Nice to meet you!
Updated: Oct 27, 2020
My very first blog post! Everything is so shiny and new looking!
Who am I?
I am a voiceover talent, stay at home dad of one 9 year old boy and a beautiful monster inhabiting the body of a 3 year old boy. I'm husband to a lovely, patient woman who continues to tolerate me everyday! My kids are doing virtual school in the midst of the pandemic and I am pleased that I have a career that allows me to be home and manage them while doing something I am truly passionate about.
I started acting in plays in primary school. I took acting classes later in high school and competed, with some successs, in speech and debate. Despite my passion for acting, I spent most of my childhood pining and working toward becoming a fighter pilot. I wanted to be Tom Cruise in Top Gun! Once I got my ROTC scholarship and got to college, my eyesight was nowhere near good enough to fly for the Air Force. It was the first of many times in my life I would have to reset and rebuild who I was going to be and it wasn't going to be Tom Cruise.
I ended up wondering aimlessly through university for a while. A chance meeting led to an unlikely 20 year career as a professional massage therapist.
My hands were always sore, but I would just work through it. Then in Feb 2019, I woke up in the middle of the night with a terrible pain in my right hand and then tingling and then numbness. I was diagnosed with carpal tunnel in both wrists and had mild to severe nerve damage on both sides. Surgery was the only remedy.
I would be scheduled to have endoscopic surgery in Aug 2019 on my right hand, then my left three weeks later. I was going to be out of work for three months.
I always knew this was a possibility. Most therapist have a 5 year shelf life. I got 20. I had been trying to think of what plan "B" was going to be for 10 years and never could commit to something.
I have always listened to a lot of audiobooks and played videogames as pastimes. As my surgery date loomed, I thought "well, maybe I could do voiceover!". I already had an interface and a mic for music so I practiced with that. I spent that three months practicing, researching and planning. I got in touch with a coach in November and my journey began in earnest.
I returned to massage that December and it was obvious to me that I was never going to be 100% again. My days were numbered. I was on mic recording every day. I was obsessed. I was getting my coaching sessions and reading everything I could out loud, working up to getting my demo recorded. The plan was to continue to do massage while I started my voiceover career and everything would be awesome.
Covid-19 had other ideas.
We moved to California right as the lockdowns began. There were no massage jobs. We didn't qualify for unemployment because we were transplants. I practiced, I auditioned, rinse and repeat. Once my home studio was all together I was able to record my demo from there. At this point, we were two months into the lockdowns. I started marketing. I kept auditioning. I found a new coach in the LA area and began working almost from scratch focussing on Commercial VO. I started gettting booked. I got a couple of audiobooks. I started feeling better and getting better. I NEVER GAVE UP. Rejection, criticism, more rejection and dead slience. Keep moving forward. EVERYDAY.
I have had some amazing months during this journey. I am honored to say the Heyman Talent picked me up and is now representing me in the Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana markets. A huge win for my career! The hustle is on-going.
NEVER GIVE UP ON YOURSELF.
- Erich
What can you expect to experience from my blog?
Right now I am planning to post once or twice a month. This is my professional blog, but I work in a personal industry. While my posts will hold hands with the world of Voiceover, they will also meander through the personal things in my life that I am passionate about. Family, music, disc golf, movies, travel, etc. At their core though will be humor, motivation and inspiration.
As a side note, at one point I was playing around with photgraphy, so all of the photos you will see in the blogs are my little creations!
So, there you have it. I'm glad you're here. I hope that you reach out in the comments and share your own experiences.