Kim Handysides-Award Winning Female Voice Over Artist-Logo

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My Guest Spot on vobs.tv with the Jimmy Kimmels of VO: Dan & George

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Logo headphones and moustache voice over body shop

 

I had a particularly stellar Monday last week as the guest on the LA vlog show, Voice Over Body Shop on Mar 27th, hosted by Dan Lenard and George Whittam. We jawed on about a lot of things voice over talent chat about.

How did I get started? My early days wove back and forth between theatre/film and radio/ TV.

How I became one of the top ten female voiceover artists in Canada. Hard work, marketing, great relationships and always working the craft.

How does the eLearning coaching I do differ from commercial or corporate narration? It’s about helping other voice artists find the best way to help their listener either change behavior for corporate training or retain the info you parlay for academic eLearning.

And if I could only do one type of voice work from now on, what would it be? That’s a tough one as I love them all, but I would settle on commercial voice overs because of the variety and creativity of that particular medium.

 

Here is the link to my portion of that episode (the 71st) of Voice Over Body Shop.

https://youtu.be/g6swZ18OH7U

 

Vobs.tv is the brainchild of two industry heavyweights. The mightily mustached Dan Lenard, a.k.a. The Home Studio Master, purveyor of not only a great set of frequently used pipes himself, but a leader in sorting out how to set up your own studio, from planning and construction to everything in between, to be able to get voice over jobs from home. The other half of this dynamic duo is gifted  gear guy George Whittam, of the Home Studio Support Squad, affiliated with David Goldberg’s Edge Studio in NYC. Dan and George used to call the show EWABS (East West Audio Body Shop) when Dan lived in Buffalo New York, but when Dan and family moved to the left coast, in 2015, the name change was inevitable.

 

Hosts of vobs.tv voice over show
George Whittam & Dan Lenard on vobs.tv

With over 1600 subscribers on their YT channel, Dan and George just celebrated their 6th anniversary. Weekly, voiceover professionals from around the world tune in to their live stream podcast vlogcast for answers to tech questions, the goods on the latest gear and a guest, sometimes in LA, sometimes via zoom hosting. Guests have ranged from talents like the legendary June Foray (voice of Rocky the Squirrel & Cindy Lou Who) and brilliant Debi Derryberry (voice of Jimmy Neutron) to industry leading voiceover demo producers Cliff Zellman and Uncle Roy Yokelson, lawyers, agents, casting directors and a host of others.

 

The show was a blast. We had a high number of guests tune in and a lot of fun questions. I had a few requests for voiceover coaching for eLearning afterward too. Add vobs.tv to your list of great voiceover resources. They air every Monday 6 p.m. Pacific. I’ll probably see you there in the chat room!

Narrating for the Options Industry Council

My Voiceovers

Narrating for the Options Industry Council

eLearning Narration Options
Solve the eLearning Puzzle

A great question came up while I was coaching an eLearning voiceover workshop yesterday: Should your narrator read the script before recording?

My answer? It depends.

This fall, I recorded the narration for the “Quick Guide” of fourteen videos for the Options Industry Council. Despite having recorded almost 4,000 eLearning modules over the past dozen and a half years, stock options was material outside my scope of reference. Give me a medical, law or compliance script and I can read it cold flawlessly. Stocks? Hmmm.

Wading into the world of the Protective Put, the Short Strangle and the Long Straddle was fascinating, but to narrate it well, I needed to not only read the material beforehand, but had to read each script multiple times before feeling comfortable enough to read through it confidently, let alone “teach” or “talk” it like I was passing on the info to someone else.

 

What I learned opened a new world.

The options market to the unsavvy seems almost unreachable. But the OIC Quick Guides along with other videos on the OIC website present tactics for investing in options. They are comprehensible and simple and help open it up to anyone. The videos are clear; options involve higher risk than a mutual fund or individual stock, but the options market offers opportunities for people to make significant sums of money with the right strategies.

After a short explanation, each video invites the viewer to learn more on the OIC website. It is a veritable encyclopedia of market and investing information. Along with lessons, articles and videos the OIC has live webinars, listings for seminars and events, and podcasts. It’s an everything-you-ever-wanted-to-know-about kind of experience.

Narrator Expertise

Narrating Expert - Kim HandysidesCircling back to the original question: Does your eLearning voice over talent narrator need to be an expert in the domain you’re teaching? Did I need to be experienced with “covered calls” before I narrated a script about them? Certainly, familiarity with the vocabulary and flow of the information helps. But beyond that, it is a function of the talent and experience of your narrator. A not-so-good narrator can lull the listener into a painfully catatonic state where little learning and little retention exists. A good, professional narrator can make it sound engaging, interesting and present.

Bottom line? We are used to fast-paced media and have limited attention spans. A worthy narrator can help make your message stick. What has your experience been?