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I am guilty of flaming. Last week, a civil conversation was taking place in a social media group about a very important subject. The subject doesn't matter, but it's one I feel strongly about. I didn't care for the position an expert on the subject was taking, so I came up with what I thought was a clever way to zing them. This is a person whom I already had an issue with regarding another subject. I totally derailed the conversation. Even worse, I opened the door to a troll. I got called out for it and rightfully so. I apologized in the social media group and privately to the person in question but the damage was done. I thought I was defending someone's honor (who wasn't even part of the conversation) and putting someone else in their place (whom I don't even know) but I didn't have all of the facts. Even if I had the facts, the fact that I flamed someone was completely out of line. It was mean when I always strive to be kind. It was thoughtless when I always strive to be thoughtful. It was ego-driven when I always strive to be humble. I talk regularly to my students about how to comport yourself on social media so I should know better but I did it anyway. I feel terrible about flaming someone and I will never do it again. TIP OF THE WEEK Emotions can run high on social media but flaming is unacceptable. Never be part of the problem, always be part of the solution. To avoid flaming and improve both your behavior & your mental well-being: Think before you post! Use the old, "What would my grandmother think if she read this?" exercise. Take regular breaks from social media. These sites are designed to mess with you psychologically and keep you scrolling & buying. I think that contributed to my shabby behavior. I'm on it all day, every day as both a voice actor, coach, and human so I vowed to stay off all social media last weekend. It's the first time I've done that in years and you know what? It felt pretty good. Once I got past the FOMO, of course. :) Even better; go for a hike, read a book, listen to music, spend quality time with a fellow in human in person, do anything but constantly scroll scroll scroll & get sucked in by mean memes, political rants, and endless banality. You will be better for it! NEWS AND NOTES Wednesday, June 23rd @8PM ET: the VO How-To Webinar "Online Casting Sites". In this 90-minute webinar, we will explore the world of online voiceover casting sites, the “Pay-to-Play” business model, and how to use Online Casting Sites effectively. This webinar will be recorded so if you can't make it you will get the video. Sign up here! Saturday, July 10th @5PM ET: the Voice Actors Studio presents "Analyze your Business and Marketing Strategies". In this 2-hour webinar, we will talk about how to objectively examine your voiceover business so you can figure what's working and what isn't. Sign up here! Wednesday, July 14th @12PM ET: the VoiceOver Network Interview "Tom Dheere Explains Explainers". More info to come...! Thursday, July 15th @8PM ET: the Edge Studio Business and Money 201 webinar, "Rates, Billing, and Negotiating". In this 60-minute webinar, we will discuss how to build a Rate Sheet, invoice clients, and get the rates your deserve. Sign up here! Thursday, July 22nd @8PM ET: the Edge Studio Marketing 201 webinar, "4 Words that Kill your Marketing". In this 60-minute webinar, we will discuss how to think like an effective voiceover marketer and avoid self-destructive marketing strategies. Sign up here! HAPPY HAPPYS Happy Onion Rings Day and World Giraffe Day! QUOTE OF THE WEEK Tom Dheere is the VO Strategist, a voice over business & marketing coach and demo producer since 2011. He is also a voice actor with over 20 years of experience who has narrated just about every type of voiceover you can think of. When not voicing or talking about voicing, he produces the sci-fi comic book Agent 1.22.

Is disruption in the voiceover industry a good thing, a bad thing, or just a thing? It depends on who you ask. To quote from a book I recently narrated, "The Periodic Table of Ideas"... Creative destruction is a process through which something new brings about the demise of whatever existed before it. Capitalism and innovation create new products and markets even as they make old ones obsolete. Joseph Schumpeter defined creative destruction by writing “the gale of creative destruction” describes the “process of industrial mutation that incessantly revolutionizes the economic structure from within, incessantly destroying the old one, incessantly creating a new one.”. For example, the light bulb disrupted the candle industry. Uber disrupted the taxi industry. AirBnB disrupted the hotel industry. Is Fi-Core and Right To Work States a disruption to SAG-AFTRA? Are Pay-to-Play voiceover casting sites a disruption to agents and casting directors? Is AI a disruption to all voice actors? To various degrees, yes. The disruptors call it progress, capitalism, opportunity. The disrupted call it an existential threat. Most likely it's somewhere in between. TIP OF THE WEEK What can you do to avoid disruption of your voiceover business? Create stabilizing forces. Stabilizing forces include: Having an objective understanding of how the voiceover industry actually functions (or disfunctions) Crafting a thoughtful business plan Mastering the arts of workflow, project management, and time management Developing consistent, well-paying clientele and not just audition & pray all day These are just a few of the things you can do to ensure your voiceover business is not constantly beset by disruption. NEWS AND NOTES Thursday, June 17th @8PM ET: The Edge Studio Marketing 201 webinar "Thriving in a Smaller Market ". In this class, students will see the advantages of living in a smaller voice over market and how to tap into their local resources. Sign up here! SOLD OUT!!! Saturday, June 19th @5PM ET: The Voice Actors Studio webinar “eLearning Performance Workshop“. Learn about the world of eLearning and get some live coaching, too. Wednesday, June 23rd @8PM ET: The VO How-To Webinar "Online Casting Sites". In this 90-minute webinar, we will explore the world of online voiceover casting sites, the “Pay-to-Play” business model, and how to use Online Casting Sites effectively. This webinar will be recorded so if you can't make it you will get the video! Sign up here! HAPPY HAPPYS Happy Cupcake Day and World Blood Donor Day! QUOTE OF THE WEEK Tom Dheere is the VO Strategist, a voice over business & marketing coach and demo producer since 2011. He is also a voice actor with over 20 years of experience who has narrated just about every type of voiceover you can think of. When not voicing or talking about voicing, he produces the sci-fi comic book Agent 1.22.

What exactly is an Online Casting Site? Should you join them? Are they evil? Are they the future of the voiceover industry? Can you leverage them to enhance your voiceover business? These questions and many more will be answered at the VO How-To webinar "Online Casting Sites". When: Wednesday, June 23rd @8PM ET Where: Zoom Fee: $60 This 90-minute webinar (lecture and Q&A) will be recorded so if you cannot attend the workshop in person you will get both the video and a PDF of the slideshow. Click this link to sign up! https://www.vostrategist.com/events/vo-how-to-online-casting-sites

Voiceover conferences have been around for almost 15 years (I believe VOICE 2007 was the first one) and just like every other aspect of the voiceover industry, there are widely varying opinions. I LOVE voiceover conferences! I'm new to the industry and I learn so much there! I can't afford to go. I hate crowds. I'm afraid to talk to people. Those parasites are preying on newbs by selling their books, booths, mics, coaching sessions, and demo packages. Ugh, it's the same presenters & content over and over again. I know this stuff already! In short, many new voice actors love voiceover conferences or are afraid of them and many veterans hate them or feel they're not worth attending anymore. DISCLAIMER As a voiceover coach and demo producer, I do speak at conferences and yes a part of my motivation for attending is to market my services. I also go because it's fun, I get to meet great new people & hang out with old friends, and I'm still learning & growing as a voice actor, coach, and human being so I still learn stuff, 25+ conferences later. TIP OF THE WEEK If you are new to the voiceover industry, I encourage your to attend the voiceover conferences that are right for you and aren't just a platform for coaches to troll for students. If you have questions about specific conferences, message me and I'll be happy to share my thoughts. If you are a veteran voice actor, some voiceover conferences may still have value for you. networking opportunities exploring new genres renewal of purpose I have noticed that regardless of the conference session I'm sitting in on, often I take a page of notes and frequently it's not about the subject at hand. Sometimes the subject gets me thinking about other areas of my voiceover business in a good way. Also, I may have sat in on a similar session years ago but I wasn't ready to hear it for whatever reason. Maybe it's a genre I wasn't interested in then but I'm interested in now. I'm also listening to the same content with a different pair of ears. I'm hopefully a wiser person now so I may process the information more effectively. If you have saved your notes from previous conferences, read them again. It’s fascinating not only what you’ve forgotten, but how notes from a few years ago can hit you now in a completely different way. NEWS AND NOTES Thursday, June 10th @8PM ET: The Edge Studio Business and Money webinar "Managing Your Money". This class will give students an understanding of how to best manage the money you make as a voice talent and how to balance that with your personal life. Sign up here! THIS WEEKEND!!! June 11-13: eVOcation - our virtual conference devoted to the business of voiceover! I will be presenting a webinar about how to build your client list. Sign up here! Thursday, June 17th @8PM ET: The Edge Studio Marketing 201 webinar "Thriving in a Smaller Market City". In this class, students will see the advantages of living in a smaller voice over market and how to tap into their local resources. Sign up here! SOLD OUT!!! Saturday, June 19th @5PM ET: The Voice Actors Studio webinar “eLearning Performance Workshop“. Learn about the world of eLearning and get some live coaching, too. Wednesday, June 23rd @8PM ET: The VO How-To Webinar "Online Casting Sites". In this 90-minute webinar, we will explore the world of online voiceover casting sites, the “Pay-to-Play” business model, and how to use Online Casting Sites effectively. This webinar will be recorded so if you can't make it you will get the video! Sign up here! HAPPY HAPPYS Happy Bomb Pop Day and VCR Day! QUOTE OF THE WEEK Tom Dheere is the VO Strategist, a voice over business & marketing coach and demo producer since 2011. He is also a voice actor with over 20 years of experience narrating just about every type of voiceover you can think of. When not voicing or talking about voicing, he produces the sci-fi comic book Agent 1.22.

Welcome to the new VO Strategist Blog! Well, it's not exactly new. The content is exactly the same as it's always been but instead of it being parked at www.TomDheere.com/blog, now it's parked at www.VOStrategist.com/blog. If you've subscribed to the monthly VO Strategist Learnin' Stuff Notice, from now on it will be posted here. Considering this is the first blog post of June and all of my VOS appearances for the month are listed below, consider this the June newsletter. :) I will also be posting all of my "VO How-To" webinar announcements here, too. TIP OF THE WEEK If you're reading this blog entry because you're already subscribed to the blog, you're good to go! If you're reading this blog entry because you clicked on a social media link, it's easy-peasy to subscribe. Just go to www.vostrategist.com, scroll to the bottom of the page, enter your email address, and click the SUBSCRIBE button. Thanks for your 13+ years of supporting my blog ramblings and here's to 13 more! NEWS AND NOTES Tuesday, June 1st @1PM ET: The 7th Annual Johnny Heller Splendiferous Audiobook Workshop. I’ll be on the panel “WORK BETTER NOT HARDER/WORK SMARTER“. Sign up here! June 4-6: Garden State Comic Fest. I and my business partner will be promoting our comic book Agent 1.22. Learn more about Agent 1.22 here and buy tickets for the con here! Thursday, June 10th @8PM ET: The Edge Studio Business and Money webinar "Managing Your Money". This class will give students an understanding of how to best manage the money you make as a voice talent and how to balance that with your personal life. Sign up here! June 11-13: eVOcation - our virtual conference devoted to the business of voiceover! I will be presenting a webinar about how to build your client list. Sign up here! Thursday, June 17th @8PM ET: The Edge Studio Marketing 201 webinar "Thriving in a Smaller Market City". In this class, students will see the advantages of living in a smaller voice over market and how to tap into their local resources. Sign up here! SOLD OUT!!! Saturday, June 19th @5PM ET: The Voice Actors Studio webinar “eLearning Performance Workshop“. Learn about the world of eLearning and get some live coaching, too. Wednesday, June 23rd @8PM ET: The VO How-To Webinar "Online Casting Sites". In this 90-minute webinar, we will explore the world of online voiceover casting sites, the “Pay-to-Play” business model, and how to use Online Casting Sites effectively. This webinar will be recorded so if you can't make it you will get the video! Sign up here! HAPPY HAPPYS Happy Macaroon Day, Say Something Nice Day, and Audiobook Month! QUOTE OF THE WEEK Tom Dheere is the VO Strategist, a voice over business & marketing coach and demo producer since 2011. He is also a voice actor with over 20 years of experience narrating just about every type of voiceover you can think of. When not voicing or talking about voicing, he produces the sci-fi comic book Agent 1.22.

I have a new voice over website! www.TomDheere.com This has been a long time coming (and why I've been quiet for the past few weeks) and I'm thrilled that it's live. Just for fun, here's a is a brief history of my website: 9/13/2002 (my birthday): built TomDheere.com via Yahoo. Here's the oldest version I could find on the Internet Archive. 2006: a new look 2007: another new look 2008: yet another new look (I don't even remember this one) 2010: oh look, another new look 2011: I think this is when I started working with an actual webmaster 2016: Switched from Yahoo to Wordpress hosted by HostGator and a fabulous new webmaster Nikki Saco of Saco Media 2020: switched from Hostgator to Upper Level Hosting 2021-p: switched to WIX TIP OF THE WEEK Why did I switch to WIX? VOStrategist.com was already on WIX and it can do almost everything I need to run both my voiceover and coaching businesses. From event hosting to demo playing to invoicing and everything in between. If you're looking to consolidate Wordpress, your domain manager, your website host, and your invoicing, you may wanna give WIX a sniff... NEWS AND NOTES Thursday, May 27th @8PM EST: Edge Studio Marketing 201 “Keeping Clients Coming Back”. In this webinar, you’ll learn the REAL secret to client retention. Sign up here! Tuesday, June 1st @1PM EST: The 7th Annual Johnny Heller Splendiferous Audiobook Workshop. I’ll be on the panel “WORK BETTER NOT HARDER/WORK SMARTER“. Sign up here! HAPPY HAPPYS Happy Hamburger Day and Paper Airplane Day! QUOTE OF THE WEEK Irony is really only hypocrisy with style. - Barbara Everett, from the film 'Looking for Richard' Tom Dheere is the VO Strategist, a voice over business & marketing coach and demo producer since 2011. He is also a voice actor with over 20 years of experience narrating just about every type of voiceover you can think of. When not voicing or talking about voicing, he produces the sci-fi comic book Agent 1.22.

Direct Marketing is a challenge for most voice actors. We’ve talked about it before in this here blog right here, but since I last blogged about and the fact that I taught the subject just last week, my thoughts have evolved a bit. (FYI Direct Marketing is all the stuff you do to get a voice seeker’s attention and stay top-of-mind) It lines up with how my thoughts about branding have evolved, too. For years I said you MUST brand yourself and you MUST use Direct Marketing. I realized that I always recommended them because I was able to use them effectively to help me realize MY definition of voiceover success. My definition of voiceover success is not necessarily yours. :) TIP OF THE WEEK If you’re considering using Direct Marketing, the first question you should ask yourself is: why? Will using Direct Marketing tactics bring you closer to your definition of success? Have you taken the time to come up with a specific definition of success for your specific business model? Is it possible that your specific business model doesn’t require you to use Direct Marketing? Answer those questions, then decide if Direct Marketing is right for you. If you do decide that Direct Marketing is right for you, use the coupon code DIRECT25 to get 25% off my “VO How-To: Direct Marketing” video at the VO Strategist Shop. Click here to get it. This offer expires Friday night so get it ASAP! NEWS AND NOTES I’m taking a two-week break from blogging. Why? Because my blog is moving AND I’m getting a brand-new website! Wanna keep getting updates? Go to the VO Strategist website, wait for the pop-up window to appear, and enter your email address. Oh, and hit the subscribe button. That might help. See you in two weeks! (REGISTRATION CLOSED) Wednesday, May 12th @12:30 PM EST: APAC Business Diagnostics. I will be chatting with some Audio Publisher Association Conference attendees about the business side of the audio book industry. Thursday, May 13th @8PM EST: The VO How-To Webinar “Learning to do eLearning”. Curious about eLearning narration? In this 90-minute workshop you will learn what eLearning narration is, it’s sub-genres, narration tips, how much to charge, demo specs, and there will be live coaching! If you can’t attend, the webinar will be recorded so you will receive a copy of the video and a PDF of the slides. Sign up here! Thursday, May 20th @8PM EST: Edge Studio Business and Money 201 “Workflow”. In Workflow, you’ll learn how to grease the wheels that make up your voice over business. Sign up here! Thursday, May 27th @8PM EST: Edge Studio Marketing 201 “Keeping Clients Coming Back”. In this webinar, you’ll learn the REAL secret to client retention. Sign up here! Tuesday, June 1st @1PM EST: The 7th Annual Johnny Heller Splendiferous Audiobook Workshop. I’ll be on the panel “WORK BETTER NOT HARDER/WORK SMARTER“. Sign up here! HAPPY HAPPYS Happy Star Wars Day and Hoagie Day! QUOTE OF THE WEEK Tom Dheere is a voice actor with over 20 years of experience narrating just about every type of voiceover you can think of. He also helps other voice talents navigate the voiceover industry as the VO Strategist. When not voicing or talking about voicing, he produces the sci-fi comic book Agent 1.22.