Hello and Happy Eat What You Want Day, Bike To Work Day, and of course Happy Mother’s Day! Lately, it seems like every day is Eat What You Want Day and BBQ season is almost upon us. Anybody got a Tums…?
NEWS AND NOTES!
My next Edge Studio “Business and Money 201” webinar will be Thursday May 14th at 8:00 PM EST. The subject: Time Management. We’re gonna talk about how not to throw away your day. Click here to register!
At around 10 PM this past Thursday evening I was on the phone with a friend when another call came in from someone I didn’t know. I took the call because occasionally I get late-night calls from potential or current clients who need a voiceover done ASAP.
The caller was a gentlemen who is considering becoming a voice talent. He started asking me a series of questions including, among other things, the names of my last three clients. In addition, he sounded defensive when I asked him how he found me (a question I always ask to determine which of my marketing efforts are working).
I offered my services as the VO Strategist (which did not seem to interest him, which is fine) and sent him my “Letter To An Aspiring Voice Talent” in hopes it would answer his questions. After telling him it was late and I had another call to make, that pretty much ended the conversation.
Sigh.
TIP OF THE WEEK: Folks, I’m just gonna come right out and say it; calling a stranger late at night, asking for free professional advice, and asking for the names of their clients is just plain rude. If the gentlemen in question happens to read this and is offended, all I can say is that I was far more polite & helpful than I could have been and you’re lucky you didn’t call Jeff Kafer!
If you are considering getting into the voiceover industry and want to talk to an established voice talent, coach, or studio, here are some rules of etiquette:
Respect their time. There are thousands of aspiring voice talents out there and they all have the same questions so don’t make them repeat themselves. Do your research to see if they have already answered your questions via their website, their blog, an interview, an article they wrote, etc.
Don’t call them, as the odds are they’ll be in a session and their time is precious. And for Pete’s sake, don’t call them at 10 o’clock at night! Email them first. They’ll get back to you when they can and will set up a phone call if warranted.
Be polite, prepared, and professional during your interactions. Why? If you don’t demonstrate those qualities, you’ll never make it as a voice talent anyway.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK:
Every pizza is a personal pizza if you try hard enough and believe in yourself. Bill Murray
STUFF!: For Mother’s Day I took my mom to see Woman In Gold with Helen Mirren and Ryan Reynolds. It was a bit heavy, but quite good! The pleasant surprise for me was that in the flashback sequences a young Helen Mirren was played by Tatiana Maslany, the star of my favorite TV show Orphan Black. She was fantastic!
From Tom Dheere’s apartment, this is Tom Dheere: GKN News…
Tom Dheere is an 18-year veteran of the voice over industry who has narrated thousands of projects for clients in over a dozen countries. He is also a coach at Edge Studio, voiceover business consultant known as the Voice Over Strategist, and is currently writing & producing the comic book “Agent 1.22”.