I'm not sure where this originated, but it arrived in my inbox the other day. I usually don't pass along these "forward-this-to-the-whole-world" kind of emails, but after a quick read-through I knew this was something worth sharing.
It's mainly aimed at young students who haven't graduated yet, but I found many of its points very applicable to those of us who have moved beyond "higher education" and into real education (a.k.a. life).
Rule #1
Life is not fair. Get used to it.
Rule #2
The world doesn't care about your self esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something before you feel good about yourself.
Rule #3
You will not make $60,000 a year right out of school. You won't be successful until you've earned it. (And you don't earn it in school.)
Rule #4
If you think your teacher is tough, just wait until you get a boss.
Rule #5
Flipping burgers is NOT beneath your dignity. Your grandparents had a different word for burger-flipping: they called it "opportunity".
Rule #6
If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault. So don't whine about your mistakes. Learn from them.
Rule #7
Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes, and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were. So before you save the rain forests from the parasites of your parent's generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.
Rule #8
Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life has not. In some schools they have abolished failing grades and they'll give you as many chances as you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to anything in real life.
Rule #9
Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you "find yourself". Do that on your own time.
Rule #10
Television is not real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.
What do Yakko Warner (from the Animaniacs), Pinky (from Pinky and the Brain), Raphael and soon Donatello (from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), Hadji (from Jonny Quest), and about another billion animated characters have in common?
The answer: ONE incredibly talented voice actor!
His name is Rob Paulsen
No, I'm not talking about a quote from a popular 1999 movie. (Actually, the quote was "His name was Robert Paulsen" but without Googling it can you name the movie?)
I'm talking about one of the most gifted voice actors in the business: Rob Paulsen — a man who has a list of voice acting credits that make the phrase "a mile long" seem tiny. (You can check them out at Rob Paulsen on IMDb.)
A major influence
I grew up listening to the man perform in many cartoons. And yet from TV show to TV show I never suspected it was the same guy doing the voices. All I knew is that whichever character he happened to be performing, I gravitated toward it.
Some videos:
Here's just a tiny sampling of some of his work along with a 3-part series on voice acting!
After briefly mentioning the new voice over job that I got back in August I've received quite a few emails asking me to talk about some of the juicy details. Since I aim to please, this post will be all about what exactly the job is, how I landed the job, what the job entails, how much time I spend everyday on the job, and anything else that pops into my head as I write.
But before I begin to divulge, let me say up front that I am bound by a "somewhat relaxed" NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement). Which means that there are specifics about the job that I'm not allowed to talk about, but I can talk about it in general terms.
So now, here are the most asked questions about the new job and their answers:
Are you ready to take your voice over social media game to a whole new level of awesomeness? Then let the voice over super socials show you how!
There's no other way to describe Terry Daniel, Trish Basanyi and Dave Courvoisier - the best known and most authoritative voice actors on social media today. And VoiceOverXtra is presenting them in three major live webinars beginning Aug. 17, revealing their time-saving methods for making money through social media.
During the month of June, audiobook narrator Scott Brick posted one tweet a day on how audiobooks are made. Accompanying each tweet is a link to a video.
If you'd like to see the whole tweeted conversation and the videos, then head on over to How an Audiobook is Made.
This isn't a detailed scientific study. This isn't even a controlled experiment. It's just an observation of a single occurrence. And yet every voice actor in the industry has seen something similar. They know this is going on and they know it's causing the slow decline of the voice actor's salary and the cheapening of our image as highly-trained professionals.
It's called 'lowballing" — the practice of bidding extremely low on a project in the hopes of landing the gig — and it really does hurt!
Here's the latest occurrence I stumbled across...
On a voice over job website (which shall go unnamed) a client (who shall also go unnamed) posted a job for a 1-hour narration. The budget listed was between $350 and $500. About one week later that same client posted another 1-hour narration job. But this time: a budget of $50 to $100!
Think about it from the client's point of view...
If you (as a voice seeker) post a job with a budget of, let's say... $350, and then you get offers to do the job for as cheap as $50, wouldn't you then set the budget of your next job to only about $50? I don't know about you, but I certainly would!
If everyone is willing to work for peanuts, then why would a voice seeker offer prime rib?
Everybody wants to get a great deal. And if there are talented voice actors out there willing to sell themselves short and bid ultra-low, then why wouldn't voice seekers take advantage of it? If voice actors are always quoting a low price, then why wouldn't voice seekers start stating that their budgets are smaller than they actually are?
Now YOU think about it...
For MANY projects, the voice over is just as important as any of the visual elements. And some projects don't even have the visual elements! Your voice will help companies sell thousands and sometimes millions of dollars worth of their product or service. And they'll be laughing all the way to the bank at the great deal they got from the voice actor.
Come on, people! Why would anyone take our profession seriously when we ourselves are willing to accept table scraps as payment for professional jobs?
I just got back from a much-needed vacation. While on vacation I enjoy doing as close to nothing work related as possible. It's not that I hate my job. In fact, I love this job! But to me, vacation is a time for family, friends, and fun... unless I'm invited to audition — and then it's time to do a little work!
Now, recording on the road is its own special beast: you don't have your normal studio, you most likely don't have your normal equipment (microphones, etc.), and you may not even have your usual computer and software.
This happened to me recently. I had to "commandeer" an old closet in my parents house, fill it full of clothes and blankets, and get everyone in the house to be quite for about 10 minutes while I recorded. (Click on the image above to see my make-shift solution.)
My set up
I normally record on my iMac desktop at home, but the laptop I carry with me when I travel is old, which means that I can't run my favorite Adobe Audition CS5.5 on it. Instead I use Twisted Wave (it's Mac only, sorry), which in many ways can do just as good a job as Audition at a fraction of the price. If you're a beginner (or even a veteran) to voice acting, then this little gem of software magic is an excellent choice.
Now, that little blue light you see in the photo is my AT2020 USB condenser mic. It is an excellent little USB mic with a surprisingly good sound. (And the price is sweet as well!)
Wanna learn more?
As luck would have it, there just happens to be another webinar coming up by VoiceOverXtra. Recording expert Dan Lenard will talk all about the dos and don'ts of recording on the road. If you're interested, you can learn more here.
Working while on vacation?
Voice talent Paul Strikwerda wrote an excellent article (well, he always writes excellent articles) about should a voice actor work or not work during vacation. You can read it here.
Here's a great video by voice actor Jonathan Tilley about what are you worth as a voice actor. After the video, check out some of my additions to his list.
In addition to Jonathan's list of what clients say to justify paying a lower fee, here are a few more I've heard (with my comments in parentheses.)
"Any voice actor who knows his craft can get this done in no time." (True, a trained voice actor can get a quality recording out faster because we have the training and experience. But should we accept a lower payment just because we are good at our craft? NO! That training and experience demand a higher fee, not lower.)
"We can only pay a small fee for this project, but we have more work that we can send your way in the future." (Really? More work? Great! Before you get too excited, keep in mind that this is a COMMON ploy in many freelancing fields. I hear it quite a bit in the website design biz I dabble in. Remember to charge for ONE job at a time. "Future" work is just that, in the future. It should have no influence on the present.)
"It's only a few lines." (Yes, it might only be a little ten-second blurb, but it takes a voice actor longer than 10 seconds to record it, clean up the audio, and correspond with the client. In addition, we get paid for having and maintaining a home studio, having professional equipment, and some ROI (return on investment) for the money we put into our training and education — just like any other profession.)
I'm not sure where this originated, but it arrived in my inbox the other day. I usually don't pass along these "forward-this-to-the-whole-world" kind of emails, but after a quick read-through I knew this was something worth sharing.
What do Yakko Warner (from the Animaniacs), Pinky (from Pinky and the Brain), Raphael and soon Donatello (from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), Hadji (from Jonny Quest), and about another billion animated characters have in common?
After briefly mentioning the new voice over job that I got back in August I've received quite a few emails asking me to talk about some of the juicy details. Since I aim to please, this post will be all about what exactly the job is, how I landed the job, what the job entails, how much time I spend everyday on the job, and anything else that pops into my head as I write.
Are you ready to take your voice over social media game to a whole new level of awesomeness? Then let the voice over super socials show you how!
During the month of June, audiobook narrator Scott Brick posted one tweet a day on how audiobooks are made. Accompanying each tweet is a link to a video. 
This isn't a detailed scientific study. This isn't even a controlled experiment. It's just an observation of a single occurrence. And yet every voice actor in the industry has seen something similar. They know this is going on and they know it's causing the slow decline of the voice actor's salary and the cheapening of our image as highly-trained professionals.
. It is an excellent little USB mic with a surprisingly good sound. (And the price is sweet as well!)
