Why Did I Need A Change?
As a professional voice over actor, I think a lot about the vibe that my clients and my industry friends get when they visit my website, my virtual storefront. Back in 2015, I worked with the amazing Anne Ganguzza and Sara Waters to come up with my original branding. I loved it. As a new business, it was the perfect look. It was refreshing and upbeat. The colors were spot on and it was timely. I was building my body of work, and for a while the site worked perfectly.
I worked with a separate graphic designer to do my first logo. I had heard from lots of people in the industry that having things like a microphone in your logo was very “over-played.” At the time, I listened. I went for a simple logo that matched my branding. The problem was that I never loved the logo. I never loved the font. I soon realized I never loved the font on my website, it just did not feel like me. So I chose a different fond on my logo, but I too felt like that was just off. For years I chose to only have my logo on items like invoices and rate cards, but nowhere else. It was beautifully done, it just was not me.
Over time, I am proud to have built a strong voice over business. As a working mom, I want clients to see the fierce passion with which I approach every project. While I am upbeat and happy, and do still love pink, there was an edge that my previous branding lacked. I almost felt that version was what you would expect if you know me briefly, but I wanted people to see all sides of me, so it was time to rebrand and really show folks who I am and what I have to offer.
Starting With My VO Logo
The logo redesign matters a lot to me. Just as often as I work with agents and video production companies, I am also often hired by law firms or accountants who need new phone systems or explainers and they want to work with me directly. I wanted clients who were in no way connected to VO to look at my logo and know what field I worked in.I felt very strongly about this. Frankly, if I could have had a microphone, sound booth, wave form, and headphones all on my logo I would have!
I had all of this in mind and had to decide who was going to do the work. I have had a very close friendship with my website team at Voice Actor Websites. If you know Joe Davis and Karin Barth, they are incredible people and very good at SEO. I had no desire to change that. While they do have artists on their team, I was considering bringing someone else on board. I just wanted something different. I began reaching out to lots of different folks. When I spoke to Sara Noto of Notobella designs, we clicked. She just got it and I knew I wanted to work with her on the graphic elements of the site. I connected Sara, Joe, and Karin, and we were in motion.
Sara was a delight to work with. She asked questions that no one else asked. She asked me what my favorite flowers were and what my favorite shade of pink is. I was elated. I knew the direction was the right one. She began sending options of logos, and I was so excited. We got where I wanted to be very quickly and from there everything fell into place.
Choice I Had To Make
As I said before, there were elements of my previous branding that I loved. I loved a lot of the pink. I did not love the contrast between the pink and the black. Instead of the bubbles I had before, we whose to do something that combined my favorite flowers and leopard print. Again, I wanted this to have some edge to it, while retaining some warmth.
I was also worried about my SEO. The reason I wanted Sara to work with Joe and his team, was that Joe explained that any changes I made could effect my SEO, and that was frightening. So, every design element was made with SEO in mind.
It All Came Together
I am thrilled with how my voice over branding came together. As a female voice actor, it’s hard to come up with something new and different. There are so many great sites out there. I decided to be myself, despite the advice of some of the other designers I spoke to, and I am so thankful I did. There are some big changes on this site. For
example, the photos used were take in my booth when I was speaking at an eLearning conference via zoom last June. I love that they are action shots and I have my headphones on. The new picture on my contact page has both of my dogs and was take by my sister at my parents’ house in Philly where I grew up. I love this photo and it means so much to me. We also got rid of the sliders at the top which should reduce the load time. The other item that was eliminated was my instagram feed. I have mixed feelings about this, because I thought it was fun having it there, but I think it is more important to have a client-centered site and think about what they need to see when they are casting a new project.
Making changes can be hard. Everyone seems to have an opinion, even when you don’t ask for it. I think if you intend to re-brand, wait to make the investment until YOU know what YOU want. After all, the purpose of the brands is for you clients to know what makes you stand out from your competitors, so if others impose their opinion on you and their ideas take over, you will never get the branding you love.
While I’ve been full time in voice over since 2015, I did not discover Radio Imaging as a genre or my passion for it until 2017. As a professional female voice talent, I had been booking a lot of commercials and loved my commercial work. I was researching and trying to figure out what else was like commercial work to see what I might be good at. When I found radio imaging, I loved the genre right away because of the energy. In other genres of VO, I often have to dial down my energy and contain my exuberance. I have always found this quite ironic, because authentic is a big buzz word right now in voice over, and I authentically am bursting with energy. So when I found radio imaging, it seemed like the perfect fit and I began actively pursuing radio stations to add to my client roster. I love working with radio stations, regardless of market size, and do my best to meet all budget needs.
About a week ago I got an email through my website from 
The station is happy. They are extremely pleased and I made it easy for them to get what they wanted and needed. I had a blast working with industry partners doing what I love. For me, even if a station is small, there is still a lot of value in providing them service. My hope it that they will now come back to me as they need more sweepers and station promos. It’s not just providing them quality content that has great meaning to me, but also getting to know my clients and building a strong relationship over time. So while I made them happy with this first go around, now the work of building a lasting relationship so that I can serve them even better begins. With taking feedback, introspection, and hard work, I hope to continue to provide them with outstanding radio imaging for years to come.
I’ve blogged about migraines before. This was yesterday. A migraine day. On days like this I sleep a lot and do the work that I can horizontally. With my dogs on top of me. As a full-time, working voice actor, on my good days, when my head is perfectly clear, I often let the thought creep into my mind: maybe I’ll never get another migraine. On a clear day, meaning a headache free day, I feel amazing. I am happy. I have no pain. I can record and work with clients and I am myself. But for me, migraines have been chronic since I had my twins almost 18 years ago. So, what does this mean as a working mom and a small business owner who wants to serve my clients well on good days and on bad ones? It means that I have to make choices that will not cause more migraines, and when I have them I have to be realistic about what I can reasonably do on a given day to accommodate my voice over clients.
As a working pro voice actor, I love doing live sessions, but will not do them on migraine days. Why? Migraine medication is strong. On a clear day, I am responsive. I can listen to client feedback and deliver. I also mimic well. On a migraine day, I struggle. Every thing I do all day long is a struggle. I am proud of what I accomplish on those days, but I do not feel a need to put my struggle under a microscope. The few times I have made exceptions for clients I have regretted it every time. They have not been my best sessions. If you are a migraine sufferer too, I suggest only self- directing on those days.
I will confess that I do make choices knowing that the wrong one could lead to a Migraine. I leave fun events early, like industry wide BBQs. I often turn down dinner invitations that I really want to say yes to, even at conferences, because I know that late nights will certainly lead to a migraine. Essentially, my limitations have to stay in the forefront of my mind, otherwise I will have more migraines come my way than I can handle, and that, frankly, would no be good for my voice over business. I also have to limit my work day. For example, this week I got a new demo back. I was so excited to start marketing it that I worked for hours after dinner, well past my bed time. Guess what? I had a horrendous migraine and lost most of the next day. I pushed beyond my limitations and it was not smart.
In the past year, we lost Ruth Bader Ginsberg, feminist icon. Her story is nothing short of amazing. For any working mom, Justice Ginsberg is the quintessential role model in many ways. When institutions like Harvard tried to place road blocks before her, she simply pivoted and found another way by moving to Columbia. When Ginsburg could not get hired by the large New York City law firms because they simply did not hire women at the time she was working, she forged he own path in the public domain, a path the was paved with so much success it led her to the United States Supreme Court where for decades she was the voice of liberal change. Justice Ginsberg’s example serves as a role model for so many working women in so many fields. Her determination was limitless. She continually found a path toward success. Achievement knew no limitations. Her focus on her end goals is a model for us all. To succeed as a professional female voice over actor, the same fierce determination is vital to build something from nothing. We are constantly thrown curve balls and challenges, and it is the ability of those of us to look beyond these challenges and maintain focus that separates successful voice actors who persevere in an extremely competitive field from those who dabble for a time.
Voiceover life is often described as feast or famine. Sometimes I say my months come in like a lamb and go out like a lion. It takes real determination to push through these ups and downs. You have to be dedicated to the long road, and understand that a voice over career can much more accurately be compared to a marathon than a sprint. When the voice over gods shine down on you, it is the best feeling in the world. But we all go through times when the work just is not abundant, and we have to continue to submit auditions and work on our craft with the confidence that in an hour or in a day the tide can turn and the work will start pouring in.
In life, there are plenty of people with talent who abandon their goals. Why? They simply lack the determination to reach them. If you haven’t heard this yet, I will say it again here, in voice over it is not about the voice. A good voice will only get you so far. A voice over career, which is really what you want, is about fierce determination to succeed. It’s about knowing how to build industry connections and running your small business. It’s about maintaining your skills. And it’s about solid marking with a focus on your goals. If you want to succeed in voice over, you need to be committed to working hard!
When I started in voice over years ago, I remember thinking that when I had an agent I will have “made it.” I remember Screwing Up is Part of Success”one of my coaches telling me that she worked for five years before she had her first agent, so that I could align my expectations. At that point, I did not even know about managers. I was lucky, I was able to get on quite a few agents rosters pretty early in my voiceover career. As a working professional, I would hear a lot of chatter on social media about various agents and managers and how to get signed, as if somehow getting on the roster would lead to the ultimate success.
I signed with this manager specifically for the Radio Imaging part of my business in January 2019. Within the first week, I sent him 5 leads of stations who wanted to sign me and wanted to negotiate retainers. The email above was a call I got a week later. Of these leads, my manager destroyed every single one of them. I was not on the calls. I had empowered him to speak on my behalf. The email above “I was told that our station was not big enough for your services.” is a glimpse of how these prospects were treated in my name. Was this the road to the big agencies? No. Worse, when he tried to renegotiate the stations I had, I lost them. There were other odd quirks about the manager. He wanted any auditions to be professionally mastered, which was an added expense. He also sent Sound and Fury auditions, but I get those from other agents, so now I was paying him to get auditions I was already getting. It was terrible. I realized early on and I was stuck. I basically had to stop soliciting all Radio Imaging business or it would be tied to him. Years of hard work and planning came to a screeching halt. Be careful who you pick to represent you.
They sent me the script and asked for my rate. They needed a RUSH turn around, but I was not charging them an extra fee for that. Since they were a repeat client and I was available I didn’t want to nickel and dime them. Anyway, I made a mistake almost right away. The voice over job I did for them was for an explainer video with usage limited only to their website. I assumed, again, I assumed that this was the same. I assumed this because the top of the script was labeled in bold font “VIDEO SCRIPT.” I initially quoted the job based on the last, recent voiceover work I did for them and the assumption that it was a video.
On the call, it was great to catch up with the client. As a full-time, professional female voice over actor, building client relationships means a lot to me, and phone calls like this always provide an opportunity not only to better understand my client’s unique and specific needs, but also to get to know them. How better to build a relationship than to actually speak?
Now, these questions should have been asked in my initial reply email when they were casting me. I should have asked them before I threw any numbers into the air. And as a long established professional voice talent, I should have know better.
I will never be in such a hurry, even when I tell myself it’s for the client, that I skip major parts of the information gathering process. The point of having years of experience in the industry is not only to serve the clients well and to provide an outstanding level of service, but is also for precisely these scenarios, when years in the industry should teach us to take a breath, pause, and look at what we are dealing with. I realize that if I could make this basic mistake, anyone can. So do yourself a favor, ask questions. Enjoy the dialogue and back and forth. Don’t be afraid to hop on the phone and clarify a few details. I realize the clients in this scenario could just as easily have been inflexible about the budget, and that would have led to a very different blog today.
