This Friday 10/17/2008, Rumba Con Son, the New Jersey Salsa Band is going to rock the house at The hottest new spot in Trenton New Jersey, La Cabaña Lounge & Grill (formerly the Anchor Bar and Grill) at 931 New York Ave. Trenton, NJ 08638.

The show starts at 10:00 PM so come on down, you'll have a blast!

Honoring commitments

Lately, I've gotten requests for paid work. My friends at EBRU TV need me to come in and do some ADR work. My friends at Audible have another audiobook for me.

Normally these would be good things. Great things!

So what's the problem? I am doing Jekyll and Hyde at the Villager's Playhouse in Somerset NJ. Community theater. FREE work.

So I am turning away paid work because I committed to doing this show for free and as we get closer to the opening date, the rehearsal schedule is becoming more and more of a bear. But I am honoring my commitments.

The truth is that I will still do the paid work. I have to because I need the dough. It's just that it's becoming uglier and uglier trying to schedule everything without missing J&H rehearsals and I don't want to commit to the paid work unless I know I can honor the commitment.

Make no mistake, I will commit to it, and I will honor my commitment because my first commitment is to myself and my family. My voiceover business has become a not so insignificant part of my income now and I am committed to building that business and taking it to the next level.

I fully intend to honor that commitment.

I Love Repeat Business - Part Deux

So the lovely, wonderful, spectacularly intelligent folks over at Audible.com have called to offer me another audiobook to read. I guess they liked the results from that first one.

To say that I am thrilled is an understatement.

When I got into this voiceover game, I had no idea where it would lead. I originally wanted to do cartoons and character work. I still do. Then I figured since I am bilingual, I'd maybe try my hand . . . er . . . mouth, at some Spanish stuff. Now I have entered the Audiobook genre. Being asked to do a second one is for me, a huge success. I am working in a field that Pat Fraley calls the Shakespeare of the voiceover industry.

Any way you slice it, that's just plain cool man.

Frankly, I've not been the most focused business person in this game and I guess my slow progress is evidence of that, but though slow, my progress has been pretty steady. So now, between the Audiobooks and Spanish Language stuff, I've gotten two of my highest paying gigs to date.

I don't want to jump the gun here, but I think I might actually have some talent for this stuff after all.

Oh, and let's not forget, both of those gigs where from repeat business.

So let me say it once again . . . I really, really love repeat business.

Don't you just love repeat business?

Well, I got my first repeat client and all I can say is God please send me more of those!

The first time this client hired me, it was for a very small job. Not a lot of pay but it was a new client so I did the job to the best of my ability. It involved some translation work and voicing the job in Spanish.

Everything cool.

So the client comes back recently and says he's got a job but my prices are too high. I say hey, if your working within a budget, let me know and I'll do my best to accommodate you.

I don't hear from the client for a couple of weeks. Then he comes back to me and says not only does he want me but he needs a second voice for the job as well, since it's an e-Learning piece with two guys.

So I recommended my friend and colleague, Jean-Marc Berne who I know to be a talented voice actor, singer and musician. My client likes us both and books us for the gig.

The only issue? The budget.

My client tells us he's got a certain amount budgeted for the job and after Jean-Marc and I look at it, we figure this job is worth more than the quote. So we go back to the client and explain that due to the complexity of the job, and so forth, we felt it was worth more. The client agrees with us but his client has to approve the new budget.

So my client goes to his client and makes our proposal. He then comes back to us and says not only did we book the job, we booked it for more than we'd asked! I an can tell you right now that this gig is paying many times what that first one did.

So Jean-Marc and I did our respective parts in our respective studios and delivered the files to the client. I haven't heard anything from the client so I guess their happy with the job.

I just love repeat business.