Business Voice Over Training

VO Atlanta – Celebrating 10 Years!

May 12, 2023 by Theresa C. Ho

I recently attended VO Atlanta 2023 – the largest voiceover conference in the world. It was my first in-person VO Atlanta, having previously participated in the virtual edition in 2020.

It was an extra special one this year, not only for me, but it was also the 10^th anniversary edition and also the first year run by its new owners, Anna Collins and J. Michael Collins.

Real Life – Real VO People

There are so many voice over friends and colleagues whom I’ve met and developed relationships with online, but nothing beats meeting these folks in real life! It was so great to finally meet J. Michael, who was also my demo producer and one of my coaches. I also got to finally meet Brad Hyland in person, who was also one of my fantastic coaches and is a mentor.

I also finally got to meet some members of my accountability group in person! It was so amazing to be able to sit down and chat with them in real life!

As well, I’m part of Paul Schmidt’s VO Freedom Master Plan group. Paul hosts weekly online meetings with those in his group, and at VO Altanta, he organized a get-together for us. We got to discuss VO life, business strategies relating to the VO Freedom Master Plan and simply got to learn more about each other.

Networking

If you love networking and meeting new people, as I do, VO Atlanta was definitely the place to be. With about 1000 people at the event, there were certainly many people to meet and chat with. I met so many lovely people from around the world! Also, where else are you going to find such an amazing menagerie of VO talent (veterans and newcomers), agents, managers, casting directors, coaches and industry partners?

At times, I chose not to go into the sessions, but to hang out and to chat with folks in the hallways. Knowing that we would have all the recorded sessions available to us afterward allowed me to feel more relaxed about not having to catch all of it then and there.

Fun and More Fun

The Great Bagel Challenge between New Jersey (Uncle Roy) and Montreal (me) also took place. Uncle Roy has a tradition of bringing New Jersey bagels to voiceover conferences, and I joined him by bringing Montreal bagels when we were at the last V.O. North conference. I call it The Great Bagel Challenge because we both enjoy teasing each other about which city has the best bagels.

There were also a lot of VO folks busy with fun content creation. For example, we had Cherie B. Tay making fun videos for her TikTok and Instagram accounts, and I had a lot of fun participating in one of them. Rhonda Phillips, webinar host of Late Night Secrets with Rhonda, was really busy documenting the event and created some great content that she shared over her socials.

The evenings did not disappoint, with karaoke, dancing and other fun activities. Thanks to DJ Sam Beman for mixing those sweet tunes!

The Fabulous Get Mic’d! team hosted the Ultimate VO Survivor Grand Finale, with the super talented Tim Heller taking home the honor of being the Ultimate VO Survivor!

There was a script reading workshop with producers at Pandora/SiriusXM, where voice actors had the opportunity to read for them in both English and/or Spanish.

And if all of the above wasn’t enough for you, attendees had the chance to participate in The Team Challenge, hosted by Dan Friedman. There were randomly assigned teams and they had a certain amount of time to write, voice and produce a real commercial. The client (a real organization) chose the winning team and used their commercial spot to air.

Learning

The sheer number of sessions for pretty much all genres of VO was unbelievable. I was blown away by the quality of these sessions and of the speakers/presenters. There was something for everyone, from beginners to veterans.

It was obviously impossible to catch all of the sessions, so it is really great that we can now watch all of the replays in the comfort of our homes.

The X-Sessions were equally as impressive. Personally, I attended two X-Sessions: one with talent agent, Lau Lapides, and the other with casting director, Terry Berland. They both shared golden nuggets of information and tips to improve our self-direction and so much more.

Children in Voiceover

Headed up by Martha Kahn, the two-day Children’s program was a mini-conference on its own. There were sessions geared both to complete newcomers and also to children with experience. There were also some sessions for parents to learn more about the industry.

Special Surprises

From the opening video beautifully voiced by Brigid Real to the sneak peak of The Comet Casino’s animatic pilot by the talented Miranda Parkin, Scott Parkin and Ed Yeager, there were special surprises throughout the conference.

Inspiration and Generosity

This year’s Keynote Speaker was Debra Wilson, who spoke to us with passion and inspiration about how we need to share our authentic selves with the world and so much more.

The 2023 Unicorn Award was presented to Jeff Gelder, who is the founder of a charity called Children’s Holiday Magic Project. Jeff’s wonderful project helps bring joy and entertainment to hospitalized children during the holiday season through recorded stories and music. The Unicorn Award celebrates giving back without the expectation of profit or publicity.

Finally – the giveaways. It was like Christmas, combined with one of Oprah Winfrey’s giveaway shows. The prizes and gifts just kept on coming. The generosity of the VO community is mind-blowing.

A Touch of Class – Here, There, Everywhere

There was even Champagne. Oh yes! JMC Demos hosted a Champagne hour (or however long the Champagne lasted) for all attendees.

The event was beautifully organized, from A to Z. Thank you, Anna, J. Michael and the whole VO Atlanta Team! A big shout out to Scott Chambers and AJ McKay as the fantastic Emcee duo! Bravo to Uncle Roy Yokelson and his tech team! A million thanks go out to the numerous volunteers who helped make the event a huge success!

Can’t wait for next year’s event! See y’all in Atlanta!

Pivoting and Evolving

January 26, 2023 by Theresa C. Ho

The new year is well underway, and for us in Asian cultures, the Lunar New Year was recently celebrated.

A new year often means new goals and new resolutions. Most people have high hopes of achieving great things when the new year begins. Some are personal goals; some are business related, and some people set goals in both categories. Unfortunately, for some 80% of people, they fail at reaching those goals. Why is that? Maybe for most, it’s time to pivot and evolve.

I, myself, am no stranger to having a huge list of goals and not making all of those goals a reality. So, this year, I have a bit of a different approach. I’ve analyzed what has held me back from achieving those goals that I missed.

Small Steps

This year, I am choosing to limit my goals and my tasks in order to make them attainable. To be honest, I felt kind of burned out at times last year. I put so much on my plate, so much pressure on myself to do so many things, and I pretty much overwhelmed myself with too much to do. I realized that it’s of no use to myself to load a ridiculous number of tasks and goals on my plate at once because it’s not only overwhelming, but it ends up making me feel like I have so much to do and don’t know where to start. So, you know what happens? Sometimes I end up not starting because I feel overwhelmed. This year, I want to work by taking on one task at a time. It’s as simple as that. I don’t want to bite off more than I can chew, and I realized that by accomplishing things one by one, they add up to a lot of successes.

Mindset

Mindset is huge. Sometimes we are overcome by our fears. We fear failure, but we also can fear success. I admit that I suffer from fear of the “what ifs”. And due to those what ifs, my brain is sometimes set to inaction. I’m working on overcoming those by acknowledging that it’s OK to fail and make mistakes – if we learn from them. I am choosing to battle those fears by knowing that I am enough and that I cannot please everyone. No one can. For example, not everyone likes the same type of music, clothing or food. We are all different and have different tastes. That doesn’t mean that just because I don’t like something, it’s actually bad. It’s just not my taste.

For more thoughts on the power of mindset, you can read my blog post on this subject by clicking here.

Reminders

Hey, I’m a middle-aged woman. My memory isn’t what it used to be. Sigh. I’m pretty sure that most people of a certain age can relate. To help keep me on track, I have started to set reminders for myself in different ways, such as writing things down in my notebook or noting them in my phone. I’m also setting timers/alarms on my phone to remind me to do certain things. These little tricks will help me accomplish the tasks that I need to do, and they will also help me build the habits that I’m looking for. We all KNOW what we need to do, but getting those things done is another story. Thoughts are one thing, but concrete actions are another.

Are you familiar with the Duolingo app? I’m using it to learn Spanish. As of writing this blog, I have a streak of about 550 days. How have I maintained that streak? One of the reasons is that I have a whole bunch of reminders set up to ensure that I do at least one lesson per day. Those reminders really work. Go set your reminders and get those things done!

Patience

Most people are not patient. They know what they want to achieve or obtain, but lack the patience to get there. You know how they say Rome was not built in a day, and that it’s a marathon and not a race? Well, those sayings are so true. In many industries such as voice over and sales, both of which I work in, you need patience to achieve success. You need to develop skills, knowledge and relationships. None of those are going to happen overnight. Taking the time to develop one’s self is imperative to achieving success. The biggest mistake people make is to quit. I’m not saying that everyone can do anything or become whatever they want. For instance, in voice acting, I do believe that one needs a certain amount of innate talent, and that it’s not for everyone. But even that talent needs to be developed, and you need time to do it. So, be patient with yourself. Give yourself permission to be a student – to learn and develop. Forget about becoming an overnight success; instead, be patient with your path to success.

Accountability

This is huge. I truly believe that you can achieve great things with the help of others to hold you accountable to yourself. Accountability groups are really popular in the voiceover world. Not only do we give each other support, help and ideas, we also challenge each other to keep up with those goals and tasks. We are also there to help reframe any negative mindsets that come up.

One new thing that I recently tried is sitting down virtually with a partner and silently working with that person. During this set time, we’re working on completely different things. We both had these tasks that we had been delaying and delaying, and by sitting down together at the same time, we both got so much done. It’s such a simple yet effect way of checking off one more box on our to-do-lists.

A Recommendation

I love listening to podcasts and recently discovered a real gem. I highly recommend the Mel Robbins podcast. Mel gives solid and actionable advice on so many levels. If you feel yourself struggling, this podcast may help. And if you simply want to further develop yourself personally and professionally, this can be a great tool.

Gratitude

One final note is about the practice of gratitude. I have so much to be grateful for, including having a voice and a medium to share my thoughts with you. Also, I definitely really appreciate you as a reader. Keeping a positive mindset filled with gratitude is so important to me, and I truly believe that there are so many benefits in doing so.

I will leave you here with my best wishes to you for the rest of the year!! Thanks for reading!!

Voice Over Conferences During Pandemic Times

August 24, 2021 by Theresa C. Ho

Voice Over Conferences

The COVID-19 Pandemic hit the world like a storm at the beginning of 2020. It unfortunately put a pause on a lot of in-person events, including voice over and business conferences. But instead of putting a hold on these conferences indefinitely, some conference organizers saw the opportunity to use the technology so readily available to us, and organized virtual conferences.

Although my blog refers to the field of voice over, these theories and thoughts apply to conferences in all different types of professions.

My Experience

In August of 2020, I attended not only my first voice over conference, but my first virtual conference, which happened to be the inaugural One Voice Conference USA 2020, which was completely virtual. My experience was such a positive one that, to be honest, I have become somewhat of a VO virtual conference junkie! And I know that I’m not the only one, as I’ve seen many of the same people at the other ones that I have attended, such as VO Atlanta and VO North.

What to Expect

The way that many of these virtual conferences work is that you get to watch the presenters live. You also get to participate and interact in real-time. But most of these events also give attendees access to the virtual content afterwards, for at least a certain amount of time, if not indefinitely.

In many cases, the learning content and knowledge that you will gain and be presented with are essentially the same in both in-person and online. When attending a virtual conference, you will enter a virtual room based on your selection. You always have the option of changing rooms if you don’t find that particular session to suit what you’re looking for. It’s certainly easier to slip out of a virtual room than a real one unnoticed… And if there are too many interesting sessions happening at the same time and you have problems choosing which one to attend (trust me, I’ve been there), you can always watch the missed session on the replay.

Virtual Networking

It is true that meeting people virtually is not quite the same as in person, but don’t knock it until you’ve tried it. Often, there are networking sessions during these conferences. They usually create random break-out rooms with smaller groups of people, so that you do get to meet people in a more intimate setting. I myself have met so many wonderful voice actors – from my fellow Canadians, to our neighbors down south in the USA, to those overseas. Some of the people whom I’ve met virtually at VO conferences include people who eventually became a mentor and accountability buddies of mine. The virtual socials/parties are also a lot of fun! One has not really lived until they have experienced singing virtual karaoke! It’s a thing. I’m not kidding!

Virtual or In-Person – A Preference?

I don’t think that it’s always necessarily a question of preferences. For those of us who have attended in-person conferences, no matter what the industry, we can all agree that virtual is not the same as face-to-face time with colleagues, clients or industry partners.

There’s no denying the benefits of virtual conferences. Not only is the cost savings enormous, but the time savings is also a huge factor. One will save tons of money on what would normally be spent on travel, hotels and meals. Another factor is currency conversions that may affect those in different countries. The cost savings of attending a virtual conference vs an in-person one has allowed me to attend more of them than if I attended one in person. And in the end, that means access to more educational content.

It’s So Easy!

Virtual conferences also provide opportunities to people around the world who just would not be able to travel for a weekend conference that may be half way across the world. It’s just so easy and convenient to attend a virtual conference. Access is literally right at the tip of your fingers. Even without COVID restrictions, people from certain countries may have to deal with issues like travel visas. With the exception of the 2021 virtual VO Atlanta conference, most VO conferences are only about 3 days long. So for many, even if they prefer attending in person, it may not actually be feasible for them.

Furthermore, not all VOs are extroverts, and some may be intimidated or uncomfortable by the thought of in-person conferences. Perhaps they may not know any of the attendees, and they may actually welcome the security and comfort of learning from their home.

I am pretty much a social butterfly, love meeting new people, learning about what makes them tick and just chatting people up. So, yes, I would rather attend in person rather than virtually. That being said, I think that virtual is an excellent alternative that I’m very happy to partake in.

A New Way of Conferencing

Perhaps hybrid conferences (both in-person and virtual) are the way of the future. We see that One Voice Conference UK 2021 successfully hosted their first hybrid conference this past weekend, and the upcoming One Voice Conference USA 2021 is also organized to be hybrid. This is an excellent option for people with different budgets, schedules and from different locations. Will this be the gold standard for business conferences even after the Pandemic is over? Time will tell…

Go for it!

Of course, I would love to attend an in-person VO conference, and I definitely will, hopefully sooner rather than later. But with the fourth wave of the COVID-19 Pandemic well underway, along with continued travel restrictions in many countries, we can all agree that you can’t go wrong by attending a virtual conference. So, if you’re hesitant about any of the upcoming 2021 virtual conferences, just go for it! You won’t regret attending!

Upcoming Voice Over Conferences

Here are some of the upcoming virtual and hybrid VO conferences for the rest of 2021.

One Voice Conference USA 2021 – August 26-29, 2021 (Hybrid)

MAVO 2021 – November 12-14, 2021 (Virtual)

That’s Voiceover! Career Expo 2021 – November 19-21, 2021 (Virtual)

Bilingual Voice Actor