At the end of FaffCon 9 this weekend in Charlotte, NC, I again did what I have often found myself doing at the end of a FaffCon…trying to take mental pictures of the people there while trying to harness the positive energy in the room.

The faces and energy of the people in the room fills me with hope for my voiceover industry.

Professional voice talents came from all over the country to FaffCon 9…maybe even further, cause I wasn’t checking passports. They each had all kinds of business challenges and insights to share as fellow voiceover business owners. They asked questions, they shared answers.

Some had been in the business as long or even longer than I have been. Some were only 3-4 years into the journey.

FaffCon 9 was wonderfully populated mostly by first and second time Faffers, including the most first time Faffers at ANY FaffCon event, even FaffCon #1.

A pre-FaffCon 9 lunch with (starting on the left and going around the table) voice talents Peter K. O’Connell, Tracy Lindley, Debbie Jackson, Mike Lenz, Melanie Murphy and Christi Robbins Bowen

Even though FaffCon had vetted them long ago, some new participants felt, at the beginning of the unconference, that they didn’t belong at FaffCon 9 and that they would be found out to be voiceover frauds. They belonged, of course…they were just initially overwhelmed.

They were not frauds and to Sunday’s closing circle, each new Faffer brought with them a new confidence in their talent and their ability to run their voiceover business.

That’s one of the many wonderful things FaffCon does for every Faffer.

Of course, there are plenty of frauds in voiceover.

There are people who plug a microphone into a computer and with no professional voiceover or technological training (and certainly little discernable VO talent) call themselves a professional voice talent, usually at a dollar a holler.

There are companies within the voiceover industry who lie in wait for those brand new people who have a true desire and calling to be in voiceover but don’t yet know the pitfalls of running a voiceover business. Those disreputable companies (the number of which grows almost weekly) take the money of the well meaning, new VO people, promising them riches and successes that the disreputable companies never provide these new voice actors.

Inexperienced people passing themselves off as pros as well as disreputable companies making promises to new voice talent, taking their money and delivering nothing in return are both changing and hurting the voiceover industry.

FaffCon, to me anyway, is an island of legitimacy in a sea of voiceover frauds and wannabes.

2018 will bring the final FaffCon, FaffCon 10. I will look forward to that special, final event and, for now, try not to think too much about life in voiceover after that.

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