Podcast appearances and mentions of alyson steel

She's back and feistier than ever! Alyson Steel joins the podcast once again!

"Voiceover used to be such a niche profession. Now, because of technology, it's very inexpensive, and anybody can go out and make a demo. Still, in my opinion, cream rises to the top."Alyson Steel is a professional Voiceover Actor known for her extraordinary vocal range. She graduated from the HS of Performing Arts in NYC, received her BA from Queens College while doing recurring work on the soap opera "Another World" and on-camera commercials, and earned an MFA in Dramaturgy from SUNY Stony Brook. Alyson worked on hundreds of TV and radio commercial campaigns for Volvo, Walmart, Pandora, and Spotify, and her voice can be heard on promos for E, FOX, ABC, Hallmark Channel, ID Discovery Network, and more. In this episode, Alyson shares her experiences as a voiceover artist and actor, talks about her passion for mentoring and coaching future voiceover actors, and describes her relationship with on-camera work. We delve into the specificities of VO work, the equipment needed, the time it takes to start making money, and how students can discover their range and castability.Alyson also shares her thoughts on how AI affects the industry, the union vs. non-union discussion, what it takes to become a VO actor, and more.Tune in to Episode 90 of Hollywood Dream Maker and learn everything you need to know to become a voiceover actor.In This Episode, You Will Learn:A bit about Alyson's background and her decision to become a voiceover actor (1:30)How can voiceover actors discover and work on their range (9:00)Alyson shares tips and advice for aspiring voiceover actors (16:10)The use of AI for voiceover gigs (21:20)Alyson shares some scary and fun experiences as a VO actor (24:10)Resources:Voice Actor WebsitesEdge StudioiSpotConnect with Alyson:WebsiteInstagramFacebookLet's Connect: Manhattan Actor Studio Inside the Manhattan Actor Studio on YouTubeWebsite Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode's guest is Alyson Steel! Alyson's voice has been described as having a lot of range being able to go from sounding like a teenager to a woman in her 40's. Impersonations include an uncanny Fran Drescher as “The Nanny” and dialects include 5 New York accents, British, Italian, French and Light Southern. She can be heard on hundreds of national, regional and local Commercial Campaigns for TV and Radio including Pajamagram, Vermont Teddy Bear, Walmart, Volvo, Pandora, Spotify and hundreds of others. Alyson has done Promos for “E”, FOX, ABC ,Hallmark Channel, TVG Network, Universal Sports Network, Outside TV, ID Discovery Network, KDKA and more. For over 5 years she was the LIVE announcer for the Genesis Awards. Living in LA, Alyson also auditions for On-camera Commercials as well as TV and enjoys working in front of the camera when she gets the opportunity. Besides working as a full time Voice Over Artist and Actor, she practices Ashtanga yoga and has Teen boy/girl twins that keep her… busy. Social Media: @Alyson Steel --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/tim-heller/support

It's 2 back to back episodes for the price of one! This time, I'm featuring another industry veteran & coach, Alyson Steel! This interview was also pre recorded through zoom. I present to you the audio track, with the full video going up on my YouTube channel tonight! Special thanks to Alyson for appearing on the podcast. It was a pleasure having her on! Thank you for listening! Stay tuned until next time on Station Square! Zoom Recording Date: Sep 14, 2021 Alyson's website: www.alysonsteel.com/ My carrd profile page: robertjacksonvo.carrd.co/

Can you believe it? Its time for our 30th episode of  “Live with Squacky”! Did you guys know that Mini MAVO2020, the online conference that I plan, organize and run is coming up on November 6-8 on Zoom! With over 22 guest speakers and 3 full days of exclusive MAVO content, I simply don't know how you could even consider missing this event! You don't even have to leave your house to attend!! It's going to be great and I'd really love to see you there! All of the guest speakers we have this year are fantastic and really talented! I'm excited for every session! We even have very very elite guest speakers like Eric Bauza, J. Michael Collins and Steve Maraboli!! Need more information? Visit our website at midatlanticvo.com and register today for this great event via Eventbrite! Oh, and don't forget - you can attend from anywhere in the world, because this year our conference is fully online on Zoom!!  I'll see you there! My special guest today is none other than the VO Big Dog himself, Jim Cooper! Radio and music were in his blood from the very beginning.  Being on stage and behind the mic felt as natural as breathing.  He cut his on-air personality teeth on radio stations in Pennsylvania, Houston, Tx and Central NJ. He also gained experience in copywriting and commercial production, working with radio clients to ensure their ads hit the professional mark. In New Jersey he hosted, wrote and produced a syndicated film review radio program called All That Glitters that aired on WCTC and Magic 98.3.Jim's VoiceOver credentials run the gamut from audiobooks, both fiction and non-fiction, to E-Learning Modules, Corporate Explainer videos, radio promos and phone messaging systems.His voiceover training includes studying with J. Michael Collins, Alyson Steel, Pat Fraley and Scott Brick.  If he's not in the studio he's attending training classes, industry conferences or webcasts  – learning is a constant!  He's also a member of the Audio Publishers Association.Jim has a professional home studio with access to Source Connect, Skype and Zoom.For more information about Jim or to connect with him, visit his website at https://jimcoopervo.com/ or connect with him on FB, Twitter @JimCooperVO or Instagram @yourvobigdog or on LinkedIn! **Live with Squacky" is mixed and mastered by everybody's favortie Voiceover tech, Uncle Roy Yokelson of Antland Productions.**For more information about the "Mini MAVO2020" online conference taking place on November 6-8, 2020 and to register today, visit https://www.eventbrite.com/e/mini-mavo2020-tickets-107849019320  Buzzsprout - Let's get your podcast launched! Start for FREEDisclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.

Alyson Steel is an imaging and commercial, voice and on camera actor. She's a graduate of the “Famed” high school of Performing Arts in New York City. Alyson is the voice of Norms, Pajamagram, Vermont Teddy Bear, and TVG Networks. You can hear her image the Rick Dees Weekly Top 40, Flashback with Matt Pinfield and on stations around the country and world. On this episode of Benztown Stories Loren chats with Alyson about... What song and soap opera character Alyson named her kids after. Her move from New York to L.A. Yoga. The "Law of Attraction" ABOUT THIS EPISODE'S GUEST: Web: alysonsteel.com Twitter: twitter.com/alysteel Facebook: facebook.com/AlysonSteelVoiceOver Instagram: instagram.com/alysonsteel ABOUT THE PODCAST: Benztown Voiceover Stories is brought to you by Benztown branding and podcast services and hosted by Loren Kling with Alan Ng. ABOUT BENZTOWN: Benztown is a leading international radio imaging, production library, programming, jingles and voiceover services company with over 2,300 affiliations on six different continents. We provide custom VO and imaging across all formats, including commercial VO and copywriting. Benztown Radio Networks produces, markets and distributes high-quality programming and services to radio stations around the world. In 2017, Benztown was named to the prestigious Inc. 5000 by Inc. magazine for the fifth consecutive year as one of America’s Fastest Growing Privately Held Companies. Twitter: @benztownpodcast Web: benztown.com

Tyrone Jackson and Alyson Steel discuss voice-over coaching. Alyson reveals that she prefers to coach students who are gung-ho about the industry. She says that it can be a very psychological industry and as actors, voice over artists have to access their emotions as tools, and if they have any emotional blocks its something they have to deal with.  To give our audience a taste of voice-over coaching, Alyson guides our producer, Lexi, through a piece of ad-copy. Alyson gives some great advice for beginners: 1) Stand up when reading copy. Either wear flats or take off your shoes in the booth to feel grounded. 2) Start by anchoring, which means reading each word in the copy without inflection.  3) Figure out who you are in this situation and who are you talking to. 4) Know where you are in the commercial. A coffee shop? A bar? Inside a car?  5) When working on the mic it's not about volume, it's about intimacy.    For more great advice like this visit SixFigureVoice.com! Take your career to the next level! 

Our hosts Tyrone Jackson and Alyson Steel surprise each other with some interview questions about the voice-over "biz" and their industry secrets.  Back by popular demand, here's another episode where Tyrone and Alyson ask each other questions they have never heard before, making for honest and organic answers. Listen to hear tools that are helpful for making it in the industry, trends that Tyrone has seen throughout his career, how Alyson deals with being a woman in the industry and much much more!  To learn more about the voice-over industry visit www.sixfigurevoice.com!

American Idol's Blake Lewis opened up to our hosts Tyrone Jackson and Alyson Steel.   Blake was always a fan of voice over as a kid. Growing up in Bothell, Washington, he was always mimicking people-- he had a knack for impressions and sound effects. When he got into high school Blake found out that beat boxing was a legitimate skill and he dove in head first. Blake believes that beat boxing, voice over, sound effects and singing all bleed together because they are all ways of using the same instrument - the human voice!    Right out of high school Blake started touring with bands and it wasn't until a friend at a video game company asked him to come in to record some voices that he started to think about voice over as a career. Just as that was happening, he got on American Idol.     After all his musical success, Blake is now expanding into voice over once again. He has a huge range and no filter, which makes him uberly fun to be around, but he needs his coach to reel him in for commercial voice over. Alyson Steel coaches him in setting the boundaries and playing within those boundaries. He is learning how to use the attitutudes from his characters in his normal speaking voice to help color his commercial reads.    Blake Lewis is launching his voice over career and so can you. Visit SixFigureVoice.com to learn how.   Download Blake's latest album Portrait of a Chameleon from his website here: BlakeLewisOfficial.com    

Our hosts Tyrone Jackson and Alyson Steel know from experience that it is critically important to have a good engineer when you are in the recording studio. Alyson says that even pyschologically speaking it puts you at ease to know that someone is there to catch your eye and be on your side if there is a problem. And most importantly, the engineers make you sound good!  Luckily, successful hollywood engineer Bryan Showalter was able to join us and share his insight from the other side of the glass.  Bryan grew up in Oklahoma City with a musician father who had a recording studio in the house. He grew up around music and recording, ended up becoming a musician himself, and moved out to LA with his band. After his band "imploded" as he says, Bryan decided to get into recording, with which he was already familiar. He started recording for musicians and segued into recording voice over after working with voice actor Ashton Smith.  Bryan believes being a musician helps you to be a good engineer because you already have an ear for cadence and timing. Tyrone and Alyson agree that a good engineer is also a buffer between the talent and directors/producers. The engineer conducts the orchestra that is the recording session and plays the part of the diplomat. Having a good personality goes a long way.  From his years of experience in the booth, Bryan knows what makes a successful voice actor. Listen to find out what he thinks are the top four characteristics of a great voice artist. He also tells us stories of grown men crying during a recording session! For more great advice on how to amp up your voice-over career, visit www.SixFigureVoice.com.     

Tyrone Jackson and Alyson Steel chat with Larry Morgan. Larry is a writer, director, DJ, voice artist, producer and associate programmer who has worked in radio for 20 years. He has worked on many of the top radio stations in Los Angeles. He considers himself an LA cliché because he does a little bit of everything and always has a script up his sleeve.  Larry started in radio at a small station in Texas before moving out to LA to go to USC Film School. After school he pursued a career in radio. When he decided to add voice-over work to his skill set he really had to concentrate on having conversational reads because the tendency in radio is to push.  Larry explains that the program director of a radio station is the person who is directly responsible for programming. He has a hand in everything from managing the on-air personalities to the execution of promotions and contests. The program director is basically the radio version of a producer.  To find out more about the voice-over world from radio to television, film, and more visit www.sixfigurevoice.com. Six Figure Voice is your one stop shop for everything VO.  Click here for more!                                       

Our hosts Tyrone Jackson and Alyson Steel surprise each other with some interview questions about their experiences in the industry.  Tyrone and Alyson have never heard their respective questions before, making for honest and organic answers. We find out who they truly are as professionals, what their pet peeves are, how they rehearse, and what they love most about their careers. Listen to find out which celebrity Tyrone would want to be for a day and who Alyson's celebrity crush is!  To learn more about the voice-over industry visit www.sixfigurevoice.com!

Working in animation is a really fun facet of the voice-over industry. Tyrone Jackson and Alyson Steel talk about character development and the audition process with Jamie Woodham, a writer from the animated show Talking Tom and Friends.  Jamie Woodham is a staff writer on Talking Tom and Friends. He built his reputation as a comedian and made contacts on Twitter before moving out to Los Angeles. He recommends using social media, especially twitter, to anyone wanting to work in the entertainment industry. Its a free writing sample and networking tool that helps get your name out there.  Jamie explains the process before behind the scenes of an animated show. His advice for auditioning is to bring something unique or very real to the character. When you are casting a nerdy character, for example, 95% of the auditions sound the same (i.e., nasal quality, high pitched voice). He says that if you want to stand out, bring a quirk, react to lines, and do whatever is in your control to give the character as much of a personality as possible.  If you want to catch Talking Tom and Friends, you can find it here on YouTube. You can follow Jamie on twitter @jwoodham and listen to his podcast Best of Friends on iTunes.    To learn more about how to build or improve your career in the Voice-Over industry visit us at Six Figure Voice. Click here for more info.     

Alyson Steel and Tyrone Jackson get to sit down with Dave Sebastian Williams of Dave & Dave Recording Studio and 93 KHJ to talk about how the voice-over business has changed over the years.  Back when Dave had his radio show on 93 KHJ, it was the number one radio station in the city and it retained 40% of the Los Angeles audience. He felt like he had made it to the top. But Dave always felt that he needed to be prepared to expand—you don’t just do one thing in this industry. So he used some of the money he was making to take acting classes. The acting classes helped him train his voice for the transition from radio to voice-over acting, which are two very different crafts.                                       In the 1980’s Dave owned his own studio in Hollywood. All the recording technology was tape. He came kicking and screaming into the digital age. One of the differences he has noticed since digital became mainstream, is that recording sessions have become longer. Now the directors and the writers have more opportunity to change things on the spot. They record more so that they have a myriad of options.  He has also seen technology change the agent scene. Since the scope of voice over is now so big, covering commercials, promos, trailers, live shows, cartoons, and video games, he has seen actors have specific agents for each type of work. For example, you might have one agent for promos and a different agent for video games. Also, it can help to have different agents in different cities, because an agent in Dallas might have better relationships with the casting directors in that area.  Dave has been a drummer since he was in the fourth grade, and he has found that this has helped with his timing as a voice-over artist. To improve your timing, he advises to sleep with a metronome by your bed. Change up the beats, and after doing it for a month, see how you walk and talk differently  Dave also recommends going to every class that you can and recording yourself for 3 minutes every day. List to yesterday’s performance to see how you can make it better.  For more great tips like this, visit SixFigureVoice.com.   

Voice-over artists Tyrone Jackson and Alyson Steel discuss how the industry is the business of show, but it’s also a business of people. It’s important to be presentable, listen to others, take directions, and know your place. As Alyson says, “Be present, prompt, prepared!”                               Richard Malmos, whose voice you may recognize from the Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn and later with Craig Ferguson, stopped by to chat with Tyrone and Alyson about the business.  Richard started as an actor and a singer, eventually got into radio in the Midwest, and got to learn about voice-over on the job from all the people that came through the studio. He simply listened to what other people were doing. Just like actors observe how people behave out in public, Richard listened to the tonality of people’s voices.  Richard luckily got an agent before coming out to LA. He says that this was key because it’s darn near impossible to get auditions for the big jobs, especially in a big market like Los Angeles, without an agent. His first big paycheck came from a gig for Western Auto. They had sent him three separate checks and he thought it was a mistake! Turns out it paid more than he thought!  Richard’s advice for new voice-over artists is to really give it some thought and if you are going to go for it don’t do it halfway. Get the training, invest the money, and take it seriously.  If you take the business seriously, visit SixFigureVoice.com for more tools, articles, and advice on how to grow your career. 

Welcome to the Six Figure Voice Podcast! Our hosts, Alyson Steel and Tyrone Jackson, introduce themselves and explain how they got into voice acting. The two actually met in high school at The High School of Performing Arts in New York City, made famous by the movie “FAME.” However their journeys to the industry and to success have been quite different.  Tyrone explains that there’s nothing special about his voice, he just knows how to use it. He’s a great storyteller. People have an impression that doing voice-over work is all about the quality of your voice. In reality, almost anyone can break into the voice-over business; you just have to know how.  Alyson and Tyrone go over the first three of Seven Steps to Becoming A Professional Voice Over Artist. You can find the rest of the steps at SixFigureVoice.com. First, decide if voice-over work is a hobby or career. If the work is only a hobby, you tend to give it half the attention it deserves. At the beginning of your voice-over career you must do something every day to make your dream a reality.  Next, intern at a local radio station. Just by being in the environment you will learn every aspect of the business and how the pieces fit together. Network with the people you meet and start to build the relationships that will help grow your career.  Work on your skills every day. Today’s voice-over market is very competitive. There are thousands of beautiful voices looking to break into the “biz.” The more you work on your copy reading skills, the more value you’ll have to producers and casting directors. They hear voices every day and can easily tell the amateurs from the professionals. Want to read the next four steps to becoming a professional voice-over artist? Visit SixFigureVoice.com, the one stop shop for everything Voice Over. Click here for more info.