I am delighted to have voiced a corporate long narration of the character of Chief Scientist for Binance/BNB Chain for a their presentation at the prestigious Seamless Middle East Conference in Dubai tomorrow! Got up at 5am to head into my vocal booth for my client who is on London time, 7 hrs ahead of us. Such nice clients and a fun, long narration, acting as the chief scientist at BNB Chain/Binance.
My comments on a Voices.com survey were included in the article, 'Time Management Strategies for Voice Actors - A Day in the Life of a Voice Actor'!
My comments on a Voices.com survey were included in the article, 'Time Management Strategies for Voice Actors - A Day in the Life of a Voice Actor'!
Taking care of ourselves encompasses all aspects of the mind and body. Sometimes self-care means caring for the physical self by getting enough exercise and eating healthy. Genevieve Hannon really puts this into practice:
"[My self-care practices consist of] Drinking lots of water throughout the day, occasionally with an electrolyte powder in it. Stretching, standing up in my vocal booth often, hiking with my dogs, eating healthy meals, doing vocal warm ups and breathing exercises, meditating and doing yoga, [and] not consuming anything dehydrating."
https://www.voices.com/…/time-management-strategies-for-vo…/
My Experiences Featured in 'Fiverr Online Gig Economy' in The Atlantic, written by award-winning journalist Alana Semuels
Some of my experiences as a VO actor for a couple years on Fiverr are featured in this article published in The Atlantic, written by award-winning journalist Alana Semuels, with whom I have been corresponding for the past few weeks.
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/08/fiverr-online-gig-economy/569083
"Genevieve Hannon used to be a voice actor in New York City, where she was a member of SAG-AFTRA, which meant that she sometimes made $500 for a quick session doing TV voice-over promos. She made about $85,000 to $100,000 a year, she told me. She eventually left the East Coast to become a veterinary tech in Utah, but when she decided to supplement her income by doing voice-over work online, she had to dramatically lower her rates to find work on Fiverr. At first, she charged just $5 for 100 words of script, which made her feel guilty because she knew she was drastically undercutting union rates. When she started getting good reviews, she slowly raised her rates, and eventually made $17,000 one year. But she felt guilty doing work for multinational companies that had previously hired union actors for much more money, she told me. She was stuck: If she rejoined the union, she wouldn’t get much work, because so many buyers had gone to digital-work sites. But Fiverr didn’t earn her as much money. She eventually got kicked off Fiverr for listing her website in a correspondence with a client, she told me, and in the end, she was glad to leave the site. “It was a real relief to feel like I’m not doing something harmful for the overall good,” she said. Still, now that she’s banned from Fiverr, she’s had to resort to other digital-work sites to sell her services, which she says don’t have the reach of Fiverr."
Voiceover Conferences Are an Integral Part of a Successful Career
"Working as a voice actor can be a lonely profession, especially if you work predominantly from home. One way to get out of your booth and meet your peers, agents, producers, and coaches is to go to one of the many voiceover conferences that take place around the world each year.
What exactly is a VO conference? Why should you attend? What can you leave with that you didn’t have when you arrived? How do you choose which conference to attend? And how can you make the most of the connections that you make?
Joining me this week are Gerald Griffith, founder and CEO of VO Atlanta, the biggest voiceover conference in the world. And Dave Courvoisier, voice actor, Emmy Award winner and president of World Voices Organization and the WOVO Conference. We take a peek behind the curtain at the planning of a major voiceover conference to learn how much work is involved in the preparation and oversight of such a major event."
Host of the podcast: Jamie Muffett is a British voice actor, audio engineer, and filmmaker based in NYC. His voice clients include Coca-Cola, Warner Brothers, Microsoft, and National Geographic.
- By Jamie Muffett | Posted Nov. 2, 2017 in Backstage
9 Life Lessons from Tim Minchin
Watch this wonderful and hilarious "9 Life Lessons" graduation speech at U. of Western Australia from 5 yrs ago by the wonderful and superbly accomplished comedian, theater actor, musical writer, and TV actor, Tim Minchin. Tim, the former UWA Arts student, is described as "sublimely talented, witty, smart and unabashedly offensive" in a musical career that has taken the world by storm, as he is also awarded an honorary doctorate by The University of Western Australia in this video.
Run, Don't Walk from Fiverr!
If you are a beginner, intermediate or even seasoned voice actor, the online freelancers' world of Gigs may be appealing for part of your income. Fiverr is one such online Gig platform. The appeal is real: no auditions for jobs, no annual membership fees to be a VO actor, loads of wonderful creative contacts made, setting your own fees for services (even upwards of non-union rates), great place to warm up and practice as a newbie, plenty of good additions to your portfolio, runs on a timer so you can keep your clients happy with their deadlines easily. The cons? Well, bear with me, as the list is just as long if not longer. Poor customer service that is untimely (24-48 hr wait) and not thorough at all (robotic responses) until you press them to carefully look at your requests, awfully sensitive algorithm that flags and bans words for violation of Trust and Safety rules such as Pay even if it is a word in a script you are voicing for the financial industry, too controlling and regulation Trust and Safety disallowing one to list outside sites even though they are your portfolios (they do allow Vimeo, but not business websites), they do not allow Buyers and Sellers to connect directly on email or Skype or phone even if you are voicing an IVR system and have to call it in or need to connect to discuss more efficiently how to proceed with the projects, their uploading system for files and Gig videos is glitchy often, they take a 20% commission on all work when it should ideally be 10-15% especially since they offer little support and are not active in finding you jobs, and many Sellers are cheap and try to undercut your worth and when you decline their work they get rude, so you have to report them to Fiverr for bad behavior.
So if you are like me, an 18-year veteran of the VO industry from a major market and now charge non-union (higher) rates on Fiverr for your work in order to not lower the standards in your industry, you book 1200 jobs in two years, get 100% 5-star reviews from 830 clients, are favorited by 970 clients, you are consistently on the first page of searches/recommendations for leading VO talent on the site, you've made an extra $25,000 income from working only 1-2 hrs/day and charging respectable prices (not $5), you have make Fiverr a $5000 commission, and you have followed and respected the Terms of Service in refusing to connect with clients outside of the platform, you can still have your account closed permanently by Trust and Safety for the *3 times* you have listed your professional website for your clients' clients to peruse (likely clients who don't want their clients to know they are hiring a Fiverr talent...). Yes, I did broach their ToS a few times siting my website in messages, but it was merely for my Sellers' clients. Sad, because they should weigh that against the dozens of times in 2 yrs that I have declined Sellers' requests to connect via email or phone or Skype, etc. I have defended them and their idiotic rules more times than I can count. What a foolish company who would cancel an acct of a seasoned and popular talent who brings them a modicum of respect in an otherwise detested site who gets a Better Business Bureau rating of "F"! Not a company with which I want to be associated! Once I get my $700 they are holding for 90 days (??!!), I will start to post my story on their forum for folks to read. I may write an opinion piece for the NY Times or Forbes too. Meantime, I have to make up my income lost not having them as part of my job market opportunities. They are a fraction, but an important one. $13K year one, $17K year two, and growing.
Here's a typical example of a good, talented, experienced, good money-earning Seller on Fiverr who also got removed:
Marie writes, "This is a great post and I loved reading all of the comments. My partner and I just spent a year on Fiverr killing ourselves to build a business that ended up making $4k / month (after the 20% Fiverr commission). Keep in mind it was 2 people working on it roughly part-time. We were feeling so good about it that we even created a Udemy course about how to become a Fiverr PRO, sharing all of our tips and insights etc. However we had started to become disenchanted for all of the reasons that have been stated in this comment string — shitty buyer scammers, too much back & forth, too many cancellations of large orders to avoid negative reviews, too much haggling, crap Customer Suppor from Fiverr… Basically we had started to feel degraded and had started looking into shifting the business into other areas.
And them BOOM! Last week our account became frozen. We suddenly could not access our buyers… An after days of asking Customer Support (it was like pulling teeth), we were told that our account was deactivated because we had suggested to a customer *once* to go on Skype to discuss our $670 order and get it finished, because it had dragged on for 6 weeks. We tried to reason with them and explain that we were not aware that this was such a huge violation, that we are a 5-Star rated seller with rave reviews, and that we have invested a lot of our marketing and resourced into our Fiverr business. But it was like banging on a brick wall — the answer was still: Go Away.
Over the course of the year we dealt with approximately 3,000 buyers and came across some very abusive people — people who have told us ”Go f*ck yourself” and ”You f*cking c*nt” and ”I’m gonna track you down and beat the sh*t out of you”…. I just checked and as of today, these buyers are still active on Fiverr. But hey, I guess they never created such a heinous crime as asking someone to use Skype?" - Marie
It's all good. It served its purpose for two years as an extra income and practice in new genres. But I really have always been embarrassed at working on Fiverr at all, as it's so detested in the VO industry, and, although I was charging my clients non-union rates that are more respectable, and although I made a ton of truly great work of which I am proud, and although I have made great connections with clients in genres I had not experienced prior (like E-Learning, IVR/Telephony, Podcast Intros & Outros), I am done. Fiverr truly is beneath my stature and undeserving of my talent and experience. I really am a big believer in Darwin's survival of the fittest as well as karma, and surely this mediocre company cannot survive long the way they treat their clients, both Sellers and Buyers, at least not as anything else but an "F" rated company.
- Genevieve, Genevieve Hannon Voice Overs
My Medical Narration Audiobook Client Dr. Bobby N. Koneru Gives Great TEDx Talk!
As a voice over actor with extensive medical and scientific terminology knowledge, my first medical audiobook client last year was Dr. Bobby Koneru, for whom I voiced his book, "Confessions of a Radiation Oncologist: What You Don't Know About Cancer and Radiation Therapy" (available on Amazon.com and Audible.com). Bobby is a leading Radiation Oncologist, an awesome Ted-talk speaker, a terrific author and a total inspiration! Check him out!
Dr. Bobby Koneru did his medical school training at the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Medicine. He completed his residency training at Northwestern University in Chicago in the specialty of Radiation Oncology. After completion of residency, Dr. Koneru completed specialized training in Sterotactic Body Radiation (SBRT) and CNS Radiosurgery at Baylor Medical Center, Princess Margeret Hospital and the University of Pittsburgh. He served as faculty at Northwestern University for several years, helping build their SBRT program. He created POG, which is a multilevel cancer services organization serving cancer centers in rural communities. He also serves as a consultant for programs that need SBRT development. Dr. Koneru was recently a TEDx speaker to a national audience. His book, "Confessions of a Radiation Oncologist: What You Don't Know About Cancer and Radiation Therapy" is available on Amazon.com.Connection and Meaning: Your Life Depends on Them | Dr. Bobby Koneru | TEDxDubuque
This talk was given at a local TEDx event, produced independently of the TED Conferences. By engaging socially and emotionally with cancer patients, we can elevate their immune response and remove the disconnectedness patients often feel.
The Film ‘Loving,’ About a History-Making Interracial Couple, Sets Cannes Abuzz
Congrats to my brother-in-law (and officiant of our upcoming wedding!) Peter Saraf, a formidable producer, on his latest film "Loving", premiering at Cannes Film Festival! Pete is the Chair of the Producer's Guild East and VP of the PG of America. He produced "Little Miss Sunshine" among so many great Indi films, all the films from the '90s with his dear friend Jonathan Demme, and all the films from his company Beach Beach Films since then. His latest film "Loving" has Cannes Film Festival all abuzz and talking about the 2017 Oscars. My brother makes really good films! I am so proud of him!
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/17/movies/film-about-history-making-interracial-couple-sets-cannes-abuzz.html?smprod=nytcore-ipad&smid=nytcore-ipad-share&_r=0
Mississippi Sports Medicine & Orthopaedic Center Telephony/On Hold Message & Music
I just voiced the On Hold message for Mississippi Sports Medicine and Orthopedic Center, all 6 locations, along with choosing and editing music to go underneath it. I created this video of stills to go with it for showing people so they wouldn't be bored just listening to the audio! Check it out!
MaxxDocs Corporate Explainer Video
One of my many corporate explainer video jobs I do daily for clients all over the world is this one for MaxxDocs, a document management system! This is "a quick 8 minute overview demo of the main features in the MaxxDocs document management software solution. MaxxDocs is the simplest and most cost effective entry level document management solution in the market today. Video looks best if launched in full screen."
New Telephony, IVR and On-Hold Demo
My new Telephony, IVR and On-Hold Messaging Voice Over Demo is on my Demos page of mywebsite! I made it myself using the most recent jobs from this past month I have voiced, including the royalty-free music I added. Not sure if I will keep Ecora Pest Control as I am not sure if their practices are humane - probably shouldn't have done that job in the first place...
Clients:
1. Americas Party Company
2. Ecora Pest Control
3. Rent Vest Property Management
4. My TV
Anna Quindlen's New Novel "Miller's Valley"
I voiced the book trailer last week for Anna Quindlen's new novel "Miller's Valley". At the reading and book signing of Anna Quindlen's novel, "Miller's Valley" today at NYC's Upper West Side Barnes & Noble, my Mom enjoyed her readings and meeting her, and said that Anna sent a special "thank you" to me for my voice in her book trailer, which will be coming out soon! How cool is that?! Anna Quindlen is an American author, journalist, and opinion columnist whose New York Times column, Public and Private, won the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary in 1992. She began her journalism career in 1974 as a reporter for the New York Post. Between 1977 and 1994 she held several posts at The New York Times. She has written five novels, two of which have been made into movies. One True Thing was made into a feature film in 1998 for which Meryl Streep received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. Black and Blue and Blessings were made into television movies in 1999 and 2003, respectively.
My voice is narrating the video for this awesome project! Hallmark and Best Friends Animal Society have joined together to Save Them All (all of the animals, that is).
My voice is narrating the video for this awesome project! Hallmark and Best Friends Animal Society have joined together to Save Them All (all of the animals, that is). Hallmark loves friends. Especially best friends. And we know that man’s best friends can always use a hand. That’s why Hallmark has made a donation to Best Friends Animal Society® to offset adoption fees over the next two years and help 2,000 pets find loving homes.
WATCH THE VIDEO:
http://explore.hallmark.com/best-friends/?mc=T_V_P_ED_HD_bestfriends
AKG C414 B-ULS Large Diaphragm Condenser Microphones and Behringer ProGain Pro-8 Digital Preamp on loan from my friend, former pro engineer, Chef Shon Foster
Over the blue moon! My friend, a former pro engineer, now incredible pro chef, has loaned me these beauties - AKG C414 B-ULS large diaphragm condenser mics with shock mounts - for my voice over work! For Christmas I will be able to buy the one I have my heart set on, but until I can afford it, my friend has helped me out a lot with these gorgeous and well known, well respected pro studio babies. I cannot possibly thank you enough, Shon.
The C414 B-ULS is THE reference microphone for almost all comparative microphone tests and one of the most used condenser microphones in the world. It is the microphone of choice for miking up vocals, grand pianos, percussions, and any other sound sources with complex waveforms. A gold-sputtered 1-inch dual-diaphragm and Ultra Linear Series electronics combine to provide an extremely smooth frequency response.
Four selectable polar patterns allow the microphone to be used for every recording technique and two bass cut filters suppress low-frequency noise. Extremely low self noise and high headroom result in a dynamic range of 126 dB, which is wider than that of digital recording equipment. Switchable 10-dB and 20-dB preattenuation pads let you record instruments with sound pressure levels beyond 150 dB SPL at less than 0.5% THD. Complete with spider type suspension, windscreen, and individual frequency response printout.
http://www.akg.com/pro/p/c414-b-uls
http://www.behringer.com/EN/Products/ADA8000.aspx