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Hi everyone.

It’s a busy week, once again, working on two different books. An old book in the public domain and another book on copywriting. A little different.

Getting closer to the Atlanta Voiceover Conference. SUPER excited for this, I haven’t been to anything like this before, and everything that I’ve seen looks like an incredible experience. The hotel I’m at is the same one hosting the conference, so it’s going to be a pretty convenient experience.

Debating if I should do some sort of on-location podcast or something to that effect while I’m there. Maybe a wrap-up on the day or something along those lines. The irony will be that I’ll be hoarse at a VO conference, most likely. Once I get comfortable, it’s hard to shut me up. And, I’m guessing a lot of the people there are the same way–introverts with an outrovert complex.

The journey there will involve a nice, long road trip. If you know me, you know I’ve done a cross-country move from Phoenix to Chicago (by car), then Chicago to Phoenix (by car) and then back, Phoenix to Eau Claire. I’m now a long-distance driving vet, by those standards, so this should be a walk in the park (although, this is my first trip driving down to ATL, so, if there’s anything to know about Atlanta traffic, SOMEONE let me know.)

I’ll try to blog more as it gets closer, and maybe even some dispatches from the trip.

I was looking at a Reddit post about people that have been narrating audiobooks and the amount of time it took them to have anything that could be called success. Some have made a few books here and there, making enough to upgrade their equipment, but making it clearly a part-time gig. Others have been doing well enough to quit their day job. I’m closer to the latter, but still haven’t been able to take the leap to quit the day job. (Getting there!)

It’s been such a weird and wild trip doing this, there’s so much variety in what’s out there to audition for, and I’ve had the pleasure of doing everything from sci-fi to self-help books. I’ve learned that I apparently sound like Jeff Daniels when I narrate, which is something I can definitely say I’ve never heard before.

Getting close to one month until the great VO Atlanta conference. REALLY looking forward to it.

Anyhow, I was bored and just wanted to put out there how grateful and lucky I am for being able to do this.

After some serious auditioning, finally getting some work back in the ol’ booth. Needless to say, I should have been doing something to keep the voice in shape, because after a month off without any consistent narrating or voice work, my voice is clearly not in shape to run a marathon. In this case, a marathon session in the booth.

Not to worry, though…Grether’s Pastilles always save the day. I down those so much, I should get an endorsement deal. Hell, I’d do the voiceovers for them, if it meant free product. They help immensely.

Counting down the days to VO Atlanta…really crossing my fingers for some great opportunities out of there. Definitely will be posting videos and photos from the event on here.

Anyhow, it’s good to be working again, and hopefully, there’s more in the pipeline.

I think back to when I got a radio job back in 1996; I was a gangly 18 year old that was interning at a local radio station with two others. It wasn’t long before it was just me, and I was being tutored by the lead newsreader/journalist at the station. I was pretty excited, I essentially was interning without being in high school or college at this point, and getting some good tips.

An important part of this story is that the newsreader was from the UK. I was lucky enough to make my radio debut reading the news while she was on vacation.

She never made it back.

No, nothing horrible happened to her, other than not getting her visa renewed. So I was the interim news guy until they figured out what to do. In the meantime, I was able to attend an education photo op by Tipper Gore, and since it was 1996, I was also assigned to interview some local and state-wide candidates, which was a mind-blowing experience to this political junkie.

Alas, it couldn’t last forever, and college was calling–which wasn’t going to work with the 4:30am wakeup and 5-9am schedule I had. It was fun while it lasted, and wouldn’t trade the experience for anything, and it helped get here, even if it took me 20 years after the fact.

Hi again, everyone.

So put the final touches on reservations for the #VOAtlanta Conference in March. REALLY looking forward to it, since it’s kind of a big deal. 4 days in Atlanta learning more about the voiceover side of things, as opposed to the narration work I’ve been doing. The goal (as of the previous post) was going to APAC this year, but after some research, this made more sense, if I really want to make this a full-time endeavor (which I do). APAC will be next year’s learning experience.

The goal is to network, network, network, then find avenues into straight voiceover, animation, video games, etc. that would be a good fit. It won’t be boring, even though it’s 4 days, there’s more seminars, speakers, and learning opportunities than there is time. It’s going to be a blast. Getting to see Atlanta will be interesting, as well. Haven’t been there since 2005, and it was only for a few hours.

Otherwise, on the narration front, it’s been a little quiet–for the time being. A few opportunities are coming up, just not sure exactly when. Alas, the life of freelance vocal work.

Ok, time for me to work on some more auditions…