A while back I wrote a blog about managing expectations based on your assumptions. Today let’s talk about examining your assumptions. People enter the voiceover industry with certain assumptions and manage their expectations accordingly. After achieving (or not achieving) certain types of success, their assumptions may evolve. Some assumptions are accurate. Others, not so much. Here are some examples… Some aspiring voice talent assume you have to be in the union to be a succe

Effectiveness is everything in your voiceover career, especially in the booth during a live session. Here’s an example… Last week I had a recording session for a commercial demo spot. That’s when they semi-produce a commercial and test it before they decide to fully produce it and put it on TV. I booked it via a representation-generated audition and we recorded it in a nearby studio here in NYC. I had a great time and both the producer and engineer were a pleasure to work wit

To be a successful voice talent, competence is critical. I think that’s safe to say that for any profession, but in many professions there are universally recognized methods to acquire competence. Getting a college degree, passing a certification test, and passing the bar exam for example. In voiceovers, not so much. Anyone without training can give it a shot. I bring this up because I recently watched the fascinating Ted-Ed video “Why Incompetent People Think They’re Amazing

Gambling and voiceovers. What do they have in common? First off, let me say that historically I’ve never been a big gambler. Until the past year or so, I’ve been to the track once (and won some 2 dollar bets, squeee!), been to a casino once, and entered a few poker tournaments (and won a decent-sized one so that was nice). Since then, I got married in Las Vegas and have been to some casinos in NJ & CT. I still don’t consider myself a gambler, but it is fun! I mostly play the

Facts are sometimes hard to find in the voiceover industry’s social media conversations. Here are two examples from just last week… In one social media conversation, someone tried to convince the voiceover community that you’ll be sued if you don’t get permission from a company to use their brand in your voiceover demo. The thread flamed all day and the original poster was repeatedly rude & insulting and provided no facts to substantiate his claim. FYI the flamer in question

Living in the 21st Century is hard, especially for us voice talent. How hard exactly? A few years ago I had the privilege of writing an article for Stage 32, an entertainment industry social media platform. It was called ‘You Will Hate This Blog.’ Stage 32 reached out recently and asked me to write yet another article. This one is called ’10 Steps to Becoming an Effective 21st Century Performer (NOT a 20th Century Starving-Artist)’, which you can read here. I encourage you t

I’ve been engaging in a very specific form of laziness lately. The metric tonnage of questions asked daily on social media by voice talents of all experience levels could stun a team of oxen. I try to answer as many questions as I can when I have time. I’ve been finding myself having less time to answer them and noticing the same questions are asked over and over and over. It’s both tedious and time-consuming to come up with original answers every time. A few months ago, I ca

The State of the Voice Over Industry, 2019 Edition I’ve been writing this blog for over ten years now. For fun, here’s my first entry. Some weeks it’s harder than others to come up with an engaging topic. Just as I was pondering what to write this week, I got a message from a fellow voice talent who asked me this… What has the journey been like? Do you feel that the industry has changed for the better or has become worse since you started VO? And to you, Christian O’Boyle of

For as long as I can remember, I’ve stressed the value of having effective Systems of Thought and Systems of Execution. How we think about what we are supposed to be and do is critical to our success as voice talents. I mention this because I’ve noticed a pattern in the questions that aspiring voice talents ask me as well as posts on various social media platforms. As a whole, new voice talents (and some veteran voice talents) think too much about the wrong things. What I mea

What does success look like for you as a voice talent? Photo by Got Credit I ask because as the VO Strategist I’ve been doing a lot of free 15-minute consults (click here to get yours) and the subject has come up quite a bit. Voice talents of all experience levels have been asking me to help them build a foundation, help with their marketing, get them to the next level, etc. When I ask them what success looks like for their voiceover business, I’ve noticed that it breaks d

Photo by twicepix In last week’s Tip of the Week, my first bit of advice regarded respect. To narcissistic-ally quote myself… The most important factor in a relationship is respect. I talked about it in this blog from a while back. Respect your clients, respect your partner, and respect yourself. Respect them the way you would want to be respected. I left out two important things. Respect the voiceover industry in general and your fellow voice talents in particular. I bring t

Since there are only a precious few weeks left in 2018, setting your 2019 goals should be on the brain and we’ll talk about that in just a moment. But first, a quick programming note… Since I built my shiny new VO Strategist website a few months ago, many of you signed up for this blog and/or the VO Strategist newsletter but never got them so my apologies for that. I went through the database and manually added everyone that I think wanted to subscribe to this here blog. If I

What is the value of a voice talent? Last week I was at a recording session with some really nice, younger voice talents. I’m talking still in or recently graduated from college. On one of our breaks we talked about the rigors of pursuing an acting career in New York City, specifically the culture imposed upon us by acting teachers, agents, and fellow artists. One said that she and her fellow theater majors are expressly forbidden from auditioning for professional gigs while