Debbie Grattan

Lately I’ve been able to do what I truly love: collaborate.

Several clients I hadn’t heard from in a while contacted me with work offers: for ISDN voice over services.

There’s definitely something to be said for Real-Time communication!

I find it difficult most times to read a client’s mind (though I always do my best and I actually think my psychic skills are improving gradually) and to know exactly what kind of inflection they want.

What word they want stressed, or NOT stressed.
How much smile they want to hear.
Whether they want me to adlib a bit with the written copy in the places it seems appropriate to do that.

I suppose that knowing answers to these kinds of questions is why it helps to have over twenty years of experience as a professional voice over talent. It’s a bit of a guessing game at times, but my many years of experience have helped me to build that “guessing muscle” to where I can guess correctly most of the time. Or, even better, I just know what is needed for any particular piece of copy and when I get feedback from the client, they usually like the choices I made.

My Lips Feel Lovely, Thank You

So when someone called me yesterday and began the conversation not with a salutation, but by telling me how moist and terrific his lips were feeling, I was thrown off just little bit at first. But I was also intrigued so I stayed on the line to see where this was going. Afterall, I don’t get many obscene phone calls these days, so you gotta enjoy them when they happen. ; )

Then he segued into how the beautiful lips on the tin he was holding reminded him where his small gift had come from.

Ah, now I was following what he said.

This year, I’ve been working on a tiered marketing campaign with a unique marketing tool: An attractive little lip balm tin that prominently displays my logo and tag line, “More than Just Lip Service.”

Is it mere coincidence that I’ve been seeing a surge of clients from my database, who are getting in touch with me to get voice over services quotes for new projects? Certainly there must be some connection with my good old snail mail marketing campaign.

When clients received the lip balm and attractive personalized card from me, perhaps it just reminded them that I’m still here.

Have you ever noticed that when you send someone a gift, they remember you? Well at least for a while (though, hopefully forever).

The client who called me mentioning the lip balm hired me to do two spots—no audition required. Then we got to do an actual session, where we enjoyed each other’s banter and solidified that casual yet professional working relationship even more.

Small Steps Lead to Big Results

I find that small steps like these, continuously, keep my business moving forward, leading to increased momentum and more opportunities. It’s a simple idea to apply, yet easy to forget to keep taking the small steps day after day.

Another client praised this little marketing piece in one of the most glowing emails I’d ever received from a client. He lifted it up to a status that was far beyond any impression I had ever imagined. The client also apologized that he didn’t have any work to offer me. Sometimes, that’s what happens. But the gesture, and the process of creating and maintaining a solid relationship, allows for positive energy flow…even if a job doesn’t come from any particular direction right at that moment.

In the real estate business, they say it all comes down to 3 things: Location, location, location.

In marketing my voiceover business it also comes down to 3 things: Relationships, relationships, relationships.

 

I’ve seen this video by Dove about “Real Beauty” a couple of times now. It seems to be making the rounds of social media. Good for Dove. So now, I’m examining the whole thing a little more closely, without the initial impact of the first viewing, and coming up with some additional thoughts and conclusions.

The first time viewer is hit with a very emotional impact of how women tend to see themselves as “less beautiful” than other people who see them. Watching it the second time, just now, I realized that we are taught as children to not brag about ourselves…to be humble. That to think of ourselves as “beautiful” is arrogant, or stuck up, or shallow. And because we are such visual beings, we do take first impressions off what someone looks like, before we have an opportunity (if we do) to talk to them, or learn who they are as a person, and not just a physical body. Remember your elders telling you: “Never judge a book by it’s cover.”

“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder” is so evident in this exercise. But it can be hard to see or realize our own personal beauty. And I think that’s in large part due to our culture.

And I think about any famous beauty…pick whoever you want – Audrey Hepburn (didn’t we just read in her son’s book that she didn’t think she was beautiful), Elizabeth Taylor, Cindy Crawford, Iman, Halle Berry, and on and on, and I’ll bet you in each case, this exercise would turn out the same differences in 2 drawings- maybe even more pronounced with these women – considering they are bombarded with agents, photographers, directors, casting agents, etc. who are constantly making judgement calls on what is “beautiful,” what the public will buy, what will sell a particular product, or movie or TV show….and in essence… picking them apart, inch by inch.

Haven’t we all felt that way in an audition at some point, especially as females, whether for on-camera or voiceover? In this business of image, we are certainly judged very quickly for what we immediately bring to the table, and often don’t get an opportunity to be seen for more than what’s just on the surface.

As women, especially in this age and culture, it’s difficult to understand how to keep a positive self image, and not step over some line that is repulsive in the other direction. If asked, wouldn’t we all downplay much of what others might perceive as a beautiful characteristic, and point out the things that we think (or have been told) make us less beautiful? Aren’t there thousands of plastic surgeons out there that will examine any face, and tell you how they can “fix” you to make you MORE beautiful?

I’m rambling here, as I’m pondering this whole concept. But I do think that although this exercise makes a great statement about how we see ourselves differently, and perhaps through a more critical lens that others looking in, it doesn’t really surprise me.

Could you even describe your features to someone like that without a mirror in front of you? I think that would be hard to do. Just my own, personal Debbie Thought.

Debbie Grattan is a Voiceover Artist with over 20 years of professional voiceover recording experience. She has partnered with hundreds of production companies, marketing and advertising firms, commercial voiceover recording studios and corporate/business clients around the United States and abroad. Check out her Voiceover Demos Page and request a complimentary voiceover services audition for an upcoming project.