VO work doesn’t stop when you have a cold. 😷

Okay, it sometimes stops when the client doesn’t have a pressing deadline. (Thanks to the clients letting me deliver next week!)

But when the client does have a pressing deadline, you power through by drinking a lot of fluids, abandoning your higher register, and editing out any sniffling, coughing and mouth noises. 🤒

And then the client says: “This is great! I would never have known you had a cold if you hadn’t told me.”

You think to yourself, "If only they heard the original *hack* re*sniff*cording." *Sneeze* *Sneeze* *Sneeze*

Voiceover…is never the same from year to year.

Last year at this time, I was deep into working on an audiobook after being hired directly by the author. It was a fun, if time-consuming, challenge. Total length of recording - 04:02:00.

This year, I started out recording a couple of ten-second streaming spots. Total length of recording - :20.

That’s right: a difference of four hours, one minute and forty seconds*.

What should I do with the extra time?

*To clarify: that’s only recorded time. Producing audio is more involved than the finished product. For example an audiobook requires time to read through the book, record the book, listen back to the book, make necessary edits, and then listen one more time, while even a ten-second spot involves time to read the copy, listen to client feedback, and then maybe speed up a subsequent read to fit it into the allotted time.

Given the intangible nature of voiceover work, I’d say most of the direction I get is pretty straightforward.

Giving clear, actionable direction helps the project immensely.

But I came across an audition request recently that I found very confusing.

(Side note: I did not audition)

I really should know better by now…

When I reach out to prospective clients, the ones that are rude or dismissive are usually the ones whose work I find the least impressive.

It’s like the universe is saying, “You really don’t want to work with them.”

One day I’ll learn. One day…

Here’s how advertising permeates our brains:

There’s a storm bearing down on Minnesota that I described as a "two-and-a-half-day weather event."

Using the word “event” brought to mind ads for car sales: "Come to Minnesota for our Presidents' Day Weather Event, going on now."

Now I can’t unhear it.

What’s the best way to recover a lost customer?

If you answered that it’s resubscribing them to your email blasts three years after they’ve dropped your service because it often didn’t work, and you wouldn’t compensate them for it not working, then you are on the same wavelength as a certain CRM I dumped over three years ago.

Did they think I would forget how horrible my customer experience was because they were hosting a webinar? Are webinars really that good?

Anyway, I would have stayed a customer if:

1. The product did not break monthly
2. They offered me an incentive to stay, such as a discount for the time I lost using a broken product
3. They hired me to do their voiceover (just kidding, I think)

I would come back if:
1. They hired me to do their voiceover (not kidding this time)

This is the life a voice talent.

When the limo picks me up, I tell the driver to turn off the music while I concentrate on vocal warmups. After being dropped off at the studio, I walk out with a check for, at minimum, $75K ten minutes later.

All I have to say is one sentence…which I am under an NDA not to divulge because it’s cutting-edge IP, and I am just the talent to voice it.

I get a couple of these projects a week, and hang up when I hear any number less than $75K per hour.  

This is the lifestyle. Keeping my voice pristine so I could buy the Porsche, the Bentley and the Lamborghini.

Of course…

That’s a load of garbage.

The VO life is not glamorous. I record mostly from home. Some weeks are busier than others. No one is paying me $100K for ten minutes of my time (I wouldn't object, though). And I don’t drive a fancy car.

What I do is take scripts my clients send me and give them what they ask for: an authentic, warm and relatable read.

Don't fall for lifestyle bragging.

Don’t tell anyone I told you, but here’s the secret to winning voiceover auditions…

Are you ready?

Are you sure you can handle this?

YOU MAY WANT TO SIT DOWN BEFORE I TELL YOU!

The secret is….

The client liked you.

That’s it.

That’s not to say training, practice, a good demo and a good recording space don’t matter because they do.

But…

The client still has to like you.

Most of the time, I work alone in my studio, but sometimes there are a number of people listening in to the recording session: the copywriter, the audio engineer, the producer, the project manager, etc. 

Does that sound nerve-wracking?

It’s understandable… no voice actor wants to sound like an idiot and butcher their words, or give a poor performance. But they hired you for a reason – they liked your demo or your audition.

And they’re listening in for a reason, too: they want the project to be a success. Plus, those extra ears can be helpful when you miss something in the script or mispronounce a word, or they want a different tone.

Finally, when you have a bunch of people listening to your session, you just might get the reward of hearing: “That sounded great!”

Medical narration can be either daunting or invigorating…depending on how you view it. 

Daunting…because it’s often filled with words you’ve never heard and, therefore, don’t use every day, and need help to pronounce. Be honest, how often to you drop quenokinosiphinisus into casual conversation? Never, because I just made that up, which is how medical narration can feel.

Invigorating…because you get to learn how to pronounce a whole bunch of complicated new words, which makes you sound smart! So now, quenokinosiphonisus rolls off your tongue like a real word that you actually know how and when to use. Again, that is not a real word, but if you drop it into casual conversation who would know?

When you approach medical narration with the idea that it’s invigorating, the read will be less tight, and the client will be happier with the end result.  

Paying attention is a competitive advantage.

Recently there was a voiceover job posted on LinkedIn. When I looked at it, it had over 200 applicants.

But, when I looked more closely at the job description, it specifically says to record a short audition script and email it to a provided address. Not to apply via LinkedIn.

So, that’s over 200 people spending their effort on creating a competitive advantage for those that could read the instructions.

Does your business have what I call a “Cheeseburger Mindset?”

In other words: are you listening to your customers?

Some background: my kids like burgers, but don’t like cheeseburgers. Every time they order a burger, we emphasize that they only want a plain burger with NO CHEESE. All too often they’ll be served a cheeseburger, which means that either the server or the cook was not paying attention. So, we have to send it back and wait for another burger…

In these situations, cheeseburger is a menu item, while hamburger is a special order. The “Cheeseburger Mindset” is when a business does not pay attention to detail; it’s a system set up to process volume and not look for things out of the ordinary. After all, how many people don’t want cheese on a burger? The number has to be pretty small, right? (Yes, I get that my kids are unusual in this regard).

So, does your business have a “Cheeseburger Mindset” or are you paying attention to your customers?

“So, you just talk into a microphone, right?”

Me: “Er, no.”

I take your copy and make it sound like I’m speaking naturally…and that I’m, most importantly, interested in the topic. This also involves learning to pronounce the name of your company, product, person I’m speaking about, or anything else in the script that is counterintuitive.

Side note: Medical and pharmaceutical scripts are written in an entirely different language that is, at best, tangential to English. I might have sprained my tongue a few times trying to pronounce various medicines…

Do I ever get it wrong? You betcha.

I mispronounce words occasionally, but at least I sound interested in what I’m mispronouncing!

And I’ll always go back and fix it….

Your voiceover script should be a tool to help the voiceover talent deliver your message.

A confusing script will turn the talent from an actor into a reader because the talent is fighting to understand the script.

If the talent is fighting to understand the script, and gives an unengaged performance, the audience will wander elsewhere.

An unengaged audience will sleep on your message.

And it all starts with a good script.

My mother-in-law visited my family this past weekend and asked me a question that got me thinking:

“What voiceover projects do you most like to work on?”

The easy answer is ones that pay on time!

Seriously, though, it’s not something I think about a lot. A project come in, I record and edit it, and then send it to the client, usually within a few hours.

The more I thought about it, the more I realized that I like two types of projects:

Projects where I learn something, like e-learning.

Projects that have a well-written script that is easy-to-read, like most explainer video scripts.

And, if a project is both well-written and informative, that just makes my day (as long as I get paid on time!)

If you’re a creative person, you might have received an offer to be paid in “exposure.”

No, it’s not a new cryptocurrency, but rather an offer to not pay you anything for your work because your work will function as an advertisement to others who will then pay you for your work.

If that sounds like complete nonsense, there’s a good reason for that.

A client offering to pay you in “exposure” is not a professional and does not value your skillset. It is also highly likely that any “exposure” they offer is worthless.

When you agree to be in “exposure,” you communicate that you are also an amateur.

Professionals get paid to do the work.

I had a potential client who wanted me to be the voice of a YouTube channel focused on investing, success and motivation. This potential client also wanted me to help with scriptwriting and said I would be a great fit for this new channel.

Even though it would be a significant time commitment to research, write and narrate a 10-minute video every week, I was really excited by the idea of creating new content and branching out in a different path with my voiceover work.

The client and I had a phone call to discuss details, and he told me what it would pay.

I laughed.

And no, it wasn’t out of line. The offer was insulting to the point where negotiation was useless.

It’s flattering when someone wants to work with you. It’s something else when they don’t actually see your value.

#success #content #video #research #motivation #value #selfworth

Targeting the right people is…important.

The other day I got an email promoting a book. Yay! I love books!

But, it was from a name I did not immediately recognize…

Huh? Now, I was confused.

There was no method of opting out…

Double huh?

Searching for his name in my email, I realized I met the author once when I was interviewing for a job at his company nine years ago….

Triple huh?

And the topic, shall we say…was not quite relevant to me…

Quadruple huh?

I’m guessing the author sent the email out to every email address he’s ever interacted with…and that I may not be the only one who marked it as spam.

Creativity is not just imagining possibilities; you also have to conduct experiments to find out what works and doesn’t work.

For instance, I might approach an audition script imagining a few different scenarios, and bringing a different energy to each.

But...before I send it to the client, I have to figure out which of those experiments to throw out. Narrating a corporate explainer video as a cartoon character with a funny voice is not going to get me the gig...

...but it is fun to try it out if I'm having trouble getting into a script!

I just finished a voiceover narration project for a museum, and I got to learn about an artist I was unfamiliar with. (Due to an NDA, I won’t say which museum or exhibit). 

That’s one of the best parts of this job: learning something new….and being able to help bring that knowledge to someone else who may be discovering it for the first time.

#learning #museum #voiceover #narrator

Creativity blossoms with collaboration.

My 14-year-old son, Sam, heard me playing a chord progression on the guitar and asked what I was playing so he could join in on piano. It was a song I had been writing.

During the pandemic, I’ve been playing the guitar a lot as a means of refocusing my brain. This mostly involves “noodling” and exploring the chord progressions that resonate with me. Sam has been playing a lot of piano, picking out songs from bands like Radiohead, Wilco, and the Beatles while also learning pieces like “The Entertainer” or “Moonlight Sonata.”

Normally, I think of the chords being played as the finger position on the guitar, even when using a capo. The song Sam asked about is played with a capo. Now I had to really think about the chords I was playing to translate them to Sam.

He picked it up quickly, riffing on the chord progression, adding flavor, color and depth to it.

“You make it sound good,” I said to him.

“It already sounded good,” he replied.

What my song had been missing was a collaborator, someone else to explore its possibility.

All day yesterday, we had light snow in the Minneapolis area.

Aside from skiers, voice actors might be the only group that wants to work every time it snows. That’s because snow makes everything so quiet. Like, if the snow wouldn’t ruin my equipment, I might consider recording outside, quiet.

Don’t get me wrong, I have a nice, quiet recording space in a quiet neighborhood, but snowfall adds an extra layer of peace.

The moral of the story is: Don’t hire voice actors who live in warm climates. 😂😂😂

I turned down a gig last week.

A European producer reached out for me to narrate part of a documentary in the voice of one of the characters. It looked like it would have been an interesting challenge.

But there was one problem:

The person in the documentary was from Texas and I’m not from Texas. I’m from the Boston-area, but speak with a “neutral American” accent. Sure, I could have mimicked how I think a Texan would speak, but it would likely have sounded inauthentic or like I was making a joke of it.

So, in the interest of authenticity, I turned it down. I just wasn’t right for it. If I had gone through with the project, it would have reflected poorly on the production and made me look like an amateur.

Bottom line: it’s okay to say no, especially if you’re not the right person for the job.

Thanksgiving has been my favorite holiday for a long time. The expectations are simple: be thankful and enjoy a great meal. That’s it. The only down side is that, for some reason, the Detroit Lions get a nationally televised home game every year. Why?

As always, I have a lot to be thankful for:

My wife, Val, who keeps making carrot cake for me every birthday despite my lack of objection.

The way Val laughs.

The way the trees turn bright shades of yellow, orange and red in the fall.

Looking out the window to see the school busses pull up at the end of the day.  

Salmon Sunday with my daughter, Emily. She and I love salmon.

That Val and I got each other the same anniversary gift. (It means we’re in synch)

Catching up with old friends in Massachusetts.

Listening to my son, Sam, play piano, especially when he gets in a groove and does a Radiohead/Pixies/Styx/Billy Joel/Bad Plus/Beatles medley.

Hearing my Emily belt out Brandi Carlile songs at top volume while playing the ukulele.

Val singing along to her favorite songs…even if it’s Christmas music a few months too early.

Being able to pick up a guitar and make something resembling music.

Discovering a new song.

Lake Superior.

Great neighbors.

Photography

Playing catch and Wiffle Ball with Sam.

Getting to see live baseball games this year at Fenway Park, Target Field and CHS Field.

After two years, I finally feel like I know my way around the area where I live.

Getting on the mic and really connecting with a piece of copy.

My clients – new and returning (Note: I did not say old)

These albums:
The War on Drugs – I Don’t Live Here Anymore
Aimee Mann – Queens of the Summer Hotel
Yola – Stand for Myself
Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit – Georgia Blue
Adia Victoria – A Southern Gothic
Rhiannon Giddens – They’re Calling Me Home

These Books (that I read this year):
Marketing Made Simple – Donald Miller
The Vanishing Half – Brit Bennett
Say Nothing – Patrick Radden Keefe
Trick Mirror – Jia Tolentino
Sharks in the Time of Saviors – Kawai Strong Washburn
The Stone Sky – N.K. Jemisin
Parable of the Sower – Octavia Butler
Think Again – Adam Grant
Caste – Isabel Wilkerson
Ball Four – Jim Bouton
The Cruelty is the Point – Adam Serwer
The Glass Hotel – Emily St. John Mandel
1Q84 – Haruki Murakami
Matrix – Lauren Groff
Daisy Jones & the Six – Taylor Jenkins Reid
Harlem Shuffle – Colson Whitehead
Fahrenheit 451 – Ray Bradbury

I hope you have a great Thanksgiving and lots to be thankful for, too!

In voiceover you don’t meet rejection so much as silence, and that silence can feel like rejection.

Reach out to potential clients? No response.

Submit an audition? Very rare to get a response unless you are selected for the gig.

It’s like most jobs in sales. You spend most of your time being ignored and trying to figure out how to not be ignored.

But when a prospective client engages with you and you work well together, all that silent rejection is suddenly worth it.

In my experience, what voiceover clients and potential clients want to know is*:

1. How do you sound?
2. How quickly can you turn their projects around?
3. Do you have a professional studio?
4. Will you deliver what they’ve asked for?

*My answers: 1. Warm, friendly, authentic 2. Most short projects within a few hours, 24-hours max; 3. Yes; 4. Yes, and, if it’s not quite right, I re-do it.

Every time I try clever marketing copy, I think I’ve nailed it, but I’m met with crickets.

Clever marketing doesn’t tell clients what I do.

Clever marketing doesn’t tell clients how I can help them.

Clever marketing annoys clients by making them have to work to understand what I’m trying to say.  

Clever marketing confuses clients who will then find someone who is clear about what they do.  

Lesson: write clearly, communicate what you do, and let clients know how you can help them.

Voiceover is something that a lot of people think they can do. I hear it all the time:

“It’s just reading out loud, right?”  

Technically, yes, it is reading out loud, but there’s a big difference between reading out loud and connecting with a script.  It’s called ACTING and acting is a skill that needs to be developed.

So, yes, anyone CAN do voiceover, but you need training and practice to become a pro.

It’s always so exciting to produce a new demo!

For my updated commercial voiceover demo, I had the great privilege of working with Dave Walsh. There’s a reason why Dave is a highly sought-after VO coach. Dave inspired me to connect with the story behind each script. He also helped me target areas of VO that are a natural fit for me (not that I ever thought my sound was hip teenager).

I owe a huge debt of gratitude to Dave for helping me deliver more authenticity in my reads and getting me out of the “smooth voice” read that I tend to fall back on. Every session with Dave pushed me to dig deeper and develop a tighter and more specific connection to the story in the script.

I’m also always amazed at the seemingly effortless wizardry of a great sound engineer. Not only did John Chominsky record me remotely via Source Connect but he made this demo sound like we were in the same studio on recording day, not 2,000 miles apart.

If you’re in need of a warm, friendly, authentic voice for your next project, I’d be delighted to work with you. See the comments section for contact info.

In the voiceover world almost everyone describes their voice with positive terms like "friendly," "relatable,” or “down-to-earth.” Even a word like “gritty” or a phrase like “gravelly-sound” can evoke a positive association – just picture a truck commercial and the voice you’d associate with it.

Even my tagline is “A Voice to Spend Time With.”

If I wanted to be different, I could have gone with: “A Voice to Grit Your Teeth to.” So, why not (besides the fact that it’s not true)? For the same reason no one markets their voice as “angry,” “unhinged,” or “the voice of the creep next door.”

We all want to be remembered positively when clients go to choose a voice for their project, and the positive phrases allow them to picture us telling a better story

As a voiceover professional, your product is intensely personal.

It’s your own voice. It’s how you communicate with others.

If you’re not in voiceover try recording yourself and listening. Did you cringe? Would you send that recording to someone and ask them to hire you?

Voiceover amplifies self-doubt: you wonder if you should just stop talking if no one hires you.  

But then something happens. You get hired. You get used to the sound of your own voice because you play it back so often. You begin to understand that acting matters more than the pleasant sound of your voice, and that you get hired because you're relatable.

Think about toilet paper.

Aside from a brief period of time in 2020 when it was scarce, toilet paper is something we barely think about. It gets used, then flushed away and forgotten.

Likewise, some will see you as a one and done relationship to be flushed away. Maybe they’ll tell you they only hire from freelance sites that host hundreds, if not thousands, of similar talent. Or maybe they’ll tell you that they pay a below-market rate because there are hundreds, if not thousands, of others who do what you do.

Toilet paper is a commodity. Are you someone else’s toilet paper?

“Awesome! It sounds very conversational which is hard to do with these long awkward sentences!”

A client sent that note to me about a recent voiceover project.

I love getting compliments like this because it means that the work I put into practicing the craft of voiceover is resonating…

And I always enjoy the challenge of making something “awkward,” “technical” or “precise” sound conversational.

If I described what I do like this:

“With best-in-class vocal modulation, and the ability to transform printed material into actionable speech, I vocalize sound vibrations into a unique auditory experience for your business, helping you better connect with customers…”

Would you know what it is I do? Or would you be confused? If you’re confused, that’s on me for not explaining that I’m a voice actor who specializes in bringing personality to corporate voiceover.

Now look at how it is you would explain what you do, or what your company does. Is it clear, or is it filled with corporate buzzwords?  

One of the good things from the pandemic? Directed remote voiceover sessions through Zoom.

Zoom enables me to connect with my audio interface during a session so that clients hear what my DAW records and give me direct feedback. For those not in the know: a DAW is a “digital audio workstation” or the software used to record and edit audio.

Before everyone knew how to use Zoom, most remote directed sessions were conducted via telephone which has its limitations.

SourceConnect is still the gold standard of remote sessions – it allows a client to record you directly, but a Zoom session is a great alternative for clients that don’t have SourceConnect.

How to tell a voice actor you value voice actors:

Pay fair rates for their work and usage.

Accept an invitation to connect after having an interaction.

Hire a professional voice actor instead of doing it yourself.

Establish direct relationships with talent instead of only working through casting sites. 

Authentic outreach beats cute and clever every time.

This is a lesson that I continually need to relearn.

Because…. I often think I’m being authentic when I’m just being clever.

And clients don’t have time for clever.

How do we change the stories we tell ourselves and develop a growth mindset?

Some background: My cousin was freaking out. She’s been a nurse for practically her entire adult life, and will be teaching her first nursing class next week. Stuck in her head is a time thirty years ago when she taught Sunday school and the class did not go well. She was young, unprepared, and not adequately trained. The story she told herself then was that she is “a terrible teacher” and “a failure.”

All these years later, those doubts are creeping back. Growing up in our extended family was to grow up with a fixed mindset: if something does not come easily, then you are not good at it, and therefore should not pursue it. Trust me when I tell you, that being a creative entrepreneur does not fit in our family.

But my cousin’s story has changed. She is no longer a deeply inexperienced young adult in front of an unmotivated group. She has a deep well of professional experience that she can draw on to engage her students. Her students are motivated to learn. She wants to do well and wants her students to do well.

It may not come easy, but she can do it. Just wanting to do it is a step on the path to growth.

Is this how one grows an email list?

At the beginning of the pandemic, I received a curt reply to one of my emails. To be fair my email sucked and I could understand someone not wanting to hear from me. No big deal, I took them off my list, and I learned I should probably stop using the email that I sent.

It’s well over a year later now, and I kept up my end of the bargain. Today I received that company’s newsletter, which I had never received before.

Really?

Call me crazy, but list building should involve reaching out to people that want to hear from you, correct? And if you’ve sent me nasty note, maybe, just maybe I’d rather not hear from you anymore unless you want to discuss a project.

Now here’s the crazy part: this is the third time this has happened in the past year, where I’ve been added to a newsletter list by someone who has said they’re not interested in hearing from me.

Which leads me to ask: are they even adding potential customers to their list or just throwing emails against the wall to see what sticks? 

“I could be wrong.” Those are some powerful words.

It signals that you are open to adapting and changing based on new circumstances or information.

“I could be wrong,” indicates growth mindset versus the fixed mindset of believing you know everything.

Think about how hard it is to admit you might be wrong, and hold open the possibility of changing your mind about anything. I struggle with this every day. How about you?

Not all advice is worth taking. So, how do you know when you are getting bad advice?

Is the advice coming from a know-it-all?

Does the person offering advice reflect on their own past mistakes?

Is the advisor asking thoughtful questions?

Does the person offering advice tell you what you should do or leave room for you to make up your own mind?  

Sometimes it’s obvious: the best advice often comes from the person who is trying to understand the situation and help you make a good, well-informed decision.

“Ron’s Orange Juice?” the teacher asked skeptically.

I was taking a songwriting class in the summer between fourth and fifth grade and our assignment was to write a jingle. “Ron’s Orange Juice” is the product name I came up with. Ron sounded to me like a guy who could make orange juice, and I liked orange juice. Therefore, this was a product that would sell itself without any effort from me.

What ten-year-old me failed to realize is that not everyone sees the same intrinsic value in a product and that marketing depends on developing a connection. But, again, I was ten and not a natural marketer or copywriter.

If I were to revisit this assignment now and keep the product name “Ron’s Orange Juice,” “Ron” would be a farmer who loves oranges and wants to share the juice of his oranges with others.

Thankfully ten-year-old me is not in charge of marketing anything.

Now to write that jingle...

You know the saying: “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” But what happens if you don’t know whether something is broken or not?

Then you lean on another cliché: “You never know unless you try.” Trying something new can give you an insight into how you might do something better, even if it’s an incremental tweak…or that what you’re doing is actually working.

I do this with emails: trying different subjects, different copy, and even different audiences. I am always trying to figure out what resonates.

Some people might remember “New Coke” as an extreme example of this. Many years ago Coca-Cola tried a new formula which met with a lot of resistance. Coke ended up reintroducing the original formula after three months. It might not have been broken…but they would never have known unless they tried.

Trust is critical. Sometimes that trust is as simple as presenting a consistent brand.

Today, as I often do, I was looking for companies that could use my services as a voice talent.

I came across a video production agency and went to its website. A chat window popped up and the chatbot welcomed me with the name of a different video production agency than the website I was on. I stepped away from my laptop for a while and when I came back, the chat window now welcomed me to a third video production agency.

Huh? Who were they?

I decided not to reach out to them. There were other factors in this decision, but presenting itself as three different companies did not make me trust that this was a company I wanted to work with.

What if I was a potential customer? I probably would have moved on as well, unless I was desperate to hire a company that paid so little attention to detail that it did not present itself consistently.

“It’s interesting to someone.”

My one-time voiceover coach used to say that when we would rehearse narrations on seemingly dry topics. Since then, I’ve voiced a lot of scripts focused on financial regulation, pharmaceutical industry training, and employee benefits, among other topics.

These are subjects that would make many eyes glaze over, but my coach was right. The script is interesting to someone: the copywriter who wrote the words, the client who wants their project to sound good, the target audience who needs to engage with the narration.

I received an email recently with the subject line: “A WING AND A PRAYER.”

My GenX pop-culture brain immediately referenced “The Greatest American Hero” theme song. If you don’t know it, “The Greatest American Hero” was a show about a guy who receives a superhero suit from aliens, but does not know how to use it because he lost the instruction manual. Ah, TV in the early '80s!

It could very well be that this was not the intent of the subject line. “A wing and a prayer,” is a pretty common phrase meaning hope with very little chance of success.

I have some questions about the email:

Would the subject line inspire you to open it?
Does it pique your curiosity?
Is it too clever?
What benefit is there to opening it?
How well did this email perform for the sender?

You ever try to tell a joke in an email…or express sarcasm…or do anything to convey tone…and it falls flat?

It’s happened to me a few times, and let’s just say it’s pretty awkward. Email is good for communicating information, not necessarily tone.

Before sending that email, ask yourself how you would interpret the words if you were the recipient. What might sound like a joke to you might be interpreted as an insult.

You can’t automate personalization.

I got an email recently in which the sender writes to tell me, “how I think we could be a great fit for you and Chris Vallancourt.”

Given that I am Chris Vallancourt, was he telling me that his service is great for me and also…me?

If he had taken even a few seconds to look at my website, he could have rightly concluded that my business is just me and tweaked the copy accordingly.

Side note: there were a few other issues with the email, but this one stood out as the most glaringly obvious.

It’s easy to make mistakes when composing email or any other quickly drafted 1:1 communication. I could fill a book with my own embarrassing moments in email prospecting. But if you’re going to personalize, make sure you are actually personalizing.

Minor annoyances highlight how good we have it.

The power went out in my neighborhood yesterday morning.

It was after I normally make my morning coffee, but, ironically, on a day I decided I was going to make my coffee late. So, I picked up coffee at a coffee shop and got waffles for the kids at a local restaurant.

Aside from buying two cups of what turned out to be pretty awful coffee, the entire power outage was a minor inconvenience lasting less than two hours. If it had lasted another two hours, I might have made a run on toilet paper before the neighbors could get to it.

The experience was a reminder of how good I have it with access to conveniences. Also how much we rely on others to keep things running smoothly. The power company’s communication was vague, but the issue was handled quickly. The outage did not interrupt my recording schedule for the day, thankfully, and my laptop was sufficiently charged enough to keep working if the outage lasted longer.

Now, if only I could get the taste of this coffee out of my mouth.

Cherish the people who respond negatively to your outreach.

You were never going to grow your business with them anyway.

They have given you the gift of time that you can use to connect with others.

Voiceover is a “people tell me” industry. As in, when I meet people who aren’t voice actors they say, “People tell me I have a great voice, and that I should do voiceover.”

But voiceover so much more than having a great voice and talking into a mic:

You have to learn to act.

You have to take direction.

You have to make every script relatable and interesting…even if that script is an elearning module where you recite industry regulations.

You have to constantly market.

You have to find ways to be noticed.

Because there are a lot of great voices out there who don’t do those things, and being discovered is not a strategy for success.

My second grader plays soccer. Due to COVID the local league cancelled its spring 2020 season. I deleted the emails from the league about fall registration because we did not plan to have her play. She mentioned wanting to play this spring, but I had not received any emails from the league about spring registration. It turns out that we missed the deadline, so I had to sign her up for a wait list and pay a $30 late fee. I also had to create a new account in their system for her.

I emailed the league to ask about this, and their response was that they migrated to a new registration system last fall and sent out multiple emails about it then…when my daughter had no plans to play. Seriously?

There are a few email communication lessons here:

• Don’t assume your email will be read.
• Your audience will not act on information that is not relevant and timely.
• No one remembers an email from six months ago.
• Your audience won’t do all the work for you to stay in touch.

Once upon a time when a client wanted to listen in to a recording session from my studio, it involved a phone call, where the client would listen while I recorded with my headphones pressing against my earbuds. The client could not hear the audio chain and just had to trust I would send them a good file. (Don’t I look trustworthy?)

Side note: When I first started in VO, I once had a session where I did not have my audio chain hooked up properly and had to re-record the whole session while trying to piece together the direction the client gave me on the phone. This is known as a #VOFail

But this has all changed in the past year…clients who aren’t using SourceConnect are now setting up Zoom sessions to listen to me record. The audio is better, but I’ve taken to using a Zoom background so they don’t see the tight space I record in. Based on where my laptop is, it sometimes looks like my head has been absorbed into the background.

At least the audio sounds good. That’s what they’re paying me for.

Have you ever been surprised by how someone looks after only hearing how they sound?

I recently auditioned for a roll in a radio drama podcast. The character’s physical description was essentially me: a white male my exact age, height and weight. After listening, the producer wrote “Great audition, but voice does not fit.”

I’m curious as to what about my voice did not fit when I matched the physical description so thoroughly. My guess is that I sounded too young for the character, or perhaps too polished…if I had only started smoking in high school I might have been a better fit!

Would you trust a cold email from a person who addresses you, a sole proprietor as "Team," does not say the name of their own business, does not provide a link to their own website (while claiming they do SEO work), and uses a Gmail address? It's worth it to spend the time crafting an email that establishes your credibility. 

Here is the email:

"Hi vallancourt Team, 

"Hope you are doing well.

"Without wasting your valuable time let me provide you with the reasons for not able to acquire expected online presence. You might consider this irrelevant but believe me; I have a complete analysis report ready with me for your website and needs immediate improvement on some of the major factors mentioned below:

"- Less visibility for many competitive keyword phrases
- Errors that prevent your website from being indexed properly by search engine.
- Unorganized social media accounts.
- Shortage of content based back links.
- Less participation on social media portals.

"We offer several services for your website such as Online Reputation Management, Social Media Optimization, SEO activities among others. We have well experienced Team who can deliver the result as per the expectation without binding our customers with any set up fee or contract, i.e. (NO CONTRACT or NO SET UP FEE).

"Mutually we can work on your website and make sure you get proper returns on investment as providing you with the best possible result will be our main focus.

This e-mail provides you with a glimpse of services which we offered from our company. If you find this interesting, feel free to email/call us for more details about our service, pricing and more…Alternatively you can let us know your best number and time to call you back."

Happy #internationalwomensday! I’ve had the privilege to count so many amazing women as mentors, colleagues, and friends over the years.

One mentor I especially want to recognize is Wren Ross. Wren was my very first voiceover coach and demo producer. I was saddened to find out that she passed away last week. Wren encouraged me to relax in the booth and have fun with the copy. She was also an advocate for my career, helping me connect with so many people in the industry. She understood both the creative and business ends of voiceover. Her infectious enthusiasm is already missed.

You ever just sit and do nothing for ten minutes? Stare out the window, perhaps? Take a shower?

What happens during that time? Your brain loosens up and generates ideas.

Spend ten minutes staring at social media and all you do is fuel your outrage.

Which ten minutes are better spent?

My daughter asked me to draw with her before school one morning. I brought in my sketch pad and a pencil. For a moment I did not know where to begin. I stared at the blank page and it hit me: I was thinking too much about the outcome.

I had to remind myself that I’m not creating something that will hang at a museum, I was creating as a means of being present with my daughter. So, I took a breath and started doodling different shapes, then coloring it in with colored pencil.

Sometimes all you have to do to jumpstart creativity is to just create.

All it takes is one little win to keep going. Then the wins pile up.

Every day I go out for a run or walk or just get outside is a win.

Getting a script from a client is a win.

Being asked to play someone 30 years younger than I am is a win.

Connecting with a potential new client is a win.

Knowing that spring training is happening is a win.

What are the wins keeping you going?

Do you ever feel like you’re accomplishing very little?

As this pandemic has dragged on, it’s easy to think we’re not accomplishing as much as we should. Maybe we feel like we’re watching too much television or spending too much time on social media.

You’re probably accomplishing more than you realize.

Do yourself a favor. The next time you feel like you’ve done nothing, take a look back at the last week, month, year. Look at everything you’ve delivered. Look at the time you’ve had to adjust to Zoom meetings. Look at the time you’ve had to take care of yourself. Look at the times you’ve exercised. Now look at the time you’ve spent taking care of your family. Each of these things is an accomplishment.

That’s not saying you should rest on your laurels; it’s just a reminder that this past year changed the life trajectory of many of us.

Now if you want to break the habit of television and social media? Sit and read a book or go for a walk.

When you let your creativity loose, there’s no telling where it can take you.

I recently offered to write with my 7-year-old while she worked on her writing journal. She insisted I use this prompt: "Would you rather be a snake that can detach its tail or a marker that the cap cannot come off of?"

I answered that I would want to be a living being, even if that living being was a snake with a detachable tail. I wrote about the joy of eating (even recently killed rodents), and of growing. The marker is made, does not get to learn, has one purpose, and then it’s gone to the landfill. As a parting thought, I wondered if a plastic-eating snake would ever evolve,

All too often we put up barriers the prevent us from exploring new ideas and limit our experience. Dismissing my daughter’s question would have been such a barrier. Exploring new ideas and seemingly ridiculous questions can lead us to new insights. So…which would you rather be a snake or a marker?

What are communicating when you say you have “X years of experience?” My guess is that you think that experience alone is your most valuable asset. Queue the loud buzzer sound telling you you’re wrong.

Here’s what you’re really communicating: that your thinking is fossilized. Spend a lot of time doing one thing and you get complacent and the work becomes routine, and then you’re running out the clock until you retire. Sure, you’ve got “experience” but has your industry passed you by while you’re crowing about your “experience?”

True, there are things we learn from experience, but “experience” itself does not mean those lessons have been learned. Think of it this way. I have over forty years’ experience in handwriting. Pretty impressive, eh? But my penmanship sucks. No one can read a word I write. Myself included.  My “experience” in handwriting doesn’t mean I’m good at it.

Instead of years of experience, let’s talk about the value you provide. If you value bad handwriting, I can certainly help you write an illegible letter with my many years of experience doing so.

If you were in my neighborhood the other day, you might have seen two people pushing a mail truck. One of those people would be me. And no, we weren’t shaking our letter carrier down for still undelivered packages; the mail truck was stuck on the ice.

I had just returned from the store when I heard our letter carrier gunning the engine in front of the neighbor’s house and getting nowhere, its tires spinning. As I walked over to help, my neighbor had also come out of his house to start pushing. Together, with a few pushes, we got the truck unstuck.

Our letter carrier thanked us effusively, as did several people out walking their dogs. My neighbor fist-bumped me…which was weird because I haven’t fist-bumped anyone since before COVID.

I wasn’t looking for praise. If I didn’t help, someone else would have, or my neighbor might have pushed her off the ice eventually on his own. When you see an opportunity to help, just step in, it might make all the difference.

Are you a source of comfort food for your clients and colleagues?

I don’t mean literally, of course. If you’re unfamiliar with the term, “comfort food” is often high-calorie food people consume when stressed out. For me it’s pizza. Something about the combination of sauce, cheese, dough and whatever topping I put on it activates my happy feelings.

Why bring up comfort food? Here in the US, this past week has been pretty stressful. As well as this past year of dealing with a global pandemic. I’m willing to bet that great portions of comfort food were consumed, and even comfort media: TV shows, movies, or music. Whatever it takes to activate your happy feelings.

As a professional, I often ask myself how I can source of figurative comfort food to clients. I come away with: be reliable, be uncomplicated to work with, and leave good feelings behind. As an added bonus, working with me is a whole lot healthier than consuming a whole pizza, which is a sort of comfort in itself.

After the events that happened at the US Capitol yesterday:

It’s okay to be unfocused today

It’s okay to update your social media feeds looking for answers

It’s okay to not have answers

It’s okay to be at a loss for words in explaining it to your kids

It’s okay to dive headfirst into your work when the answers don’t come

At some point, you’ll find your focus and keep moving forward.

Less than an hour into the “back-from-winter-break” school day, my second-grader came around asking me to read to her. I had been in the flow of writing, and her question interrupted my flow. Why couldn’t she just get back to doing her schoolwork? I wondered.

I asked her to give me a minute, but the flow was gone. Over the break, she had become used to everyone in our family being available to play. Now, we were back to the routine.

As a voiceover talent, I should have been delighted that she wanted my services. But, as a voiceover talent, I also have to connect with clients.

She came back later after working on few assignments and having an online class meeting. She asked if we could play cards. So we did. Then she went to another class meeting, and I re-found my flow. As I was writing this, she came to me with a grin on her face, and a question: “Read-eee?” (her sweet way of asking me to read).

So, I opened up one of her favorite books, “Tyrannosaurus Wrecks” by Stuart Gibbs and picked up reading where we had last left off.

I could justify this time as practicing my craft. I could also justify it as time well spent.

What do you normally do during the Holidays that’s changed this year?

Every year I send physical Holiday cards to my clients. It’s one way to thank them for their business and wish them success in the coming year. I enjoy the process of putting together the mailings. I design the cards, and then set up a mini fulfillment center on my dining room table where sign them, stick them into envelopes, label them and affix the stamps. The whole process is a reminder that I have had the privilege of working with so many great people in my voiceover career.

This year, since I’m not sure how many people I’ve worked with are still going to their offices, I’ve decided to send an email greeting instead. It’s…just not the same.

It’s a small change…but one I plan to reverse next year.