I can now call myself “An award-winning voice actor”….

I’m completely floored, honored, and humbled.

The winners of the 2008 Voicey Awards were announced today. And I won for Best New Voice!

I’m honored to be in such fine company as fellow finalist Dave Houston. In no way is my voice a better new voice than yours, sir. I have much to learn from you.

And also a congrats to Kara Edwards who with Adam Fox won for Best Voice team.

You can get all the info here.

Alumni blog gives me a shout

The blog at my Alma Mater, San Francisco State University College of Creative Arts gave me a little press lovin’ by featuring my recent Voicey Award nomination. Thanks, guys! I also learned that veteran VO Jack Angel is also an alum. Such fine company to keep!

 Thanks for the press, guys!

Voicey Awards Nominations close Sunday

Just a heads-up to remind any of you that the nominations for the Voices.com Voicey Awards are closing on Sunday February 4th. Don’t forget to get your nominations in! And if you think I’m deserving, I’d love to have your vote for Best New Voice. If you decide to give me a nomination, my voices.com url is jkafer.voices.com.

Anway, I can’t wait to see who the nominees are! Even if I’m not one of them, I’m bound to know at least one of them.

Welcome Heyman Talent

I got word last week that the fine folks at Heyman Talent have decided to work for me as my talent representation in the Ohio market. I look forward to a long and prosperous relationship with them!

Say hello to Liz!

Fellow voice talent and friend, Liz de Nesnera has a new blog. Liz is a bilingual voice artist (English and French) and always has interesting things to say on the VO-BB. I look forward to reading her blog. Everyone, go over and say hello!

Voicey’s are here and I’m disappointed

The Voicey’s are an annual award “show” put on by the good people at Voices.com to honor the best (or most popular) people on their roster. Unfortunately, I’m a rather disappointed in the way they are handling them this year:

1. The best new voice talent award has an age limit. You may not be older than 30 years. What the heck? I’m new to the biz and 35, so I’m not considered a new voice? The logic behind this one is completely baffling.
2. The best male/female talent requires you to be pro for 3+ years. Couple that with the above requirement and you’ve just shut out any voice talent over the age of 35 who have been pro for less than 3 years from winning ANY award!
3. As Caryn Clark pointed out, the best “teen” voice also has an age limit. Only teens can be nominated. But I’d put her teen voice (and Kara Edward’s) up against almost anyone’s. As well, I can do a convincing teen guy voice and would like to be nominated in this category as well. I can kind of understand where they’re coming from on this one, because I think they want to honor teen performers, not teen voices. The category is poorly named if that’s the case.

I would emplore Voices.com to reconsider their age restrictions, especially on point number 1 above. While I had no illusions that I’d win, at this point, I’m completely shut out of even trying for one.

Networking on Ecademy

I’ve joined another social network, but this one is geared specifically for business networking. Check it out and add me as a friend!

Holiday cards are done!

I don’t have a huge client list to send holiday cards to this year since I’m still new to the business and building up my client database. I do, however, have a large list of people I’ve contacted and sent reels to, though I’ve not done any business with them. So this year, I decided to include those not-yet clients on my holiday card list.

 

My dilemma: Do I include business cards with them? That seems a little tacky. But how do I subtley give them my contact information just in case? I want the cards to be a part of my marketing campaign without being an obvious ploy. I want to wish everyone a happy holidays and if they want to hire me for future projects, then great. But the message comes first.

 

So I took a clue from Don Goonan on the Vo-BB and included a tiny imprint of my logo and website to the inside of the card just below where I sign. Then I jotted a handwritten note, and signed it. The "marketing" aspect of the card is small and subtle, and the message of the card is front and center. An elegant solution to a rather simple dilemma.

 

So my holiday cards are done and will be sent off tomorrow. Yay!

An Evening with Bob

Had a very nice evening of Dessert and conversation with my friend Bob Souer at the Cheesecake Factory on Sunday night. We talked mostly about voice over, but also gabbed about video games and our kids. Mr Souer is a wealth of knowledge from his many years of experience and I feel very lucky that he was so willing to share his tips and tricks. The night was not only fun, but a great learning experience for me. I hope I can one day repay Bob for his generosity.

Next time, the cheesecake’s on me!

Welcome Greg Littlefield

Fellow VO-BBer Greg Littlefield has joined the blogosphere. Greg is basically in the same boat as I am. He’s also an up and coming voice artist who is definitely not a newbie, but is making efforts to grow his career.  Welcome, Greg and happy blogging.