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Always “Stuff” to Do: There are always things to do when you own a business. Recordings, marketing, editing, accounting, classes, emails, etc. This, I suppose, is obvious. If you’re like me there are some things that I “push off” more than others. Take for example, accounting. It’s necessary, but reconciling bank statements and keeping tabs on invoices and expenses isn’t the most “fun” thing to do. Oh I get it done, but it’s not the first task I work on. Be that as it may, it still needs to be done.

Schedules/Circumstances Change: My days as a voice actor always consist of recording and submitting auditions and hopefully several gigs (commercials, corporate narrations, website/explainer videos, and message-on-hold projects for phone systems); if you’re curious you can take a listen at https://www.judyfossumvoiceovers.com/. Recording clients’ projects is definitely the cool, fun part. However, it needs to be quiet when I’m recording. I’ve got a beautiful, quiet recording studio in our home for which I’m grateful.

Our home was in a hail storm (June 2020), and sustained considerable damage due to the golf ball-size hail and wind which gave the hail extra momentum to break windows and damage our hardwood floor. So…repairs were in order, including redoing the floor. An aside, an inconvenience yes, but not one was hurt and our dog and cat were fine too. We’re thankful for sure.

Back to the floor repairs. There’s no other way to say it other than these repairs are crazy noisy. In order to redo the wood floors, they needed to be sanded…three times! Needless to say recording in the studio wasn’t an option when they were sanding the floor. Now what?

Use the Time You Have Wisely: Well…to reiterate…there’s always stuff to do. True story. Instead of “throwing in the towel” and not doing anything because of the noise of the floor sanders, it was a matter of doing what I could when I could. In other words, using my time wisely. I’m lucky in that the sanders weren’t being run eight hours straight. It was more like three to four hours per day for a couple of days and two hours on a third day. Okay…I can work with that. When the noise was “on” I used that time to do everything besides recording in the studio. And boy there’s a list indeed. Emails, follow-up emails, writing thank you cards, writing marketing postcards, doing research, reading, sending out invoices, updating social media, and the every popular accounting. When the sanders were done, it was back to the studio to record.

“Stuff” Crossed Off the List: Rather than sitting around wasting time, scrolling through endless cute kitty videos, use the time you have in the circumstance/place/schedule you’re in to get all of that other “stuff” done. You’re working on your business, you’re being productive, you’re crossing things off your “to do” list, and you’re that much further ahead to getting back to what you really love to do when the time presents itself (and the noise goes away). By the way, the contractor did a super job and the redone wood floors look fabulous.

Weeds:

Weeds. According to Merriam Webster, “weed” is defined as, “a plant that is not valued where it is growing and is usually of vigorous growth.” I’ve also heard it being referred to as a “plant out of place.” We have weeds in our perennial flower beds which also contain a few yummy edibles like oregano, chives, thyme, several types of mint, and sage. Therefore when we weed, we pull the weeds by hand so we don’t have to use any toxic chemicals.

Their Success:

Now weeding isn’t my favorite outdoor chore, but it’s something that needs to be done. It’s actually kind of relaxing to do, and there’s the sense of accomplishment you get when it’s done. I’ve often asked myself when weeding, “Why are they so successful?” Some flowers and plants may struggle, but it seems like no matter the weather, no matter how much/how little rain we get, and even if there’s a hail storm with golfball-sized hail (this actually did happy in late June 2020), the weeds always survive.

I’m most definitely a “beginner” gardener and have a lot to learn. In my weed pulling adventures I’ve started to notice their root systems. The goal of course in weeding is to successfully get the entire root systems so you don’t have to pull the doggone thing again. Some roots are long and thick and seem to grow straight down. My guess is they do this so they can find water. Other weeds’ root systems grow more horizontally and they spread well…like weeds. I again surmise they do this to reach water to be able to survive. From my novice gardening point of view, the weeds seem to be adapting to their environment so they can grow and survive.

Adapting: Weeds

Whether it’s large, long roots diving deep into the earth, or strong long root systems spreading across the earth horizontally, this seems to be one of the ways weeds adapt to their environment so they can continue to live and grow. And it appears to be successful. Pulling weeds is tough and not always successful on my part, like when you only get the leaves on top and absolutely none of the root. They really do hang on! They’ve adapted to hold on for their continued survival and benefit. One particular weed I’m thinking about is terribly stubborn. It’s one of the “creeper” weeds. Every once in a while I’ll get a “good” pull. The root is crazy long and at the end there’s curly cue! This curl at the end is like the weed is “grasping” on to dear life – like it’s trying to keep itself firmly in place in the earth. Again, to me this seems to be another of the weed’s adaptations in order to stay alive.

Adapting: Voiceover Talent/Business Owner

So…what’s with all of the weed talk? The past several months (spring and summer of 2020 and likely beyond) we’ve all had to do a lot of pivoting and adapting to help stop the spread of covid 19. To stay in business, to stay engaged, to continue to communicate, we have pivoted to Zoom, GoTo Meeting, and a myriad of other meeting/conference platforms to stay in touch, promote products and services, and to learn. We’ve had to learn to adapt to be able to move forward. This is no different for the voice acting industry.

Now, though, there are new avenues to explore and to adapt to. It’s like growing your business roots a little deeper and branching out (kind of like the weeds roots that spread horizontally) to research new genres, new companies to work with, new classes (now mostly virtual) to attend, and being open to innovative ideas to try and different people and businesses to partner with.

Adaptation, I feel, is essential to grow and to survive. Sure it can be scary…at first. Delving into a new genre, asking questions, connecting with someone new, expanding your skill sets, and continual learning are essential to any business.

So…grow your roots deeper and spread your “wings” further to encompass new ideas and people, and open yourself and awareness to new opportunities to adapt and to succeed.

Common Questions:

When I tell people that I’m a voiceover actor and that I work from a custom built recording studio in my home, there are several responses I get. 1) Kind of a “deer in headlights” response, to which I get asked something like, “What’s voiceover? What kind of projects do you work on?” 2) A genuine interest response with something like, “That’s cool, I didn’t know that that was even a career.” 3) A curious response with a variety of questions like, “How do you find work? How does someone work with you?”

The latter question is what I would like to focus on and to help you learn a little more about. The most efficient answer is simply, just get in touch with me J. Send an email – judy@judyfossumvoiceovers.com; give me a call (yes, an “old fashioned” telephone call) – 307.421.8817; we can hop on a Zoom call too to talk and to see how I can help you and how we can work together.

Like perhaps some of you, I like “tactile” things (books, handwritten cards, handwritten “to do” lists, and things that I can hold and turn the pages on when reading), so articles and blogs still work great, and as such an article about working with voice actors fits the bill.

You and Your Business:

We’re a cooperative and helpful bunch to work with. The conversation starts with you, yourself, your product/service, your business. Let us know who you are, what your project/service/product/business is about and how we can help.

Your Voiceover Project:

What type of project are you working on? A commercial, and if so what medium(s) will it play in and for how long (more on this later)? A corporate narration (something for a business’s website or their YouTube channel, or perhaps it is to go out to their clients via an email post to introduce your new services or products)? A voiceover for a voice assistant (for use on, for example, a smart speaker)? An eLearning/training module/video? A voiceover for an awards show or recognition? Or maybe your project needs a voiceover to update your company’s phone system? Maybe it’s for a cartoon, animation for a game, or maybe your project is an audiobook? Some people are amazed when I tell them about all of the different genres of voiceover there are (and there are many more in addition to the ones I’ve listed here).

Now back to the commercials. All projects are different and have many different variables. This is especially the case with commercials. The reason for all of the specific questions for you to answer comes down to usage. In effect, potentially how many ears and/or eyes will hear/see your commercial? For example, the voiceover for a TV commercial airing for three months in the Chicago TV market is priced differently than the voiceover for a TV commercial airing for three months in a small TV market in Wyoming.

For other projects, length comes into play especially when it comes to eLearning/training projects.

The project’s details and usage information you provide to voice talent helps us provide you with an accurate quote that is fair to both you and to the voice actor.

Audition?:

Voice talent have traditional paper business cards, but we also have another “audio” business card, which are voiceover demos. I’m happy to send these to you or you can listen to them on my website. https://www.judyfossumvoiceovers.com/

I like to offer to record custom auditions. This give you the chance to hear how my voice will pair with your project, how I may perform the script, and will allow you to hear if I’m the right fit for the your project. Auditions, of course, are done free of change and are a part of a voice actors workday. If you would like a custom audition, simply send a portion of your project’s script to judy@judyfossumvoiceovers.com, and I’ll promptly record and send you back an audio sample.

Your Project’s Script:

Super, so it looks like we’ll be working together!

I always work from a script. Once I have received your project’s final, approved script, I’ll review it for any questions I may have on pronunciations, numbers, web addresses, acronyms, etc. For example, let’s say there’s a year in your script, 1922, and it’s a part of a url and/or an email address. One question I would have would be, would you like me to say each number individually or would you like me to say nineteen twenty-two? Another example is an acronym. Perhaps there’s a passage in your script that includes something written like this: “the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)”. Would you like me to say the word “or” before saying “NOAA” or instead of saying the word maybe you would prefer that I say each letter individually? These may seem like trivial matters, but they do make a difference in your project.

I’m a stickler for names. In my opinion, mispronouncing someone’s name is not professional whatsoever (really mispronouncing anything I feel is unprofessional). I figure that it is always better to ask these questions up front so I can provide you with the best recording possible. In some cases, especially names in another language, sometimes a quick audio recording of the correct pronunciation is very helpful to me.

More Project Specifics:

The more details you can provide about your project the better. Not only details about pronunciation specifics, but also about how you want your script to be read/performed. Who is your intended audience? Would you like the “tone” of the voiceover to be natural, professional, with some authority, warm, deadpan, with a “smile”, serious, etc.? There are countless ways to work through/read/perform a script, and it’s our job as actors to follow your direction.

In many cases I’ll provide you with two to three different (sometimes subtly different) takes for you to choose from.

Another set of specifics I’ll need from you is how you need the audio saved. Aif, wav, mp3; 44.1 or 48 kHz; 128-, 160-, or 192-kbps; 16-, 24-, or 32-bit?

Would you prefer “raw” or “edited” audio? In both cases I’ll edit out my mistakes and extra takes. For raw audio I’ll leave all of my breaths in. For edited audio I’ll mitigate or silence my breaths and will add a minor amount of processing.

Homestretch:

Once completed, I’ll send the audio to you as an email attachment (if small) or through one of various file transfer protocol platforms or through WeTransfer, Dropbox, or Google Drive. The last step will be to send you an invoice. And…voila – project complete!

Questions – Would you Like to Learn More?:

Do you have more questions? No problem. Call, email, connect on LinkedIn, check out my website and click on the “contact” tab, or Zoom, whatever works the best for your to get our conversation started works for me.

Judy Fossum VoiceOvers LLC

307.421.8817

judy@judyfossumvoiceovers.com

https://www.linkedin.com/in/judyfossumvoiceovers/

https://www.judyfossumvoiceovers.com/