THE SLEAZY VOICEOVER PITCH: MORE SHOCKING DISCOVERIES!

The Sequel

My guest posting on this blog yesterday seems to have unleashed a flurry of Internet buzzing…

Just a few comments here on the blog.

Lots of comments on Facebook and Twitter.

And even more emails sent directly to me, sharing various unpleasant encounters with the subject of my diatribe. I should say “alleged encounters,” because I didn’t witness any of them.

What I can say, however, is that the charlatan in question asked me to be the guest star at this very “event.” Her pitch was that I’d show up, share a few witty bon mots, tantalize the audience of desperately hopeful wannabes with a couple of nuggets of professional wisdom, and then get the opportunity to sell them my products.

Aside from the failed math — lose three days of voice over work (my profession and 99.9% of my income) for the “opportunity” to peddle my microphone and a few Porta-Booths — I’d add credence to an event carefully structured to separate unsuspecting, trusting hopefuls from their money.

No way, no how.

But one particular email I received yesterday caught my eye:

Harlan,
LOVED your new rant about “that woman.” And needless to say, I completely agree with your opinion. I took a few minutes to copy and paste some of the phrases you quoted from her pitch into Google, and wasn’t at all surprised to find that many of the phrases she “wrote” were found, word for word, on sites with titles like “The Info-Marketers’ A-Z Blueprint seminar,” “No B.S. Business Success for the New Economy,” “How to Effortlessly Attract New Clients to Your Business,” and even “The Insurance Agency Success Program.”

I thought Dan O’Day would be amused by that, so I forwarded it to him.

Sure enough, immediately below this posting you should see one from Dan, who was inspired to do his own online research into the sincerity of the outsider posing as an expert. I think you’ll be shocked to see how she simply lifts “boilerplate” claims to convince prospects about the big money to be made in voice over.

H2