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Your Voice Over Success Requires This Key Soft Skill

The journey toward your voice over success and a fulfilling voice talent career requires many skills, talents and qualities. And one of those qualities is becoming more elusive than ever in this digital age of instant everything. It’s the quality of delayed gratification and it is truly a life-changing skill if mastered and utilized in your everyday existence. So, let’s dive into this topic and if you make it all the way to the end of this post, you’ll get a special reward.

Delayed Gratification Explained

Delayed gratification is the capacity to wait for a reward that promises to be bigger and better than the instant gratification you’d get from a lesser yet immediate pleasure. The concept of delayed gratification was explored years ago in The Marshmallow Experiment, as James Clear brings up in his discussion on the topic.

https://youtu.be/Yo4WF3cSd9Q

The Marshmallow Experiment – Instant Gratification (https://youtu.be/Yo4WF3cSd9Q)

The Marshmallow Experiment involved bringing a child into room where a marshmallow beckoned from the table. The researcher told the child he was going to be left alone with the marshmallow for a set period, during which time the children were given a challenge.

If the children could refrain from eating the marshmallow until the researcher returned, they would get a second marshmallow to enjoy. Kids had to pick between:

Immediate pleasure from a single marshmallow
Delayed gratification with double the rewards

Results were mixed, and the children’s lives were subsequently tracked over a 40-year period. The kids that were able to choose delayed gratification ended up more successful in many things across the board, from SAT scores to social skills and reactions to stress.

Where Delayed Gratification Fits in with Your Voice Over Success

Delayed gratification plays a huge role in your voice over success, as long-lasting positive results do not come instantly. The promise of the big reward of a full-time voice actor career is down the line, but only for those who have the capacity to wait it out while paying their dues.

Those dues can be pretty hefty. Starting any business as a solopreneur involves a lot of moving pieces that need to be put together to complete the puzzle. These include setting up a website, creating your branding and marketing plan, strengthening your talent and skills with training, putting together a voice over talent demo, finding agents to represent you, constantly seeking out audition opportunities, and otherwise doing all those things to get a new business up and running.

Sometimes it may feel like the only reward at the end of the day may be the ability to finally move away from the computer and get some sleep. But the bigger reward of living a dream job is only possible for those willing to wait for the delayed gratification.

Things Fighting You Along the Way

For the younger generations now in or near the workforce who grew up in the digital world, delayed gratification may seem like a totally foreign concept. That concept gets even harder to grasp, for people of any age, with the number of distractions in society today.

Even when you’re at work at your computer, emails urge you to check out the latest sales at your favorite shops, the instructional YouTube video you’re viewing ends with links to dozens of other intriguing videos, one article you’re reading links to a handful of others, and social media alerts exclaim that three more people commented on your latest post.

Add personal responsibilities that may include daily chores to complete, errands to run, children and pets to tend to, and that thing called eating dinner, and sticking on the patient road toward delayed gratification can feel like an impossible feat.

With so many things calling for your attention, and so many tasks that need to be tackled when you’re first launching a business, the whole process can feel overwhelming. Overwhelming can turn daunting and even frustrating when there’s not a lot of early success at the beginning of a career.

The choice between delayed gratification down the road and the instant gratification of throwing up your hands in despair as you go to watch TV can be a tough one indeed.

Why Stick it Out

Don’t give up. Even if you’re used to instant results, instant gratification, and pretty much instant everything, challenge yourself to stay the course for the delayed gratification that hard work, passion, and dedication always brings.

Even if your own delayed gratification doesn’t bring the voice over success as you envisioned, putting all that positive energy out into the universe is going to bring on rewards. Perhaps all your hard work will lead to new relationships, new ideas, or a new path that results in a career even more exciting than the one you imagined.

Whatever the case, I’ve found the success that comes from the pain of sticking with it over the ease of distraction is worth the wait. You can even train yourself into a pattern of delayed gratification by setting up smaller, daily rewards – like the delayed gratification of finishing everything on your to-do list if you stay focused on your work throughout the day.

Remind yourself that you do have the capacity to wait, and the rewards will definitely be worth it. There’s no reason to sell yourself short with one marshmallow now when you can double your rewards down the road.

Now, on a little tangent (and I’m putting this at the end so that I don’t distract you from finishing my post), last weekend I got to finally see Hamilton in Chicago. And, as I was doing my final edit on this blog, the song “Wait For It” kept going around in my head! So, for a little entertainment and reward for making it all the way to the end of my post, please check out this awesome 360-degree video of the original Broadway cast. Be sure to grab the screen and rotate to see everyone around you.

https://youtu.be/k9AyO8h2I0k

Hamilton: An American Musical 360° – Wait For It (https://youtu.be/k9AyO8h2I0k)

My Voice Over Experiences from the Weird to the Scary to the Sublime

An out-of-the-blue email really caught my attention a few months back, and it continues to puzzle me today. The email was from someone who said they worked for Cracked.com (formerly Cracked Magazine) and wanted to interview me about some of my voice over experiences in the biz. My first thought was: “Cracked Magazine? Don’t they write funny, satirical cartoons and stuff?”

But, I took a look at their site and saw a wide array of articles on many topics – topics that would generate web traffic. Since being or becoming a voice over artist is a popular topic on the internet to some degree, it made sense that they were trying to tap into an interested readership.

My website probably had come up high on a general Google search for voice over artists, and that was how they found me. Made sense.

I don’t get asked to do many interviews, so I was excited to work on this. To make things easy, the author sent me a few questions he (or maybe it was a she, hard to tell by the name) wanted me to answer in writing.

We had a little back and forth by email and I fine-tuned my answers over several revisions. After a couple of weeks, I sent off the finished interview and waited to hear details of when it would be published.

No reply. No acknowledgement of even receiving the document.

I followed up a few times by email and even tried to reach the person by phone and still nothing.

Guess I’m Not in Kansas Anymore

Was I suddenly living in a different parallel universe? Or maybe the author got hit by a bus (God forbid)! Very strange. Like having one of those “Wizard of Oz” moments where you wonder if you dreamed the whole thing.

Nope, I had the emails to prove it. Had I just been scammed in some way? No money was involved and all I had provided was a few answers to some questions. If it was a scam, it was a pretty pathetic one!

It was like this person had just dropped off the face of the planet. Maybe they suddenly left the company or got fired and the ball never got passed to someone else. That seemed like a possibility. Anyway, despite other attempts to get some contact from the company, nothing worked and I never got a reply.

So, rather than never having this interview see the light of day, I decided to post it here on my blog. Enjoy!

What would most surprise someone starting a career as a voice over artist today?

I think what would most surprise a person coming into the business today would be that the amount of time they will spend actually recording their voice for paying gigs is a relatively small percentage of their time (about 15% on average).

The modern landscape dictates a voice talent’s day is largely consumed by marketing activities, such as auditioning for agents and online casting sites, communicating with clients and prospects in social media and email, and staying in touch and top of mind any way you can.

Then there are all of the day-to-day chores you have to do when you run your own business. These include accounting, managing your technology, updating your database, and many other little things that all take significant time and attention.

I am fortunate to have my husband working full-time in my business, and he actually handles the majority of the marketing and business chores so I can stay focused on recording and the logistics of job requests and auditions. The percentage of time I spend on paid work is more like 85%, but that is only because I have a full-time employee. If you are running your business solo, which I think most voice talent are, then you’ll have to wear many hats and spend a lot of time on these other essential tasks.

How has doing voice overs changed over the years?

Many things have changed, mostly due to the presence of the internet. Home studios did not exist when I got my start as a voice actor back in the early ’90s in Southern California. The only people who could work in the profession lived around major cities that had a lot of recording studios. Los Angeles and New York were the dominant hubs in the U.S.

Now, thanks to the internet, you can have a home studio anywhere as long as you have a fast broadband connection. That development leads to what I see as the biggest change directly impacting how I run my business, and that is: The amount of competition has gone way up.

For most of my career, very few people outside of the business even knew what voice over was. Whenever someone asked me what I did for a living, I would have to explain it. Then I would still get a lot confused looks from people.

Now when I mention that I’m a voice over talent, I get, “Oh yeah, my friend/sister/neighbor is doing that, too! Can I have them call you so you can share some of your best tips?”

While there is a much larger supply of voice over opportunities in the world, there is also an exponentially larger number of voice talents all trying to win those jobs. You have to be much more strategic and thoughtful in how you get business these days.

What is the scariest thing that has happened to you in the voice over business?

There have been many scary moments along the way, which is probably true for any entrepreneur running a small business. Almost all of my most memorable scary moments involve technology failing at extremely inopportune times. It’s rare that this happens because we keep everything updated and well-maintained, but sometimes hardware or software just stops working and you have what feels like milliseconds to figure out what is going on and how to get it fixed.

Last year, my recording software abruptly stopped loading, ultimately resulting in a switch to a different software program with a significant learning curve. This happened right at the start of the year, with a full lineup of jobs waiting to be recorded. It was pretty stressful for a few days as we figured out what we needed to do to get back up and running while ensuring clients received everything they needed on time.

For a voice over talent, if you’re not recording, you’re not making money. So you have to be able to troubleshoot things quickly and come up with a solution. Beyond my husband, who has some good technical experience and know-how, I have several techs and audio experts I can call on when necessary.

Without those kinds of resources, things can get very scary very quickly. If I can’t deliver what my clients need on time, there’s always the chance they will look for someone else who can.

What is the weirdest voice over job you ever had?

My vote goes for the sexy weather forecaster gig. Several years back, I was hired on a project which involved attractive scantily clad women presenting weather forecasts for online subscribers. Subscribers would see still photos of attractive bikini models motioning to portions of the U.S. map while a voice over talent recited the day’s weather forecast.

I was hired to provide the voice for one of the models. The service was a bust (haha), but the client did pay me for several recording sessions that we completed as part of the launch.

What was the happiest voice over job you ever landed?

My happiest thing is definitely being one of the voices at the Happiest Place on Earth – Disneyland. When I was living in Southern California, I was recording some of the park announcements for Magic Music Days, holiday celebrations and special events. Then, when they opened Disney’s California Adventure (DCA), they offered me the role of being the Voice of the Park, welcoming guests with pre-recorded announcements for various activities.

I had to give up the gig when I moved away from So Cal, but for a few years it was fun being recognized by friends who heard me on their visits to DCA.

Where have I heard your voice?

That’s one of the first questions I tend to get when folks find out I do voice over for a living. While I do a good deal of TV and radio spots in local and regional markets, the most widely played spot was probably the one for the original Pillow Pets.

Many of the projects I’ve completed are for internal use by companies and not heard by the general public, although I have cultivated a niche over the years on television as the voice for many children’s infomercial products. I’ve recorded a few dozen different kids’ products and toys, as well as other direct-response advertisers, marketing everything from make-up to teeth whiteners to exercise equipment.

You might also hear me narrating a web video, directing you on voicemail options on a company’s IVR system, or teaching you something profound and useful in a continuing education course.

While I may never find out what happened to the person who sent the initial email, at least I know the interview has been put to use. In addition to providing info that could be helpful or entertaining to someone else, it also gave me a chance to think back on my happiest, scariest, and by far weirdest moment in the voice over biz.

Please feel free to share some of yours down below! What were your weirdest, wildest, scariest, and happiest experiences so far in voice over?

Voice Over and Virtual Reality Marketing Fit Like Hand in Glove

Virtual reality has become a literal reality, and it’s one of the hottest new developments in today’s technology. You can find it being used in everything from VR games to instructional how-tos to VR apps to virtual reality story-telling behind one of the best-selling organic soap brands in the world. I mention the soap since Dr. Bronner’s was the first voice over and virtual reality video project I had the thrill of completing. And yes, it was certainly a thrill.

The 6-minute virtual reality video provides information, entertainment, a brief company history – and the chance for viewers to enjoy a full 360-degree view in all directions throughout the entire video.

You’re treated to outdoor festivities (complete with a line of costumed dancers), aisles of soap products, videos playing in the background of the video you’re watching, and, perhaps most importantly, a grand tour of Dr. Bronner’s headquarters in Vista, California.

Promoting soap companies is just one of the many ways virtual reality can and is already being used for the benefit of companies, their audiences – and VO talent who are hired on to be an integral part of the VR projects.

Virtual Reality for Marketing

With a well-crafted script that tells a compelling story, VR marketing campaigns can be hugely compelling for just about any brand. Dr. Bronner’s and other companies have already figured that out, with another fun example coming from the cheese company Boursin. While Dr. Bronner’s gives you a 360-degree view of headquarters and festivities, the Boursin VR video gives you a 360-view of the inside of a fridge where Boursin cheese hangs out with other delectable goodies.

Top benefits of VR videos for marketing include:

Truly engaging your audience in ways that are cutting-edge and very stimulating
Capturing the viewers’ full focus and attention, devoid of outside distractions
Providing a more intense experience than traditional media, making it (and the brand) more memorable
Capitalizing on virtual reality’s novelty for companies quick out of the VR starting gate

Virtual Reality for Documentaries and News

Dr. Bronner’s told the company story using VR video, and storytelling of any type can get a huge boost with virtual reality technology. A solid example comes from the New York Times, with a VR documentary entitled “Displaced.” The VR video tells the story of 30 million children driven from their homes due to the ravages of war, letting viewers do more than just read about what it’s like. Viewing the NYT video requires downloading the NYTVR app, which you can do here.

Virtual reality video for news stories and documentaries has the power to:

Put viewers at the very heart of the story
Stir up stronger emotions, due to a more memorable and intense experience than traditional media
Provide the full impact of surroundings with full 360-degree views

VR for Training and Testing

Training videos offer another way to use virtual reality technology for awesome results. VR training videos can include yet go far beyond car mechanics and electrical wiring projects. They can be used to provide driving or flight training without the hazard of putting novices behind the controls. They can also be used to help doctors learn complicated surgical procedures without risk to patients.

Mercedes created an app that lets you test-drive its E-Class. While it’s technically a marketing video, it does give you an idea of what a VR driving video could look like. Below is the VR test drive video and be sure to grab the screen to change the view as you go along.

Benefits of VR for training and education include:

Giving audience members a chance to attempt complex tasks as many times as they wish
Eliminating the real-life risks associated with real-life training of the tasks
Ensuring trainees have a safe environment at all times
Saving money by producing a single VR video instead of multiple real-life training scenarios

Virtual Reality for Gaming and Entertainment

My family knows the excitement of virtual reality gaming firsthand, thanks to our daughter Natalie, who invested about $2,000 of her VO gig money into an HTC Vive VR System last summer. We’ve all been playing VR now for over a year. This Vive VR demo video captures the experience of the Vive pretty well. It is truly a mind-blowing experience to interact with some of these virtual environments. And, we are at just the beginning of content creation. It will just keep getting better and better as time goes by.

For an in-depth review of some of the most popular VR headsets, check out Top Virtual Reality Headsets and Their Breakdowns

VR gaming gives you the chance to:

Experience an actual alternate world, transforming the act of watching a screen into living an actual experience
Escape from the daily grind
Engage in high-powered, realistic amusement

Pretty cool, huh?

Other Voice Over and Virtual Reality Marketing Opportunities

While I touched on some ways VR is already being used, the above categories definitely don’t cover all of them. Virtual reality videos and technology are also being used for a variety of other applications, such as helping:

Travelers pick vacation destinations by letting them “visit” possible locations before they choose.
People cope with post-traumatic stress disorder and phobias, using varying levels of exposure therapy until they’re able to deal with feared objects, places, or circumstances.
Patients undergo physical rehabilitation and learning tasks in a clinical setting before applying them out in the real world.
Patients cope with pain by using distraction therapy while undergoing painful procedures.
People manage anxiety and reduce anxiety attacks, with a VR game that comes with a wearable belt that teaches and encourages diaphragmatic breathing.

As extensive and amazing as these examples maybe, they’re only the starting point of what virtual reality is poised to achieve. Keep in mind, however, that the high-end technology of VR alone isn’t necessarily enough to attract and then keep the attention of your audience. You also need a quality script, a solid story, and, in many cases, the addition of a voice over actor who can add another layer of intrigue to an already intriguing project.

The Most Annoying Speech Patterns You Hear All the Time Now

So, you probably already know about vocal fry, valspeak and uptalk, right? I mean, everyone has heard plenty of examples of those speech patterns that have made perfectly well-educated college grads (mostly female) sound like Kardashian wannabes.

Vocal fry refers to a low, glottal, animal-like sound that speech pathologists consider a vocal disorder.

Valspeak is, like, short for the way Valley Girls talk that was, like, you know, so big Frank Zappa sang about it in 1982.

Uptalk, a subset of valspeak, is the habit of producing a rising inflection as if you’re asking a question – even when you’re not?

Here’s a new video we created to demonstrate some of the more common patterns you hear today…

To say that all these fad-driven speech patterns are kinda, sorta, well… I don’t know, annoying may seem a bit harsh. But it’s also absolutely true.

The Harsh Reality of Speech Patterns

The use of such patterns do more than annoy the listener. Even if the people indulging in these patterns have an incredibly high IQ, the patterns work against them by making them:

Sound less intelligent
Appear less professional
Seem like a nitwit or airhead
An embarrassment in front of mom, dad or the general public
Unfit for any position that pays more than minimum wage

Despite all the detriments of allowing those patterns to unconsciously creep into your own conversational lexicon, people are falling prey at rapid rates. Some are even doing it on purpose.

One of the reasons the patterns become so widespread, particularly with the current trend of vocal fry, is the feeling of belonging it gives young women. A video on Today explains how it makes the women feel part of a “macroculture.”

If you ask me, I’d rather join a gym.

If you ask me again, I’d also predict the tide will turn and people who drop these phrases will come out on top in the long run. Drop the phrases now and you can think of it as an easy, inexpensive way to outshine 85 percent of your competitors in that next job interview.

The Up-and-Coming Most Annoying Speech Patterns

Being a voice-over talent makes me extremely sensitive to not only the sound of voices I hear on TV, radio and the internet, but also to the words that are chosen. None of these up-and-coming phrases ever appear in scripts that I read for actual voice-over jobs or auditions. They are typically found in unscripted, more extemporaneous speech.

These five speech patterns have become rampant in interviews. My husband listens to a lot of podcasts, particularly enjoying them while out driving or working in the yard. He started tracking the pervasive use of these five patterns of speaking that are appearing in virtually every interview he listens to lately, including on cable news and business channels.

Of course, once he shared them with me, I started hearing them, too.

I’ve already used all five patterns in this post, did you catch them?

1. You know – This phrase is increasingly being used at the beginning of the sentence as a lead-in. This one has been around for ages but, you know, it’s been given new life with a new use you can’t help but constantly hear if you listen for it.

“You know, the best way to find out the answers is to just Google it.”

2. So – So, you’ll also find this one at the beginning of a sentence, namely as a way to “manage” the conversation and sound fairly authoritative (or condescending). It’s become hugely common, even among expert speakers during formal interviews (just listen to NPR while various experts are interviewed). More on that idea here.

“So, what we’ve found in our research is that people tend to add this word as a way to sound informal yet still be an expert.”

3. I mean – This completely unnecessary phrase seems to just be a habitual way to start sentences for many people. I mean, where did this one come from anyway?

“I mean, if it really was a problem that I say that phrase whenever I’m trying to make my point, what difference does it make?” Whatever!

4. … right? – This one comes at the end of sentences, apparently to encourage or sometimes subtly force agreement on the listener. It reminds me of the French who often tack on a oui or non at the end of a sentence, non? It’s hit the English language strong in just the past year or so, right?

“It wasn’t just that the election campaign this year was ugly, right…? It really became a battle of negative personalities in a race to the bottom of common decency.”

5. Kind of (or sort of) – This tidbit is used anywhere in the middle, as a way to not say what you really mean. It’s sort of a way to soften, to be kind of… vague, imprecise and uncommitted.

“Well, if you look at the data, you’ll kind of notice that there’s a trend that sort of jumps out at you.”

You can even mix them all together in infinite combinations:

“Right, so… you know the best way to find out answers is to Google it, right? It’s kind of like way better than going to the library. I mean, how did people even get through the day before the internet was invented! We really owe a lot to the guy who invented that, I mean, really…

I understand these may be hip ways of speaking these days , but they actually detract from the message. They also make the speaker sound less intelligent and sometimes even manipulative.

On those rare occasions when I hear an interview with someone who is profoundly lacking all of these five patterns, it is such a breath of fresh air! I can focus and absorb what they are saying so much more easily.

More common, is hearing someone speak with various combinations of several of these patterns appearing in just one sentence! It’s kinda crazy, right?

Yes, I understand that my fixated attention on these patterns is what is causing me to be distracted. And, like a highly contagious virus, it is possible that by simply reading this post, you too will become afflicted!

Sorry about that, but it’s the only way to bring awareness to this type of conversational disease in hopes that it can be eradicated very soon.

Pay attention and I promise you’ll start noticing these patterns in nearly every casual conversation you listen in on. Even interviews with people you’d think would be trained to avoid patterns like these are using them.

It’s mildly disturbing to me. I hope you’ll be disturbed too. At least enough to curb your own use (and maybe the usage by your kids, spouse and/or significant other).

Oh, and yes, I know I left off many other annoying speech patterns. Like things like “like” because it’s just, like, beyond ubiquitous and you already know about it. Now that you’ve become painfully aware of my top five annoying speech patterns, please share your own speech pattern pet peeves.

Feel free to share in the comments! And please read through the comments for some very interesting insights and observations from other readers.

VERSATILE

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