Johnny George

     The month of March has started out uniquely this year. I received a request from Scott Uecker, who heads the Broadcasting program at the University of Indianapolis, to be a guest speaker at the annual Indiana Association of School Broadcasters conference last week. Several media leaders in the community spoke about software, TV news, sports broadcasting, journalism, video production, radio promo’s, morning drive radio. I was asked to walk the high school attendees through my career with its ups & downs and how I went from radio to morph into a full-time voice actor.

     I love to share my experiences with others and if I can tell a story to guide them around a few pitfalls, the better it will be for us all. I’ve been a sponge all my life and I drove home that concept, along with networking and dealing with the world of clients in a global market. The students asked good questions and since they weren’t sleeping through my presentation, I felt it went well. The turnout was great. Earlier in the morning, had been the finals for the IASB live judging. I had been a judge with many other local broadcasters the week before and we heard a bunch of very good production & imaging entries that the students produced for the competition that would be announced at the finals the day of the presentations. One of my TV news anchor “heroes” even attended my session, and we traded glances when referring to times in the earlier days that happened way before these kids were even a twinkle in their parents’ eyes. (Thanks Phil Bremen – you made my day)

     Many thanks to Scott and his staff for making me feel at home and giving me the tools in my designated classroom to educate these students. The following day I gave a Skype presentation, live from my home studio to the college students at Anderson University, which is just up the road from Indianapolis. They too had some good questions regarding character development, networking, the expansion of the Internet today compared to my earlier broadcast days. Many thanks to Matt Rust, the Director of their broadcast division at the University, for making me feel comfortable and setting up this Skype session with those eager minds.

     Jay Burke, the Grand Poopah at Vincennes University, in southwestern Indiana, where I attended my first two years of college, also has invited me to teach a two-hour workshop on Radio Production and the world of Voiceover work too next week. I’m looking forward to teaching this workshop after having had the privilege of learning from some of the best. Dick Orkin, Christina Coyle, Marice Tobias, Dan O’Day and Nancy Wolfson. Over your career, you learn so much and so many have their own way of doing things, so it’s your job to figure out what works for you. What direction and instruction makes your voice and psyche work the best. How your own personal experiences jive with the dedicated instruction you’ve received. So, it will be a day of teaching, sharing, reading scripts, citing examples and hopefully enlightening these college students who have a very new world to deal with that my generation never did.

     The world of radio has changed drastically. How are the new broadcasters going to deal with corporate deregulation, voice tracking, smaller staffs and very lean budgets and still enjoy going to work each day? I honestly don’t know. But I’ll arm them with the facts and explain that the world of voiceovers is not a path of easy and simple work. Do you have a studio? A demo? A voice coach? Do you have a good business sense? How about marketing, accounting, promotion, psychology and don’t forget that tough skin you better have from all the auditions you’ll be doing and getting rejected time after time. So much to discuss and so little time to do so. This will be different from my first classes at the front of the month. This will be an education for both of us.

     Dateline: Charlotte, NC October 12 – 15, 2012

     Another Faffcon is in the history books and yes, it was a great as the rest. Charlotte is a beautiful city, and their hospitality was as good as we have seen.

     Starting our weekend at the NASCAR Museum with an interactive tour, we raced, challenged each other in the Pit Stop contest, and saw some of the most fantastic memorabilia in this road racing world. This is a must see if you are ever near Charlotte. Be sure to walk the track and feel the degree of slant the cars deal with to make it around their never-ending tracks.

     Organizing our thoughts and desires of what topics were important to each of us individually was next on the agenda. Planning out Saturday & Sunday was fun, because you found out what everyone wanted to discuss and what was to be taught. That’s what Faffcon is all about. Our evening included a get together dinner in the Emporium Food Court across from the Omni. The rooms at the hotel were 5 star. And the view was fabulous. Dinner was fun and gave us a chance to meet and greet and catch up with VO friends we had met earlier in the year from the last Faffcon in Ventura, CA.

     After a good night’s sleep, we were up and at ’em for breakfast before we headed into our first session. The various sessions we scurried to were enlightening and encourage participation, discussion and opinions. I just loved it! Saturday and Sunday were a whirlwind of info and insightful experiences that was almost overwhelming. It always feels that way and when you get home, you have to dissect your time and put it all into perspective. But the networking, the friendships made and the knowledge that is shared with respect to no egos or whatever level of learning you possess or the quality of your craft are totally invaluable and hard to explain to someone who has not attended.

     Amy Snivley, who organizes the Faffcon extravaganza each time with a highly qualified staff of equally gifted VO folks, announced in Charlotte that Faffcon would be an annual event now that it has established itself. However, no sooner did she tell us that next year’s Faffcon 6 would be in San Antonio, Texas, low and behold, Faffy, the mascot, announced Faff Camp! Faffcamp will be open to all working VO pros with no total cutoff as with the regular Faffcon groups that are capped at 100 vetted people. If you’ve never been to a Faffcon UNconference and you want a taste of what I’ve been rambling on about – you should make plans to go to Faff Camp, May 3-5 in Charlotte. This is to become another annual event if the interest is strong. And I can take a wild guess and tell ya, you better sign up as soon as you can. Check it out on Facebook or go to www.faffcamp.com for more details. Faff Camp is a peer conference for working VO pros.

     I continue to get people commenting to me that I must have the best job in the world. We’ll kinda yes, kinda no. But the best answer to that question I’ve heard lately, is best summed up by a fellow Voice Talent, Paul Strikwerda.

     After listening to Paul’s, The Troublesome Truth about a Voice-Over Career, see if you are ready to jump into the pool with those of us that have been doing this for many years.

     Good luck! Break a Lip!

     Another Faffcon is now history. But the information, bonding, mastering of the art of voicing and the camaraderie will live on forever. However, so many of you out there who have never attended Faffcon or even know what it’s all about are scratching your collective heads saying, “what the heck is a Faffcon“?

     “Faff” is defined simply as this:

     Verb:
     1. to waste time doing nothing.

     2. to waste time doing stupid things 

     3. to delay, dilly-dally, especially before leaving the house to be on time somewhere.

     Example 1: “I didn’t do anything on Sunday; I just faffed around the house.”

     “Con” is the opposite of “pro”. Thus, Faffcon means NOT screwing around. Faffcon is where a multitude of like-minded people come together and organize their time in such a way as to NOT waste time and learn from each other. The #Faffcon Un-conference is where anyone skilled in the craft of voiceover can teach others or learn from others. Think of the last time you went to a convention or seminar, or workshop and the agenda had already been decided by a few and the rest of you are supposed to sit there and be taught off a strict agenda by supposedly qualified people. Perhaps that works for you. However, on a coffee break, when you are standing around in the hall asking each other, “So what did you learn?” or “Man, I wish they had covered XYZ”, don’t you feel left out without any input? You purpose there is not to ask questions, it’s to listen and learn. Indeed.

     At Faffcon, we all write down what we would like to teach or learn and then we organize those requests on a grid that pairs the teachers with the students. And everyone has input into the agenda and with the questions that come up in a learning circle like this. It’s brilliant, it’s insightful, it works!

     With #Faffcon 4 complete, plans are underway for Faffcon 5 in Charlotte, NC. this fall. If you are interested in attending and finding out what all the talk is about – watch for registration to open in the days ahead. The beauty of Faffcon is not to make this into a personal money-maker. It’s limited to 100 qualified, professional Voice Actors/Talents so we do not turn it into an unmanageable crowd. 100 seems to work just right.

     Successful voice talents today know they need great equipment, great demos, great talent and certainly – the desire to grow and learn as we progress in our careers. You must invest in yourself – or no one else will.