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voice over industry

Talking Voice Over with Randy Thomas

February 17, 2022 by Laura Schreiber

Chatting with Voice Over Industry Icon Randy Thomas

Randy Thomas, Laura Schreiber, and Diana Birdsall as we chat on Clubhouse!
Randy Thomas, Laura Schreiber, and Diana Birdsall as we chat on Clubhouse!

Yesterday we had Randy Thomas in our Clubhouse room “Ask the VO Coaches.” If you have ever been in our Clubhouse, then you know that the vibe of the chat was different with Randy. Everyone was extremely excited to have her there. Randy has a body of work like no one else in voice over. She books across genres including Radio Imaging, Promo, and Live Announce and the list goes on. From the Oscars to the Tony’s to GMA, everyone has heard Randy. Despite her celebrity, Randy remains kind and humble. Always dedicated to helping those around her in voice over, Randy spent an hour with us!

 

How Randy Segued From Radio To VO

Randy worked in radio for many years. Starting as a teen at a station in Detroit, she loved it. As a DJ, she went from MI to NY to Dallas to Miami. Randy said she thought radio was everything and she’d do it forever. While she was at the Miami station, they gave her copy to read. That was when everything changed. Randy became the first female ever to announce for the Oscars.
 

Live Announce Vs Other Genres

Next, Diana Birdsall and I asked Randy how Live Announce reads are different. She said when she reads for the Oscars she reads it big, with confidence! It’s not about being loud, it’s about the tone and the vibe that you project. Over the years, Randy says she has mellowed. We asked Randy how different shows get different reads. Her instincts come into play a lot. For example, the Tony’s are way more compact. When in the Director’s Guild Awards she feels like she is in “rarified air” and gives a special, hipper read.
 
Randy's health tipsLike with other genres of voice over, actors have to make a choice. Directors give input and Randy works with that. Randy shared an anecdote about her late, great friend Chris Corley. Chris is well-known for being the voice of the MLB network, movie trailers, imaging, and more. Anyway, once auditioned. He was cast in this role. Once hired, they told him his read was not what they wanted. But, he was so committed and they loved that commitment to the read. The choices we make when we read and the characters we choose matter so much across genres.
 
Another interesting aspect to Live Announce is the scarcity. So, no matter how talented a voice over artist is in this genre, there are simply not enough gigs. This is why brancing out into other genres becomes necessary.
 

Being the First Woman to Announce the Nightly News

I confess I was beyond excited to talk to Randy about this. Only Randy not only has such a good opportunity, but her opportunities have been unique. As the first woman announcer for Prime Time, Randy broke this glass ceiling. We asked her why it took so long? Randy said men were making decisions. They went with what they new. When she got the opportunity to host the Oscars, she did not think about being first, she was thrilled. Randy’s work as the voice of news shows like GMA and Prime Time is important. She is changing perceptions about women and where we fit in the workforce.
 

Having Top Agency Representation and Its Implications

Atlas Talent represents Randy and all her bookings go through Atlas. Randy shares that 95% of her work comes from Atlas, and she has a few relationships of her own. We asked Randy about the impact of top representation. Having always coveted it myself, I was curious for her perspective. Randy shared she thought it is possible to still go after certain genres without such an agent. In my experience, having various regional agents I am very thankful for, there are limits. Promos, TV Affiliate, and Radio Imaging seem to be under the lock and key of the top tier agencies. As some one with lots of agents, that work just does not come my way and I sure wish it did.
 
Randy also talked about being a union talent. She talked about how much being part of the union means to her. The union scale jobs have been great for her career.
 

Exciting Clubhouse Announcements

Finally, we had big announcements! VO Master is coming back in 2022! Randy shared they are back in force this year. Rachel Wohel, Randy’s daughter and fellow VO actor, Joined us. They divulged several upcoming events.
 
First, they present “Marketing to Local Businesses to Become ‘The voice of your town’” with Tom Aglio. That’s this Saturday, Feb 19th from 9:30-11:30 am PST.
 
Next, they offer “The Anatomy of a News Promo: Work With ABC News Producer Yoni Mintz” on March 7th from 5-7 PM PST.
 
Lastly, for the first time ever, they are doing casting on Clubhouse! They will be casting for a dystopian poem, “Drums of Grace” by Michael Rothenberg. Randy and Dennis Kleinman have already co-narrated it. This will be a condensed version written by Cherise Alexander. They will be casting for this live reading soon, so don’t miss your opportunity!
 

Filed Under: agents, Coaching, Uncategorized, Voiceover Tagged With: Ask the VO Coaches, Atlas Talent, Clubhouse, Diana Birdsall, Genres of VO, Live Announce, living legend, nightly News, Rachel Wohl, raising glass ceiling, Randy Thomas, the Oscars, VO Mastery, voice over, voice over coach, voice over industry, voiceover

Be Careful Who Represents You In VO

January 24, 2021 by Laura Schreiber

Common Beliefs or Misconceptions in Voice Over

Screwing Up is Part of SuccessWhen I started in voice over years ago, I remember thinking that when I had an agent I will have “made it.” I remember Screwing Up is Part of Success”one of my coaches telling me that she worked for five years before she had her first agent, so that I could align my expectations. At that point, I did not even know about managers. I was lucky, I was able to get on quite a few agents rosters pretty early in my voiceover career. As a working professional, I would hear a lot of chatter on social media about various agents and managers and how to get signed, as if somehow getting on the roster would lead to the ultimate success.

While I understood early on that being represented by these wonderful regional agents meant that I had more opportunities available to audition for, I was in no way guaranteed success. I did not understand that having a manager was not the same thing. I had hoped, quite naively, that as the manager took both a monthly retainer and a percentage of booked work, they would work harder to make deals happen. Boy, was I wrong. More than a year after I severed ties with my manager, I am still undoing the damage that was done. Here is just a glimpse of the reality of what choosing the wrong person to represent you can end up like.

The Email…

Like most successful female voice talents, I do a lot of direct emails. One of the groups of people I target are radio station managers and program directors to grow my radio imaging business. This week I reached out to a station manager again who had wanted to sign me for a monthly retainer in 2019. In 2019 “Mike” called me. We chatted and he was ready to move forward. I handed him off to my manager and never heard from him again. This week, in response to my friendly email check in, I received this message:

Hi Laura,

Sorry, I did not. Last year when I was interested in working with you, I was told that our station was not big enough for your services. That’s why I have not followed up.

This email got me very upset for several reasons. First, I was ready to move forward, my manager who was supposed to represent me, acted in a way that did not represent me. Next, I lost this station which would have been a monthly retainer. Third, this was not only a loss of revenue, it reflected badly on my business and my brand. Fourth, and perhaps most upsetting, this was one of six stations in a six week period that my manager blew deals with. Six stations, that would have ranged between $150 and $500 in monthly retainers, yet I was contractually obligated to pay him his monthly retainer for the remainder of the year. So, let’s dive deeper.

If I Had Leads, Why Sign With A Manager in the First Place?

There were two main reasons I signed with this manager. First, as a working creative and small business owner, one of the hardest aspects of the job is negotiating rates. I have always worked to maintain industry standard rates, often siting both the GVAA Rate Guide and the GFTB Rate Guide to clients. I had felt that I was low-balled on the the last few imaging retainers I had negotiated prior to my talks with the manager. I did not feel that it was related to my ability or experience, it just seemed that I kept getting the same sob story from every single station. None of them had any money. They all wanted so much for so little. It was crazy. I had hoped that with the manager negotiating the rates, each station would be in the ball park of the rates cards, even if the manager now got a cut.

My other hope was that if I was able to seal the deal with more lucrative stations because of the manager, then some of the top agencies like Atlas or CESD would take notice of me and would sign me. I have felt so close to making this step, and just needed something to push me over the edge. I saw other very well known and amazingly talented voice actors post that they were booking stations with the help of this manager. They were then getting repped by these agencies. I also knew some talents at these agencies who were on this mangers roster. It was not hard to connect the dots and in truth did not even seem like a leap of faith. It seemed like a common sense, savvy move. Well, sometimes the evidence can be very misleading.

the Damage

Pushing BoundariesI signed with this manager specifically for the Radio Imaging part of my business in January 2019. Within the first week, I sent him 5 leads of stations who wanted to sign me and wanted to negotiate retainers. The email above was a call I got a week later. Of these leads, my manager destroyed every single one of them. I was not on the calls. I had empowered him to speak on my behalf. The email above “I was told that our station was not big enough for your services.” is a glimpse of how these prospects were treated in my name. Was this the road to the big agencies? No. Worse, when he tried to renegotiate the stations I had, I lost them. There were other odd quirks about the manager. He wanted any auditions to be professionally mastered, which was an added expense. He also sent Sound and Fury auditions, but I get those from other agents, so now I was paying him to get auditions I was already getting. It was terrible. I realized early on and I was stuck. I basically had to stop soliciting all Radio Imaging business or it would be tied to him. Years of hard work and planning came to a screeching halt. Be careful who you pick to represent you.

Undoing the Damage

First I had to wait until I could give him notice as per my contract. As soon as I legally could, I did. Then, as soon as I was legally out of contract, on 1/20/2020. I began reaching out to stations to tell them I was no longer with the manager and that if they were so inclined they could negotiate directly with me to learn my market availability. It was too soon, there were no bites. No one would even reply. I continue to circle back to the stations that were interested. Now I have updated my demo, and my hope is that with some time, and fresh branding, I can rebuild.

https://youtu.be/nrobFDWQVmI

Lessons Learned

THE BEST PERSON TO SPEAK FOR ME IS ME. If you want clients to get to know you and how great you are, then you have to be the one to work with them. If you really feel that you need someone to negotiate on your behalf, you had better make sure you know the tone and tenor of what they are saying

Filed Under: agents, Client Relationships, Rates, Voiceover Tagged With: agents, Atlas, CESD, client relationships, clients, managers, missteps, negotiating, predators, professional female voice actor, program directors, radio, Radio imaging, radio station managers, regrets, representation, represents, retainer, small business owner, VO, voice over, voice over industry, voiceover, works for you

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