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Everybody Comes to Vegas

June 30, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Sooner or later, I can count on getting a call from just about anybody saying they’re coming to Vegas.

This last weekend, there was a glut.

My friend Mark Johnson, News Anchor at the Boise NBC Affiliate KTVB had an all-expenses paid trip to Vegas to participate in the national finals of a karoake contest (he does Sinatra).  He didn’t make it past the first cut, but we had a fun time partying that evening at mydaughter’s college going-away party.

At the same time, Merlên Hoekstra called. I met Merlên when she was a volunteer at VOICE2008.  She attended VOICE2010 in a lesser role about a month ago, but wanted to make sure to look me up when she was in town.  Merlên lives in France, but has extensive worldly VO experience, including broadcasting in Japan.  She made a point to visit me at the TV station this week.

Just one day later, Randye Kaye sought out a lunch meeting with me.  She was in town with her husband, who I discovered was the brother of a friend I knew from church for many years.  Small world!  They live in Connecticut, and she works at Edge Studio as a coach, while pursuing a successful career in voice-acting in many different niches.

These face-to-face meetups are important.  We voiceactors maintain virtual liaisons with a wide spectrum of characters…and the natural curiosity is to (some day) sit across the table and share the same space over a meal or a game of dominos.  It doesn’t matter what the backdrop is…the important thing is conversation in the same airspace.

I am blessed by rich relationships with interesting people.  I hope I give to them at least as much as they return to me…

CourVO

Filed Under: Las Vegas, Meet-Ups Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Ettiket

June 30, 2010 By 1 Comment

…purposely misspelled in the spirit of texting.

For a while during my hour-long teleseminar on Social Media sponsored by Edge Studio June 22, 2010…I waxed eloquent on the suggested do’s and don’t's of social media…that is, if you want to get and keep friends and followers.  Otherwise, it doesn’t matter what you do.

The whole teleseminar, of course, was based on the supposition that you DO want to get and keep followers and “friends”.  Furthermore, extending your brand onto those social media platforms may even garner you some new clients.

These concepts are not new, but apparently — with a teleseminar attended by the maximum allowable 100 listeners — a good many voice actors have a hunger for learning more about social media tools.

I set up my trusty FLIP video cam to record some of my end of the call, and the clip is below.  Mind you, I took NONE of my own advice for how to set up a good shot, as stated in my helpful website: OnCamTips…so forgive the terrible angle, and the news map of Las Vegas in the background.

To hear the full hour’s teleseminar session click HERE, and scroll down to the subheading ‘Marketing’.

Also, visit SocialMediaVO to see a more complete resource on leveraging New Media for your voiceover business.

CourVO

Filed Under: Social Media/Networking, Social/Professional Networking, SociaMediaVO, Teleseminar Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Just a Coupla Quick…

June 29, 2010 By Leave a Comment

….links to stuff I’m finding.

First, Edge Studio posted the audio of my teleseminar with them about a week ago on the topic of Using Social Media for Your VoiceOver Business.

Click HERE….then scroll down to the Marketing section.  It should be the top link under that heading.

Also, as you’ll find if you’ve visited the SocialMediaVO.com site at all…I’m a big fan of SocialMediaToday.com.  They consistently publish some good material for staying on top of social media trends.

I love this one:  TOP TEN WAYS SOCIAL MEDIA IS TEACHING US TO BE HUMAN AGAIN.  Good reading…and all true, especially when building the your brand on social media for your VO business.

CourVO

Filed Under: Social/Professional Networking, SociaMediaVO Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Halfway There

June 28, 2010 By Leave a Comment

A number of giant projects overshadowed most everything I tried to do since the beginning of 2010.

Now both are passed, and I’d like for my regular life (ha!) to get back to normal thank you very much!

One of the events was the presentation Terry Daniel and I did at VOICE2010 on using Social Media to benefit your Voice Over business.  The other was a personal project in building a half-hour video of my recent HS graduate daughter, chronicling her life up to now.  That was actually the bigger task.  Just try reviewing 30 or more 2-hour home videotapes for the gems that DO exist in the footage, and patching them all into one engaging attention-keeping presentation.  LABOR-INTENSIVE!

There IS  a third task ahead…my own HS class 40th reunion (yes, I’m that old)….but helping to plan that has been a joy.

In the midst, I’ve neglected or postponed a number of tasks to grow my VO business that now need dusting-off:
1- revamp the demo website
2- develop the SocialMediaVO.com site to its full potential
3-hunker down to a more regular full-time auditioning process
4-take advantage of a new VO record-keeping process
5-send out invoices of jobs as-yet unpaid
6-build a consolidated opt-in list of VO peers for regular a newsletter
7-plan to travel to Faffcon
8-rip through a long-neglected to-do list of scores neglected duties

It all goes back to that old German proverb I blogged about once: “…rast ich, so rost ich…” IF I REST, I RUST.  Everything about life is changing.  I must too…or be lost to it, and lost IN it.   Living up to such a motto takes a lot of energy.  I’m up to the task….luckily, I’m a high-output worker.

So, what’s going on with YOU and YOUR VoiceOver business mid-year?  How’s the New Year’s Resolution list looking right about now?  Are you taking a long view from time-to-time?   Pull your head out of the P2P auditioning sand for a day, and ask yourself what’s IMPORTANT instead of URGENT.

CourVO

Filed Under: Op/Ed Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Setting VO Rates…

June 24, 2010 By Leave a Comment

….is more than just a quandary, it’s actually a group forum over on LinkedIn.

Lately, there’s been some lively discussion about pricing long-format narrations (with some side-notes about how the industry is in the throes of trying to decide how much it wants to pay).

You can find the discussion HERE if you are a LinkedIn member.  If not, you should be. It’s one of the “Big 4″ social media sites, and it’s free.

Also, my partner in Social Media ventures — Terry Daniel – has posted a new YouTube video about FOURSQUARE.  Terry thinks FourSquare is the best thing since graham crackers, and talks about it in his video on SocialMediaVO.com.

I’ll have some video of my Social Media teleseminar with Edge Studio — recorded on my FLIP  during the session — in the next blog.

CourVO

Filed Under: Compensation, Pricing, Social/Professional Networking, SociaMediaVO Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Getting the Edge

June 23, 2010 By 2 Comments

Last night’s teleseminar with Edge Studio’s “Talk With A Pro” series was packed: the full allowable 100 callers.  And here’s the funny part:  I was the ‘expert’!!!  It’s hard for me to get comfortable with that moniker…partly because I make fun of the ‘expert’ title as an over-used, undefinable, and inflated handle that so many in social media claim.

But apparently there IS something to show for the countless hours I’ve spent online.

The callers could be loosely herded into 3 categories from what I could tell by the questions (IMHO):

1)  Those who are neophytes and have yet to understand the value to their VO business of using Social Media site.
2)  Those who have launched their profiles and accounts with social media sites, and wonder:  ”Now what?”
3)  Those who have launched their profiles and accounts with social media sites, and say: “So what?”

For category one, I say:  Social Media is a FREE marketing tool that will help raise awareness of your brand online.

For categories two and three, I say:  ”Be yourself”…nothing more…nothing less.  It’s easy, ’cause — after all — you’re you.  And most of you are decent, hard-working people who aspire to excellence in your craft, and honorable relations with your clients.  Relate to people on FaceBook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc., as your genuine self — remarking on other’s posts, paying forward helpful tips, and building your strengths — and you will find success on Social Media sites over time.

I could go on and on with do’s and don’ts, trends, methods, and “best practices”, but it boils down to being interactive and social.  Those of you who are not particularly social, well…these sites allow you to fake it better than if you were in person at the water cooler engaging in awkward shoe-shuffling conversations.

A complete audio copy of the session can be found — probably sometime late Thursday or early Friday — on the Edge Studio website HERE.

For those of you who were on the call…thanks for being good listeners and supportive.

Let me know if I can be of further help in any way.  Don’t hesitate to visit the site http://www.SocialMediaVO.com for further information.

CourVO

Filed Under: Social/Professional Networking, SociaMediaVO, Teleseminar Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Talk With A Pro

June 21, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Edge Studio, a New York city-based VO studio and training faclity is inviting me onto their popular “Talk With A Pro” webinar series Tuesday evening, June 22, 2010.  The call starts at 9pm EST / 6pm PST.

The hour-long call-in session is free, and is reserved to the first 100 callers.

Our topic will be Social Media, and how it can work towards building your VO business.  Yes, you will see some of the same points Terry Daniel and I shared in our VOICE2010 presentation, but this mostly Q & A session will be more tailored to the concerns YOU have…as we dig a little deeper into the concepts and tools for taking

advantage of Social Networking for VO.

To see more about Edge Studio’s Talk With A Pro series, and find out how to participate in the call, click HERE.

Also, look for more changes to the SocialMediaVO web resource site in advance of this webinar, and in the days and weeks to come.

CourVO

Filed Under: Social/Professional Networking, SociaMediaVO, Teleseminar Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Easy Calc

June 21, 2010 By 1 Comment

We gripe about the chunk they take out for the convenience of safe, instant payment…but PayPal is almost a de-facto standard for quick online payment from VO clients.

PayPal is now charging the same for all accounts. The formula is 2.9% + .30USD.  So sending or receiving $100 is gonna cost the sender or the receiver $3.20.

Make it easy.  Visit THIS site for an unbelievably convenient and quick calculation of ANY PayPal transaction amount.

Also, THIS is PayPal’s ‘help’ page explaining their fee structure.

I usually ask the client to pay that handling fee, and almost without exception or complaint, I get compliance.

CourVO

Filed Under: Compensation Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Defining Disintermediation

June 19, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Wait, before we define it…or even say it, let’s dissect it.

Dis=the negative of
inter=between, among
mediation=to affect an agreement

So, no go-betweens, making agreements, basically.

This is not a word I created. But I like it. I came across it in an article by Mark Dundas Wood, whereby he describes a phenomenon happening in the voiceover world today.

I think he’s right.  Unions and agents are being disintermediated by V123, Voices.com, Bodalgo, VOPlanet….yada, yada, yada.  It’s a paradigm shift.

Oddly enough, Wood uses the word almost as an aside in describing the encroaching need for technological savvy to be able to compete in this new world of voiceovers.

But you already knew that, right?

Nonetheless, it’s a pretty good read on the BACKSTAGE website.

HERE’s the link to the article.  You have to scroll about halfway down to the sub-heading “Sound Advice” to get to the part about voice-overs…although the rest of  the article is good reading too.

BTW, the BACKSTAGE.com site has a VoiceOver Advice page that ain’t half-bad, really.  CLICK HERE.

CourVO

Filed Under: Acting Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

A Sublime Predicament

June 18, 2010 By 2 Comments

For months, I’ve been working to be paperless.  I’m almost there.  So much so, that routines and devices I used years ago, I now view as somewhat quaint (daytimers, notepads, and Palm Pilots).

I confess a weakness for fountain pens, so I’ll never be entirely free, but for the most part I think my efforts have been fruitful and timesaving.

However, I could use your help.  While I keep my business finance records with Intuit’s QuickBooks,  maintain a chronology of jobs and contacts more or less through e-mail, and categorize my completed jobs in a subdirectory structure on my hard drive,  I’ve yet to find a quick non-paper method for keeping track of the following:

–pending jobs (date when the deal is consummated)
–jobs in process  (with its associated deadline)
–completed jobs ( and when completed)
–sufficient details of the job to finish an invoice the client will recognize (using their nomenclature)
–date of invoice sent
–date of payment received
–associated contact details would be nice

I’ve fiddled around with “Time & Chaos” and MS Outlook…but nothing seems to hit the mark.

Anybody?

CourVO

Filed Under: Business-end-of-things Tagged With: , , , , , , ,
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