The Periodic Table of Ideas is here! I had the pleasure of narrating this fascinating audio book thanks to my friend and author Ben Cheung. This is the second audio book I’ve narrated for him, the previous one being The Four Elements of Thinking. To quote the blurb… The Periodic Table of Ideas is a collection of pivotal concepts in history spanning the disciplines of business, economics, philosophy, psychology, science, and technology. These ideas represent the pinnacle of hu

Do you have a SEP-IRA? Do you even know what one is? Let’s zoom out for a sec for an IRA refresher… An IRA, or Individual Retirement Arrangement, is an account set up at a financial institution that allows you to save for retirement. What’s the difference between a SEP-IRA, a Traditional IRA, and a Roth IRA? To quote Vanguard.com: A SEP-IRA (Simplified Employee Pension) is a simple, tax-deferred retirement plan for anyone who is self-employed, owns a business, employs others

Rejection is a way of life in the voiceover industry. Recently I saw a social media post regarding a “PFO” email the poster received. PFO stands for “Please **** Off”. It was a “Thanks for your audition! We loved it but decided go to in anther direction.” email. That post and the discourse that followed really rubbed me the wrong way. Why would you assume the voice seeker is lying and actually telling you to **** off? Why would they bother to write that email in the first pl

Are you having trouble finding work? If you are, you’re not alone. Recently, voice actors of various experience levels have asked me why they have so much trouble finding work nowadays. There is more voiceover work than ever in every genre so what exactly is going on? To borrow from a blog entry from last year, let’s start with these possibilities: Lack of talent: you entered a business you have no business entering Lack of training: you got minimal or no coaching Lack of

There are a lot of voiceover-related webinars out there. Heck, I’m leading eight of them in April alone! It may look like five webinars (see below), but I’m leading three sessions and moderating a panel at VO Atlanta so that conference counts as four webinars so nyah. Anyway, I not only lead webinars but I attend a few here & there as well. I strive to learn & grow as much as I can so I occasionally take a class to explore a new genre or brush up my narration skills. Recently

The 1099 form is often confusing for voice actors filing their taxes for the first time. Here is some 1099 101… If you earn more than $600 from a client and they didn’t take any taxes out when you got paid (withholding), you should receive a 1099 form from them. Until this year you got a 1099-MISC form. Now you get the new 1099-NEC (Non Employee Compensation) form. The 1099-MISC form is now used to report miscellaneous payments of $600 or more to individuals for: Rent Prizes

Bottlenecks in your voiceover business are a common and often addressable challenge. Let’s define the term first, shall we…? Bottleneck – 1a: a narrow route b: a point of traffic congestion 2a: someone or something that retards or halts free movement and progress b: IMPASSE https://www.merriam-webster.com/ What kind of bottlenecks could you have in your voiceover business? Cash Flow: you don’t have the money to run your voiceover business effectively Tools: you don’t have the

So…2020. It’s been a helluva year but you don’t need me to tell you that. From a voiceover perspective it’s been interesting. Here’s a brief breakdown of 2020 for me as a voice actor: Cash Flow: with two weeks to go, I made more in 2020 than I did in 2019 but the proportion of genres changed. I did less commercials and industrials but more ADR, promo, podcast, and news article narration. I like that because I’m expanding into different genres. Tools: I got a new computer, new

Demo marketing is a challenge. Most new voice actors who get their training and then produce a shiny new demo have absolutely no idea what to do with it. When I started doing voiceovers I was sort of lucky in that my coach gave me a stack of production company listings and I started cold-calling immediately. The bad news was that at the time (1995) there was virtually no other venue for demo marketing. There were no online casting sites, no social media platforms, no Meetup