How You Use Your Voice Could Change Your Life

 The Power to Persuade can create unlimited success. Our voice is the engine of that success. We can use it to create empires or a simple successful life or to complain and explain why we are victims. Our tone of voice is very often a reflection of how we view the world. If we’re nervous and up tight the voice often has an edge and puts people off. Whether a person wants to be a voice over artist or more successful in their own profession it is extremely important to look for the good or opportunity in all situations and be patient. The things we say to ourselves control our mood and tone of voice. It is useless to do voice exercises to improve how we sound if we are saying negative things to ourselves because the voice will reflect the sound of mistrust that is in our minds.

 

We want to be optimistic, but not delusional of course. It’s important to use our voice to bring a positive experience to other people; To work at being pleasant. Then we notice that we have positive experiences ourselves. We really do attract and create the situations we are in. All of this is a process and takes time.

It is perfectly natural to say things like, “why can’t I do that,” “I wonder how to do that”, oh I could never do that.”

 

Learning to allow for process is one of the most important things that we can practice in in our lives. Process is how the earth was made. Process is how math, science and art achieve all their great accomplishments and inspirations. 

If we don’t allow process because of impatience we are literally making the choice to NOT understand because we have interrupted the process of building up familiarity, understanding and skill. Voiceover artists, teachers, sales people and everyone can become more persuasive and successful as we improve how we speak to others and the things we say to ourselves.

Vocal Change Ups and Deceptive Cadences Will Help You Get Voiceover Work

I hear a lot of reads that are very well spoken that really don't sound convincing. They don't really sound conversational at all. They are articulate but not "idea driven". I've heard casting agents on large project auditions describe it like this. "Nice voice, but doesn't mean it"

Advertisers and casting agents tend to pick voiceover artists who can meet all the stylistic demands of the copy and still sound like they're just talking to one of their best friends. This ability to "personalize" copy isn't magic, it has certain musical characteristics. It very important to study the phrasing that you and other people use during the day. Make notes about different styles of speech that you are drawn to that connect with you and figure out how to use those elements. 

Think of all the stuff that we have bought from sales people that we didn’t actually need. They have connected with us by being personal and not pushy. It sort of triggers Stockholm’s Syndrome… we start wanting to not disappoint them so we buy what they are selling. Hah!

When we are talking to people in our "Day Voice" we naturally use a lot of vocal change ups, "beat Changes" and deceptive cadences. It's part of the harmonic geography of how we communicate in daily life. When we read copy these characteristics are often left out, making the copy sound merely like a person just reading copy. It's important to study and retain these variations in our best natural speech and not loose that spontaneous expression when we are doing voiceover work

Learning How To Be Yourself

Well here’s the task for all mankind let alone a voiceover artist. Whether in a person’s business life or personal life we spend a lifetime asking our selves who we are. Learning how to be your self requires that we know who that person is, to some degree at least. The advice I give people all the time is to simply say:

“Your best chance of getting work is to be your self.” It doesn’t matter whether it’s a voiceover job you’re trying to get, or going to the next job interview, be yourself”

 

It’s a useful “bumper sticker” slogan, but I’d like to talk a bit about the process of the discovery and how to relax into that, and how to trust it. …and what it means and what it doesn’t mean. 

 

When we get to a place in our heads where we can “be our selves” the advantages are huge. Life isn’t nearly as stressful. We stop being angry. We stop taking things personally and start viewing things as feedback that allows us to make corrections and move on. When we learn how to be our selves and accept our selves, we stop criticizing everyone else. The stress of NOT being our selves or knowing our selves is exhausting and frustrating. It can create a lot of stress and we can find our selves acting out on people because of it. So in learning to be our selves we are UN cluttering our minds and freeing the hard drive space between our ears to engage in the process of success.

 

When we are comfortable in our own skins people will enjoy being around us. And of course that is very helpful in getting jobs, voiceover jobs, or any job. In these times that is becoming more and more important. This is important to remember. It is not merely about being the most talented voiceover artist, plumber, teacher, sales person, lawyer or dentist. 

A lot of people could do the actual work, but people hire people that they like the best. The best plan in the world is to like your self and be your self.

Here's My New Book on Voiceover Success

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07TCS29CB/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_U_lWpeDb3FQ93AP …

The Voiceover Multiverse

The voiceover world is diverse. It is made up of many different and talented people and a lot of them disagree on how things should be done and how voiceover artists should present themselves. This is normal in any mix of creatives whether it's the entertainment business of business in general.

I have viewed this as a multiverse that is horizontal in nature. One universe is not better than another but different in it's views on whats most important. Because of this structure it's important to decide what is best for yourself. There will always be people who will tell you your approach is wrong. You can spend your life changing everything all the time and never make everyone happy or get anywhere. The question is not does everyone like what you're doing, the question is do you like what you';re doing in the universe that resonates with your own taste and talent. And of course you must develop your skills to the highest level possible

An old mentor told me when I was starting out:

 "All you need to know kiddo is find someone who likes your work and stay there. Them find another person who likes your work and continue that process and don't waste any time on people who don't want you. They aren't your people ya big dope!"

Bless his soul. It was his way of saying it's just a numbers game. You have to keep moving and keep auditioning and to de personalize the process. Sales people understand this very well.

I read a meme that came in on twitter. It said,

"You cannot make everyone happy. You are NOT a Taco"

Follow your own intuition...Keep laughing and have fun out there:)