VO-BB - 20 YEARS OLD!

[todd ellis]

i started this as a response to another post - but realized that it was a totally different thing. i almost deleted all of it - but decided it was worth saying anyway.

P2P vs. Relationships.

i hire people who talk out loud for money all the time. i used to spend hours wading through the P2Ps looking for the right voice ... and i DID find some. but the time spent sifting through the utter ridiculousness ruined my day. SO - i assembled my own list of a little over 100 people - vetted for talent, studio quality & timely delivery. males - females & internationally accented variations of both ... even a few kids. many of those folks have an online vacation home right here. it took a long time to develop the list - but it saves me so much aggravation now. these people rarely need to audition and when they do it's against 2 or 3 other voices --- not 1,000. some of these people also send me work in return - but that's not why i developed my list. i did it to save me time & hair.

how do you get hired in the VO business? get to know people, develop relationships (not necessarily based 100% on business), be moderately talented, have a decent sounding recording environment, be available & be on time.
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"i know philip banks": todd ellis
who's/on/1st?

[bobsouer]

Todd,

So very well said! Thank you.
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Be well,
Bob Souer (just think of lemons)
The second nicest guy in voiceover.
+1-724-613-2749
Source Connect, phone patch, pony express

[Dayo]

Well said Todd. From a producer's point of view, the p2p sites are a dispiriting experience.
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Colin Day - UK Voiceover
www.thurstonday.co.uk

[Rob Ellis]

IMO we are salespeople on the front end as well as the rest of the process.

We sell ourselves to the client, then we sell what the client is selling to his/her audience.

And in the meantime I continue to sell "how great it is to have a voiceover husband" to my wife

[heyguido]

Yep. Nailed it, Todd.
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Don Brookshire
"Wait.... They wanna PAY me for this?"

[Jeffrey Kafer]

I shake my head when I hear people say "why would you want to network with the competition?"

Because many times the competition hire or refer me. And I've done a TON of hiring in the past and always go to people I trust who will deliver.

It's never a bad thing to network with people, even if they are your "competition."
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Jeff
http://JeffreyKafer.com
Voice-overload Web comic: http://voice-overload.com

[todd ellis]

right on jeff!

to paraphrase moe --- you can't be the voice in everybody's head all the time. but you can KNOW that voice. help your client, help yourself.

i'll share some more --- why not. several years ago i picked up a client who sent me a LOT of work (on the recommendation of the aforementioned moe, btw) not to be too specific i made a LOT of money from these guys & moe got a nice bottle of whiskey.

after a few years the jobs stopped coming in - not slowed down - simply stopped. i called to check in only to find that they were changing the way they did business - going from one narrator to ensemble casts - and multi-voiced projects. sorry, todd, see ya! we kept the conversation going long enough for me to find out they didn't really know how to find all these voices - and it was quickly becoming a pain in their collective heinies.

i said - hey - i know a lot of talented people, we have this old barn ... let's put on a show! long story short - although i don't voice as many jobs for them as i did before, as their voice-wrangler, i make almost as much money providing them with the voices they DO need/want. and the best part is, i get to work with my friends - some old - some new.
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"i know philip banks": todd ellis
who's/on/1st?

[Philip Banks]

On BBC Radio 4 a few days ago I heard a real social media expert say that all the so-called facts are wrong and so are the numbers. This person runs a company advising huge corporations on the correct ways to apply social media tactics and the company makes millions.

"Well Banksey (my name is Philip BTW) P. Michael Finetusch gave an awesome talk at WootVoCom on all the secrets of social media for Voyze Talon"

I'm sure he did, he did it for free and he gave great value for money.

Play it straight, play it honest, play it friendly and play it for profit.

[Diane Maggipinto]

I'm trying to develop more relationships in this world of increasing faceless time. It's awkward in that I'm rusty. But indeed, networking with the competition is a nice benefit, especially when you can have a beer with Kafer or whoever happens to come to camp or con. This is not to say that I haven't been in my hovel all day. It's just that, when I'm not, I try to connect with real live people, man. They might be the parents at my kids' school...and in fact there was one I met this morning who gave me the name of another parent who works in video production.

So, thanks for affirming what I suspected, Todd. Do you have my updated email address for your cabal?
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sitting at #8, though not as present as I'd like to be. Hello!

www.d3voiceworks.com

[chrisvoco]

There was an interesting article (I suppose transcription of a speech, rather) in the recent RW: http://www.radioworld.com/TabId/64/Default.aspx?ArticleId=272881

...on social media numbers and accepted "truths" being complete b.s.

And I don't quite know how I got on the quora digest mailing thingy, but there was an enjoyable take on networking in general the other day:

http://www.quora.com/How-do-I-get-better-at-networking

Both thoroughly enjoyable. However, I am afraid to leave my house, so I post the links here in hopes of helping anyone who's not like me.
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Finally, Ford stops starting to say things and starts.