The Art of the Voiceover

Terry Daniel, voiceover artist and coach discusses the world of voiceover talent on FOX 9 News in Minneapolis.

The Art of the Voiceover: MyFoxTWINCITIES.com

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An Epidemic: Mediocrity

How many times have we said the phrase “Ah, it’s good enough” when we knew darn well that is wasn’t? God knows, I have been guilty of that myself.  Mediocrity should be illegal in this country.  A crime punishable by a slap in the face and a kick in the ass!  Okay, I’m kidding.  Sort of.

When I first started out in voiceovers, I didn’t have the same principles that I do now.  I would record a script and send it off.  Always with the old “that should be good enough” phrase dancing in my brain and rushing to move on to the next project.  I realized how unsatisfied I felt working this way – I knew I needed to make a change.  Once I started giving every project my best and full attention, I felt fulfilled.  It actually ended up giving me more time in my day because I wasn’t going back and forth with clients to make changes and edits.

When we settle for mediocrity and don’t do our best – our integrity and creativity starts to get lost. We tend to spread ourselves too thin, so we don’t do anything well.  I can say from experience that this is not a good place to be – for ourselves, our clients or even society.  Whether I am producing a voiceover demo for a student or a commercial for a client, I always take the time to review it.  Listen!  Listen!  Listen!  You are always going to be able to do it better.  Don’t do something once, say that it’s great and pass it on.  Work at it like an artist works on a painting.

The creative industry is filled with talented people with short attention spans, I should know, I am one of them!  Clients used to tell me that I sounded like I was in a hurry or that I was rushing the copy.  Again, this goes back to the frame of mind I was in.  I was not in the mindset of a professional.  I would always try and get each project done as quickly as possible without even thinking about the client.  Shame on you, Terry!  I was settling for mediocrity.

The great Martin Luther King Jr said “Whatever your life’s work is, do it well.  A man should do his job so well that the living, the dead and the unborn could do it no better.”

Find your passion, don’t settle and you will be amazed at what you can do!

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Be The One!

The Holidays are upon us in full swing and, in all of the hustle and bustle, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed and perhaps quite tempting to forego sending out cards to family and friends, much less business associates. Big mistake.

Here’s the deal. If you want to be a top of mind voice over talent, you have to remain top of mind in the eyes of the clients. A fantastic way to do this is to send your clients and business associates a holiday greeting card that expresses your sincere gratitude for your relationship and wishes them well this season and in the New Year. It’s so very easy and so very important.

The statistics go like this. 10 people know they should send cards. Out of those 10, 3 of them never will. Another 3 will send out some generic card with their signature. Still another 3 will send cards with an added generic message. Yet only 1 will send out a card with a sincere, personalized message. Who do you think they will remember?

Be the one they will remember!

Here’s the great news – You still have time! Several sites allow you to personalize cards and send them either via mail or email like Hallmark.com, American Greetings.com or JibJab.com. Rattlebox.com even allows you to make personalized video cards. Some of the sites even allow you to track when your e-card is viewed and often times you will receive a response from the recipient too which opens the door for another opportunity to serve your clients in the New Year.

Wishing you all the best and every success this Holiday Season and in the New Year!

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Life Is Too Short

Life is too short to let the economy or any other excuse stop you from achieving your goals. The reality is that the economy is going to continue to move through its cycles and plenty of challenges will present themselves in an effort to distract you along the way of reaching your goals.  What you need is a game plan and a strategy for dealing with the challenges.  If you look at successful people you admire, they are not successful because they never had a plan or encountered a challenge, they are successful because they created a plan and kept their eyes on their goals and not on the obstacles.

This is not to diminish the challenges you may be facing.  I am saying this to encourage you.  You are not the only one who has obstacles and the obstacles are not larger than your potential to overcome them.  It may not be easy, but it will be well worth it.

First and foremost, mind your business.  Decide exactly what you want to achieve.  Then make a game plane to work through the obstacles.  Tougher economic times may require some creativity and making smart, calculated financial choices.  It may require you to increase your networking and perhaps think of additional ways to serve your clients and increase your value potential.  You may choose to work on your skills and get some additional training or seek mentorship from other professionals who are doing what you would like to do at the level you aspire to achieve.

Then isolate yourself from unnecessary distractions. Your time is valuable and you must choose how you leverage it.  The time you allocate to social media, advertising and networking must be purposeful and deliberate.  You may need to increase the time you spend doing auditions or you may need to choose your auditions more carefully.  Be sure to allocate time to yourself and your family too, as tougher times – regardless of the stressors – often distract us from what really matters in the end.

You can choose to make excuses or you can choose to make your voice over business flourish. The decision is yours.

To your success!

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Risk and Choice

We are bombarded with choices each and every day.  Some choices are easy and less impactful than others and some require a bit more backbone and have farther reaching consequences.  Regardless, each choice carries with it an inherent risk.  For example, if I choose to go out with my friends after work, I risk not getting my after work run in…and you all know what a fitness buff I am!  Ha!  Every choice has risk. Despite the risk, the choice must be made.

The difference between successful and unsuccessful people boils down to the choices they make. Successful people do what needs to get done to achieve their goals.  They do not always like everything they need to do but they realize the risks of not doing what they must to get the results they want.  Just look at any successful athlete.  The training regimen, the diet, the intense focus are choices supporting the commitment the athlete has made to succeed.

The risk of missing an episode of Entourage while enjoying an adult beverage and some pizza is worth the achievement of their goal.  Unsuccessful people want the desired end result but are unwilling to make the choices necessary to achieve it.  They want to watch every episode of their favorite show, have the adult beverage and pizza, and still achieve their goal.

Do you want to be a successful voice over talent?  Then you have to make a choice and take a few risks. Define what “successful” means to you.  Write it down and determine when you want to achieve it. Then determine the necessary steps you will need to take to achieve your goal and commit to doing each of the steps in the right order.  The risks you have to take to be successful are not overwhelmingly difficult but they do require a commitment from you.

You will have to get some professional training if you are just starting out and will need to get periodic professional training even as a working voice over talent to keep your skills sharp, learn new techniques and stay abreast of the industry.  Professional demos are only possible after you have professional training – not before!  No amount of production can or should cover for your voice over abilities.  Auditioning is part of the process, as is editing, billing, marketing, etc.

If you want to be successful in this business, there are no short cuts!  You can do it but you must be willing to take the risk.  Bottom line:  You have to put yourself in the game to win.  It’s your choice. You are either in the game or on the sidelines.  Only those who are in the game can win.

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National Voice Over Appreciation Month

Most people are familiar with the art of acting, having watched performers on stage in a play, on television or in the movies.  Using the physicality of their bodies, their facial expressions and their voices, actors bring to life a multitude of characters from a script.

But the arts are home to another kind of actor who most often resides behind off camera or stage but may actually be experienced by the public much more frequently (often daily) than stage or screen actor. This artist is called a voice actor and his/her business is known as voice over.  It is this industry that September’s National Voice Over Month celebrates and honors.

While voice actors can also act on the stage and screen and vice versa, many voice actors (also known as voice over talents or voice talents) remain off camera, using their only their significant vocal skills to bring a writer’s script to life – much in the same way radio actors did before the advent of television.

But the mediums that voice over talents work in today is much wider today than it was in the early part of the 20th Century when radio was the dominant media. Today, with the explosion of communication tools brought on by the success of the internet, just a small; sample of the places voice talents’ work can be heard around the world include computers, stadiums and arena, video games, telephone systems, airports, colleges and universities, the internet as well as television and radio.

The specialized work of voice over talents is featured in commercials, video and DVD narrations, e-learning programs, cartoons and other animation, message on hold, political announcements, radio and television station promotional announcements, documentaries…basically anywhere a story needs to be told with more than pictures.

For the thousands of professional male and female voice over talents, the joy of participating in this industry is recognition enough.  But with National Voice Over Month allows everyone the chance to understand and appreciate these special artists.

Visit our site:  www.nationalvoiceovermonth.com

Contributed by Peter O’Connell

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An Inspirational Video – Be Unsinkable

As a voiceover artist, this truly inspired me!  If I have a frustrating or disappointing week in the studio, I always watch this video and I immediately feel better about everything that I do.

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Are You Stuck?

Are you stuck?  Before you answer, consider how much of your work is from repeat clientele and referrals, the amount and quality of testimonials you receive from your clients, the strength of your web presence, and the effectiveness of your auditioning and voicing techniques.  Take some time to reflect and be totally honest with yourself.  This is the business side of voice over and if you neglect it or forget to pay attention to it, you will find yourself stuck. Stuck has no momentum.  Stuck does not pay the bills. Stuck stinks!

Get “unstuck” and build momentum by taking time to analyze how you can improve your voice over business.  Think outside of the box.   If you do have repeat clientele, find out what it is you are doing that makes them come back to you.  Think of how you can provide even more value to them, whether you offer to voice their phone system, or add audio to their website, voice their blog, or introduce their podcast.  Next, identify which of your one-time clients you would like to have as repeat clients and do the same.  Take it to the next level by identifying your dream clients – the ones you want to voice for but haven’t done so yet.

Add some speed to your momentum by allowing your clients to advertise your business for you through referrals and testimonials.  Referrals and testimonials are powerful because they speak about the quality and integrity of your work and you.  Go ahead and ask for referrals.  Develop an arsenal of testimonials by asking your clients, especially your repeat clients, for a testimonial about their experience working with you and post these on your website.

Google yourself.  Are you on the first page? Better yet, how many pages do you fill?  The strength of your web presence is vital because the Internet is a major marketplace for voice over talent services.  Having a website is fantastic but you need to get plugged in to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube too.  Social Media is a powerful force in optimizing your web presence. Likewise, it allows you to access, connect, and engage other voice over talent, creative directors, and potential clients.  Leverage the power of social media to express your personality and brand your image – it’s free!  To optimize your social media, visit www.SocialMediaVO.com.

Finally, we audition a lot and we voice a lot.  Sometimes in the process it becomes more of a chore which inevitably comes out in our performance.  If you are finding your auditioning effectiveness to be slipping and the jobs seem to be fewer and further between, it may be time to revisit the basics or shake things up a bit and treat yourself by investing in a few training sessions with a professional voice over coach. Yes, even the pros get coaching to keep their competitive edge and learn new techniques!

Yes, even the pros have to get “unstuck” and find new ways to improve their voice over businesses. Going through this process is exactly what makes them pros and what sets them apart from the amateurs.  It’s time to get “unstuck”.

To your success!?

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Getting Rejected By An Agent Doesn’t Mean Armageddon

Getting rejected by an agent is not Armageddon.  We’ve all been there.  We continue to be there.  Even though I’ve been in the industry for more than 20 years, I still get turned down by the occasional agent around the country.  It happens to everybody and it happens a lot, especially when you’re first starting out.  You could have a killer demo and still get turned down.  Do me a favor and don’t be offended by this, because this is a big part of the industry. Don’t be a glass half empty person when you get turned down by an agent.  Be a glass half full person and do something about it.  If you get rejected from an agent either just move on to another agent or figure out different ways to get voice over work on your own – for example through networking through Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. We’re very lucky that we have all of these tools that we can use today through the Internet.

As I’ve said before, 15 years ago the only way to get a voice over job was if you were booked by an agent.  So don’t sulk if you get turned down. It’s not Armageddon.  There are plenty of other opportunities to get voice over work without the help of an agent.   Sometimes when you do get turned down, it doesn’t mean that your demo is awful or your voice is awful.  The agent may have loved everything on the demo, it’s just that they might have a voice that’s already similar to yours and they just didn’t have a place for you right now.  That’s actually a pretty common response from agents who have enough talent and just are not willing to take any more on.

So don’t just sit there all wounded like you can’t do anything about it.  Just because you don’t have an agent doesn’t mean you can’t succeed in this industry.  I get along with agents pretty well and I still consider them a big player in the game.  They’re just not the ONLY player.  Some will tell you that.  Some will not.  They’re not going to tell you there are other ways to get voice over work other than through them.  They’re not going to go into all of the different ways you can network on social media.  They’re not going to tell you to call major corporations and ask to speak to the audio-visual director to see if they need voice talent.  They’re not going to tell you to join your local Chamber of Commerce or local business MeetUp groups where you can network by passing out your business cards, meeting business owners and marketers who might potentially need your voice.  Agents aren’t going to tell you that if you have an enormous web presence that clients are going to come to YOU looking for voice work.

Again, agents are wonderful people and I consider some of them to be my friends but If I had to depend on them to make a living doing voice over work, I would seriously be living on the street.  So again, if you get rejected by an agent, don’t think of it as the end of the world.  There are still other opportunities out there where you can get voice over work.

Now is it possible to go back to the agent who rejected you?  Well of course! As a matter of fact, they should be leaving the door wide open for you to do that.  If they didn’t like your demo or if they just didn’t feel a need for your voice, they should normally leave an open invitation for you to contact them maybe a few months down the road.  Or if they had certain problems with your demo and they wanted a couple of things switched around, once you get that done, you should be able to go back to them with a revised demo and set up another meeting. In the meantime, take advantage of these membership sites like Voices.com, VOPlanet.com, Voice123.com, Bodalgo.com.  Sure you have to pay to be a member of those sites but your guaranteed to get auditions sent to your inbox practically on a daily basis.

This is a great way to start your client pool.  You get a few jobs here and there.  Then you get a referral from somebody.  Then you get a couple of clients who want to use you for another project, so they contact you again. This is how you start your voice over business.  You start with just a handful of clients who could potentially grow to a dozen maybe two dozen clients a few months later.  It’s like any other entrepreneurial business.  You have to start from the ground up.

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Networking Your Voice

Here’s a great way to network your voice for free!  Enjoy!

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