Lots of Laundry…Woolite!
Woo hoo!! I booked a new commercial campaign for Woooite!! I remember when Woolite commercials were everywhere as a kid. What an honor to book this job. As a mom, I do a ton of laundry and now I will be using Woolite! Recorded in my home studio, making magic! First this started out as demos. And demos are awesome to book because the advertising agency records the demo. They present it to the client (Woolite in this case) to see if it works to picture and if there needs to be any changes. This does not always mean you book the “actual” commercial. But in this case, I did! Very excited to represent this brand.
Donuts and Cars…
As the voice of a brand, they have what is called “exclusivity’. Meaning…if you are the voice of a product/brand, you cannot be the voice of a competitive brand or product in that same category. Being the voice of Dunkin’ means that I cannot work for any other donut or coffee brand. Same with Toyota…since you can hear my voice on TV and radio for the Toyota vehicles, it’s recognized as being the Toyota voice, and hence I can’t work for a competitor…that would be weird. When you book for these larger brands, the goal is to ultimately become their “voice” and become recognizable as the voice of the brand. It’ provides value to what you do and if it’s successful…you can keep the job for a while. I have been the voice of Toyota for seven years now and am so grateful for their support! For Dunkin’…I’m going on two years and over 5 commercials!! Dunkin’ TV Spot, ‘Rapunzel’
Traveling while working
It’s summertime which means we all start to travel. For me…it’s Europe. I am excited to take my daughter to Ibiza and Portugal. But…what about work? It’s so hard to think I will be away from my studio for a long period of time, so I have develop a travel system for VO that really works for me. I have had to double up on all of my equipment, meaning that I have two of all of my electronics pieces. I find my Sennheiser MKH-416 mic is the easiest to travel with. I also use my Apogee Duet 2 as my portable pre-amp (I keep my Apogee Duet 3 at my home studio). I have found a really great portable sound studio from Vocal Booth To Go. It’s called the VOMO and it is basically sound dampening blankets with an over head 360 sound coverage. This is such a great way to travel and be able to create an enclosed, sound dampening space in any hotel room or Airbnb.
Check out these travel essentials if you plan on working on the road!
June and the start of Summer gigs!
June has been such an incredible month both for VO and for my daughter…she just finished kindergarten! It’s been so rewarding watching her grow and now become a first grader! As a mom, I’m always proud of her. For VO…I have been working a lot! Tons of sports promos for Bally Sports, the CBS Tony Awards are coming in July so I have been recording a bunch for them. More Toyota commercials as well as Mazda internal training videos. Now is when I start my travels so I will be working remotely for a lot of the summer. Can’t wait for some sunshine!
CBS Tony Awards!
Awards Shows are the best! Especially when you book a network gig straight off of your audition!! WOO HOO!! This calls for celebration! It is so competitive to book a network gig as of late. So many people have access to creating VO now remotely. When something like this happens, it truly is like hitting the lottery. I can imagine the hundreds of submissions of auditions for this. It was two lines…and I booked it! My favorite words from my agents! I will be doing all of the promos leading up to the show, which airs in June! So if you are watching CBS and you hear a promo for the Tony Awards! Yep…that’s me!! It’s also my Birthday month, so I can definitely say this was one of the best birthday gifts I could have been given!
Hope you are all doing well!
xoxo
Betheny
April showers bring May Flowers and the CMT Music Awards!
I love that saying. Probably because I love both the rain and the flowers. Spring is in effect and the seasons are changing. I always love aligning with the weather. Mother Earth is super amazing and it’s so important to stay grounded in my hectic ever evolving world. April is the Earth month, and the month of the birth of my little girl. So yeah…it holds a lot of significance for me. I will never forget that day in 2016, when I birthed my baby girl. She was two months early and boy what a scare. She spent 26 long days in the NICU, but she was absolutely perfect. Small…but perfect. We were so lucky to have her be as healthy as she is. Thankful for western medicine because without the NICU, my little one would not be with us today. She is my little flower and I am super grateful to be her mom.
What I also love about this year in April, is that the CMT Music Awards has moved from June to April! That show is always a blast to work on. I get to LIVE announce majority of the show. So yeah…it’s a little nerve racking because you can’t mess up! I will be heading to Nashville with my little girl (she loves going to Nashville) and taking my girlfriend with me who loves country music! Please stay tuned and listen for me this Monday, April 11th on CBS!!
Thanks, y’all!
Betheny
March Madness…times 2!
So it seems like springtime is a booking season for me. The air is fresh, the feeling of warmth is around us and new bookings are in the air! Woolite reached out to my agency and wants to update their script and run my commercials again! This is HUGE!! I also booked a new commercial for Stelara (yep…I’m the woman that makes the side effects not sound so bad). I love working for these medical companies. When you read the side effects, it always has the opportunity to get used over and over again even in different commercials. So let’s hope this one runs a lot in all markets! I also got to play an avocado in a commercial for Aldi! That was super fun. Valley girl like voice to contrast the attitude of the tomato. See…some of my jobs can be very character driven! I mean, I have never played an avocado before so this was definitely a first. And Lo and behold…I was in NY, so I got to record from my travel kit! I also worked a lot for Bally Sports and recorded some internal training video recordings for Mazda. All in all…it was a good month. I will take March Madness in VO, any time!
xoxo
Betheny
February is much more than Groundhog Day!
We can all feel that spring is on the horizon! But until then, we can still enjoy the crisp air of the winter time. Sometimes I forget that it’s still freezing cold in many parts of the world during this time. Being in the bubble of Los Angeles, it seems to we forget all about winter. I took a trip to NY this February to see my NY team of agents and managers, since it had been a WHILE since this little pandemic happened. It was so great to connect with my agents and my manager. Always good catching up and getting to see people in person. With VO it can be hard at times, because you talk and are not seen. So it’s always important to make face to face connections and keep the relationship alive. I’ve been so grateful for my NY team and have booked a lot of work through them. They are fantastic people and I am lucky to work with them hand in hand. Many of you want to know the difference between an agent and a manager. There is some overlap between the two, but mainly agencies are there to negotiate contracts and provide you with the opportunities of auditions. Managers can do the same, but their client roster is much smaller and they pay more attention to how you market yourself. Majority of my managers started as agents and moved to the management side. It’s been wonderful to have both agents and managers at this level in my career. I do get some cross over opportunities, but mainly they all have different relationships so their client roster is varied. This helps in being able to get auditions from many different areas whether commercials, promos. animation. networks, etc.
If you want to learnt more about the VO business and to see if it may be a good fit for you. reach out to me and we can talk!
xoxo
Betheny
It’s a New Year, and a New Day!
Happy New Year, everyone!! Have you all made your resolutions? How many of you actually KEEP those resolutions? It’s hard sometimes as we move through life and forget what we actually said so we can hold ourselves accountable for it. I know I don’t make resolutions all at once at the beginning of the year. I make new ones as they come to me. I feel like if I can make smaller goals (with the larger in site), then I can accomplish it much easier. I do need to get better at goal setting. I have become much better at living in the present, that the future looks so far away. But I do need to learn that the end goal is still as good as the journey. This month, as usual, has been a little light on auditions and bookings. I did book a Casino job which is suppose to be recurring work, so we shall see on that one. So I have taken this time to brush up on my own skills. I’ve been working with my coaches to make sure I am staying focused, connected, and having perspective on my reads. Knowing what the client is trying to say but adding my own style to it. I think that is so important. I also think that every January, I will try to reconnect with my own work and take a few workshops and work with my coaches to prep for the new year. Let’s make that my new year’s resolution and see if I can hold myself accountable for it!
Happy January 2022! Cheers to a fantastic new year!
xoxo
Betheny
End of the Year!
I still can’t believe 2021 is behind us. What a whirlwind of a year. Pandemic still in effect, but with some restrictions in hopes of lifting. I do have to say that for me, 2021 has had some of my career’s greatest moments, while my personal life left me with some serious challenges. My love was tested time and time again. My dedication to family, proved to be one of the strongest bonds. Health became a reminder of how fragile life is. Marriages…births…deaths. It all happened in 2021. For my career, it was one of the best I have ever had. I booked more new work than ever before. My regular clients were utilizing me over and over. I booked for the first time ever straight from my audition. I got to fly to Nashville to live announce once again. My national commercials got picked up and renewed over and over again. I can honestly say my work flowed like never before. Let’s hope life starts to come back to normal in 2022. When we can all be together again. Enjoy the company. Human connection. Cheers to 2021, and to a better 2022 for us all.
Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!
xoxo
Betheny