Bilingual Voice Actor

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Theresa C. Ho voice actor

VO Atlanta – Celebrating 10 Years!

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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 10th 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

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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!!

 

Voiceover Adventures at V.O. North!

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Recently, I attended my first in-person voiceover conference, which was V.O. North in Toronto, Canada, also known as “The Voiceover Conference of the North”. I have attended many virtual voiceover conferences in the past, including the virtual edition of V.O. North, but my experience with this in-person one was completely different. It truly was an extraordinary experience – one that I will never forget.

I wanted to share my personal experience for various reasons, including showing the value of attending such events. From newcomers to the industry, to seasoned veterans, there are numerous reasons why attending a voiceover conference is so worthwhile and appreciated by those of all levels.

Kicked off with a Bang

The first day, I attended an intensive workshop with New York casting director, Alexa Magnoto. Alexa provided us with so many golden nuggets of information, tips and various ways to breakdown and interpret copy. The goal was to improve our own self-direction at home.

It was such a wonderful opportunity to meet and read for a New York casting director in person, and to get such valuable feedback. She was so generous with her time and knowledge, and it really blew us away.

It was also great to be in the room with so many talented colleagues and to see how each one of us interprets copy and gives their own uniqueness to their reads.

There were also other fantastic intensives with industry leaders in audiobooks, video games, animation, movie trailers and TV promo, as well as a workshop for beginners.

The rest of the conference was equally as great!

Educational and Informative

Obviously, the biggest goal of attending the conference was to learn as much as possible, at least for me. And learn we did! I must admit, the choices were a bit overwhelming at times because they were all so interesting. Some examples of sessions included Marketing, Home Studios, Rates, AI, Editing, e-Learning, Vocal Health, ADR & Dubbing, Video Games, Audiobooks and so much more.

Surprises

While I was technically the understudy, I was super honored and surprised to have been asked to speak on a panel: Representing the Real World: Diversity & Inclusion in Voiceover. I was privileged to have shared the stage with some fantastic BIPOC voiceover talent from both Canada and the US. We talked about our personal experiences as BIPOC voice actors and where we see the industry going.

Challenges

Attendees were invited to step out of their comfort zones and participate in reading for various panels that consisted of agents, casting directors and other industry professionals. There was also a demo derby where anonymous participants had their demos critiqued. We also had the opportunity to read one-on-one for a particular industry professional, which included casting directors and agents.

And challenge myself I did! I got up in front of a panel and fellow colleagues and read a commercial script. Of course, it was nerve-racking, but I was really happy that I did it. I also participated in the demo derby and received valuable feedback.

Networking

I finally got to meet the Canadian members of my accountability group. Yay! Shout out to my accountability buddy Roman Bari, who was on the Find Your Squad: The Powerful and Often Underrated Benefits of Accountability Groups panel. It was equally great to meet our other members Katelyn Dawn, David Gilbert and Richard Crossman.

There was socializing, networking and more socializing. It was wonderful to finally meet so many people in person whom I had only met virtually. As well, it was great and so much fun to meet new VO friends and colleagues.

I also got to socialize with agents and casting directors, who were all just simply lovely people and so down to earth.

There was an industry mixer that was the official evening networking event. We also kept the hotel bar buzzing the whole weekend. And just simply hanging out in the lobby area of the conference floor was a great place to interact with fellow VO colleagues.

The Biggest Takeaway

Do not underestimate the power of human connection – to get to share a meal, a drink, a coffee and some laughs with fellow voiceover artists. We came from near and far, to join together and create bonds. This alone, was worth the ticket price and was my biggest takeaway.

Goodbyes

It was such an intense and fantastic weekend, and it was definitely sad to say goodbye to everyone.

Alas, this last V.O. North was the final edition. A million thanks go out to Tanya Buchanan and Dearbhla Trainor, as well as their team, for hosting this amazing event. You ladies rock!!

Oh yes, I do have one regret… I wish that I had taken more photos! Life lessons, right?! So, I’ll know to have my camera out more often for my next voiceover conference, which I have already booked! VO Atlanta, here I come!!

Mindset, Mindset, Mindset

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Yes, yes, yes! I am repeating myself several times because I want to highlight that THIS – mindset – is an essential element in determining one’s success professionally and in life, quite frankly.

 

Why Mindset is Everything

Mindset coaching is a billion-dollar industry and growing. From business people, to athletes to voice actors and beyond, people who want to succeed know that having a winning attitude and positive thought process is key. They often turn to others to get them where they feel they need to be, to grow and to succeed.

Having a positive mindset is vital. When we harbor on a negative mindset, it will slowly eat away at us, like a growing fungus. When you feel down, people can hear it in your voice. When you’re desperate, people can hear the desperation in your voice. Is that how you want to come across when you’re auditioning or contacting potential clients?

 

Challenges for Everyone

Sure, I’ve had bad days and periods when I’ve felt down and frustrated. We all have those days. It’s absolutely normal. But what’s important is being able to accept it and move past it. If you can’t get over feeling bad about yourself, you will not, I repeat, will not be able to achieve the success that you absolutely deserve.

It’s not only beginners who face challenges with mindset. There are industry professionals, of all levels, who go through difficult periods in how they think or feel.

 

Dealing with Rejection

As voice actors, we face rejection much more than the average person. We do, on a regular basis, face rejection in the form of not booking our auditions, not having auditions listened to, not hearing back from direct marketing reach outs and yes, even some in-your-face – please don’t contact me again type of rejections. Is this type of rejection difficult to deal with? It can be, but you don’t need to let it get to you.

I try not to take any of it personally. If I don’t get booked for the job, it’s very possible that someone else gave a better audition or maybe I just didn’t have the right voice. If I get a “please remove me from your contact list” message, I just do it and move on. I try not to dwell upon the rejections or non-bookings.

We have to learn to audition and forget about them once we submit. Maybe it’s easier said than done, but if we make a conscious effort, eventually, we will develop this type of mindset. When I first started out in voice over, I would analyze my auditions after I submitted them. I would think, “well, maybe I should have done this or that.” But I’ve learned to submit and move on. If you can’t do this, you will drive yourself crazy.

There are so many elements in our professional lives that we cannot control. But the one thing that we can control is ourselves. We can choose our own paths – the path that will bring us success. And no one is responsible for your success except you. We can choose positivity versus negativity. We can choose action over inaction. We can choose to deal with people who bring positivity to our lives.

I’ve always told my children that one’s success is built upon one’s determination and initiative. You get out of life what you put into it.

 

Other things to Remember

To keep a positive mindset means to keep a healthy mind and body. To do this, sometimes we need to recharge our batteries, and yes, that means taking a vacation. It can also mean unplugging ourselves from the digital world – from the never-ending emails, phone calls, messages, etc. that we are inundated with on a daily basis. We need to learn how to take care of ourselves so that we can take care of others, including our clients. A burned out, sick employee/service provider is of no help to those we are supposed to be serving.

 

You can do it! Yes, you can!

Isn’t this the type of message we tell our kids when we are encouraging them to try new things, to power on when they feel discouraged? Well, we should be telling ourselves the same thing! It’s sure a heck of a lot better than thinking, “Hey, you suck and you cannot do it.” Right?

 

Let Yourself be Empowered by YOU!

Giving yourself permission to be great and to be the best that you can be is enormously powerful. Give yourself permission to try new things and to fail. Failing here and there will help you further develop yourself as a person and as a professional.  Stop over thinking everything. When we over analyze, we end up suffering from analysis paralysis.

 

Steps to Take When Feeling Down

How are you going to get your mojo back? Or if you never felt that you had it, how can you discover it?

When I feel stuck or am in need of help, my accountability buddies are ALWAYS there for me. Not only do we hold each other accountable for our goals and help each other in so many other ways, but we’re always just a message, phone call or Zoom call away when we need a little boost. And sometimes when you can’t see for yourself how truly awesome you are, usually, there is someone who recognizes your greatness and is very happy to help you get out of your slump. If you don’t have an accountability group, I highly recommend that you try to develop one.

You can also reach out to a mentor, if you have one. If you don’t, try to find one. For voice actors, the World Voices Organization or WoVO is a great resource for beginner voice actors and veterans alike. They have a ton of resources, including a mentorship program that is included in your membership fee.

I also enjoy listening to podcasts that focus on positive thinking and mindset. There are also so many books out there that can help one reset one’s outlook.

Also, don’t forget to have fun and do the things that make you happy!

The voice over community is an amazing one. There is always someone willing to help. If you ever need to chat or need a pep talk, feel free to reach out to me!

Thanks for reading to the end! Smile, and remember, you’re awesome!!

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