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Have you set your 2020 goals yet? Well, it is 2020 now so you may wanna get on that. Shockingly, I have already set my 2020 goals. I’ll share some of them with you broken down by the five categories of your voiceover business. As if I’d do it any other way… Cash Flow – Improve my financial portfolio/revenue allocation system. I’m looking at new ways to manage my money month-to-month as well as further diversify my retirement portfolio. Tools – Add an eLearning page to TomDheere.com. I want a better landing page than my home page when directing eLearning voice seekers to my website. Technique – Choose one new genre to develop. I’m thinking either Political, Casino, or In-Show Narration. Marketing – Focus more on LinkedIn to find & nurture new clients. I spend too much time on Facebook & Instagram and I have 4,000+ connections on LinkedIn so that’s a lot of potential voice seekers. Health – Lose ten pounds. That pretty much sums it up. TIP OF THE WEEK Here’s a template to help you set your 2020 goals: Cash Flow – how much money can you realistically make, spend, and save in 2020? Tools – what stuff do you need to improve your business? Technique – Which genres are you going to focus on? Marketing – Do you need to establish or update your brand? Health – how are you going to improve yourself outside, inside, and upstairs? BONUS TIP OF THE WEEK Take this class! There are still a few seats left so don’t dilly-dally. Geez, now I sound like Johnny Heller… Sunday, January 12th: The Voice Actors of NYC workshop, “Get Your *** Together for 2020”. In this in-person-only workshop, we will discuss how to build a voiceover business plan and set your goals for the New Year. Registration is live and donation-based classes sell out super-fast so click here to sign up! If you don’t live in the NYC metro area, never fear! If I get enough interested parties I will host an online version of the workshop in the coming months. Let me know if you wanna get in on that! NEWS AND NOTES Thursday, January 16th @8PM EST: My next Business and Money 201 webinar will be “Rates, Negotiating, and Billing”. We’re gonna talk about, well, rates, negotiating, and billing. Wednesday, January 22nd @8:30 PM EST: The encore presentation of ‘Online Casting Sites’. In this special one-hour webinar, I’ll talk about the pros and cons of online casting sites in general and Pay-to-Play sites in particular. Thursday, January 23rd @8PM EST: my next Marketing 201 webinar will be “4 Words That Will Kill Your Marketing”. We’ll talk about how think like an effective marketer. Saturday, February 1st, 2020 @2PM PST: I will be speaking LIVE at the Voice Actors Studio in sunny Las Vegas! The topic is “THE VOICEOVER BUSINESS AND HOW TO ACT LIKE IT”. If you live in the Las Vegas area there are still a few spots left! HAPPY HAPPYS Happy Tempura Day and Weigh-In Day! My 2020 goal is to lose 10 pounds. How about you? QUOTE OF THE WEEK Tom Dheere is a 20+year veteran of the voice over industry who has narrated thousands of projects for hundreds of clients in over a dozen countries. He is also a voiceover business & marketing consultant known as the VOStrategist and produces the comic book “Agent 1.22”.

Goodwill saved my ass last week. Last week was one of those weeks that new voice talent hope for and veteran voice talent have come to love/loathe; I got buried in last-minute voiceover bookings and advance sessions that kept getting rescheduled. That created a ripple-effect where I had to move other sessions around, sometimes more than once. This effected the audio book I’m currently recording (see last week’s blog entry) as well as many of the VO Strategist students I’m working with (BTW I have a new demo production page!) Fortunately, every time I asked anyone (be they client or student) if we could reschedule, I got a resounding and supportive yes. Here’s the definition(s) of goodwill: friendly, helpful, or cooperative feelings or attitude. ”the plan is dependent on goodwill between the two sides“ the established reputation of a business regarded as a quantifiable asset TIP OF THE WEEK How can voice actors promote goodwill in the voice over community? How can you set yourself up for success when things get weird? Be a really good voice talent. Consistently deliver quality narration with minimal technical and performance errors. Under-promise and over-deliver. Be professional, prepared, and a pleasure to work with. Be flexible with rates, deadlines, and script changes (within reason). Always be happy to work with the client in these areas since they have their own pressures to deal with and you always want to be the problem-solver, not problem-maker. Be graceful and grateful. Always put your best foot forward when interacting with voice seekers as well as when you interact on social media. I’ve lost count of the amount of times voice talent have behaved themselves out of Facebook groups for their flamey/belligerent/misogynistic/poopy posts. NEWS AND NOTES Thursday, February 20th @8PM EST: My next Business and Money 201 webinar will be ‘Time Management’. In this one-hour webinar, we’re going to talk about how to keep your voiceover business on track on a daily basis. Thursday, February 27th @8PM EST: My next Marketing 201 webinar will be ‘Brand Yourself’. In this one-hour webinar, we’ll talk about the basics of telling the story that is your voiceover business. Sunday, March 1st @10AM EST in NYC: Scott Brick & Johnny Heller present: The New York Audiobook Business Workshop 2! I will be part of two conversations that day – social media and “office crap”, as in which software we use to run our businesses. Click here to sign up! The VO Atlanta X-Session registration is OPEN! I’m leading two X-Sessions this year… Thursday March 26th @9:00 AM EST: (PRE-CONFERENCE X-SESSION) Learning to do eLearning Friday March 27th 6:30PM EST: eLearning Script Writing & Performance Intensive These special workshops carry an additional fee on top of the VO Atlanta registration fee BUT you don’t have to attend VO Atlanta proper to sign up for these workshops. Click here to see the full list of X-Sessions offered. Thursday May 28th @2:30 PM EST: “Learning to do eLearning”. Are you in town for APAC Week? Curious about eLearning narration? In this two-hour 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! It’s $100 to attend, but if you use the promo code EARLYBIRD528 you get in for only $75! Seats are limited so sign up ASAP. Click here to register! November 6-8, 2020: the Mid-Atlantic Voice Over (MAVO) conference in Herndon, Virginia. I have the honor of presenting yet again! In addition to the regular sessions (which will be announced soon) I will also be leading a special 3-hour Mastery Session. The topic: ‘Manage Your Money Like a VO Pro‘. These sessions fill up quickly so make sure you get your spot! Click here to sign up now! HAPPY HAPPYS Happy Eat Ice Cream for Breakfast Day and Random Acts of Kindness Day! QUOTE OF THE WEEK Tom Dheere is a 20+year veteran of the voice over industry who has narrated thousands of projects for hundreds of clients in over a dozen countries. He is also a voiceover business & marketing consultant known as the VOStrategist and produces the comic book “Agent 1.22”.

Here’s a quote about progress from a 2018 blog entry… Effective voice talents demonstrate progress. Maybe you haven’t demonstrated progress in your marketing such as a sharing a new demo or a recent gig. Progress demonstrates value. You need a competitive, current demo to demonstrate value, skill, and progress. Progress, beyond booking gigs, can be a difficult thing to detect, track, and demonstrate. It’s especially difficult to detect & track progress via the dreaded voiceover audition. Most of the time you do auditions at home and almost never get feedback. However, it is critical that you both are aware of the progress that you are making as both a voiceover artist and a voiceover business and that you can communicate that to voice seekers. TIP OF THE WEEK How does a voice talent measure progress if they have never booked a gig? One simple metric is the callback. The more callbacks you’re getting, the more progress you’re making. Another is by listening back to your auditions and asking yourself: do I sound engaged? Is the message clear? Can I listen myself objectively to make that determination? How does a voice talent detect, track, and demonstrate progress to voice seekers? Through effective marketing and analytics. Progress in this context means knowing where in the Sales Funnel any of the voice seekers you’re marketing to currently reside. Sharing a recently produced demo or a sample of a recently-produced gig are great ways to demonstrate progress to voice seekers, stay top-of-mind, and keep pushing them through the Sales Funnel. Check YouTube and Vimeo regularly for videos you have narrated and build a portfolio that you can send to voice seekers. NEWS AND NOTES Thursday, February 27th @8PM EST: My next Marketing 201 webinar will be ‘Brand Yourself’. In this one-hour webinar, we’ll talk about the basics of telling the story that is your voiceover business. SOLD OUT!!! Sunday, March 1st @10AM EST in NYC: Scott Brick & Johnny Heller present: The New York Audiobook Business Workshop 2! I will take part in two conversations that day – social media and “office crap”, as in which software we use to run our businesses. March TBA @8PM EST: My next Business and Money 201 webinar will be ‘Tax Time!’. In this one-hour webinar, I’ll walk you through my day with the CPA and talk about how to make filing your taxes as a voice talent marginally less painful. There are still a few seats left in my two VO Atlanta X-Sessions… Thursday March 26th @9:00 AM EST: (PRE-CONFERENCE X-SESSION) Learning to do eLearning Friday March 27th 6:30PM EST: eLearning Script Writing & Performance Intensive These special workshops carry an additional fee on top of the VO Atlanta registration fee BUT you don’t have to attend VO Atlanta proper to sign up for these workshops. Click here to see the full list of X-Sessions offered. Thursday May 28th @2:30 PM EST: “Learning to do eLearning”. Are you in town for APAC Week? Curious about eLearning narration? In this two-hour 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! It’s $100 to attend, but if you use the promo code EARLYBIRD528 you get in for only $75! Seats are limited so sign up ASAP. Click here to register! November 6-8, 2020: the Mid-Atlantic Voice Over (MAVO) conference in Herndon, Virginia. I have the honor of presenting yet again! In addition to the regular sessions (which will be announced soon) I will also be leading a special 3-hour Mastery Session. The topic: ‘Manage Your Money Like a VO Pro‘. These sessions fill up quickly so make sure you get your spot! Click here to sign up now! HAPPY HAPPYS Happy Cook a Sweet Potato Day and Tortilla Chip Day! QUOTE OF THE WEEK Tom Dheere is a 20+year veteran of the voice over industry who has narrated thousands of projects for hundreds of clients in over a dozen countries. He is also a voiceover business & marketing consultant known as the VOStrategist and produces the comic book “Agent 1.22”.

A few years ago, I wrote a blog entry about being prepared so things like a blown tire or a crashing computer don’t make a bad situation worse. The coronoavirus pandemic has shone a bright light on every aspect of our lives and highlighted in glaring detail how we handle things financially, logistically, and emotionally. As a voice actor, how prepared are you for this? Don’t get me wrong. Unless you’re an epidemiologist or VERY paranoid, there’s no way in heck you prepared for a global pandemic when building your voiceover career. I sure didn’t. What I am saying is that the voiceover industry has been trending in a very specific direction for the past fifteen years or so and the pandemic has catalyzed the trend: auditioning and booking voiceover gigs from home. I, for one, was dragging my feet on getting new headphones and upgrading to Source Connect Standard. The pandemic hit, I did what I’d been meaning to do for a while, and now I’m good to go. TIP OF THE WEEK Those who have been recording from home for a while, using Direct Marketing to find & retain clients, and been putting money aside, your voiceover business is probably in pretty good shape right now. If you had all this set up and lost your day-job, now you have more time to take your voiceover business to the next level and I’m rooting for you. However, if you have been putting off setting up your booth, insisting on doing live auditions/bookings only, and not been marketing online, you may be freaking out right now (and I totally sympathize) but you need to get your ass in gear. Fast. End-clients, agents, production companies, and recording studios have been scrambling to find voice talents who can record quality audio from home and use a phone patch like Source Connect. The dust is starting to settle so if you haven’t already I strongly suggest: Set up your home recording studio NOW. There are tons of books, videos, social media posts, and regularly-scheduled classes that walk you through both that and how to use the many types of audio recording software out there. I recommend Adobe Audition CC 2020. Learn how to narrate non-broadcast genres like eLearning and Medical Narration NOW. The demand to voice these types of gigs is exploding right now. Start Direct Marketing to everyone in your content database NOW. I have seen some voice actors on social media say they’re not marketing right now because they don’t want to seem insensitive or opportunistic. That’s nonsense. Now is the PERFECT time to communicate your value to voice seekers. That is, IF you can record from home, IF you have phone patch technology, and IF you are proficient in the in-demand genres. A lot of voice actors, both aspiring and veteran, will be left behind because they can’t or won’t be prepared for the new normal of the voiceover industry. Don’t be one of them! NEWS AND NOTES Thursday, April 16th @8PM EST: My next Business and Money 201 webinar will be ‘Cost/Benefit Analysis’. In this one-hour webinar, we’ll talk about how to determine how & why you generated your voiceover revenue and how to repeat what worked. This webinar caps at 25 attendees and sells out fast. Tuesday, April 30th @8PM EST: My next Marketing 201 webinar will be ‘What Your Website Says About You’. In this one-hour webinar, we’ll talk about how your website can help you gain or lose clients without you ever knowing it. This webinar caps at 25 attendees and sells out fast. Wednesday, May 27th @2:00 PM EST: even though the Audio Publishers Association Conference (APAC) is cancelled, my meeting table has gone from live to virtual! From 2:00-3:45, you are welcome to book a FREE 15-minute consult with me. We can talk about audiobook marketing, business, or just chat. This caps at 7 slots and will fill up fast so sign up ASAP. Click here to book your free 15-minute consult! Thursday May 28th @2:30 PM EST: my “Learning to do eLearning” workshop has also gone from live to virtual! In this two-hour 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! It’s $100 to attend, but if you use the promo code EARLYBIRD528 you get in for only $75! This webinar caps at 50 attendees and is filling up fast so sign up ASAP. Click here to register! HAPPY HAPPYS Happy Scrabble Day and Grilled Cheese Sandwich Day! QUOTE OF THE WEEK You can't complain about a bumpy ride if you're the one driving the bus. Michael Smith Tom Dheere is a voice actor who has narrated thousands of projects for hundreds of clients in over a dozen countries. He is also a voiceover business & marketing consultant known as the VOStrategist and produces the comic book “Agent 1.22”.

Over the past few weeks, it’s been really interesting to see how the voiceover industry is adapting to the coronavirus pandemic. Many voice actors are scrambling to book & record projects from home. The voiceover industry has been heading in this direction for a long time and COVID-19 has catalyzed the process. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately, depending on who you ask), some will be left behind. One way that voice seekers are adapting are by adding new voice actors to their roster since some talent from their current roster can’t record from home. If Source Elements was a stock, it would be skyrocketing right now. Another thing I’ve noticed is how people (both voice actors and non-voice actors) are logistically and emotionally adapting. Judging by many of the social media posts I’ve seen lately, some are adapting better than others. I truly sympathize with those who now have to work from home when they never have before, are home-schooling their children, and watching their bank accounts shrink. TIP OF THE WEEK Think about what adapting for the short-term and long-term looks like for your voiceover business. Cash Flow: Millions of people have lost their jobs so finding a new one will be difficult for many. Many are flocking to the voiceover industry. If you are one of those people, please remember that you need to invest heavily in your voiceover career both upfront and long-term. If you haven’t already spent money on training, demo production, etc. this may not be the best time since it makes most people many months (if not years) to see a return on their investment. Tools: Like I’ve said, getting phone patch technology like Source Connect and setting up your home recording studio is critical. Update your website to reflect you can record from home and phone patch. Technique: there are a ton of free or low-cost webinars out there right now so this is the perfect time to explore new genres and hone your craft. FYI there are some opportunistic coaches (and wannabe coaches) out there right now trying to take your money so make sure you vet your prospective Technique investments. Marketing: Direct Marketing will become much more important moving forward since there will be less live events like conferences and workshops. Develop an online brand if you don’t have one already or tweak yours as needed if you already do. Health: adapting to how to mentally and emotionally deal with the pandemic and its consequences will go a long way. To those of you who are struggling, please remember that the current situation is temporary. Nobody knows when it will resolve, but it will. There will be a new normal and we will all adjust. NEWS AND NOTES Thursday, April 23rd @8PM EST: The VO Strategist eLearning Praxis! (that means practice) April 2020-style. In this FREE 90-minute webinar, we will be flexing our eLearning muscles! Bring your own eLearning, corporate, industrial, or medical narration scripts and I will have some on hand. Please email your scripts to tom@nulltomdheere.com so I can display them for all to see. Five attendees will be chosen at random to read. This webinar caps at 90 attendees and there are only a few tickets left so register fast! Sign up here. Thursday, April 30th @8PM EST: My next Marketing 201 webinar will be ‘What Your Website Says About You’. In this one-hour webinar, we’ll talk about how your website can help you gain or lose clients without you ever knowing it. This webinar caps at 25 attendees and sells out fast. Thursday, May 14th @8PM EST: My next Business and Money 201 webinar will be ‘Workflow’. In this one-hour webinar, we’ll talk about how to manage your office, inbox, and Systems of Thought. This webinar caps at 25 attendees and sells out fast. Thursday, May 21st @8PM EST: My next Marketing 201 webinar will be ‘Keeping Clients Coming Back’. In this one-hour webinar, I’ll tell you the REAL secret to client retention. This webinar caps at 25 attendees and sells out fast. Wednesday, May 27th @2:00 PM EST: even though the Audio Publishers Association Conference (APAC) is cancelled, my meeting table has gone from live to virtual! From 2:00-3:45, you are welcome to book a FREE 15-minute consult with me. We can talk about audiobook marketing, business, or just chat. This caps at 7 slots and will fill up fast so sign up ASAP. Click here to book your free 15-minute consult! Thursday May 28th @2:30 PM EST: my “Learning to do eLearning” workshop has also gone from live to virtual! In this two-hour 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! It’s $100 to attend, but if you use the promo code EARLYBIRD528 you get in for only $75! This webinar caps at 50 attendees and is filling up fast so sign up ASAP. Click here to register! HAPPY HAPPYS Happy Garlic Day and Bulldogs are Beautiful Day! QUOTE OF THE WEEK Tom Dheere is a voice actor who has narrated thousands of projects for hundreds of clients in over a dozen countries. He is also a voiceover business & marketing consultant known as the VOStrategist and produces the comic book “Agent 1.22”.

Have you ever gotten auditions that you didn’t want to do? Me? All the time. I get auditions from my manager, multiple agents, and regular clients pretty much every day and I often turn some down. Why? The rate is too low. Most of the time I just delete it but if the rate is outrageously low (like for a national chain) sometimes I’ll make mention. BTW often the voice seeker adds a note in the casting notice like, “We know this rate sucks but it’s the best we could negotiate. If you don’t wanna submit for it we understand.” Notes like that have shown up more and more over the past few years. I’m not right for the role. Just last week I got two casting notices and the voice references were Michael Clarke Duncan, Ving Rhames, and Dennis Haysburt. These guys are wonderful but they all have VERY deep voices. If I try to mimic them I sound like a 19-year old trying to get served at a bar. I’m not comfortable with the terms. Stuff like: The exclusivity may be too constricting (e.g. all cars) I may have conflicts with work I’ve done in the past (I’m the voice of Coke and I get sent an audition for Pepsi) I don’t like the usage (too long, covers too many media venues, too many lifts/cutdowns, etc.) Honorable Mention #1: sometimes I’m too busy recording actual voiceover bookings and I don’t have time to do some of the auditions that come my way. A good problem! Honorable Mention #2: I’ll get auditions for cartoons or video games and I know it will wreck my voice for the rest of the day so I just don’t do them. That may sound like sacrilege to you who dream of booking those genres but tough choices have to be made sometimes. Yes, I try to save them until the end of the day but sometimes I’m gassed out after a full day of recording and I just can’t do the required exertions. Honorable Mention #3: sometimes I’ve had political objections with the company the voiceover is for: which causes they donates to, candidates or values they support, etc. TIP OF THE WEEK If you get auditions that you don’t wanna do, don’t do them. Should you let the voice seeker know that you won’t do certain auditions they sent you? It depends. If the auditions in question are algorithm-ically generated from an online casting site, you don’t have to say anything because a human didn’t send them. If you feel the need to apologize to a computer and explain why you’re not doing the audition, get help. If it’s an audition from representation, drop a quick note but don’t waste their time. They don’t need a paragraph-long explanation. “Sorry, I’m not comfortable with the usage. Next time!” or something like that should be fine. If you find yourself turning down a lot of auditions from certain reps, they may not be right for you. If it’s an audition sent directly from a voice seeker, a more detailed explanation may be called for. If you have an issue with the rate or usage, take the opportunity to explain the nature of the issue. Send them your rate sheet or perhaps the GVAA Rate Guide. Who knows, maybe they’ll increase the rate! NEWS AND NOTES RIGHT NOW! I’m the newest guest on Walt’s Kitchen Table Podcast! Check it out here. Thursday, April 30th @8PM EST: My next Marketing 201 webinar will be ‘What Your Website Says About You’. In this one-hour webinar, we’ll talk about how your website can help you gain or lose clients without you ever knowing it. This webinar caps at 25 attendees and sells out fast. Thursday, May 14th @8PM EST: My next Business and Money 201 webinar will be ‘Workflow’. In this one-hour webinar, we’ll talk about how to manage your office, inbox, and Systems of Thought. This webinar caps at 25 attendees and sells out fast. Thursday, May 21st @8PM EST: My next Marketing 201 webinar will be ‘Keeping Clients Coming Back’. In this one-hour webinar, I’ll tell you the REAL secret to client retention. This webinar caps at 25 attendees and sells out fast. Wednesday, May 27th @2:00 PM EST: even though the Audio Publishers Association Conference (APAC) is cancelled, my meeting table has gone from live to virtual! From 2:00-3:45, you are welcome to book a FREE 15-minute consult with me. We can talk about audiobook marketing, business, or just chat. This caps at 7 slots and will fill up fast so sign up ASAP. Click here to book your free 15-minute consult! Thursday May 28th @2:30 PM EST: my “Learning to do eLearning” workshop has also gone from live to virtual! In this two-hour 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! It’s $100 to attend, but if you use the promo code EARLYBIRD528 you get in for only $75! This webinar caps at 50 attendees and is filling up fast so sign up ASAP. Click here to register! HAPPY HAPPYS Happy Pretzel Day and Hug an Australian Day! QUOTE OF THE WEEK Tom Dheere is a voice actor who has narrated thousands of projects for hundreds of clients in over a dozen countries. He is also a voiceover business & marketing consultant known as the VOStrategist and produces the comic book “Agent 1.22”.

Strategy Rules releases today! This was yet another fascinating audio book I had the pleasure of narrating. Strategy Rules is a series of business strategy lessons learned by the three giants of the computing industry: Bill Gates of Microsoft, Steve Jobs of Apple, and Andy Grove of Intel. These guys were geniuses and visionaries, but they weren’t perfect. They didn’t come out of the gate running perfect businesses with flawless strategies. They had to learn as they go. Their biggest strength was learning how to compensate for their weaknesses by learning new skills and bringing in people to their company who can complement them. TIP OF THE WEEK I always learn something from the books I narrate that I can apply to my voiceover career. What did I learn from Strategy Rules…? These are the names of the Strategy Rules chapters: Look Forward, Reason Back Make Big Bets, Without Betting the Company Build Platforms and Ecosystems—Not Just Products Exploit Leverage and Power—Play Judo and Sumo Shape the Organization around Your Personal Anchor I could pen a month’s worth of blog entries exploring each of these lessons, so let’s just focus on one. Build Platforms and Ecosystems—Not Just Products Apple has an “ecosystem”: iPhone, iWatch, iPad, etc. Your goal should be to create a platform, not just a one-product business. For our purposes, let’s define a “product” as a genre or specific service you can provide to clients. For example, If you got basic voiceover training, produced a commercial demo, and can record from home, you have two “products” to offer: commercial narration and home recording. If you can edit the audio files, that’s another product/service you can offer but be careful with that. If you tell a voice seeker you can edit files they may think you can add music, master the audio, etc.. If you can’t do those things at a pro level, I’d suggest you say “I can deliver clean, raw audio files” which most of the time is all you need to do anyway. If you can become effective in another voiceover genre i.e. eLearning, audio books, etc. and offer additional services like proofreading or translation, you are well on your way to building a platform of products & services that can generate multiple revenue streams. Don’t jump the gun, though! Get really good at one thing before you try to develop another. Don’t be a watered-down business that offers mediocre products & services. NEWS AND NOTES Thursday, May 14th @8PM EST: My next Business and Money 201 webinar will be ‘Workflow’. In this one-hour webinar, we’ll talk about how to manage your office, inbox, and Systems of Thought. This webinar caps at 25 attendees and sells out fast. Thursday, May 21st @8PM EST: My next Marketing 201 webinar will be ‘Keeping Clients Coming Back’. In this one-hour webinar, I’ll tell you the REAL secret to client retention. This webinar caps at 25 attendees and sells out fast. Wednesday, May 27th @2:00 PM EST: even though the Audio Publishers Association Conference (APAC) is cancelled, my meeting table has gone from live to virtual! From 2:00-3:45, you are welcome to book a FREE 15-minute consult with me. We can talk about audiobook marketing, business, or just chat. This caps at 7 slots and will fill up fast so sign up ASAP. Click here to book your free 15-minute consult! Thursday May 28th @2:30 PM EST: my “Learning to do eLearning” workshop has also gone from live to virtual! In this two-hour 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! It’s $100 to attend, but due to the pandemic you can use the $25-off promo code EARLYBIRD528 anytime! This webinar caps at 50 attendees and is filling up fast so sign up ASAP. Click here to register! HAPPY HAPPYS Happy Star Wars Day and who cares about the other holidays. May the Fourth Be With You! QUOTE OF THE WEEK Tom Dheere is a voice actor who has narrated thousands of projects for hundreds of clients in over a dozen countries. He is also a voiceover business & marketing consultant known as the VOStrategist and produces the comic book “Agent 1.22”.

In the film ‘Apollo 13’ Ed Harris said, “Failure is not an option”. I’m pretty sure he didn’t have voiceovers in mind. Failure is absolutely an option in voiceovers and it’s the path that most aspiring talents take. Are they making a conscious choice to fail? Of course not. But their choices often lead to failure. Why? Lack of talent: choosing to enter a business that they have no business entering Lack of training: choosing to have minimal or no coaching Lack of resources: choosing to invest little or no capital in their fledgling business Lack of skill sets: choosing not to learn how to market, set goals, negotiate rates, etc. Lack of self-awareness: choosing not to engage in critical thinking about one’s self, the voiceover industry, or one’s relationship to the industry. That is why you fail. Wow, quoting Ed Harris AND Yoda in one blog entry? I need a nap… TIP OF THE WEEK How does one avoid failure in the voiceover industry? Embrace it. As a performing artist, one must learn to embrace failure. Failure is an ingrained part of improving your narration skills, your marketing skills, your audition skills, and much more. It’s a numbers game. Learn as much as you can, audition as much as you can, and meet as many industry professionals as you can. Notice why you fail so you can learn from the experience and apply your newly-found wisdom. Failure to make the right choices and failure to learn from your mistakes is why you will fail. Making smart, practical, value-driven choices and learning from your mistakes as you navigate the voiceover industry will set you up for success. NEWS AND NOTES Thursday, May 21st @8PM EST: My next Marketing 201 webinar will be ‘Keeping Clients Coming Back’. In this one-hour webinar, I’ll tell you the REAL secret to client retention. This webinar caps at 25 attendees and sells out fast. Wednesday, May 27th @2:00 PM EST: even though the Audio Publishers Association Conference (APAC) is cancelled, my meeting table has gone virtual! From 2:00-3:45 PM EST, you are welcome to book a FREE 15-minute consult with me. We can talk about audiobook marketing, business, or just chat. This caps at 7 slots and will fill up fast so sign up ASAP. Click here to book your free 15-minute consult! Thursday May 28th @2:30 PM EST: my “Learning to do eLearning” workshop has also gone from live to virtual! In this two-hour 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! It’s $100 to attend, but due to the pandemic you can use the $25-off promo code EARLYBIRD528 anytime! This webinar caps at 50 attendees and is filling up fast so sign up ASAP. Click here to register! HAPPY HAPPYS Happy World Baking Day and Map Reading Week! QUOTE OF THE WEEK Tom Dheere is a voice actor who has narrated thousands of projects for hundreds of clients in over a dozen countries. He is also a voiceover business & marketing consultant known as the VOStrategist and produces the comic book “Agent 1.22”.

Agents have not been spared from the coronavirus pandemic. My longtime agent Viola Staravoj of VS Talent Group has just decided to shut her agency down. Vi has been wonderful to me over the years and among other great projects, helped me book the Nat Geo Wild show “We Move Animals“. Alpaca-palooza forever! The Portland, Oregon-based agency In Both Ears just raised their talent commission to 25%. Agents traditionally charge 10% to 15% and managers upwards of 20%. This has caused a bit of a stir in the voiceover community and a fascinating, civil discourse has taken place on social media. I can’t post any quotes since it’s happening in a private Facebook group. I will say that talents on their roster get access to additional services and their rationale is both thoughtful & transparent. TIP OF THE WEEK Don’t take your agents for granted. Agents offer an invaluable service to the voiceover community. They provide vetted talent to voice seekers and strive to negotiate fairly on everyone’s behalf. Agents give voice talent access to projects we can’t get on our own. While only a small percentage of my voiceover work comes from agents, I value them greatly. The coronavirus pandemic has made voice actors, voice seekers, agents, and recording studios reexamine their business models and sometimes make painful decisions to either move their business forward or call it a day. Take the time to look at your own business model. What percentage of your voiceover revenue comes from agents, online casting sites, or direct marketing? Are you happy with that breakdown? If not, what would you like those numbers to be and what are you going to do about it? FYI if you wanna read more blog posts about agents, check these out: The Secret to Getting an Agent Landing an Agent How to Vet an Agent* *In Both Ears is no longer a member of the VO Agent Alliance. NEWS AND NOTES Thursday May 28th @2:30 PM EST: “Learning to do eLearning” is THIS WEEK! In this two-hour 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. It’s $100 to attend, but due to the pandemic you can use the $25-off promo code EARLYBIRD528 anytime! Click here to register. Thursday, June 4th @8PM EST: My next Business and Money 201 webinar will be ‘Managing Your Money’. In this one-hour webinar, we’ll talk about what to do with your paycheck and how to manage your finances, credit cards, taxes, insurance, and retirement. This webinar caps at 25 attendees and sells out fast. Thursday, June 18th @8PM EST: My next Marketing 201 webinar will be ‘Thriving in a Smaller Market City’. In this one-hour webinar, we’ll talk about how to build a successful voiceover business without living in a metropolitan area. This webinar caps at 25 attendees and sells out fast. Thursday, June 25th @3PM EDT: Johnny Heller’s SPLENDIFEROUS WEBINAR #4 (BUSINESS/MARKETING). In this webinar, the indubitable Johnny Heller hosts me, Karen Commins, and Kelsey Navarro in a conversation about the business and marketing side of audiobooks. Click here to learn more and sign up! HAPPY HAPPYS Happy Tap Dance Day and Hamburger Day! QUOTE OF THE WEEK Tom Dheere is a voice actor who has narrated thousands of projects for hundreds of clients in over a dozen countries. He is also a voiceover business & marketing consultant known as the VOStrategist and produces the comic book “Agent 1.22”.

I’m proud to announce the release of the seventieth audio book I’ve narrated: Leveraging the Impact of 360-Degree Feedback, Second Edition by John W. Fleenor, Sylvester Taylor, and Craig Chappelow. Here’s the blurb: This is a hands-on guide for implementing effective 360-degree feedback systems as part of leadership development initiatives in organizations. Written for professionals who work inside organizations and external consultants working with clients, the book draws on over 20 years of research and practice by the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL). The book provides step-by-step guidelines for successful 360-degree feedback as well as best practices observed and tested with CCL’s broad base of clients. Publisher’s Summary What does 360 degree feedback mean? 360-degree feedback is a feedback process where not just your superior but your peers and direct reports and sometimes even customers evaluate you. You receive an analysis of how you perceive yourself and how others perceive you. The Economic Times It got me thinking about voice actors and feedback. Feedback has always been a tricky thing for us. Why? We almost never get feedback on our auditions and want to know what we can do to improve Like most people, we are terrible at self-evaluation We are a bunch of narcissistic egomaniacs who are desperate to be told how wonderful we are TIP OF THE WEEK How can you get effective feedback on your demos and auditions? Don’t go to social media for feedback. It’s a colossal waste of time. If I had a nickel for every time a voice actor posted their demo and then freaked out when they received any negative feedback, I’d have enough nickels to not need any more nickels. Who’s to say their ears are any more developed than yours? What biases are baked into their cake? If you want effective feedback: book a coach, get in touch with a veteran voice actor, or talk to your representation. DO NOT ask for feedback from your agent about every audition you submit. That’s a great way to get dropped from the roster. If you’ve been on the roster for a while (3-6 months) and haven’t booked anything yet (50+ auditions) then sure, touch base with them. It may be your lack of genre mastery, your isms, your inability to follow casting specs, the quality of your home recording setup, or some other reason that you have zero control over. And to be totally honest; most voice actors aren’t as talented as they think they and need much more training than they realize. Just sayin’. FYI you are more then welcome to send your demos to me at tom@nulltomdheere.com and I’ll be happy to give them a listen. 🙂 Develop your ear. The ability to self-evaluate and self-direct is critical, especially now. How do you do that? Learn to detect what I call your “isms”. Do you talk fast or slow? Do you tend to upward inflect or downward inflect? Are you over-articulate or under-articulate? Are your isms appropriate or inappropriate for any given genre? Can you turn them on or off at will? Listen to the demos of similar voice actors and note the differences between their reads & yours. Record some samples with those differences in mind and see if & how your performance changes. You and nobody else is responsible for your voiceover career. You need to develop multiple skill sets to be an effective 21st Century voiceover business, up to and including the ability to process feedback. NEWS AND NOTES Thursday, June 18th @8PM EST: My next Marketing 201 webinar will be ‘Thriving in a Smaller Market City’. In this one-hour webinar, we’ll talk about how to build a successful voiceover business without living in a metropolitan area. This webinar caps at 25 attendees and sells out fast. Thursday, June 25th @3PM EDT: Johnny Heller’s SPLENDIFEROUS WEBINAR #4 (BUSINESS/MARKETING). In this webinar, the indubitable Johnny Heller hosts me, Karen Commins, and Kelsey Navarro in a conversation about the business and marketing side of audiobooks. Click here to learn more and sign up! TBA: My July Business and Money 201 webinar will be ‘Rates, Negotiating, and Billing’. In this one-hour webinar, we’ll talk about how to building a Rate Sheet, negotiating with voice seekers, and invoicing. This webinar caps at 25 attendees and sells out fast. Registration link coming soon! TBA: My July Marketing 201 webinar will be ‘4 Words That Will Kill Your Marketing’. In this one-hour webinar, we’ll talk about how most voice actors are their own worst enemy and how to stop the cycle. This webinar caps at 25 attendees and sells out fast. Registration link coming soon! HAPPY HAPPYS Happy Lobster Day and Audiobook Month! QUOTE OF THE WEEK Tom Dheere is a voice actor who has narrated thousands of projects for hundreds of clients in over a dozen countries. He is also a voiceover business & marketing consultant known as the VOStrategist and produces the comic book “Agent 1.22”.

I love quotes. Like, I really love them. I’ve put a Quote of the Week in every blog entry since its inception in 2008. I find it fascinating that a concept can be crystallized into a couple of words that could potentially change your life. Here’s the quote that changed mine… I couldn’t wait for success so I went ahead without it. Jonathan Winters It’s the foundation of my entire voiceover career. Anyway, recently I read the book Hemingway Didn’t Say That: The Truth Behind Familiar Quotations by Garson O’Toole. Quotes you have heard your entire life were researched meticulously by Quote Investigator (QI) to determine if the attributions are accurate. So, did they really say what we think they said…? Every quote in the book was either recycled or the attribution was wrong. Here are a few examples… Life is what happens when you’re making other plans. John Lennon (Allen Saunders said it first) Nobody goes there anymore. It’s too crowded. Yogi Berra (that joke has been circulating since 1882) With great power comes great responsibility. Spider-Man (first used in 1854) TIP OF THE WEEK I have a HUGE list of quotes that I’ve accumulated over the years, around 200+. When I post a Quote of the Week, it’s always random. Each week I just copy & paste whatever’s next on the list with no regard to its relevance to the blog’s subject. In the spirit of everything that’s been going on in our lives for the past month or so, here is a selection of quotes I think are appropriate. Enjoy! NEWS AND NOTES Thursday, June 25th @3PM EDT: Johnny Heller’s SPLENDIFEROUS WEBINAR #4 (BUSINESS/MARKETING). In this webinar, the indubitable Johnny Heller hosts me, Karen Commins, and Kelsey Navarro in a conversation about the business and marketing side of audiobooks. Click here to learn more and sign up! Thursday, July 9th @8PM EDT: My next Business and Money 201 webinar will be ‘Rates, Negotiating, and Billing’. In this one-hour webinar, we’ll talk about how to building a Rate Sheet, negotiating with voice seekers, and invoicing. This webinar caps at 25 attendees and sells out fast. Registration link coming soon! Thursday, July 23rd @8PM EDT: My next Marketing 201 webinar will be ‘4 Words That Will Kill Your Marketing’. In this one-hour webinar, we’ll talk about how most voice actors are their own worst enemy and how to stop the cycle. This webinar caps at 25 attendees and sells out fast. Registration link coming soon! HAPPY HAPPYS Happy Onion Rings Day and Audiobook Month! QUOTE OF THE WEEK Tom Dheere is a voice actor who has narrated thousands of projects for hundreds of clients in over a dozen countries. He is also a voiceover business & marketing consultant known as the VOStrategist and produces the comic book “Agent 1.22”.

Complaining is something we all do from time to time. Some more than others… Why do humans seem to enjoy complaining so much? Some are complaining to express dissatisfaction or a loss of control. Others are complaining just to vent. We see people on various social media groups complaining about all sorts of subjects from rates to poorly written scripts, but mostly about Pay-to-Play sites. Either they hate them or they aren’t getting enough work to suit them. Here’s the reality of it. The majority of voice talents can’t find work on casting sites for various reasons. Most don’t have the talent. Many who have the talent don’t have proper training or a professional demo. Some don’t know how to audition effectively. Others don’t have a quality home recording setup. Even if you have the talent, proper training, an effective demo, and good audition technique, remember that casting sites (to use Steven Jay Cohen’s analogy) are like dating sites. Sometimes it just takes a while to find the right match. If you don’t have the training or an effective demo, well, all the complaining in the world won’t help. FYI if you’re a voice actor who hates Pay-to-Play sites, they’re not going anywhere. I will say that if your complaining also involves educating new voice actors as to the potential pitfalls of certain P2P sites and other steps they can take to book work like Direct Marketing, that’s cool. Just don’t shout at the rain. It doesn’t help anyone. TIP OF THE WEEK Complaining on social media about anything related to your profession, in my humble opinion, is ill-advised. If you’re a voice seeker, would you want to work with someone who complains all the time? What if, while complaining, you violate your NDA, disparage the end-client, or make a comment that could be interpreted as racist, sexist, homophobic, or anti-Semitic? Actors, singers, and other artists sabotage their own careers all the time on social media. Don’t be one of those idiots. If you feel the need to complain; take it offline and look inward. What are you complaining about and why? Is it moving your career forward? Is it actionable? If you have an actual problem that needs solving, sure, you can look to social media if you want but PLEASE do some research before you post a question. Trust me, the odds are you’re not the first person to have the issue you have. NEWS AND NOTES Thursday, July 23rd @8PM EDT: My next Marketing 201 webinar will be ‘4 Words That Will Kill Your Marketing’. In this one-hour webinar, we’ll talk about how most voice actors are their own worst enemy and how to stop the cycle. This webinar caps at 25 attendees and sells out fast. Sunday, August 9th @1PM EDT: The Voice Actors Studio presents…’How to Manage your Money Like a VO Pro‘. So…you got your first (or maybe it’s your 257th) voiceover paycheck! CONGRATS!!! What do you do with it? Where do you deposit it? Should you open a new bank account? How much should you set aside for taxes? Should you incorporate? How do you get insurance? How do you save for retirement? All this and much more will be discussed in this online workshop. September 11-13: The 100 eVOcation early bird tickets sold out in six hours! Since it’s a 100% digital conference about all things voiceover business & marketing there is still room. HAPPY HAPPYS Happy Ice Cream Day and Moon Day! QUOTE OF THE WEEK Tom Dheere is a voice actor who has narrated thousands of projects for hundreds of clients in over a dozen countries. He is also a voiceover business & marketing consultant known as the VOStrategist and produces the comic book “Agent 1.22”.