I’m Leaving On A Jet Plane
Ok, after a very enjoyable time sheltering in place with my family during the pandemic, if you asked this working mom where the first place I’d be flying to would be, I would not have guessed Dallas, TX. So, why, when we can finally go anywhere, am I using my coveted Amex points to travel in style to Dallas (not that there is anything wrong with Dallas, but we can all agree it ain’t Paris.)? Well, J. Michael Collins and his mazing team are hosting the One Voice Conference USA and I am thrilled to be on two panels. My VO besties and I had been talking about planning a trip for a while, and it looks like this will be our fist chance to get to be in person together.
Why One Voice?
As a working mom, I have blogged before about what it take for me to choose to pack my bags and leave my family. Whether it’s for a booking, to meet an agent, or for a conference, I always have to way the and cons. In this case, the choice was much more simple than other. J. Michael has an amazing line up of speakers coming from all over. Not only did I want to participate and contribute as a speaker, but I have always felt that conferences are essential to understanding what is current in the voice over industry. If you want to understand what trends are booking right now, what is new in technology, what shifts are new in the business, this is THE place to be. Packing my bags for such a conference will be a joy. In fact, I already have my outfits planned!
Accountability Panel
If I could shout it from the roof tops, I would. I would not be where I am today without my VO Powerhouse as we call ourselves. My beloved accountability group includes me, Diana Birdsall, Kim Handysides, Michelle Blenker, and Shelley Avellino. In our panel called “Build a Badass VO Career With a Powerhouse Accountability Group,” we will help you consider why you need one and how to create one that will help your career the way our accountability group has helped ours. I don’t know where I would be without these amazing women who life me up, inspire me, and have helped me be my best self every day. Sitting on a conference panel with them is an honor and a dream come true and you can find us on Saturday, August 28th at 3:50 PM in Room 2.
Radio Imaging Panel
I am really excited to be a part of this amazing panel! First of all, to share a stage with Randy Thomas, Joe Cipriano, AJ McKay (who by the way did my main Radio Imaging demo), Brent Williams, and Scott Cartwright is like a dream come true. My path as a female radio imaging voice was different than most. I did not come to radio imaging from a career in radio. Rather, I learned about it from one of J. Michael Collins’ webinars and fell in love! Because of the energy and the vibe, this genre is perfect for me. I look forward to talking about the ups and downs of my journey and how I’ve worked hard to grow the radio imaging side of my business over the years. When I look at the other panelists, I know that my path into imaging was different than theirs. While I may not be as well-known or famous in the industry as they are, I believe I offer the perspective on how a regular professional voice talent can build an imaging career. This panel is Saturday, August 28th, at 5:30 in Room 1.
Demo Giveaway
As part of the joy of coming to One Voice USA, my demo partner Dave Scott ( of All Systems Go AV) and I really want to give something back to the voice over community. Dave and I will both be attending the conference in person, and we will give out postcards with the demo giveaway rules at One Voice. If you are a working, professional voice actor, and you take a picture with either one of us or both of us and post it on instagram and tag the conference and both of us, you will be eligible for a free video demo! It can be EITHER a commercial demo OR a narration demo, and it includes both a video version, an MP3 version, the planning session, and the necessary prep sessions! After a year in, we are very excited to meet more of the community and we thought this video demo giveaway is an awesome way to celebrate our coming back together!
I realized this year when my son had to do a rather grueling elimination diet that he hates when I say journey. Whether it is related to food, weight loss, his college search… it doesn’t matter. He hates if I say journey. I think it doesn’t resonate with him. He still thinks that where he is going, the end result, is the most important thing. As a mom of twins, I can say that I have learned I seldom end up where I thought I would. As a professional voice actor, I can say that this career path is for sure a journey and the opportunities that have unfolded since I started my career never cease to amaze me. The combination of passion and hard work seem to result in a delightful array of unexpected options, many of which I never anticipated. 
When I was in my mid 30s I decided to start my voice over business. I had to work with coaches all over the world to build my credentials. I needed tech training to learn to edit my audio. I had to build my studio. When I say I started then, I came to the industry with no experience. I never did school plays. I never did on-camera work. I took a leap of faith and invested in myself. I plunged in whole heartedly and the only option was to succeed. For six months before my business launched, I spent all day, every day, practicing and preparing. That is how my journey began. You might think that this was an easy choice? While my husband was extremely supportive, many in my family seemed to question my choices. Whether they outwardly remarked about my shift from a career in education to voice over or my snide remarks about how I could so easily “not use my degrees,” I understood the message. They questioned my choice to segue
When I began my business, I understood that it was just that: a business. As a working creative, I wear many hats: mom, voice actor, voice over coach, demo producer, but always business owner. Over the years I’ve had to think a lot about my practices and policies. I’ve had to think about how the business choices I make inform the relationships I’m building. As I had a liberal arts education that focuses on Political Science and History, I really knew very little about business when I launched. Even though I am surrounded by a family of lawyers, I did not want to constantly rely on others for guidance. I have taken multiple classes to bolster my business and marketing knowledge. This has been very fulfilling. I enjoy all on-going professional development, but my learning in this area has been very valuable. Whether from a class, a conference, or a webinar, I am proud of the confidence I have in my choices. I also try to read continually about business released topics. This part of my journey has been a true joy.
I will say, that as a working mom, I am extremely thankful to be in voice over. Even as I write this blog, my dogs are sitting on either side of me. Often, I am able to take breaks from recording to have snacks with my kids or go for walks. Some days I schedule my coaching so that I can go to pick them up from school, other days my husband does it. As a working mom, voice over seems like the perfect fit.
I also recommend having practical hooks in your book. I have a hook for my cans and a hook for my wires. It helps keep things neat and organized.
I also do love having Source Connect. So many clients and agents require it. I occasionally need to have support sessions, and they do offer great support from Source Connect. Again, like with Zancastr, there are no latency issues. There are, though, sometimes quirks connecting. Sometimes people are confused with how to use it. If you are not both connecting with the same sample rate, for example, you won’t connect smoothly and it will be an issue, so that all needs to be decided ahead of time.
I wish I know how important a good travel rig is. It took me five years to get my travel rig to sound as good as my home set up. That is WAY too long. If you are just starting in voice over during the pandemic, I realize it is hard to imagine actually packing up and leaving home, but when we do, the rig matters.
Let me share two experiences that happened in the past week. Last week, I heard from an Indie Video Game producer that I worked with in 2016. They were offering me the same role I played then. I had detailed notes in my CRM that they needed a discount as they were trying to launch the game with a kickstarter campaign. When I quoted them this time a normal, mid-range rate, they came back to me saying they were shocked that my rated had gone up. They went on to say that the five other talents had agreed to the rate they offered and they wanted to pay everyone the same. I referred them to the GVAA rate guide, which I will discuss later, and reminded them of the terms of 2016. They came up to my rate for me and for the other talents.
Imagine a scenario where we all just stopped negotiating. Let’s say a client offers $200 for two TV commercials with no mention of the length of usage, and instead of trying to negotiate, sort out the details, and explain why buy outs don’t work for us, we all just said “sure.” The implications would be staggering. The clients, then, would assume there is nothing wrong with this sweat shop pay, and would assume that our years of coaching and on-going professional development, that our expensive studio equipment, that the service we provide, that none of it has value, and that the can continue to lower and lower the rates. Where will it end? How low will they go? I shudder at the thought, and fear that if we are not willing to walk away, these bargain basement rates will become more and more common. You must know your worth and be willing to stand up for it.
For me, my journey started in the mid-1990s. I was a student at Columbia University in New York City. I was studying political science. My younger sister Julie also went to school at Columbia, and we went out to eat off campus often. If you know anything about New York, you know that lots of waiters and waitresses are also actors who have to pay the bills. Well my sister and I have always sounded young, but when we were young we really sounded young. We also had a habit of speaking in unison and saying the same thing at the same time. It became a pattern that we would got to places like Ocean Grill or Isabella’s and every single time our server would comment on our voices. It wouldn’t just happen there, it would happen at Bergdorf’s or wherever we shopped. It even happened in taxi cabs. Often the follow up to asking if we are twins, and we are not, is that we should be in voice over.
I remember the day clearly. It was winter during my sophomore year and I went to the famous Drama Book Shop in Times Square to research how to become a voice over actor. One of the perks of being a student in NYC is that all of this was right at my fingertips. I was able to learn so much just be talking to the people who worked at the book shop, and I left with some books and a copy of Variety in hand. What I quickly discovered was that while I was in the right city to pursue voice over, at that time everything happened in person. I would have to take my tape cassettes around, show up in person for auditions, and actually go to studios for gigs. Being a student at Columbia and doing VO seemed mutually exclusive at that moment. My studies were intense and they were my primary concern, so voice over was put on the back burner.
My chat with Marie gave me the impetus to get started in voice over. I began researching coaches, writing a business plan, and researching how to build a studio. In the coming months, I started to lay the foundations for my VO business. I began working with Anne Ganguzza, my first coach. I started planning for my VO website, and I started having my studio built. I also had tech training to learn how to record and edit. I also began taking advanced acting and improv classes at Papermill Playhouse, our local theater. Over the years I have worked with many coaches, many of the best in the industry. I continue to push and hone my skills, update my demos, attend conferences, and build. A voice over career does not happen over night. I am so thankful for the work that I have had, and I have big dreams for what is to come!