I have been making use of the GFTB promotion resulting from the webinar a few weeks ago. I had spent some time on their site, and while it seems to be very comprehensive, I still have no clue what Gravy for the Brain is. That is to say, what in the world that name means. I expect it is explained somewhere on their site, but I haven’t found it yet. If you have, please let me know.

GFTB presents itself primarily as a resource center for us Voice over Workers. The short of it is, in my limited visits there, I am considering subscribing for a while. It is definitely worth your time to look at, try out a free trial if you get that offer, and see what they can provide for you.

The long of it? I’m glad you asked. The marketing focuses on their production of webinars and support material for Voice over Workers. They claim to have over 150 hours of online training videos, one-on-one mentoring through a messageboard-type system, a CRM system for managing your client relationships, and several other useful perks to build your business and your brand.

They start you off with an (optional) on-boarding series of videos, hosted by Hugh, the CEO of GFTB. Hugh most frequently refers to himself as a casting director, and as such he and his company provide Voice over Workers with info they need to understand what to do to catch the ear of other casting directors. This video series is pretty basic info, but probably worth the time to sit through for the orientation of it all.

Once you have access to your dashboard on GFTB, you’re free to roam at will and participate in all they have to offer, and it seems like they have enough to keep your subscription cost-effective for at least a few months. If, that is, you are willing to learn through their videos and blogs and message boards.

Finding work is not a major goal on GFTB. They do have an area where job postings can be reviewed and your profile as a Voice over Worker can be perused by Casting Directors or other clients, but this seems to be a small portion of what they want to provide to their subscribers.

I would recommend you give it a try.

Continuing on with the notion of “What in the world does that name mean?” we come to Bodalgo.com, another European Voice over Work website (did I mention that GFTB is British?). Bodalgo is like so many others – free to join but pay to play. That is to say, you can spend a fair bit of time registering, profiling (yourself, so it isn’t a bad thing), and uploading demos. You will even get emails notifying you when there is a job posting that matches your profile, but if you want to apply for any postings you have to pony up about 25 Euros a month. I can’t believe that I don’t have a Euro currency sign key on this keyboard!

I must say, I like Bodalgo. I am not a subscriber yet, and while I get 3-5 emails a week about jobs for “Male, middle age, English, neutral accent” that I can’t apply for, the onboarding process and the blog posts I read from their staff made a good impression.

First, you do the usual enrollment stuff, and go to your dashboard. What is it with Europeans and their dashboards, anyway? You can click on a few things there, but basically all you get is a notice that says your profile is not active yet. This brings back memories of VoiceBunny, as apparently they want to make sure that you are good enough for their site before they let you in. Even before they will let you pay to get in!

The notice says to wait a few days while they review your profile. I waited a week with no update. Then I waited another. I sent in a query, and got nothing back. I read a blog post available to those unapproved applicants that said they would only approve profiles that met certain quality standards, in order to assure that they provide the best product to their clients. Definitely some VoiceBunny vibes coming through here.

To my surprise, I recently logged in an saw the “Please Wait” message was gone, and I had access to the site. Cool. I took that to mean that my demos I had uploaded were decent quality. As I explored the site more, I found a few references to their current business model and practices. To summarize, they have more subscribers than they have work for, they are focusing their current efforts on bringing in more work, and while they will let you subscribe it you want, they aren’t going to go to any effort to convince you to sign up with them. Now that’s refreshing! No one hawking their services, and a straight-forward, honest, and often irreverent approach to the industry. My favorite articles are a rant on amateurs and a rant on audition quality. This particular demo is an application recording for VoiceBunny that someone decided to repurpose – I know this because I was rejected using the same script. Check it out!

Categories: Voice over Work