I love Shakespeare. It’s a little-known fact that before I became a voice actor, my plan was to be a Shakespearean actor. I even went to school for it. As we all know, life has a funny way of turning your supposedly well-laid plans into, well, something else. So here I am 25 years later as a full-time voice actor. I have no regrets. I love my vocation, my life, and the people in my village but sometimes I wonder about the road not taken. Would I have made it as a New York act

I’m an eLearning narrator. I’ve always called myself a voice talent but when it comes right down to it, I’m an eLearning narrator. Or is it E Learning? Or e-learning? I’ve covered the confusing role of nomenclature in voiceovers both here and here so we don’t need to go down that particular rabbit hole today. I bring this up because lately I’ve been reflecting on my voiceover career. When I started doing voiceovers in the 90’s, I didn’t know eLearning even existed. I thoug

Auditions. Perhaps single most obsessed-over part of the voiceover industry by new talent. How you think about auditions reveals some insight about how you think about yourself, the voiceover industry, your relationship to it, and your expectations. Allow me to explain… Last week I went on an in-person audition at a casting director’s office here in Manhattan. I won’t say what the audition was or the casting director in question because, NDA. Anyway, I was asked to do three t

The Johnny Heller 5th Annual Splendiferous Workshop was, as always, splendiferous. Exactly how splendiferous? Let’s start with a few words from everyone’s favorite audio book narrator and adorably scathing satirist, Johnny Heller! “The Johnny Heller Splendiferous Narrator Workshop was started in 2015 when I was asked – generally – to put together a workshop for actors who were in town for APAC and had a free day before the convention. My idea was to have an event that would a

The VO Strategist. That’s me! Even the VO Strategist has to take some time off to do human-type stuff. This week I’ll be at the Audio Publishers Association Conference (APAC) and most of the related festivities & workshops. Since I’ll be busy running around Manhattan with all of my audio book homies, this is a good time to make a couple of announcements… Announcement #1! I’ve been producing voiceover demos for a little over a year now. I’ve had the pleasure of working with so

Voiceover narration technique is not something I talk about often. Since the thrust of my contribution to the voiceover industry is business and marketing know-how, that’s my focus when I blog or contribute on social media. With that in mind… About a year ago I added another service to the VO Strategist business: demo coaching. It’s been a wonderful, fascinating journey and I’ve learned a lot about teaching, coaching, listening, and providing effective feedback. I’ve noticed

Over the weekend I spoke at the Mid-Atlantic Voice Over Conference in Hernon, Virginia. 100 aspiring voice talents from all over the country converged on this suburb of Washington DC to explore the world of voiceovers, work with some amazing presenters, and network with some of the voiceover industry’s best and brightest. I’ve spoken at a lot of voiceover conferences over the years and MAVO was lovely, just lovely. This is me and my carpool buddies Johnny Heller and Suzanne B

Here is a lovely anecdote about the importance of effective troubleshooting… A few days after my Source Connect debacle, I had a Skype session with a friend using my MicPort Pro as a workaround. It worked perfectly. The next day I recorded a short project for a client (no issues) then I had a session with a VO Strategist student. Just like the day before, I plugged my MicPort Pro directly into my PC so I could use my 416 instead of my webcam mic so my student could hear me be

April 24th, 2017 marks my 20th anniversary as an e-learning narrator. Sounds like a weird thing to celebrate, right? Maybe so, but it was a critical day in my voiceover career. And I remember it well! Since I knew this anniversary was coming up, just for fun I looked through my 1997 planner to see what life was like 20 years ago. I worked for Bennigans at the time and travelled the country to train waiters at newly opening restaurants. I went to Colorado, Michigan (twice), Ge