I AM BACK!
I know… I haven’t really posted anything of substance since the end of 2023, but today is the day I break my silence to tell you that I have made a life-changing decision. A decision that you may not expect, like, or even understand. Or, you may thank me and say: “What took you so long?”
Before I tell you what I have decided, here’s a quick recap of how I got here.
I ended my communication with the rest of the world because I really needed to take a social media break. I stopped writing for this blog, which was something I had been doing every week for the past 20 years. That may not sound like a big deal to you, but to me it felt like saying goodbye to a dear friend.
SOCIAL MEDIA SABBATICAL
I unfollowed most of my voice acting colleagues and voice over groups on social media. Why? Well, I wanted to clear my mind about my professional goals and relationships. We tend to have a better overview from a distance than from the trenches, and I had to give myself time to unwind and think about my future without the self-imposed pressure to produce content every single day.
I was also tired, uninspired, and frankly… fed up.
Mind you, during my absence I continued working as a voice talent and coach, but I kept my distance from my community. I didn’t go to any voice over conferences, and I said no to interview requests and podcasts. The only thing I did was be a judge for the UK edition of the One Voice Awards which is always fun and rewarding.
So, imagine me, driving into this symbolic tunnel to slow down and be away from the busy traffic, but what did I find at the other end, you may wonder? A huge black hole, or did I see the light?
ME, IN A NUTSHELL
Before I get to that, I think I should introduce myself because you may be new to me and to this blog. If you already know who I am, you can skip this part.
My name is Paul and I’m a Dutch voice over artist living life in Vermont. I’ve been in business for over forty years, and many colleagues know me as the sometimes obnoxious author of this blog. I think I can safely say that my blog is (or was) the most widely read and discussed blog in the voice over industry, and I’ve been writing it for at least twenty years.
Anyway, I’ve been behind the mic since I was 17, starting off making youth radio programs for Dutch Public Radio. Later, I spent about a year at the BBC in London, producing a prize-winning Easter special, and from there I moved to Radio Netherlands International, the Dutch World Service. All in all I spent 25 years in radio doing all sorts of very serious things, interviewing very serious people about very serious topics.
When I came to the States at the end of 1999, I jokingly joined a cattle call at a talent agency in Philadelphia (together with ventriloquists, tap dancers and amateur clowns), and was signed on the spot because of the weird way I spoke.
The agency had lots of American voice actors on their roster and plenty of Brits, but no one with a European accent that was hard to pinpoint. That accent became my calling card, and has served me well for many years.
WHAT DID I RECORD?
In these years I’ve narrated audio books, lots of boring eLearning programs, medical trainings about disgusting diseases, poorly scripted corporate videos, documentaries no one will ever watch, YouTube videos, guided tours for obscure museums, and even a few commercials. I think I was one of the first native Dutch speakers to land a national commercial on American television, and an advertising agency hired me to promote a Broadway musical about the Beatles using my best fake British accent.
And I recorded this for the Dutch ministry of tourism.
They say I’m pretty good at pretending to be someone I’m not, which you need to be as an actor. And for many, many years, I loved what I was doing for a living. I was my own boss, I set my own hours, and set my own rates. And since my studio was in my home, I had the best commute ever!
I promise not to bore you with all the details of my career, but trust me… there were as many downs as there were ups. If I’m honest, there were more setbacks than successes, but who wants to expose their failures on social media? It’s the place where we all profess to be happy, rich, and successful, right? [insert sarcasm]
MY PERSONAL PERSPECTIVE
Here’s another promise: throughout this series of blog posts I vow to be real and give you my unvarnished, unfiltered truth about the voice over industry, based on my personal experience. Let me stress: MY personal experience, MY subjective reality, and MY truth, which is likely to be very different from yours.
As in anything in life, it’s all about perception.
To be clear: I’m not writing this series to convince you of anything. I’m just here to share, and I don’t care if you agree or disagree. If you feel motivated to leave a comment or a question, all I ask of you is to mind your manners and please be polite and respectful.
In the next part I will reveal to you what life-changing decision I have made!
Can you guess?
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