Featured Narration

How Our Voice Over Business is Taking a Positive Approach to COVID-19

March 25, 2020 by Debbie Grattan

Today we are talking about COVID-19, voice over and how your business can deal with the current uncertainty in the world. With all the craziness going on due to the coronavirus, it may be easy to fall into the trap of negative thinking, even for those who usually dwell in a fairly resilient mind set. Our lives are shifting every day and there’s plenty of uncertainty right now. Our hearts go out to all those on the front lines; the doctors, nurses, healthcare workers, first responders, police and fire personnel, bus drivers, truckers, janitors, post office staff, fast food workers, grocery clerks and more who are taking care of those most ill and providing some normalcy for the rest of us by keeping essential services up and running. You are all heros.

We realize that everyone has a different story and situation, so if you are struggling with the current circumstance in ways that we aren’t addressing here, we send our prayers and wishes for the highest and best outcome for all. Faith is a fantastic tool.

With so much uncertainty and fear pervading our world today, my family and I have decided to do what we can to take a positive approach to COVID-19 by consciously focusing on the things for which we are grateful and the help we can provide. We are truly blessed with good health and prosperity, even in challenging times, and have found opportunities to try some new things that may lead to even better situations after we get past this crisis. Here are a few examples.

Home and Family

Our health and safety comes first, as does yours. If you and your family are healthy and safe, you have the top item on the list covered. Having a roof over your head is another positive, as is the ability to take the recommended precautions and remain home as much as possible. We are blessed that our business was already set up to do this, so that is an unexpected bonus.

Since moving from Southern California to Michigan back in 2004, we have enjoyed the opportunities that go along with having a fairly large home in the Midwest. That’s part of the trade from moving from metropolis to Midwest…there’s more social distancing, naturally. We have plenty of living space for practical comfort in home and work life, (since home also includes the family business), and that extra space makes it easy to stay stocked up and prepared for a long quarantine. It also provides enough room to give every family member plenty of personal space – a great blessing when things get a bit stressful. Since we were already home-schooling our youngest (who is now fifteen years old), we didn’t even have to deal with the transition of no public schools in session. So, for our family, this was a pretty seamless transition.

I’m sure for other families and businesses there are different sets of challenges, and everyone has to start from a point where they are, and move forward. My wish is that using a spirit of gratefulness for the things you can be thankful for, will lead in a positive direction, for more good to flow.

The Business End of Things

Working remotely may be a big change for some, but it’s been a part of our routine for the last twenty-five years. So, we’ve been able to take this adjustment in stride and continue working without a hitch. Speaking as someone who is accustomed to working from home, I would encourage anyone new to the concept to focus on the positive aspects (of which there are many). Think of the commuting time you’re saving, lower fuel costs and reduced carbon footprint, home-cooked lunches and the ability to work in your slippers. Of course, there’s also the additional time you get to spend with your family. We’ve been enjoying the extra time we’re getting to spend with our daughter, now home from college for several more weeks due to the closure. That is an added bonus for us, though not what she had hoped for.

Being a business owner comes with a lot of risk, but because of that, in our current situation, we fortunately don’t have to worry about the possibility of being laid off or downsized. Even though some activity may be slowing, many of our clients still have voice-over needs and we’re continuing to provide the high-quality services that we always have. Much of our business is in the telephony and narration genres, so even if there is some slowdown in retail advertising for awhile, there are still plenty of projects in the works. We are thankful for our loyal and long-term clients who continue to send business our way.

I’m assuring my clients, it’s basically business as usual in my home studio, which is equipped with everything I need to do my job. We also have ISDN/Source Connect/phone patch capability, which makes it easy to connect for live, remote session work with clients anywhere in the world. Most of the live TV world is now using the technology we’ve been accustomed to for years.

New Opportunities – Coronavirus, COVID-19 and Voice Over

In addition to the usual types of projects that come in, we’re also seeing opportunities to help businesses and organizations deal with COVID-19. A couple recent examples include:

Company Phone messages regarding COVID-19, which are urgently needed by many businesses and organizations
Revised messaging about changing schedules, for hotels, showrooms and other large venues
Advertising messages and PSAs including the “we’re all in this together” common assurance to customers
Science and Medical VO regarding PPE and Clinical Trial work

Our daughter (and teen VO talent), Natalie, is now home from college for the rest of the semester. That makes her more available than she was when living on campus. This has actually simplified our work flow quite a bit, so it’s a welcome change.

Make This a Positive Change

Even if your own work has taken a downturn, you may find new opportunities to customize your services, products or offerings to help fill a need that didn’t exist before. Creative thinking can go a long way toward finding solutions, new streams of income and innovative ideas that otherwise may have never been born.

Many great discoveries and innovations happened by accident or when someone “took a detour” or “got off the beaten path.” That is exactly where we find ourselves right now. Outside of our comfort zone, outside the box and off of our usual path. Take time to look around and notice what you may never have noticed if this situation hadn’t happened. You may find something that is life-changing or transforms your business.

Once you get into the groove of thinking positive and counting your blessings, the days are suddenly lighter and brighter than they were before. We can and will get through these trying times, and a positive attitude will make it that much easier. Here’s hoping you get into that positive mindset – and that you and your family stay safe. Let’s all get to the other side of this thing as soon as possible so life can begin to get back to normal, even if it is a new normal.

Please also check out my followup post to this one, “How to Feel Good and Stay Positive in a Negatively Focused World.”

Contact me if you need any messaging or other voice-over work related to COVID-19 or any other projects you have brewing. I’m open to meeting tight deadlines and always happy to help.

Set the Video Foundation

The first step in any effective eLearning video is to set the foundation. That means writing a script and creating a storyboard. Storyboards let you map out each scene’s audio and video to ensure they work together. Having the entire video outlined on a storyboard saves you tons of time and makes production much easier.

Tell a Story in The eLearning Video

People love stories. They’re intriguing and memorable, which makes them the ideal format for learning. Telling a story with an eLearning video can involve creating different characters to carry out the action, but it doesn’t have to. The main goal is to use the traditional story arc formula to attain and then retain the viewers’ attention. The formula can be condensed into three parts:

Exposition, or story beginning
Conflict, or climax
Conflict resolution

In an eLearning video that explains a product, for example, the story could break down into something like:

Introducing the product
Introducing a common problem that nothing seems to resolve
Resolving that problem by using the product

Choose the Optimum Video Length

While 60 to 90-second videos may work for quick explainer videos, the optimum video length for more extended eLearning content is seven minutes. A University of Rochester study provides strong evidence for this as well. The study looked at the average time students spent viewing video for their online courses. It found students watched the greatest amount of video content when the video length was nine minutes or less.

Students watched less of the video content when videos were more than 11 minutes long. Once videos hit an even longer length of 15 to 40 minutes, students ended up watching no more than three minutes of the video.

Make the Most of Your eLearning Video Visuals

eLearning videos tend to be most effective when they showcase what’s being explained. Static images can be a waste of valuable video space that could instead be used to demonstrate how to use or do something. This could be how to use a product or service, treat customers in difficult situations, or successfully complete a project or task that’s part of the eLearning curriculum.

Use Videos Strategically

You can certainly use a longer video to cover an entire lesson on a specific topic. But you can also use videos in various ways throughout the eLearning experience. You can use shorter videos to break up text documents and emphasize a point. Or use a short video at the beginning of a lesson to grab attention, another in the middle to demonstrate a specific task, and a third at the end to summarize the points made throughout the lesson.

Videos likewise work well when paired with hands-on training exercises. Your video could explain a task while your viewers are actually attempting the same task in real life.

Invest in Quality Audio

Quality audio refers to several things. One is the quality of the recording, which needs to be crisp, clear, and free of background noise. It also involves the voice over artist you hire to narrate the eLearning video. Because eLearning requires careful listening, you want a voice that is likable, pleasant, and trustworthy.

Steer clear of voices with too much breathiness or other distracting qualities that could possibly detract from the learning process. You can find additional qualities to look for in eLearning voice over narration in a past blog post.

Keep these video tips in mind, and you’ll be well on your way to creating an eLearning video that’s engaging, intriguing, and highly effective at meeting your goal. Check out samples of my eLearning, instructional, and tutorial videos for a look at effective videos in action. Also, feel free to reach out for a custom quote or audition if you need narration for your next eLearning project.

Why Voice Over Actors Don’t Need to Lose Sleep over TTS

October 22, 2019 by Debbie Grattan

Technology is moving so fast it can make our heads spin, especially in the world of text to speech (TTS). As voice over actors, we’re certainly aware of TTS – and some of us may even fear the technology is advancing us right out of our careers. But it’s really not. Despite the rapid advances in the field, TTS remains unable to replace the real deal. Keep reading to find out why.

How TTS Has Advanced

Text to speech (TTS) is a system that converts the written word into the spoken word. Simple enough, right? But it gets more complex from there. TTS systems store speech units that can include phones, diphones, words and entire sentences. It then puts those speech units together in specific combinations to create synthetic speech that says anything – all using the voice that initially recorded those speech units.

While the first talking machine was initially introduced back in 1939, advances in the world of TTS over the past several years have been more rapid and dramatic than over the past 75. Some of these advances include the ability to:

Incorporate a model of the vocal tract and other human voice characteristics to sound more human.
Correct synthetic speech mispronunciations, adjust regional pronunciations, add emphasis, and other tricks through Speech Synthesis Markup Language (SSML).
Produce robo calls that stop and ask “Can you hear me?” or wait for a reply, like a human would, before continuing their spiel.
Copy lip-movements for dubbing.
Fix small errors in voice over recordings with synthetic edits.
Create a model, or “voice bank,” of a real person’s voice for later use as synthetic speech

Once TTS began to converge with machine learning, big data and artificial intelligence (AI), it became smarter, more realistic and, as mentioned earlier, a perceived threat to some in the voice over industry.

Potential TTS Threats to the VO Industry

There is no doubt the advances of TTS have aroused a number of concerns across the voice over industry, with some of the most common outlined below.

Losing Ongoing Royalties

The royalty structure keeps giving us a steady flow of money each time our voice is used, regularly paying us even though we’ve already done the work. If we are recording into a voice bank, are we going to get royalties every time our voice is used to create synthetic speech? Probably not. While we can likely expect to be paid a large amount for the initial recording session, we may lose out on royalties each time our voice is used down the line. After all, how can we be paid royalties for a future recording that uses our voice but we didn’t technically record?

No Control Where Your Voice is Used

Since technology allows for a pre-recorded voice to be used to create any type of message or project down the line, voice over artists may fear they won’t have a say in the type of work that will be attached to their voice. Some work may be unacceptable, but we may have no control or say over the matter.

Being Prohibited from Future Spots

If we offer buyouts on our voice banks, we could be limiting our careers without realizing it. For instance, let’s say our voice is used for a car company. We would then potentially be prohibited from doing all spots for all other companies in the future – even though we didn’t know we’d be associated with a car company at the time of the buyout.

Continuously Declining TTS Rates

Recording sessions for TTS are no longer in the $50K range. As the technology advances, the rates continue to decrease. Methods of capturing and synthesizing voice take far less recording time, which means far less pay for the voice over talent.

Why Voice Over Actors Don’t Need to Fret

While TTS concerns may feel valid for us voice over artists, we don’t have to lose sleep over them for several reasons. For starters, TTS still harbors many limitations – like the inability to spontaneously generate the infinite human range of emotions and vocal techniques.

Being able to create synthetic speech by simply typing in the words you want it to say is also not something that can yet be done. And synthetic speech, no matter how advanced or finely tuned, has still not shown it can match the multiple nuances and components associated with a real human voice.

Ongoing payments may still even exist. In addition to a recording fee, we could arrange licensing agreements that outline when and where our voices can be used down the line. Turning our TTS fears into the framework for a clear-cut contract can help ensure we have all bases covered – and continue to thrive in our profession.

Communication is Key for Voice Over Success

September 19, 2019 by Debbie Grattan

While all businesses rely heavily on communication for success, it’s even more important in the world of voice over. That’s because communication is at the heart of all we do. The main goal of our profession is to effectively communicate a message to the audience, and that can only be achieved if we are effectively communicating with our clients. Understanding this component of your voice over business is key to long-term success.

Good communication brings clarity to every situation, imparts professionalism and builds long-lasting relationships. Here’s how.

Communication for Clarity

All voice over jobs start with a rundown on what the client wants, and the only way you’re sure to deliver is to ask the right questions. You need to ask relevant questions that give you the information you need to fully understand exactly what they’re going for. Questions here include things like vocal tone, file type, delivery method and all other details associated with a particular project.

It’s then imperative to carefully listen to what they say so you can deliver what they asked for. If things are unclear, clear them up before you begin. You’ll save a lot of time that you’d otherwise have to spend correcting something that was vague or misunderstood.

Communication for Professionalism

How you communicate with clients says a lot about your competence level, whether it’s through a quick phone call or a detailed email. You always want to be respectful and professional, ensuring you use appropriate guidelines for business correspondence. Sending a professional email is not like texting a quick message to your pal in all lower-case letters with two-letter abbreviations.

You want to use proper grammar and salutations, spell check before you send, and include your logo, branding, a professional email address and good tagline. Part of your online communication also includes your website and social media accounts. Every email you send, post you create and image you choose reflects directly on you as a professional.

Impeccable emails and a polished online presence indicate you’re someone who knows what they’re doing. They paint you as someone who is experienced and can be trusted to complete the project to the specs required.

Communication for Building Relationships

While communication with a new or prospective client is best kept rather formal, you can relax the formalities a bit when you work with repeat clients over an extended period. I find ways to personalize communication, to make it feel more like a friendship when appropriate.

I have many clients with whom I’ve worked for years, so in some instances I know details about their families, their work transitions and their overall lives. When it’s appropriate, I enjoy being chatty and casual. I like to deepen the bond with them, so they see me as not just a voice talent, but a trusted friend and a fellow human being.

I also never under estimate the importance of a thank you. This could be for a referral, a recent job, or just for being a loyal client. I’ve tried many different approaches to this over the years, including sending postcards, personalized notes, birthday cards, gifts, or just reaching out through email or social media.

Posting a review for a client on their LinkedIn page or other platform shows your thoughtfulness and may help them with their marketing. Letting clients know how much they’re appreciated and valued can go a long way, especially when you do it in a way that gives them an extra boost to their own business.

Two More Tidbits on Communication

In a previous blog I wrote about The Biggest Voice Over Customer Service Mistakes, and it’s no surprise that poor communication made the list in two instances. They bear repeating. One was delay in communication, which can give off the vibe that you don’t really care. The other was not really listening or understanding what the client wants, which we also touched on above.

Responding to audition requests or messages to clients as quickly as possible shows you’re a pro who is ready to deliver what’s required. In the case of new clients, being the first to respond is often the move that gets you the job.

Truly listening and understanding what a client wants is another big deal. It’s better to ask tons of questions than make tons of mistakes. Good communication involves good listening skills and really paying attention to what the client is saying.

Keep these communication tips in mind as you move forward in your voice over career, and you may be happy to find your career moves forward with success. You’re apt to be seen as a true professional who can deliver exactly what the client wants while building beneficial relationships that can endure for years.

The Biggest Voice Over Customer Service Mistakes and How to Fix Them

August 21, 2019 by Debbie Grattan

Customer service has always been a huge part of doing business, and in our hugely competitive, global market, it’s become even more important than ever. Folks put a lot of stock in the online customer reviews they read, and disgruntled customers are not typically shy about speaking their minds. The digital age has also opened up the door to instant gratification – which people have come to expect when it comes to timely replies from your company.

Since voice over talent works so closely with clients, delighting customers is especially vital in the VO industry. Keeping our clients delighted involves staying on top of our game while avoiding these top customer service mistakes.

Putting New Customers above Existing Customers

Some businesses offer amazing deals, free gifts and all types of perks to new customers to generate new business, forgetting the existing customers who helped to get them where they are. This can happen in the voice over world when talent puts a priority on gaining potential new clients at the expense of existing ones. Some mistakenly assume once they land a client, the client is already in their corner and they needn’t continue to cultivate the working relationship.

How to Fix It:

Customer loyalty is not something that comes automatically, and ignoring your current customer base is a surefire way to test it. Treat existing customers with the same level of enthusiasm you do new customers. Offer them perks, nurture relationships and quickly respond to their needs. I regularly touch base with my existing customers through an email newsletter, and I also offer a Client Loyalty Rewards Program.

Delay in Communication

When you snooze, you lose. Speedy delivery of an audition or communication back to a client can be critical for proving you’re a professional, ready to deliver what’s required.

How to Fix It:

Respond ASAP to all inquiries, especially new ones. Being the first to respond is often what lands you the job. Because I’m a full-time voice talent, I’m on my computer all day, checking email about every 15 minutes or so. I always aim to respond immediately to requests for quotes, auditions or project details. We all love it when we get an immediate response, so do everything you can to provide that to your customers and prospects.

Over-Promising and Under-Delivering

Demos are great and necessary, but make sure you can deliver that same performance in a session with a client, or even just on your own, without one-on-one coaching. This especially holds true for newer voice talent in the market.

How to Fix It:

Under-promising and over-delivering is a much keener strategy, and it will lead to stronger client loyalty. While you still have to meet deadlines and do your best to give clients what they’re asking for, under-promising often provides the opportunity to exceed their expectations. Delivering the finished recording earlier than promised will most certainly elevate your value in the eyes of your client, prompting them to hire you again and again, and even refer business to you when appropriate. On the other side of the coin, keep in mind that clients sometimes ask for the impossible, and it’s important to be honest about what you can deliver. Your client will appreciate your integrity.

Also make sure you’ve developed your skills and talents to a level where you can deliver whatever a client needs in a session. Reaching this level takes time, practice and good coaching. Even if you don’t get direct feedback from the client you can usually tell if you ARE delivering what they want. The session will go smoothly, and you won’t have to spend inordinate time providing multiple takes.

Not Listening or Understanding What the Client Wants

Doing it your way doesn’t always work for delivering exactly what the client wants. It’s imperative to understand all the details of the job, from the vocal tone and style all the way to the technical issues. These include format, file labeling, delivery method, audio processing requests, and other details. You need to be clear on client expectations before you even begin.

How to Fix It:

If you’re not sure what the client wants with a script, ask more questions until you do. Some of my clients like to provide direction during a live recording session, in which case I set up my phone patch so they can. This often saves everyone time and trouble, allowing for hand’s on direction in real time, resulting in an approved, final product the FIRST time through, avoiding a lot of back and forth over email.

When it comes to technical issues, talk to other voice over talent or do online research to find out what you’re expected to know about different file types, delivery methods and other details. Sometimes you’ll be asked to provide something you’ve never provided, which can be a cue to learn something new and add it to your offerings.

Being aware of the top customer service mistakes is the first step to avoiding them. The next step is making sure you’re covering all bases when it comes to satisfying customers. You’ll be on the right path if you treat every customer as your best customer, delivering exactly what they want as quickly and professionally as possible.

Exercises for Voice Over Actors to Combat Life in the Recording Booth

July 19, 2019 by Debbie Grattan

As voice over actors, our vocal cords regularly get a hearty workout. But the same may not be true for the rest of our bodies which is why we need special voice over exercises. Even if we consistently schedule exercise into our off-work hours, it may not be enough to combat the effects of spending our days in a recording booth.

Whether we sit all day or stand while recording and then sit for editing, we’re still not moving around all that much. While a combination of sitting and standing can be better for you than prolonged bouts of just sitting, the effects of a largely inactive job can still add up.

Detriments of Sedentary Jobs

When we engage in extended, uninterrupted bouts of inactivity, a number of negative biochemical reactions can actually start to occur. Our bodies become less effective at breaking down cholesterol and blood sugar, which increases the risk of strokes, heart attacks and diabetes.

Being sedentary for extended periods can result in:

Higher blood sugar levels
Increased triglycerides, which are fats known for causing disease
Lower levels of HDL (aka “good”) cholesterol
Increased fatty buildup and calcium in the heart’s arteries
Increased risk of obesity
Higher risk of heart disease and cancer

If you switched your extended hours of sitting for prolonged hours of standing, you can end up with an entirely new set of risks. These include:

Lower back issues from constant compression of the spine
Deep vein thrombosis, varicose veins and other cardiovascular problems
Double the risk of heart disease over people that mostly sit

How to Lower the Health Risks

Being aware of all the risks gives us great motivation for correcting them, and we have several things we can do.

Maintain Good Posture: One of the most important is to maintaining good posture, whether sitting or standing. We voice over artists tend to maintain good posture when recording, as we know the effects on our delivery if we don’t. But we may still hunch over or slouch when we’re editing or otherwise working at the computer.

Follow the 20-8-2 Rule: Another recommendation is known as the 20-8-2 rule. For every 20 minutes we spend sitting, it recommends eight minutes of standing and two minutes of gentle movement. Since this may be impossible to keep up based on our recording schedules and deadlines, we can at least get up and move around when we get a few minutes between tasks.

Physical Exercises for Voice Over Actors

One more way to help combat the negative effects of inactivity is with exercises specifically designed to work areas that tend to stiffen up throughout the day.

Neck and Shoulder Stretches

Stretch the sides of your neck by sitting tall and dropping your left ear towards our left shoulder. Keep your shoulder level, making sure you don’t raise it to meet your ear. Hold for five seconds, then repeat on the right.

Stretch the back of your neck by dropping your chin toward your chest, then smoothly and gently rolling your head from one side to the other side.

Stretch your shoulders by shrugging them up towards your ears. Hold for five seconds, then release. Repeat five times.

Upper Body Stretches

Open your chest by bringing your palms together behind the middle of your back. Sit tall, pressing the palms together and holding for at least five seconds.

Stretch your sides by extending your left arm over your head, then reaching as far as you can while bending to the right. Hold for several seconds, then repeat on the other side.

Do a seated spinal twist by turning your upper body to the right, putting both hands on the arm of your chair. Drop your shoulders and twist to the right, lengthening your spine as you inhale. Look over your right shoulder and hold for at least three seconds. Repeat on other side.

Stretch your upper back by intertwining your fingers with your palms facing outward. Reach your palms upward towards the ceiling as you inhale and elongate your spine.

Lower Body Stretches and Exercise

Do mini squats by standing up from your chair, and then sitting back down 10 times in a row.

Work your calves by standing up behind your chair, holding the back for support. Start with feet flat on the floor, then raise your heels as you stand on your toes. Lower back down slowly. Repeat to complete three sets of 10.

Stretch your glutes by putting your feet flat on the floor while seated, and then lifting your right ankle onto your left knee. Gently press down on your right knee three or four times. Repeat on other side.

Stretch your legs with a knee hug. Bend your right knee, then lift your knee to your chest, wrapping your arms around it to pull it as close to your upper body as you can. Hold for at least five seconds, then repeat on the left.

Although we may still spend hours in the recording booth, these tips can help offset the detrimental effects of daylong inactivity. Moving, stretching and exercising throughout the day, even briefly, can also make us feel more energized while bringing on longer-term benefits.

VERSATILE

EXPERIENCED

PROFESSIONAL

Top Tips for Effective E-Learning Videos

Set the Video Foundation

Tell a Story in The eLearning Video

Choose the Optimum Video Length

Make the Most of Your eLearning Video Visuals

Use Videos Strategically

Invest in Quality Audio

The Biggest Voice Over Customer Service Mistakes and How to Fix Them

Putting New Customers above Existing Customers

Delay in Communication

Over-Promising and Under-Delivering

Not Listening or Understanding What the Client Wants

Exercises for Voice Over Actors to Combat Life in the Recording Booth

Detriments of Sedentary Jobs

How to Lower the Health Risks

Physical Exercises for Voice Over Actors

Neck and Shoulder Stretches

Upper Body Stretches

Lower Body Stretches and Exercise

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