The Working Voice Actor, Alexis Pellek, a dependable & curious storyteller

LinkedIn Advice & Clubhouse Recap of The “Working” Voice Actor

August 4, 2022August 4, 2022 by Alexis Pellek, posted in voiceover

Recently, I heard some advice for voice actors about using LinkedIn, and I wanted to share. First up, Tracy Lindley explains why you shouldn’t use special characters or words like “voice actor” in your first or last name field on LinkedIn. (Hint: it’s against their rules.)

As Tracy says, it’s a bummer that we can’t use that space to be creative, but ultimately, rules are rules.

The second bit of LinkedIn advice and best practices that I wanted to share comes from the folks at The “Working” Voice Actor on Clubhouse. A few weeks ago, George, Roshelle, and Megan started a series on using social media to promote our voiceover businesses. The first topic of discussion was LinkedIn, and a lot of advice and tips were shared. Things like:

creating a video “Cover Story” to introduce yourself on your profile page (must use the mobile app to set up)
using the “Name Pronunciation” space (must use the mobile app to set up)
shortening your past job descriptions in the Experience section for a cleaner look
keeping SEO in mind when writing your bio and posts (meaning the info on LI shouldn’t be published word-for-word anywhere else on the web for good SEO)
endorsing the skills of your connections
thanking people for connecting with you, and possibly sending an audio message rather than a written one (although the chat was divided about the use of audio)

Check out the replay for the whole story.

The “Working” Voice Actor also covered how to use Instagram (replay here), and tomorrow they’ll discuss another social media platform and how best to use it for your VO business. Come share your knowledge and tips!

Thank you to George, Roshelle, and Megan for organizing this space, and thanks to everyone who contributed to the discussions! Check out The “Working” Voice Actor on Fridays at noon ET/9am PT on Clubhouse.

Clubhouse Recap: the “Working” Voice Actor Game Day: Romance Novel Reads!

June 24, 2022 by Alexis Pellek, posted in voiceover

Today is the last Friday of the month, and that means Game Day at the “Working” Voice Actor club on Clubhouse! Today’s theme was “Read a boring script like a romance novel” and what a riot. So much fun to hear people’s sexy interpretations of everyday copy like instructions, labels, signs, etc. Replays are never turned on for Game Day, giving us the freedom to get crazy with reads for things like:

baby powder instructions for use (who knew you should sprinkle it in your sheets???)
how & where to apply insect spray, and what pets can and cannot be sprayed with it (and where and where not to do so)
waffle mix instructions
how to clean a Reddi Whip nozzle
a technical document about FAQs & spreadsheets (that’s what I picked to read!)
instructions on washing hands
instructions on hand washing an extremely delicate piece of clothing
how to register your car so you don’t get towed
all the intimate details of activated carbon A4 filters

Thank you to George, Roshelle, and Megan for organizing this space, and thanks to everyone who played along! Catch the next Game Day on the last Friday of July, and in the meantime check out the “Working” Voice Actor club on Fridays on Clubhouse at 9am PST/noon EST.

Clubhouse Recap: the “Working” Voice Actor Discusses Casting Sites and Plays a Very Silly Game

June 2, 2022 by Alexis Pellek, posted in voiceover

Recently, The “Working” Voice Actor covered some important topics: casting sites and 1-star movie reviews on Amazon. OK, the movie reviews weren’t exactly hard-hitting news — they were the subject of last month’s Game Day (always held on the last Friday of the month). Let’s get to that in a moment.

Two weeks ago, the topic for discussion was casting sites, pay-to-plays, all those different places for VOs to find work. People talked about their experiences on different platforms — the pros and cons of various sites, things they’ve learned, tips and tricks. A brief discussion of those other sites took place, too. You know the ones I mean, those names we dare not speak….Fiverr and Upwork. (I am so interested to hear the panel at eVOcation next weekend called, “We don’t talk about Fiverr, no, no!” What a brilliant title!)

Jen Greenfield talked about CastVoices, which just celebrated its First Birthday!, and said she’s working with the CV team to get more auditions on the site. She also shared the idea that casting sites, along with direct marketing, should all be “spokes in the wheel” of your voiceover business. You should have as many spokes in your wheel as you can, and you get to choose what’s right for you and your business. (Also check out Jen’s YouTube video about shifting your perspective about cold calling.) Check out the replay to learn more about the discussion on casting sites.

Game Day

So, this past Friday on Game Day, George had collected a big group of 1-star movie reviews, which he had pinned to the top of the Clubhouse room. Each player got to choose two to read (they were usually pretty short) out of all these reviews shared in Google Drive. I remember one of mine; it was for Avengers Infinity War and it read, “I wish Iron Man died.” That someone bothered to write that review on Amazon is just silly. And that was one of the more coherent ones! Some made no sense whatsoever, but it made last week’s Game Day all the more fun. But don’t look for a replay of this one — Game Days are never recorded because they can get a bit crazy.

Thank you to George, Roshelle, and Megan for organizing this space, and thanks to everyone who contributed to the discussion! I’m looking forward to the next one, and I hope to see you there: Fridays on Clubhouse at 9am PST/noon EST.

Clubhouse Recap: the “Working” Voice Actor Talks Business Entities

May 13, 2022May 14, 2022 by Alexis Pellek, posted in voiceover

Today in The “Working” Voice Actor room, it was time to talk about business entities. What are the pros and cons of being a sole proprietor? What’s the best and worst about registering as an LLC? And how about an S Corp, is that the best move?

George starts off the conversation highly recommending the book Voice Over LEGAL by Robert J. Sciglimpaglia Jr., which goes over these categories in detail. And I should make the disclaimer that none of what was discussed today (and available on the replay) should be considered legal advice.

Talk to a lawyer and/or an accountant to figure out what’s best for YOUR situation. Fees, laws, details vary from state to state, so it’s best to get personalized advice. For example, forming an LLC in California is going to set you back around $800 each year! Other states mentioned, like Washington ($60) and New Jersey ($75), make owning an LLC much more affordable.

And in my personal experience, I want to give a shout out to my local branch of the Small Business Administratio n, who were so helpful in getting me registered and set up. In addition to free personalized help, my branch also offers free webinars on all kinds of topics that are important to small business owners like ourselves. So check out sba.gov and connect with your local branch — see what they have to offer.

In addition to these different business entities, the discussion also covered notes that people add to contracts and invoices to protect themselves, and some people shared stories about clients that won’t pay. Today’s talk is a lot to summarize, so I’m going to suggest the replay function on Clubhouse if you want to learn more.

And, our hosts asked for suggestions for The “Working” Voice Actor’s official Clubhouse name….preferably something with the word waffle in it…. Get in touch with George, Roshelle, or Megan with your ideas!

Clubhouse Recap: Game Day at the “Working” Voice Actor

April 29, 2022June 2, 2022 by Alexis Pellek, posted in voiceover

The last Friday of every month is Game Day at the “Working” Voice Actor club on Clubhouse, and today was a really fun one: scripts with mismatching specs. Our wonderful host George set it all up for us players, and here’s how it worked:

We look through the script choices and pick one to read. The scripts are legit copy, but the specs are totally off.
We tell the audience what the product/title is, but do not tell them the specs
We read the script according to the specs.
Hilarity ensues.
We then reveal the specs.

Everyone had a ton of fun performing and listening! When I woke up this morning, I didn’t expect that I’d hear a sarcastic Amtrak ad, or a monster-truck-style promo for Ancient Mysteries, or two sensual reads for extreme Jello sticks, or a bored/pretentious/Valley Girl version of the opening monologue to the Lord of the Rings (which I chose and had a blast reading), but I’m sure glad that these things were a part of my day!

(And I’m also glad that replays are turned off for Game Days.)

Thank you to George, Roshelle, and Megan for organizing this space, and thanks to everyone who played along! I’m looking forward to the next one, and I hope to see you there: Fridays on Clubhouse at 9am PST/noon EST.

Clubhouse Recap: Thesaurus Day at the “Working” Voice Actor

April 15, 2022 by Alexis Pellek, posted in voiceover

Today, it was time to break out the thesaurus during The “Working” Voice Actor on Clubhouse. Our hosts, George Nowik, Roshelle Simpson, and Megan Selke, asked us to help out our fellow voice actors by providing adjectives that can be used on our websites, social posts, marketing materials, etc., that describe our voices.

Each person on stage was asked a question by one of the lovely mods, something easy and personal to spark that natural conversational tone, and then had one minute to give an answer. Questions like “What is your favorite season and why?” or “Tell me about your wedding day,” or “What was an embarrassing story that happened in college that you can laugh about now?”

Everyone listening used the chat to describe that person’s voice and voila: each speaker had some quick, crowdsourced descriptors to use in promoting themselves and their VO business. Plus, it was a lot of fun to hear people’s responses and to get to know everyone better!

Thank you George, Roshelle, and Megan for organizing this relaxed and useful exercise! The room is always a blast, and it happens every Friday on Clubhouse at 9am PST/noon EST. Always a fun way to wrap up the week!

Clubhouse Recap: The Working Voice Actor’s Game Day! Bad Direction

February 25, 2022June 2, 2022 by Alexis Pellek, posted in voiceover

Today’s session of The Working Voice Actor on Clubhouse with George Nowik, Roshelle Simpson & Megan Selke was a fun one! Because it was the last Friday of the month, that meant it was Game Day, and today the topic was bad direction.

The brave VOs who took the stage were asked to read some short copy — it could be from anything you happen to have within reach — and then were given silly, obscure, crazy direction for their second take. Everyone did an excellent job interpreting the bizarre wishes of the fictional directors, and we heard interesting reads of things like:

ingredients for caramel rice cakes
the label from a gift soap set
proofing instructions for a pizza dough recipe

It was the copy about the pole greaser in New Orleans that seriously confused everyone (turns out it’s a Mardi Gras tradition). I may have been laughing out loud in the grocery store at that point.

Clubhouse Recap: The Working Voice Actor and Reels

February 7, 2022February 7, 2022 by Alexis Pellek, posted in voiceover

In Friday’s session of The Working Voice Actor on Clubhouse with George Nowik, Roshelle Simpson & Megan Selke, the topic was reels. Do you make them? What platform do you use? What kind of hashtags do you use, and how many? What’s been the response to your reels so far?

Personally, I had nothing to contribute to this discussion because I have not tried anything like this. Someone early on in the conversation said something like, “Explain this to me like I’m a grandma who doesn’t understand this at all, but also explain it like I’m 3.” That’s the category that I fall into regarding reels, or, the short videos that appear on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube (as Shorts), and perhaps some other places? Like I said, I’m all like reels what ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

A few things that I learned:

Keep it short: 7-15 seconds seems to be the ideal length that the algorithms will push out.
Our attention span is about 8 seconds, according to recent research that was mentioned in the discussion.
If you create a video on TikTok, for example, do not try to post it elsewhere if it has a TikTok logo on it because that other platform will not like it.
Don’t use too many hashtags.

One point that everyone agreed on is to make content because you enjoy doing it. If you’re forcing yourself to do something just for the sake of having something to post, that’s going to show. So just go for it and have fun!

And on that note, the mods issued a challenge for the week: create a reel, post it, and see what happens! Tag George, Roshelle, and Megan, and try to use the hashtag #theworkingvoiceactor so we can all find it and enjoy it.

Clubhouse Recap: The Working Voice Actor & Evil Alter Egos

January 31, 2022 by Alexis Pellek, posted in voiceover

Friday’s session of The Working Voice Actor on Clubhouse with George Nowik, Roshelle Simpson & Megan Selke was another fun way to spend some time on Friday: it was Evil Alter Ego Time! We were invited to bring our worst selves and let it all out — anything bothering you, the stuff you wish you could say to clients, the brutal honesty that you wish you could share but know that you shouldn’t, etc. All variations of that kind of venting led to some hilarious rants!

Thank you to George, Roshelle, and Megan for organizing this space, and thanks to everyone who contributed to the discussion! I’m looking forward to the next one, and I hope to see you there: Fridays on Clubhouse at 9am PST/noon EST.

Clubhouse Recap: The Working Voice Actor & Social Media Content

January 21, 2022January 31, 2022 by Alexis Pellek, posted in voiceover

Today’s edition of The Working Voice Actor with George Nowik, Roshelle Simpson, and Megan Selke was a blast! The question of the day was about creating content for social media: what do you do, where, why, is it working? I joined the stage along with many others to contribute to the discussion, and while I can’t claim to have the answers to all those questions, what I can say that it was nice to share in the discussion and feel the amazing support of this group!

We talked about the “perfection paralysis,” or “analysis paralysis,” that can sometimes prevent us from putting ourselves out there. One thing that was great about this bunch of folks is the encouragement and support that was shared to just go for it! Whatever idea you have floating in your head, just try it! Show it to the world and share that part of yourself!

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