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2019 Year End Demo

Blog, customer service, encouragement, voice over

Troy’s Manly Voice Over Demo or Troytosterone for 2019!
2019 – what an AMAZING year in my voiceover business! Reflecting this weekend on expectations a year ago and how God blessed me with so many opportunities and creative challenges and new business – far exceeding my goals. With completely trusting the Holy Spirit as my business manager there is no limit to what 2020 can bring! Here is a sample of some projects I worked on, I can’t figure out whether to call it “Troy’s Manly Demo” or “Troytosterone”.

VO Weekly Stew #2

Blog, encouragement, voice over

Voice Over Weekly Stew #2 – I’m on a roll now!
This video I celebrate 7 years of officially working by faith – 10/16/12 – 10/16/19.

7 years
On October 16, 2012 I was officially unemployed and figuring out what to do. Seven years later to the day I reflect back on what an amazing faith  journey with God it has been and some background on how I got here. Thanks for watching!

VO Weekly Stew #1

Blog, encouragement, voice over

Voice Over Weekly Stew #1 of “who knows how many”!
This video begins a weekly overview of my voice over business. I’ve attempted this periodically over the last several years and got overwhelmed by a crazy production schedule that crowded it out – I’m committed to making it work this time by keeping it simple.

Talking about my first live event/emcee gig.
On October 2 I did something completely outside my comfort zone – I emceed a live event in front of 300 people high atop the Speedway Club at Texas Motor Speedway. It was for an amazing elearning client – Energy Worldnet that I had done VO work for since 2016. Now that I’ve had a week to process and reflect here is a video that shares my thoughts and experience. Thanks for watching!

June 2019 VO Report

Blog, encouragement, voice over

Hey gang, June 2019 was an amazingly productive month in my VO biz and life!
This video begins a monthly overview and replacement basically for sending out emails to my mailing list of current/past/future clients. Folks are busy and I understand it is much easier to watch a 7 minute video than read through several paragraphs of content.
So for those of you who want to take the time to read a bit more in detail what went on in my business, I present to you the highlights of what was going on in my world in June!

Approximately 75 completed projects of all genres; radio/tv commercials, online ads, narration, explainer videos, elearning, awards show announcements, small biz promotions, legal spots, healthcare enrollment spots, restaurant spots, instructional how-to’s, character voices… try saying all that in a single breath dude 🙂

Volunteer Activity with LearningAlly.org – wrapping up my 4th audiobook with them and 2 more in production. The opportunity to read not one but three stories in the “Here’s Hank” series by the amazing actor/author Henry Winkler is beyond cool!
If you’d like to volunteer with this organization I strongly recommend clicking the link above, learning more and jumping in – you don’t have to be a professional voice over artist, you can volunteer to be a listener and give feedback.  I’ve heard from a friend on FB where this is used in her son’s school and it’s made a big difference in his reading comprehension. Hearing that made a big impact on me and at the end of the day telling kid stories is such fun, why not give back with the gifts that I have been blessed with.

I built and brought my VO mobile rig with me on a 5 day trip to Virginia Beach to visit my daughter and 18 month old granddaughter. This allowed me to visit and love on family and still produce 4 x high quality projects during some downtime. Blessed to live in a time when this is possible and affordable! Here is a short video from the setup on my FaceBook page.

I produced a green screen video where I played the part of a cool IT guy named Nicky for a VR game developer in the Netherlands. It involved being on camera and using all those studio lights, teleprompter and green screen background I invested in – fun and challenging and a lot more complicated than voice over work!

Continued my association with the team at BYP in Dallas producing radio/tv commercial tags for Jerry Seinfeld comedy events – the tour rolls on for year 2 and I’m thrilled to still be that guy who tells you how to get tix and where it’s happening!

Continued as the VO guy with the TopThink YouTube channel (that has over 800K subscribers) producing some very interesting explainer video style content – never fail to learn something new from the amazing and genteel Peter and the crew at TT!

Training/Career Development – Participated in an online WOG (workout group) for VO talent hosted by veteran VO super talent/instructor Nick Omana. A WOG is when a group of voice actors read for their peers and then get immediate feedback – great experience for learning how to break down scripts for different genres and auditioning. It’s also great for learning how to give direction – kind of like turning the tables and understanding the perspective of a client/director trying to pull something from a vo artist. This one was done via a Zoom Room – cool tech and great for this kind of learning!

Also audited an online class from Real Voice LA with the legendary promo guy Roger Leopardi – immersed myself over the course of a weekend for 8 hours of some of the most practical teaching I have ever soaked up! Thanks RLVA for the gold!

E-Learning is a favorite of mine and continues to occupy a large part of my production calendar. I enjoy working with clients that I have been working with for several years like EWN (Energy Worldnet), a world class company that produces safety/compliance training for the Gas Pipeline industry. Being the CBT (computer based training) and now VR voice for their training is an honor and I take it very seriously knowing that some of the content I deliver can have a huge impact on the safety/lives of the men and women who are in the field doing the work.  I am blessed to partner with this team of professionals and in August will be making a special announcement about an event I will be involved in with their team that is taking me way out of my comfort zone – and it’s gonna be so cool (hush Troy and don’t give it away yet)!!!

Developing new business relationships is always exciting and I’m proud to now be working with the team at Kokosing Industrial producing elearning content for a number of companies. I get to work with a stellar team of instructional designers (those are the hard working, super-smart folks programming the visuals for the instructional content I voice).

Finally, (not really since there were a lot of cool projects I can’t share) but let’s wrap it up with a fun lightning round!
  • Got a call back from the Carolina Renaissance Festival for a second year of producing radio commercials in a fun UK character voice – I’m looking forward to visiting this wonderland and eating some of their great food again!
  • A southern character voice for a series of tv commercials for a South Carolina based heating/ac company – yeah buddy!
  • A character voice for a goat for a cashmere sweater company – not a baaaaad gig!
  • I have a cool new Fred Rogers mug for the studio!

Okay that wraps it up – blessed and happy man who is very thankful to be able to do what I do by the Grace of God.
Until next month, take care and be blessed!

No work? Hey, don’t PANIC!

Blog, encouragement, voice over

It’s been one of those days folks, the kind that self-employed folks always dread – no work. Help you say, baby needs a new pair of shoes, what was I thinking quitting my day job! Stop it Silly!
Believe it or not it happens to all of us – regardless of the glory stories of great success on social media, we all have days like this. Most people don’t like to admit it, let alone embrace it 🙂 You’ve been sending out emails and auditions and you are amazingly talented – yep, we know it – but the sound of crickets except if you’re in the woods or camping is not what you want to hear right now.
So what you do with your time and your attitude is important. Whatever you do, don’t panic. Relax and make a plan. Learn something, give back. Be encouraged and realize it will get better. Have a blessed day and be a blessing to someone else!