When the mic is rockin’, don’t bother knockin’! Okay, so what do you do if it’s just not rockin’ and you’re having a tough time getting it to come out right? Instead of getting frustrated and stressed out, take a break and come back to it.

That’s right! Go for a walk, turn up some music, make yourself a cup of green tea or take a power nap. Fifteen minutes can do wonders! While excessive napping doesn’t pay too well, either does excessive stress. My personal favorite? I go out and play football with my dog, Kaytee.

The point is to just break away from the studio – completely remove yourself and escape for a bit so that you can refresh! If you force it to happen when it isn’t, you’re frustration will come across in the recording. The voice is transparent and modulates to express our span of emotions. Any frustration, anxiety, and stress will show through, stalling the flow, zapping the energy and enthusiasm from your voice.

It’s like a good major league pitcher who just doesn’t have his good stuff on a particular day.

So go ahead and break away! You’ll come back to the studio refreshed, full of vibrance in your voice, and ready to deliver!

Here’s a TV spot that I did a while back.

Find more videos like this on VU

I’d like to invite you on a video tour of my home studio. This is proof that you don’t need 10K to have an effective set up. All I did was put up a wall with some sheet rock and then sound proofed the room with Auralex. I discuss all kinds of equipment in full detail in my core-training programs.

How many times a month do we hear ourselves utter the phrase, “I’ll get to it tomorrow”. I’ve been guilty of it. We all have. What we do about it? Take action! Action is the cure for the poison of procrastination. Even the slightest bit of action seems to scare procrastination away.

As a voice actor, discipline and focus are an integral part of being successful and is needed to ensure projects are completed in a timely manner to create and maintain a foundation of trust with each client.

The greats have known this for a long time. The esteemed writer, historian and teacher, Thomas Carlyle asserted that, “Our grandest business is not to see what lies dimly at a distance, but to do what clearly lies at hand.” Renowned English philosopher John Locke remarked that, “The actions of men are the best interpreters of their thoughts.” Procrastination blocks our personal magnetism; it weighs us down, bringing upon us negative, counterproductive feelings of guilt, shame, and anxiety. It robs us of opportunity and prevents us from enjoying our successes by filling up precious space in our minds with what we have failed to do! Even describing it sounds depressing!

So I challenge you to pick one thing, just one thing, you have been putting off and begin to take action. As you do, you will feel the negative power of procrastination dissipate and you will exude a new-found level of joy and confidence. Make this a habit and see how your life transforms! Now if you’ll kindly excuse me, I must get back to the task at hand… right after I let my dog out!

Starting a business is one of the most stressful things you can do. It will affect you mentally, physically and emotionally. You need to be strong to deal with this kind of stress, and you need to have someone to turn to for support.

Are You a Survivor?

There are some people who always seem to make it in the end, regardless of what life throws at them. You need to be the kind of person whose response to things going wrong is to work harder and get it fixed, not someone who cries and goes into hiding.
Many entrepreneurs say that this, more than anything, is the secret of success. You need to be a ‘never say die’ kind of person. You need to be always ready to try again, no matter what gets thrown at you. Remember that it’s not when things start to go wrong that you fail – you haven’t failed until you’ve given up.

Be Prepared to Work Hard

If you’ve been doing a standard nine-to-five job, you’re probably used to a world where it’s someone else’s responsibility if the work doesn’t get done – you work as fast as you can for the hours you’re told to, and if it’s not done on time then it’s the manager’s fault for not hiring enough people. When you work on your own, though, there’s no-one to blame – the buck stops where it starts, with you.

Do you have a Start-up Plan?

A Startup Plan is basically the list of everything that must happen to get the business up and running from the initial idea to scouting locations to securing vendors to getting licenses to stocking the shelves to opening the doors to marketing and advertising to managing growth and on and on.

A Startup Plan is not as detailed as a business plan. It is essentially the “to do” list for starting a business, though it is every bit as important as a business plan because the Startup Plan serves as the blueprint for getting the business up and running.

Trying to launch a business without a Startup Plan is like taking a trip along a curvy, mountain road without a map, driving at high speeds, while wearing a blindfold. You will eventually arrive at some destination, but it’s likely to not be the destination you had in mind and your trip will be anything but smooth.

Create you startup plan with a simple spreadsheet and build out from there. Start by simply listing everything that you can think of that must be done to launch the business. Once you have the list break down each task into individual action items, assign each item to a responsible party and set a target completion date. A task without a deadline will not get done.

You Need to Satisfy The Customer.

When you run a home business, you can’t afford to lose any customers. You need to always be nice to them, trying to meet their needs. You have to remember that you’re the most senior person they can talk to in this organization, and you have to act like it – when there’s no-one other than you to handle complaints, you have to either give in to customers at every opportunity or watch them take their business elsewhere.

Do You Really Love Doing Voice Overs?

If you don’t love what you do, then sooner or later you’re going to want to stop doing it – and when you run a home business, that’s difficult. Besides, you can’t run a home business if you’re always sitting and thinking about how great it’ll be when it’s the weekend. The only way to succeed in home business is to be absolutely sure that you really love what you’re doing. If you can think of another job you’d rather have, then you’re in trouble.

What a month this has been. One sister has a car accident, another has a seizure and yours truly is taken to the ER for shortness of breath. We are all okay and these incidents have only made our family stronger and closer.

This is the time to slow down and appreciate everything that presents itself. You can’t predict what will happen from day to day. Take a deep breath, smell the flowers, and do something wonderful for someone.

Have a great Sunday!

Terry Daniel

The definition of Improv, short for improvisation, is a form in which one does not use a script or predetermined ideas for dialog, direction, or movement.

By using improvisation in your training as a voice over talent, you are allowing your natural creativity to expand. Improv helps you to be true to yourself and be more like yourself while in the booth.

Improv allows you to tap into your intuition and instincts. You, as the voice over talent, you can react honestly to copy and deliver a great read. Improv affords you the ability to be comfortable with yourself and your style, which will ultimately make you more comfortable with the mic.

When you are true to yourself and have confidence in your ability, you will be able to handle any form of copy or situation you are placed in for the audition.

A simple technique exercise is to create a story around a single word. For example, use the word “dog”. Now, create an entire story around the word “dog”. Create a sad story and tug on the heartstrings of your audience. Then, create a funny story that will make your audience laugh. Allow your emotions to flow freely through you so that your audience can feel what you are feeling. When you can act on your own feelings and instincts, you’ve just accomplished the tasks of being yourself.

Who knows you? The answer to that question is priceless! In business, as in life, it is not so much who you know, but who knows you! Your success depends upon it. Harnessing the power of Social Media Marketing can propel your business and personal exposure to enviable levels, providing a medium with which to engage others all over the world who share similar interests, develop crucial networks, and formulate powerful relationships, leading to increased traffic, leads, and Search Engine Optimization.

Michael Stelzner shares these results from a 2009 study on Social Media Marketing and how marketers are using it for business growth, “By a long shot, Twitter, blogs, LinkedIn, and Facebook were the top four social media tools used by marketers with Twitter leading the pack at 94%. You Tube and similar video sites came in 5th” (2009, p.19). Like it, love it, or lump it, Social Media Marketing has clout and so can you!

Here’s a brief synopsis of Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook. Oh, and lest I forget to mention it, all of these sites are free! Twitter is a phenomenal tool that makes connecting with others easy while keeping content short and to the point. Micro-blogs, called “Tweets” are limited to 140 characters in which people respond to the question, “What are you doing?” or simply state what’s on their mind at the time.

Twitter also allows “ReTweets” in which others can repost “Tweets” that may be of value to their followers, making your message go viral. Twitter also has fantastic applications to enhance your Twitter experience and is simple to access and use via texting, instant messaging, or the web.

LinkedIn is another terrific networking vehicle, connecting professionals all over the world. Your network becomes infinite, consisting of your connections, the connections of your connections, their connections, etc. You create and manage a profile depicting your experience and accomplishments. You can invite, search, and recommend people. Professionals use the site as a means to network, collaborate on projects, recommend potential leads, post job listings, and find talent.

Facebook has taken Social Media Marketing to a new level! Users can search for, become, and confirm friends. You can post everything from your thoughts, to demos, photos, videos, blogs, and more. A fantastic networking tool, Facebook allows users to create a personal profile, create and join “Fan Pages” promoting various interests (ie. your voice over business), and is a wonderful medium to connect with other entrepreneurs. It can also be accessed and used via texting or the web.

YouTube is an awesome tool that is used to create and share video footage with others. YouTube video links can be shared via Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook, making it a potent medium for exposure! The videos on YouTube span the entire spectrum from ridiculous, to entertaining, to instructional. Why not post a video of you recording a voice over for a client?

The voiceover business is highly competitive, and as a voice over talent, it’s imperative to effectively and efficiently market yourself and your business. The only investment required is the time you are willing to spend engaging others, sharing your personality, and providing value. You get what you put into it. So go ahead! Take advantage of every opportunity to network with other voice talents and potential customers, make some new friends, and find some old friends along the way too.

Stelzner, M.A. (2009). Social media marketing industry report: How marketers are using social media to grow their businesses. Retrieved online August 13, 2009, from http://www.whitepapersource.com/socialmediamarketing/

Here are some of the different types of opportunities available to voice talent today.

Commercial: Contrary to popular belief this form of voice over is mostly for voice actors as it generally requires playing a role of a character. Playing a character does not always mean a funny voice it more often than not means playing a role of what may seem as an everyday person, more importantly a believable character. As much as we still hear many commercials with one announcer reading a script in an in your face “buy now” style, the more affective form and most widely used form of commercial is through creative writing and role playing by the voice actor.

Television Promo: This is one form of voice over that many people believe is easy, my theory is that it only looks easy because the people doing it are so good at their job they make it look easy. Reading a TV Promo script can be one of the most challenging forms of voice over as it requires the voice talent to become part of the pre produced promo. What many seem to forget is that TV Promo voice over’s are also selling a product. Whether it is the Prime Time News, a Drama Series or the Late Night Movie the aim of the VO is to make it a “must see”. There is an art to it and out of the select few who have gone on to be the familiar voices we trust on our television sets there is still only a handful who have mastered the art.

Narration: There are so many possibilities that can fall under the banner of Narration. It could be a documentary, corporate or training video, an audio tour guide at a museum or even interactive training with a new software package. One of the wonderful plusses of this type of voice work is that more often than not the clients are looking for someone who can sound pleasant and real while being engaging and understandable. This is not necessarily an easy feat and I will go into more detail about sounding real a little later. Nonetheless there are so many different possibilities and opportunities for this type of work it can sometimes be a great starting point for people.

Audio Book: This is probably the fastest growing industry in the voice over world and there are many voice professionals making a lucrative career out of reading audio books. There is an art to it of course and it can also be dissected into numerous categories. There are people who specialize in reading character driven fiction and there are those who read information driven non fiction and each is an art in itself.

Podcast: Believe it or not many of the podcasts you tune into are presented by hired voices. Quite often the person who has a message to get across and especially those who have a product to promote and sell will hire a voice that will present better than themselves. Like narration this voice will need to be pleasant and real and more importantly they will need to sound like the information is coming directly from them, this is in fact a huge part of voice over and voice acting as a whole and we will go into more detail shortly.

Radio Imaging: We all have favorite radio stations and more often than not we become very familiar with the voices that come on between the music reminding us what station we are listening to… and why. Like TV promo this quite often seems easier than it actually is. Remembering that a large selection of the voices who do these sweepers and station id’s are also the producers of all the fancy effects that go along with them. Radio or voice imaging as it is widely known requires a voice that generally pierces through the music on our radios, sending a clear message without sounding offensive. One of the bonuses of this form of voice over is that there are a multitude of radio stations worldwide and quite often a collection of them are looking for a fresh new sound at one time. If you can become that sound then you can make a nice little income, well at least until the stations decide to reformat again.

Obviously this is not the whole voice over industry but rather it’s an overview of a large chunk of the available work for voice professionals.

When building the right business infrastructure, you must think strategically or have the right business mindset. Every business decision you make today affects your voice over business today, tomorrow, and in the future – so become a good strategist. A good strategist looks at all facets of their voice over business today in context of where they are trying to go. A good strategist reacts to problems positively instead of negatively. A good strategist also welcomes change and turns it into an opportunity. A good strategist can react quickly with the unexpected.

Here are four examples of having the right business mindset:

1. Having the right business mindset is knowing that the purpose of business is to make money. Sometimes your passion or hobby is just that, but when you grasp onto that passion and acquire a higher level of development, as you will as a member of the Voice Over Club, you will position yourself to acquire a higher level of income.

2. Having the right business mindset means developing your own style. As a member of the Voice Over Club, I will equipped you with all of the tools in which to achieve your destiny or your dreams. However, this is YOUR voice over business, so you need to take time to think, document, research your own style to make you truly unique.

3. Having the right business mindset is understanding strategy and implementing it into your business practices. These days we tend to focus on the day-to-day mundane tasks and deadlines, solving short-term problems, and implementing marketing tactics that aren’t a good fit for our businesses. Strategy concerns itself with what’s ahead, looking at where you’re going and how to get there. Thereby, making you ask the question–”is this task in line with where the company is going and/or where I want it to go?”

4. Having the right business mindset is understanding your emotional ties to your business. Understanding the emotional ties to your business will allow you to break through your personal barriers that prevent you from doing what you say you’re going to do and also doing what you want to do. The next time you get emotional in your business jot down what you’re feeling and what triggered it, this is how you begin to recognize which emotions are keeping you from doing good business.

A good strategist has the right business mindset.