Should you spend the travel and expense of going to a big VO conference? Find colleagues who went last year. Add up all the travel, food, lodging, and conference fees. Can you cover it? Will you have money left for the gear you need or for that pay-to-play site renewal fee or for your cloud backup monthly fee?
If you haven’t set up some bookkeeping yet, do so before you head off to that big VO conference in Far Away City, USA. Make business decisions based on solid information.
Also, have specific goals for yourself at a big conference. Do you want to meet an agent or two, get more info about a specific genre, or get ideas for business cards? And be ready for the unexpected, the AH-HA! moments. [Read more…] about Jacked Up: Venturing out, Part 2
Spring… a time for renewal and regeneration! Time to put up the boots, coats and sweaters, and see if you can fit into last year’s summer clothes, or maybe you stuck to your fitness resolution and they just might be too big? Either way, time to do some refreshing of the home, body and mind. For me, I cleaned out my files. While I’m not exactly a neatnik, I detest clutter, and my first order of the day was to throw out some scripts; hundreds of ‘em! While going through them, I thought about how much fun I had with some of them and kept those, but I was grateful to have the opportunity to audition for all of them. I booked some, and actually enjoy hearing how others interpret the ones that got away on TV and radio. I also cleaned up my “tech drawer”. This wasn’t hard to do, because I’m still somewhat of a technophobe, so I don’t get into buying expensive mics and the latest electronic gizmos that’s supposed to help me produce faster, cleaner, make my room/voice sound better. I use our very own Vegas Voicers FB page to ask questions before I buy anything. Grateful that the TVAS community not only has excellent coaches, but is chockfull of experienced producers and engineers! Most importantly, I make a mental note to do a daily meditation and keep my spiritual house clean and in order. Clean out some old ways of thinking; keep out the negativity, replace old thoughts with new ideas and ideals, and spring forward!
It was an absolute pleasure to speak with Chad Letts, voice actor and one of our awesome coaches at TVAS. At 19 years old Chad started out in radio as a DJ in various genres in California and Nevada. His first voice over gig was at age 17, voicing a character in a video game called Lunar. Chad moved to Las Vegas July 15, 2010 and was introduced to Melissa Moats. After booking jobs for a while, he began noticing how he booked certain jobs but not others. This issue was resolved after taking Troy Moats Business and Marketing class. Chad feels this class helped turn his career around. Another class that had a huge impact on his career was when TVAS had a representative from Cope Management listen to students read. It was Chad’s first time reading for a representative from the “LA World”. This resulted in Debbie Cope becoming his manager. Chad’s voice over business is currently 80% commercial work and some dabbling in TV promos. He would like to add history narration in the future. One of Chad’s biggest rewards of being a voice over actor happened when he was out with his buddies and 
I saw a nasty VO habit coming, and nipped it in the bud before it fully manifested. It will try to creep in slowly and methodically. A week here, a month there, and before you know it, BAM! You’re dependent on your two biggest clients for 80% of your work. This is a cardinal sin in VO; never, ever depend on a client, or even three, to be your main source of revenue. Ever. No matter what they promise you. This is especially true for Pay to Play sites. I’m sure you’ve heard this before, but here it is again: They are only “Pay-to-Practice”. 
As you contemplate your dawning career, you’ll be drawn to other places to train. And while you’ll always have a “home base” at The Voice Actors Studio, you may want to take online courses or travel to other cities for conferences or workshops. All that is an important part of your ongoing education in VO. Hearing new ideas from new people can refresh and give you ideas for doing better.
Greetings to all my fellow voicers! I recently had the wonderful opportunity to chat with the warm and lovely Sarah Vone. As a kid Sarah, and others in her family, loved to imitate funny voices. She always hoped to someday play a role in a cartoon. After watching the documentary, “I Know That Voice”, Sarah realized it was possible to have a career in voice over. From then on, the fire was stoked to make her dream a reality. 