Emma’s Enthusiasm
As a working mom, I have always tried my best to give my kids a lot of time while still putting my heart into my small business. As a full-time professional voice over actor and coach, even when I’m not “working,” I do talk about my 
business and my business ideas a lot with my family, and have for many years. Well, I am now realizing what a huge impact that has had. This week we had amazing news. My daughter was accepted to her dream college: a six year doctoral program in Occupational Therapy at Elizabethtown College. Besides celebrating this glorius achievement, Emma has countless ideas about how she intends to use her degree. She keeps coming into the kitchen and saying, “Mom, I was thinking…” and then shares her latest vision for a potential future career path. This is not just exciting, this is the result of a being surrounded by women chatting about goals, brain storming, and planning for how small businesses grow.
The Precedent We Set
As mothers and working women, our children hear and see the examples we set. For years, my children have either been in the room or been in the room adjacent to my accountability group meetings. They understand the importance of setting goals as a small business owner, having a plan, and follow-through. They not only hear me talking, they have heard my industry friends (well, more like voice over family) for years. They have been exposed to what it takes to grow and maintain a small business. They understand that hard work and perseverance are essential, and that follow-through is everything. They have always been around my meetings, and I have always discussed ideas with them. My children watched me build my business from the ground up. The result is that they not only see what is possible, they actually understand how it is done.
Getting Your Kids Involved
As solopreneurs, we actually have the luxury of getting our kids involved and having them take an active role in our business. Many voice actors have their children actually doing voice over work. Last summer, my son Jack had a recurring gig as an eLearning narrator. This was extremely fulfilling to him. Not only did he learn about how to interact with clients and gain greater insight into the industry, but he learned about taking direction and leaving his emotions outside of the booth.
Another great way to get your kids involved is to hire them as assistants or interns when they are old enough. Last summer, both of my twins worked for me. I had my son doing research for direct marketing and sending cold emails. He learned so much about the process and follow through. I had my daughter doing all of my social media, with a focus on my instagram and instagram stories. She actually organically doubled my following. They did an outstanding job and were delightful. We used a google spreadsheet to coordinate our tasks and stay on the same page. They learned about team work, collaboration, and the ins and outs of my voiceover business.
What Values You Want to Instill
When I think about why I work so hard as a voice actor, I want my children to understand so much. Beyond the income I generate that our family depends on, I want them to see that voice over is a unique industry because we are a group of people who come together to lift each other up. I also want me kids to see that if you work hard all day, every day, you can have great success. I want my twins to see that you can make your dreams happen. And if my voice over business has showed them anything, it’s that you never wait for someone else to bring you happiness and your happiness is not dependent on others. In order to succeed in voice over and in many other industries, you have to have thick skin and listen to your gut. You must be able to tune out all the negativity and you have to be very selective about who you accept guidance from. My prayer for my children is that they have been surrounded by strong women and all of this has been planted deep within them. As a working mom, I hope that their internal compass is so strong, nothing can sway them from their path.
My Emma has so many ideas already. I hope that as her years in her program go on, her ideas become more defined, and her dreams are well-within her grasp. I can’t wait to see What Emma does with her degree!
So, when I ask the question, as a working mom, what does it really mean? It means that if I can not only pay the bills, but follow my passions, AND teach my kids by doing to follow theirs, and in doing so instill a set of core values, I believe it is a worth while endeavor indeed.
But do I really Need it…
5. Business Plans are Fluid
So different voice actors in the industry use different CRMs. As a 
As a soloprenuer, you need a business checking account. Even if you are not an LLC, you might be able to get away with depositing work checks or transferring money into your personal checking account for a little while.It is, however, better for you to actually have a proper business checking account. I’ll share a little story. When I started out in voice over I was luck to be added to multiple rosters pretty early on. One of those rosters sent me work weekly and paid me monthly. One day I went to the local branch with the check as this was before the days of mobile deposits. I had been depositing monthly checks from this client for almost two years in what I thought was a “business” checking account. It was a separate account that I had opened for my business at my local Chase. Somehow, Chase had just opened another checking account, but it was never designated a “business” account. Instead, it was just a second “personal” checking account. So that this does not happen to you, if they do not ask for you business’ legal formation papers, it is likely not a business account. That day, the bank refused to deposit the check. Instead, I had to gather all the documents I had for my business which happens to be an LLC and at that point, several years in, I opened both a business checking and a business savings account.
I wish someone had told me when I started, as I did not think of this until several years into my career. Think about all the bills you pay. Some day, when you stop working, don’t you want to have something for yourself? Every single month I auto deposit a nice amount into my 401k, and I am proud to say that I am setting aside as much as my husband does every month. Now, if you are a union talent, you will retire with savings. For those of us who are non-Union, all you have to do is set one up and then go to your bank where you have your work checking account and auto fund it. I have my 401k at Charles Schwab because I was advised that their fees are low.
When I started my business I spent a lot of money very quickly. I invested a lot and planned to be a huge success.
I also recommend having practical hooks in your book. I have a hook for my cans and a hook for my wires. It helps keep things neat and organized.
I also do love having Source Connect. So many clients and agents require it. I occasionally need to have support sessions, and they do offer great support from Source Connect. Again, like with Zancastr, there are no latency issues. There are, though, sometimes quirks connecting. Sometimes people are confused with how to use it. If you are not both connecting with the same sample rate, for example, you won’t connect smoothly and it will be an issue, so that all needs to be decided ahead of time.
I wish I know how important a good travel rig is. It took me five years to get my travel rig to sound as good as my home set up. That is WAY too long. If you are just starting in voice over during the pandemic, I realize it is hard to imagine actually packing up and leaving home, but when we do, the rig matters.
from the US and Canada. Our focus was on marketing, and even as a panel member, it really got my wheels turning. I could not help but think of the specificity of my recent outreach, especially in eLearning. I have worked so hard to build my business as an eLearning narrator, and I think in order to really reach prospects, you need to think about who you are working with. From the very beginning of the process through the completion of the booked work, understanding your audience is essential to success as a working female narrator in eLearning.
Social media content, across platforms, needs to have the target audience in mind as well. This can be a bit trickier, as it is harder to control who sees your posts. You can, however, try to catch the eye of a specific group of clients or prospects by being clever about your target audience. If, for example, you are posing on Instagram and you want to reach out to instructional designers, both the content you use and the tags that you include in your post matters. Another way to grab your audience is to tag influencers and professionals in that field. Quote them. Have a conversation about them. If you want to work in eLearning, you need to be part of the dialogue.
When you book an eLearning job, understanding the audience or the enduser is so important. For example, I was recently cast in a training for a local hospital: RWJ St. Barnabas, right here in NJ. It was a caller training. When I first read through the script, in my practice read, I sounded warm, gracious, and welcoming. I then re-read my roll: “Bad Caller.” I was the example of what not to do. Everything I just rehearsed had to be thrown out the window and the opposite read was needed. I was talking to the same people, but I was the example of what not to do, and I had to be the best “Bad Caller” they ever heard. Your job as an eLearning narrator is to make it obvious. They should not have had to figure out what was wrong with my phone skills, so I had to make every effort to clearly connect with the listener. Keeping the audience in mind should inform and transform every eLearning performance.
Last fall, which seems like a lifetime ago given how much the world has changed during the current pandemic, I began researching upcoming eLearning conferences. I was actually hoping to find more conferences in my region. As a working mom with high school aged twins, flying across the country can sometimes be a challenge. I was overjoyed when I discovered the ICELW conference was to be held at Columbia University in the city of New York, my beloved alma mater. I submitted a proposal to speak about “Best Practices to Bring Your eLearning Module To Life” from the perspective that academics and HR people who never thought they would have to work with professional voice actors like me suddenly find themselves in the position to cast and work with voice talents as professional narrators for their eLearning modules and projects. I addressed questions that they should ask every time they have a project, VO tech and why it matters, and pricing for voiceover, including where it should be and what the price indicates. My presentation went nicely and it meant a lot to be a part of the dialogue. I am very excited, however, to share some of the larger takeaways from the more scholarly presentations during the conference as I reflect on how they will shape both my work, my voice over bookings, and client interactions as the 
With an international audience and an enthusiastic crowd, there was a lot of discussion at the conference about how the advancing technology would enable content creators to re-imagine learning. David Guralnick from Kaleidoscope Learning and Columbia University talked about opportunities to use “technology to humanize learning” and went on to present a thrilling example combining AI and interactive technology. In this example, the student asked questions about Ancient Greece and the Acropolis and was able to create a scene where he was present in Ancient Greece having his questions answered. Particularly at a moment when students around the world are relying so heavily on on-line learning, this was thrilling and wonderful to see. The advantages of this were how realistic the scenario is and how clear the examples are. Clearly the new technology enables better communication of content. As a narrator, I have been working with more companies that create K-12 content in the last year, and I am sure such technology would be a huge asset to them.
There were multiple sessions during the ICELW conference that addressed new technologies like AI, VR, and enhanced/mixed reality. I was riveted by these sessions as well. Someone brought up that when Steve Jobs designed the first iPod, he did not do a focus group, he just knew it would be a better device and he was creating the technology to drive a potential future experience. That is what a lot of the new experiential learning technology does. There is vast potential, the sky is the limit so to speak. Michelle Cortese, a VR Product Designer at Facebook and Professor at NYU gave a thrilling demonstration of work her students are doing. I was fascinated as a former educator, as a parent, and as a working creative. I could not help but see the intersection between technology and improv, something that so many of us in voice over spend so much of our time training in. The social behaviors that occur were fascinating, and unpredictable, and again as a working creative this made me think of improv which is not something that I typically connect to my eLearning work. Although, under further analysis, the point of studying improv, is that we are supposed to bring it with us into the booth so that our reads and takes on characters are fresh and exciting. What I found so fascinating about the sample that Michelle shared is that all of the content in the VR chat was user generated and is in the moment art. It is a vision and content that comes from the user. When so much of the learning content that we work with is contrived, this opens up a world of creative possibilities for end users. Fernando Salvetti also demonstrated work with enhanced/mixed reality and I was riveted. The possibilities that are simple and user friendly are true game changers. Having worked in eLearning for years, being exposed to such projects is eye opening.
As in so many projects I am a part of, the bottom line matters. Dr. Tim Brock of the ROI Institute talked about creating a framework that balances needs and feasibility. The needs need to be defined at the beginning. This resonated with me a lot. Often voiceover is left off of the budget entirely, it’s an after thought. This was another area that I was addressing in my talk, the price of the voice over. When a company is looking at the ROI, the return on investment in the overall project, the voice over, and typically in eLearning we are talking about a narrator, needs to be a part of that calculation, from the start. As the technology continues to progress and is better and better, the voice over needs to be a part of the initial plan, not a lost minute add on. In Dr. Brock’s talk, he spoke of feasibility, and as the technology becomes more and more advanced, having an overall understanding for the get go of the feasibility certainly makes sense!
