talk with you when it’s convenient for you shows a total disregard for their time and business. Don’t assume that the person you called can stop their current activity to talk to you.

6) Be prepared with questions.

When I talk to newcomers on the phone, I ask first if they have read my advice page and blog and then whether they have specific questions about the info that I have written. I have a business to run; I don’t have time to man the information desk.

A friend called as I was writing this entry. She summed up the underlying reason for my irritation over today’s events exceptionally well:

Do you want to make money, or do you want to earn it? People who want to make money are out to get rich quick through any means possible and using anyone they can. People who want to earn money are willing to undergo necessary training, proceed methodically, and persistently perform the necessary business aspects such as marketing and accounting to build a career.

A voiceover career definitely falls in the category where you earn money.

Repeat after me: I AM ENOUGH

14 January 2010

My blog is configured so that I moderate the comments. Otherwise, it would be overloaded with spam comments too ridiculous to repost here. As I was approving comments tonight, I saw this legitimate one attached to the entry titled A Plan to break into voice-over. Even though I usually don’t provide career advice on an individual basis, I felt inspired to answer this question as its own entry.

Hi Karen, I took Paul Armbruster’s Intro to Voiceover class, been through the various levels of classes with Della Cole and also produced a demo. I met with one agent who told me I needed to get rid of my NY State accent, so I sent to two different “accent reduction” coaches and am now at a standstill. I know I need to market myself but should I redo the entire demo or just have one produced with a couple commercials in my “neutral” voice? Your website and blogs are very informational. (BTW, I am now reading Secrets of Voice-Over Success…) Thanks again! D. J.

Several things came to mind as I read this question, and none of them is a short — or even direct — answer to the question. First, I can’t really answer the question about the demo since I haven’t heard it, don’t know how old it is, and don’t critique demos for other voice talent. In the post I just referenced, I concluded with these comments that definitely apply to D. J.’s situation:

“Much of your work in a voice-over career is going to be in managing the business aspects of the job, which starts with your good demo. I recommend that you consult only a few trusted advisors in whom you have confidence; otherwise, you can get too much input and spend too much time perfecting your demo and not enough time marketing it.”

Before asking about re-doing her demo, she wrote: I know I need to market myself but… Here again, I don’t know how much marketing she has actually done to know whether her current demo is effective. I refer her back to these entries for some ideas and questions to help her analyze her marketing plan and her demo promotion efforts:

Persistence will keep the voice-over dream alive

Persistence is especially needed in marketing

25 ways to get publicity and traffic to your web site

Need help in creating a marketing plan?

Last week, I read an article by C. J. Hayden, author of my favorite and most highly recommended marketing book GET CLIENTS NOW!, titled What’s the Missing Ingredient in Your Marketing? that also may be helpful to D. J. or anyone else struggling with their next step.

Reading between the lines of her message, though, I had a sense that D. J. might feel on some level that her efforts are in the category of “not good enough”. That’s the point that I really wanted to address today.

I actively listen to both radio and TV commercials, and I encourage you to do the same thing. I often hear commercials with females who have a speech pattern that I find especially irritating to hear. It’s that flat, back of the throat kind of sound with words ending on a higher pitch — it’s a dialect I call “upspeak”. It reminds me of California Valley Girls of the 80s, especially the way they pronounce words ending in -ER.

It seems that many women in the under-25 crowd have adopted this sound as their own. I suspect they are emulating someone they heard on a TV show because I hear that upspeak dialect even when in the mall or at restaurants. I felt that if I didn’t sound like those women, I couldn’t be marketable for national ads. Also, the majority call of national ads call for younger voices, so I could think that’s 2 strikes against me before I start.

The other big trend I hear is in the 25-35 year old age bracket. These women always seem to have that “crinkle” in their voice — that little trace of gravel on certain key words. I don’t know if it’s done intentionally to meet specs calling for “quirky” voices or these women speak that way all of the time.

Whether it’s the upspeak dialect or the quirky crinkle texture that a producer wants to hear, I would never book that job. I decided to embrace my own speech patterns after my coach Nancy Wolfson gave me these pearls of wisdom:

You have to trust that you are ENOUGH. After undergoing voiceover training, you deserve to be there — at the audition, in the session, on the finished product.
Don’t apologize for anything that you bring to the table.
If you have an agent who is sending scripts to you, your agent thinks you meet the specs.

If you’re concerned about an accent, you can do one of 2 things:

Work with a speech/dialect coach to reduce it
Embrace it

Option 1 is certainly viable, and you should be unashamed to pursue it. However, there’s also no shame in embracing an accent. In fact, you may be able to garner a lot of work in a regional market.

Training, a great demo, and a marketing plan will only take you so far. To achieve your voice-over dreams, you’ll need to set aside the self-doubt and know that you are ENOUGH!

Thanks to all of you who read my voiceover blog and write meaningful comments! I’m always pleased to find real comments from aspiring and professional voice talent sprinkled among the inane drivel like this, which is only posted to be a link to a site unrelated to voice-over:

A few days ago I found your blog and have been reading along quietly. I decided I could leave my opening comment. Im not sure exactly what to write except that Ive loved reading it. Nice site. I shall carry on coming back to this site now and again. I have also grabbed the RSS feed for updates.

Evolution of my web sites, commercial demo, and USPs

9 January 2010

Imagination is more important than knowledge.
For knowledge is limited,
whereas imagination embraces the entire world,
stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution.
— Albert Einstein

Web sites depict a small corner of one’s imagination, especially when branding yourself as a voice talent. As a voiceover artist and a person, I continue to evolve, gaining knowledge and skills to be of service to clients, family, and friends, as well as those who are interested in becoming voice actors. My web site and changes in my unique selling proposition (USP) reflect the progress in my evolution. I’m reviewing them here with you in hopes that this post will spark your imagination in your own evolution as a voice talent.

After starting my business in 1999, I quickly realized that a web site would be a necessary means of attracting clients. I designed and maintained the first version of my site. Yes, it is quite colorful, but at least I used a consistent font throughout my web site and on all of my printed materials.

Karen Commins’ voiceover web site version 1 (circa 2000-2005) — snapshot from 12/14/2002

As my voice-over business grew, so did the functionality and information that I wanted to include on my web site. I decided an upgrade was order but didn’t have the time to personally develop the site. However, its design was still a production of my imagination. When you rolled your mouse over the microphones next to each menu choice, a little ON AIR graphic appeared above the menu option.<

Note that I still use that graphic as the little, custom picture that appears on the address line in your web browser. This picture is generated from a file on my site named favicon.ico. The advantage of the favicon.ico is that it helps your site stand out among your clients’ many bookmarks. Creative Sound Concepts provides a good explanation of the favicon.ico and how you can create one for your site.

Karen Commins’ voiceover web site version 2 (circa 2005-2009) – snapshot from 10/18/2009

Like you, I’ve read all kinds of advice about not including a picture of a microphone on my web site. People in creative industries, especially in advertising, consider microphone pictures on voice talent web sites to be tacky and outdated. While I’m sure that’s true, no one ever said that they didn’t want to hire me because I had a microphone on my site. Of course, I don’t know whether it actually drove people away.

One thing that I do know is that you should choose your USP wisely. My original USP was STAR quality voiceovers performed within your budget! The good news is that this USP attracted clients. The bad news for me was that the USP generally attracted clients who were shopping for voice talent solely on the basis of price. As I wrote in a previous entry, I have so much to offer my clients that competing only on price is not an option.

When I moved to my second web site, I changed my USP as well. At times, I used the line on my site: People don’t have time to read. That’s why you need me.

However, a USP or tag really needs to be a short, memorable phrase. I later promoted myself with the tag Eloquent voice to enlighten and entertain. (I admit it; I love alliteration!) This tag took the focus off of price and emphasized something about my thought process and speech patterns, but does it really describe my voice? Probably not. Does the tag really need to describe my voice?

I thought about the answer to that question during intense coursework spanning over 2 years with my wonderful coach and branding expert Nancy Wolfson at BrainTracksAudio. I concentrated on learning to analyze patterns in advertising copy so that I could provide bookable and consistent interpretations. Through my lessons with Nancy and her delightful associate, acting coach Jeff Freeman, I also learned once again that other people don’t hear us or think of us the way we think of ourselves. My voice is only one part of me, and my branding efforts need to encompass the whole person.

Finally, I finished my coursework and was ready to create a new commercial demo. I stopped marketing my previous commercial demo in September 2007, so reaching this point was particularly exciting to me. On 10 April 2009, I was very excited to walk through the doors at Creative Sound Concepts here in Atlanta. Although I had talked with owner Spencer Herzog through the years, I had not had the opportunity to visit his fabulous studio or work with his great team. I was there in April to record my long-anticipated — and, might I add, AWESOME! — new commercial demo under Nancy’s direction.

Front door at Creative Sound Concepts, Atlanta — “Sound starts here and goes everywhere”

My commercial demo was produced by Rick Santizo at Santisound in Los Angeles. Bill Morrell was my gracious and very capable engineer in Atlanta.

As a technical side note, SourceConnect, rather than ISDN, was used to connect both studios. I had unplugged my ISDN line almost 2 years ago due to lack of use. I haven’t had any requests for SourceConnect other than in my demo session. However, I may acquire an account as it seems to be an affordable alternative to ISDN, and it is gaining a larger presence.

With my new demo in hand, the next step was to create an image that would match my voice, style, and personality. Nancy recommended that I work with the very talented Jason Sikes, graphic designer and owner of Village Green Studios in Los Angeles.

Nancy played my demo for Jason and discussed her views of my brand. Leaving my branding image to Nancy’s and Jason’s imaginations allowed these 2 creative geniuses to develop an amazing new image that represents me on multiple levels!

Karen Commins’ current voiceover web site — version 3 now on-line as of 10/18/2009

This new image is better than I could have imagined! I have not met Nancy or Jason in person, so I was thrilled that they proposed this image. Even more gratifying, some friends had the instant reaction of “Oh, that’s so YOU!” 🙂

In the last year, I’ve contracted my brand and web domains to my name. The best part of this entire process is that now my commercial demo, my web site, my printed materials, my slate on auditions, my salutations, and my USP work in conjunction with each other and allow me to fully promote myself with consistent branding elements:

My printed materials like note cards and business cards have the same luscious image. With this design, you know that I’m also planning postcard mailings!
I slate my auditions with “Greetings from Karen Commins”.
My salutations on e-mails, forum posts, cards and letters is “Greetings” rather than “hello”, “hi”, etc.
My USP is now A Vacation for Your Ears.

Being a professional voice talent means that I’m opposed to static, whether it’s on the airwaves or in my career. And Einstein was right — imagining something better in my branding efforts has always stimulated greater progress and my continual evolution, not to mention more clients!

Karen Commins

Award Winning

Atlanta Audiobook Share-rator™

Julie and Julia cook up 5 voiceover tips

6 ways to show you respect another person’s time

Repeat after me: I AM ENOUGH

Evolution of my web sites, commercial demo, and USPs