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.
‘Tis the season, and this season, after another year of really hard work, I’m sure hoping that I made Santa’s nice list! Anyone who is an established professional in voice over will tell you that at some point we were bold enough to chase a dream. I would not be where I am in voiceover today if I didn’t have confidence in myself and passion for voiceover, but ultimately, it all came from a big dream of a career in voice over. Having dreams, or visions of where my career will go has served me well, and what better time of year to think about what I want for myself in 2021 then the week that Santa is getting on his sled! So Santa, please stuff this VO Mama’s stocking with:
Santa, a website package would be great this holiday! It’s been a while, and I sure need to shake things up! I love working on my website. I look at it as my storefront, and I try to add new content regularly. This year, I think it is time to freshen up my branding. A lot has changed in my business since it was done five years ago, and I would like my website to reflect that. I love the team that I work with, and I want to come up with something that still reflects my brand but also works better with how I want my clients to see me. I want them to know how hard I will work for them and to have confidence when casting me. I still want my bubbly personality to shine through. My dilemma, because of the pandemic, is whether or not to keep my headshots and work with them or to get new ones, so let’s see that Santa suggests!
Do I actually expect Santa to stuff my stocking with all of these treats? In truth, Christmas is not a holiday that my family observes, but as an American I have always LOVED this season. From the decorations to the cookies, I savor this time of year with my family. I enjoy thinking about the idea of Christmas magic. In truth, I have seen many hard working talents on the verge of giving up. A little holiday magic could help us all. What I believe most is that success takes vision, hard work, commitment, talent, and yes, a little luck. So this Christmas, as we eat cookies, drink eggnog lattes, and enjoy time at home, my dream is also for a little holiday luck for all my VO besties.
My recent commercial booking for JP Morgan makes for a great case study in voice over bookings. As a professional voice actor, every booking makes us happy, but when the producer emailed me about these radio spots, his explanation was interesting. I was cast directly without auditioning. He did not mention my voice. Nor did he mention my demos. In this instance, it was a matter of scheduling and availability. As I work full-time, they needed someone who could accommodate a live session at a specific time, which turned out to be 11 a.m. on a Friday morning, and he needed to confirm that I was available. The timing, in this scenario, was the most important question I was asked. The producer got back to me and confirmed that I had indeed booked two spots and it was a go. I was delighted.
I prepare for every single session, whether I am self-directing or in a live session. Part of my prep is administrative. I take some time to log the job in my CRM and create the invoice. I then print a large print version of the script using my preferred font. Then, prior to marking up the script, I spend a bit of time researching the brand and their other ads. Interestingly, JP Morgan and Chase are linked. As a client, when I log in for my JP morgan account I also log into my chase account. Well, at the moment, the below Chase spot is the most sought after read in a long time. Clients often request this as the benchmark for tone, style, and pacing, so I had this in mind going into my session for sure.
I think the start of a live session is really important. There happened to be a lot of people on this call. In addition to the producer, there were several people from the Spotify team and several people from the JP Morgan Team, including the scrip writer. In my mind looking back here were at least eight people on the session. It is my job to make them happy and to make them comfortable. I try to use the time at the start of the session to let them know that my feelings are not a factor, and that the only thing that would upset me would be for them to know have exactly what they need at the end of the call. I try to have friendly banter, but I want them to know and to be comfortable that I will give them whatever they need, and that it is not about me, it is about them. I think there are a few precious moments to establish this rapport and set the tone.
With so many on the call, there can be a lot of side chats during a directed session to make sure everybody has the takes that they want. This team was fantastic. They gave very clear direction and it was easy to take their feedback and run with it. They also all remembered to mute themselves while I was recording, which makes everything seamless. In this session, I read the first script all the way through three times. They gave me feedback. I again did three takes, and then we did some variations of the lines. Then, after the line reads, we did the whole script again. It really came together nicely. It was also super exciting to use Zoom’s audio share feature to play back the audio for the clients during the session so that they could mark the takes that they liked and we could also check the timing of the spots. Then we moved on to the next script, and worked through it the same way. The second one went a little faster as I understood what they were looking for from the first spot. All in all, the group was great to work with. For me, because JP Morgan is my bank and I use the app, it was easy to see the product and be enthusiastic about it because I actually enjoy the very features I was describing.
I am often asked whether I prefer live sessions or self directing. The answer is really that it depends. I love self directing because it gives me a chance to be creative and a freedom to interpret the texts in front of me. I can explore my imagination and see where it goes. The downside, of course, is that there is always a chance of missing the mark and not giving the client what they need. With live sessions, I love the creative collaboration. I love working with other people. When I have the opportunity to work with the people who created the product or the people who wrote the script, I get a higher level of understanding and can often bring more nuance to the read. So, the answer is still: I depends.
As a voice over artist, I have the privilege of voicing projects for the brands we know, love, and use in our daily lives! While every single job is exciting, when a brand name that my family uses all the time, like Dove or Gap or Kind Bar, books me I am ecstatic because those brand names have such huge brand recognition. Why, then, does it matter if I, as a voiceover actor, have a brand associated with my name? What I learned as soon as I began my VO journey years ago is that I am not just voicing projects for these brands. Instead, I myself am also a small business owner and need to create and maintain a brand that my clients can identify with and connect to in order to understand the service that I provide. Branding is essential to success in voiceover.
Now let’s enter the folks at 
Those Shindigs Where You Really Need Them
And aside from our amazing in-person impression, all we leave them with, in the end, is our tiny little card. I found my self extremely curious about the cards that other voiceover talents were giving out and it made me re-evaluate the ways in which I was using the precious space on my own card. I was standing there in gorgeous Burbank at this conference looking at the card in my hand and questioning, is my card sufficient for the major purpose it serves in life?
