Blog Love from Mama VO
I’d like to introduce you to a part of your body that’s as equally as important as your voice. What on earth could be equally important!? I am a voice actor! Clearly, it’s all about my voice! Mmm-hmm.
I’d like to introduce you to your ears. Those two unassuming little guys hanging out on either side of your head. Did anyone ever tell ya as a kid, “You have two ears and one mouth, so you should listen twice as much as you speak.” That’s a tall order for a voice actor, but there’s a lot of truth in that statement.
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Hello, my awesomely amazing fellow voicers!! Yes, I may seem to be extra happy this episode and I have good reason to be so…. I just feel very fortunate to have found TVAS. Knowing Mama VO, all our coaches and all of you has brought such joy to my life! And now I’m about to bring an adorable bundle of delight into your lives. It is my pleasure to introduce you to McKenna Roberts – model, voice over talent, star of television and movies, future executive producer. She is one of our youngest class mates to attend TVAS. McKenna attended TVAS when she was 8 years old and took courses for two summers. Her favorite classes were commercial and animation. She enjoys anything that has do with drama. Doing commercials are fun for McKenna and she loved voicing the 
In the corporate world, a change agent is a person from inside or outside the organization who helps an organization transform itself by focusing on such matters as organizational effectiveness, improvement, and development. The voice over business, my voice over business requires me to be a change agent. My audition technique just 12 months ago is now antiquated because of the training I’ve had since then (development). My marketing efforts, while not bad, were not as effective as they are today. How I handle my financials from my bookings has taken on a whole new tone. In order to be successful in my business, I need to have the willingness to change. As the song says “Everything must change, nothing stays the same”. I can’t teach myself VO, so I hire a coach (improvement). I’ve come to the realization that I need accounting software (keeping the books straight alleviates stress, which can be heard in your audition!). As voice actors, our concentration tends to be on performance, but if I don’t focus on the overall organizational structure of my business, there won’t be any change. It’s all about evolution, dude. If nothing changes, nothing changes.
Copy can come in a variety of forms. Sometimes it’s buried in an email from an agent. Sometimes a pay-to-play site makes you copy the copy with your mouse and then paste into something useful on your computer. And then there’s long stuff, like elearning or video game sides. These can come in formats oh so handy for the client, and oh so UNhandy for you, like in a spreadsheet! Ugh.
Hello voicers! I had the pleasure of sitting down with our very own TVAS Newsletter interviewer, Joy Kingston! When Joy retired from a rewarding accounting career; she knew she wanted to do something artistic. She had been a painter and songwriter years ago, so when her neighbor said “hey, you have a great voice!”, and told her about Melissa Moats at the Voice Actors Studio, she thought it would be a great experience. She remembers the exact date she started: February 25th, 2017. Once on the mic, she was hooked. Her favorite class at TVAS? The Ongoing Workshops. Joy says the Ongoing classes allow her to practice at her own pace. She always learns a lot from other students and gains new insights in every class from the coaches. Her favorite genres are Narration, Commercial and Audiobooks. In early March of this year (almost a year to the date of her first class!), Joy recorded her first commercial demo. In just a few short weeks since then, she is auditioning for leading brands. Her goals? Well, her super-sweet voice is a natural for children’s toys, animation and cartoons, and she’d ultimately love to do children’s audiobooks. She’d also like to travel extensively. As mentioned earlier, what you may not know about Joy is that she is an accomplished painter; her oil paintings were on CNN’s website for a feature titled “Unknown American Artists”, and she sold a few pieces! She also writes songs, (some with copywrites!). And as you all know, she lends her writing and interview talents to the TVAS newsletter every month. Thank you Joy, for sharing some facets of your amazing life. You may contact Joy at: 
Hey Voicers, I’m feeling inspired, and I thought I’d share. Ya know what 18 years in as a voice over actor feels like? It’s a blend of happiness, gratitude, accomplishment, and yet still always feels like I’m just getting warmed up. I love this business. I can’t get enough of auditioning, storytelling, understanding what my clients needs and creative vision are, and then getting the opportunity to collaborate with them and create together. I love building new relationships. I embrace the privilege to voice for brands both big and small. They’re all big to me. 
Hello fellow voicers! In this segment, I am thrilled to introduce you to one classy lady and voice talent, Sandra Segrest. Sandra had been working for over twelve years at the Chicago Tribune in advertising sales when the 2008 recession hit her hard along with so many others. This began her path to becoming a voice over actor. Sandra refused to give in to despair and invested in acting classes and performed in a few community theater productions. She found she didn’t enjoy all the auditions required for acting parts nor live theater. Sandra decided to use her skills and talent by starting her voice over journey. One of her very first voice over spots was voicing an industrial film. Her favorite genre is elearning but she also excels in radio commercials and PSAs. Her portfolio includes PSAs on Childhood Obesity and Hypertension in African Americans for the health district. She has done several TV commercials including her favorite: a credit union commercial that ran in California. In 2012, after moving to Las Vegas, Sandra found our TVAS through the Las Vegas “Meet Up” organization. She enjoys our specialty classes and finds that attending the on-going workshops at least twice a month helps her grow professionally. Please click on the link to enjoy hearing 
There’s plenty of opportunity at the Voice Actors Studio to take “ongoing” classes. They’re how many times a week—twice? You can fill your dance card each month. And it’s good experience. Time in the saddle, time on the mic, time listening to others make choices and time hearing coaches give directions. 
