I LOVE Radio Imaging
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.
This Station Reached Out
About a week ago I got an email through my website from Brandon at Ozarks Work Mix Radio. He was looking for a new female voice for his station. He needed both liners/sweepers and station IDs or stingers as he calls them. He was used to working with a male talent for quite a while who had provided him with packages. Brandon made it easy from the start. He was transparent about what he needed and what budget he was starting with. He even sent a link to his prior provider which made it so easy for me to be as helpful as possible. I was confident my team and I could present him with high quality, upbeat, fun liners, sweepers, and station IDs to compliment what was playing currently on the station. Brandon explained that the station was created so that there is a great mix and something for everyone. He explained that this blend of 70s, 80s, 90s, and today was a clean, upbeat mix so that whether you were at work or on a road trip you could just keep listening. They play a fun blend of pop, rock, and country. Who doesn’t love that?? I was so excited to be working with them. After all, this is my kind of music!
Presenting it On Their Terms
Brandon was used to getting packages from his male imaging provider, cluster in lines of 5 or 10. I had not previously done this, as all the other stations I’ve worked with had priced imaging per page, which is much more standard across the industry. Still, this is what the client wanted and I wanted to make it easy for him even if my rates were not the same. I spoke with several excellent producers who were all available to produce the sweepers and stingers for OWMR, and presented a chart of the different options, comparing them to the client’s current pricing in the top row, so that he could compare apples to apples. It also occurred to me when preparing the data for the station that other small stations like Ozarks Work Mix Radio might be looking for the same type of pricing, and now I have this to offer future prospect as well.
Getting It DONE!
Brandon reviewed the options and selected what fit his needs best. The prices I had quoted him included production and voiceover. To be clear, while the prices were not high, they worked for all parties involved. What was new to me, was that he needed copy writing for his imaging content as well. I had not initially understood that the previous provided’s prices also included the copy. Frankly, I was thrilled to work with him on this as well. I haven been doing copy writing for years, and I love adding copy writing clients. I immediately started writing the scripts. The next morning I recorded, and that morning they were sent to the different producers. Half of the spots have come back already and are live and on the air, half will be back at the end of the next work week.
Takeaways From the Experience
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.
In 2020 live sessions have been more important than ever. Sure some clients still want us to self direct, but as no one or barely anyone) is recording in person, the live session is more important than ever. What surprises me is that I would have guessed that every client would want the quality offered by Source Connect. This is not the case. Surprisingly, I am asked for zoom and given phone patch dial-ins more often than I am asked to use Source Connect. As a professional voice actor, most live sessions are for commercials, but I have done a few for eLearning clients recently. Interestingly, it has been so long that I have been asked for ISDN that I gave up my direct bridge through ipDTL as no one seemed to want that anymore. So, despite the quality that some connections offer, clients seem to like what is easy for them and what they are comfortable with.
Rates have been all over the place in 2020. I have had to turn down more jobs in 2020 than in the past 5 years combined. This may be because I am being found more, or it is because more people who never cast a voice talent are now casting and are not familiar with industry standard rates, or budgets are changing. As a working voice over professional, it is one thing to be flexible and have a range of acceptable rates, and it is another issue entirely to compromise one’s worth to pick up a new client. I have found that the biggest area that clients lack understanding in is usage for social media. They do not understand the difference between organic usage and paid placement, and they do not understand that usage across multiple platforms matters. My hope is that if voice talents continue to work together to educate clients this will shift in coming years.
The specs are changing and the buzz words that we are asked for have changed. When I started the millennial conversational read was the go to read. Now it seems that, for commercial voice overs, the authentic, natural read is what is wanted. A real person who sounds believable is the go to read. Interestingly, I think there has been a backlash from millennials who do not like or enjoy a lot of the characteristics that have been assigned to their generation, and the shift that we see is a direct response to that.
For those of us professional talents who are putting in the hours of work every single day, I am pleased and grateful for the abundance of work in 2020. Initially when the pandemic hit my business slowed in March and I panicked that everything would change. By April it seemed to bounce back and castings had picked up again. According to industry friends who are as established as I am or have been in the industry longer, this is the best year they have had yet. I realize it is Thanksgiving weekend, but I typically have an attitude of gratitude all year, whenever the bookings gods shine down on me. I realize that my clients have a choice and I am thankful when the choice goes my way, and this year it has happened more than last year. When so many businesses are struggling, in our industry and around the country, this is truly something to celebrate.
My direct bookings, bookings where clients come straight to me, are triple my pay to play bookings in 2020 and up 14% from 2019. I am really pleased with this. These direct bookings are a combination of clients that find my website, rosters that I am on because I found them, or repeat clients who were initially from a pay to play but not they continue to come back to me. I also have direct bookings from social media, including instagram and LinkedIn. The number of direct bookings being so high means that I am not dependent on pay to plays to survive. Instead, I use the pat to plays to add to my client pool. I am extremely thankful for all of the direct bookings.
You need a solid demo that represents both a range of your abilities and your understanding of the industry. My vocal range is from teen to middle age, and that is demonstrated in my eLearning demo, which goes from tech industries to pharma to medical. My demo switches gears from upbeat and engaging to serious and professional. My demo is set to music, which is controversial is often eLearning is dry. I wanted my demo to standout and by pleasant to listen to, and I believe it meets that goal.
It has been a while since I was cast as a generic third person narrator in eLearning. Instead, for the last sic months, ever booking to land on my desk is a character role, where the instructional designer wants an authentic, genuine role that is believable for their training. For example, this week I was cast as a college student who had gone down the wrong path and had a drug problem and was now in recovery. I had to be sensitive and relatable. It had to be believable. I was telling this girl’s story in this university’s training scenario. Last week I was a caller in a pay roll company’s HR training. I was the good caller this time, but in the past I’ve been the bad caller. In both instances the character had to be believable, authentic, and sincere. As a female eLearning narrator, this is a big responsibility: to continue booking work for clients you have to be able to switch gears and maintain whatever character you are playing for them that day. The character must be consistent throughout and must have nuance.
Rates are really important. My bookings typically range between $0.25/word and $0.45/word with a $150 minimum and $1 per split. I charge for splits if there are more than 10. I prefer to quote the price per word and not per finished minute as I speak quickly. Last week I had a potential client reach out and ask me if I was on Upwork. I told them I was not. They wanted to know if I would honor Upwork’s rates, and I explained that at this point in my career I could not work for those rates. I then referred the client to GVAA and Gravy for The Brain, in hopes of keeping the conversation going. They did come back to me that if they had flexibility they would let me know, but in the mean time it is important to be willing to walk away. The next day I had a job come in that was 617 words and paid of $400. It is important never to settle.
Most typically, my eLearning clients want MP3s that are split and fully edited. I typically add EQ, compression, and a d-esser. If you are booking eLearning work for big companies, it is expected that you should have a professional grade studio at this point. Especially because they often do not have music or effects behind their training, the quality of the audio that you provide matters more than ever.
