narrator

Top 10 Voiceover Blogs to Follow – Marc Scott

Voiceover is an incredibly fun, but labor intensive profession. People who think it’s easy to “get in” and easy to build a business as a voice over artist are misinformed. But, learning from others who are doing well in the the voice arts is a great way to learn more and stay abreast of what works and what doesn’t. I regularly check out blogs of some of the cream of the crop in our industry. Now anyone can talk can blog, but not everyone creates insightful content worthy of my (or your) time. Earlier this year, I began my Top Ten Voiceover Blogs to Follow list and released interviews with people on the list.

Released in alphabetical order, we’ve so far heard from J Michael Collins, Dave Courvoisier, Bill DeWees, Anne Ganguzza, Debbie Grattan, Paul Strikwerda and Laura Schreiber. Next on my list is Marc Scott. A terrific guy (he’s a volunteer firefighter, people – truly Marc is salt of the earth), an inveterate marketing man and a solid voiceover talent, Marc is a busy guy who blogs, vlogs and podcasts now too. Chock full of tips on how to handle the business end of your solopreneurship, Marc is also a coach and a source of inspiration for a good work-life balance.

Voice Over Artist Marc Scott

Marc, why do you blog about voice over?

I started blogging simply to share the lessons I was learning as I was trying to figure out how to grow a sustainable, full-time business. I figured if I was already making all the mistakes and learning all the solutions, maybe the blog would help someone else do the same.

Do you have a theme to your blogs or do you wait for inspiration to strike?

In the beginning, it was all about lessons learned. Eventually the theme became business and marketing, and that’s where I’ve continued to focus my coaching.

What are your favorite kinds of blogs to write about?

It’s got to offer something practical. I want people to walkaway with someone tangible. An action they can take. Something that will produce results.

What kinds of blogs have you noticed get the most attention or feedback?

When I was giving advice that made a difference in a business practice, people always responded to those. People want information that they can use.

(Do you have anything (else) you’d like us to know about your blog in particular or your (philosophy and) approach to the industry?

As I’ve evolved and the world has evolved, I’ve actually moved away from traditional blogging and more into the podcast realm. I noticed a shift in my blog about a year ago. People were spending a lot less time reading my blogs and a lot more time watching the video content I shared. It was easier. That turned into a decision to focus efforts towards a podcast which is content that can be consumed nearly anywhere… from the office to the gym to the commute home from work. The numbers on my podcast far outweigh the numbers I was seeing on my blog last year.

eLearning Project Flow and where you Come in as a VoiceOver Narrator

eLearning, Voiceover Styles

Unless you’ve come to voiceover from an online learning background, understanding how an eLearning project is put together is a mystery to most voice over narrators. I sat down with a good friend of mine who’s risen through the ranks in the industry and is now a department manager at an international e-learning content creation company, and asked him to help me to demystify the process. To better help we ‘talent’ see where we come in. Here is the result:

Analyze and Brainstorm

A project comes into a content development company and some sort of an analysis is done. Perhaps it’s with an analysis and research team. They will take an overall look at the material, try to make sure they understand the mandate, ask for more clarification if they don’t, and then develop a course outline and a budget. Very often the integrator or project manager or content manager or all three will also attend the analysis. They’ll be there to brainstorm ideas and add their expertise at this early stage and high-level look-see.

Start the Game

At the project kickoff, the team presents the results of their analysis to the client and meet face-to-face or via zoom or Skype to make to make sure everyone is on the same page. At that point the team players assemble. There’s a Project manager assigned. This is the person who will manage deadlines and tasks and liaise with the client. The visual designer will create templates the course website (if that’s part of the package) and the look and feel of all the visuals. There is a QA person. This is the one who ensures that everything done is correct. There is a content strategist and/or instructional designer. This job may also go buy other titles but is essentially the person who will either write, order and take the content and design or create the course. Sometimes a SME (subject matter expert) writes the material and hands it off to the ID. There is someone who may coordinate the project between the administration of the company and the project and there is an IT department sometimes called technical or development department who will take care of plug-ins and other assorted computer technical stuff. Finally, there is an integrator, the person who takes everything and puts it all together.

Storyboard and Fill in Content

They make a story board template. And a website template if applicable. This will happen if the client has a website and their own LMS or learning management system. The company may provide hosting services of the content for the client, too. Then they get the story board template to the content department so they can write material to fit into those templates. A high level course outline is created along with learning objectives and capsules of what content will go where. This is sent for approval and if they get it, then they develop those storyboards.

Bring in the Narrator

The integrator oversees and checks over all the story boards, sends the client static images either with talking points and animation cues and gets approval of the script. Then, they (or the project manager) send the script to the voiceover narrator to record. By the way, this particular friend works with both non-professional and professional elearning narrators and is vehement that pro narrators always bring in a stronger ROI. While the narrator is recording and editing the team animates and integrates the storyboards. The QA team then listens over to audio before they integrate and meanwhile the integrator purchases images, edits and prepares animation to sync. Any pickups in the narration are done, and then they integrate the audio to the animation and sync it slide by slide.

QA and Bugs

At this point, there may be a peer review. Some companies have this, some don’t. A peer review helps the team to learn things from each other they didn’t necessarily learn in school or on other projects. The QA team listens watches the full program and makes sure that everything works in different environments, for example in mobile platforms. They do something called a regression which fixes any bugs, but which may also create other bugs, do a final QA and send the Beta version to the client for review period.

Release the Gold

Once they get feedback from the client, they integrate any changes and then launch the product. The product has gone from prototype to Beta to Gold. Some companies also do a postmortem to see what they can learn from experience. Sometimes an instructional designer may do all parts of the project from start to finish. But the outline I just sketched is the way one company I work with creates their content, and it’s fairly common. I hope this is has been helpful.

Kim Handysides is a successful Award winning voiceover artist. Studying the eLearning industry has made her a stronger eLearning narrator, and led her to become a speaker and coach on the subject as well.

How to Win in the eLearning Industry as a Voiceover Actor

eLearning, Voiceover Business

The eLearning Industry is expanding rapidly and needs good (read: great) voiceover actors to help make their training projects achieve end goals and win results. Here are three things you can do to stake your claim in this booming industry.

Educate Yourself about the eLearning Industry

Kim Handysides eLearning — Credit: ActuarialLearning

By and large, the people who would hire voiceover talent in the e-Learning industry are a bright and bookish lot. That is to say, they are more comfortable with you going to play in their playground, rather than you asking them to come to yours. So, find out about their process. Creating content for eLearning is very different than creating an ad campaign or writing animation. The Instructional Designers usually author the projects, who then hand them to a Project Manager who assigns tasks to graphic designers, animators, IT (and the VO), who send everything to an Integrator who sends the project to QA and then it’s ready to send to the client. They have different goals (aka getting participants to learn something) and those goals are chiefly broken down into knowledge retention (as in the academic arena) or behavior change (like, getting employees to be safe or fill out the correct forms or do whatever they are doing now differently because it is costing the company time, money or a variant thereof, like reputation). Learn what their pain points are.

Reach Out to eLearning Employees

Kim Handysides Voiceover — Credit: SpectrumNet

You have something they want. Your storytelling ability. Your engaging, natural, passionate, professional audio, quick turn-around sound. They need that. Otherwise their projects fall flat. Not all of them know that yet. But, in any conversations you might have with them you can be confident of your ability to meet their goals (whether it’s info retention or behavior change) because there’ve been studies that prove people will tolerate poor quality video over poor quality (or less-than engaging) audio. People largely process information visually. Because the processing window is much smaller for audio, this translates into us being more picky about audio quality. Cool, right? You know this yourself. You will listen to a show while cooking or cleaning, without really checking on the video that much. But if the audio is off (on any show) you won’t watch it.

Help eLearning Freelancers & Other Voiceover Narrators Win

Once you’ve learned about your eLearning market, and reached out to them with confidence (in your ability to help), do more. Help them out in other ways. Recommend other VOs for characters, for when you’re too busy or for variety. Recommend VOs in other languages than yours for jobs. Recommend them for eLearning jobs you hear about. This is especially helpful if the eLearning professionals you work with are freelance and are always looking for their next gig. In this way, you evolve from just another talent knocking at their door for narration gigs to a trusted partner in their work world.

What has your experience been working with the Elearning industry? I’d love to hear from you whether your encounters have been positive or otherwise.

Kim Handysides is a female voiceover artist who loves learning. 16/7 (‘Cause ya gotta sleep sometime)

How VOICEOVERVIEW is the Best CRM for my Voice Over Business

Voiceover Business

My love of my craft of voice over arts (and my family) are my motivating factors to be and stay organized. Thank Heavens for my people and VOICEOVERVIEW. ‘Cause left to my own devices, I would forget to invoice clients, wallow in stacks of empty coffee mugs, trip over piles of discarded clothes and keep missing the garbage truck.

I knew I needed a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) tool and forlornly attempted to adapt to Nimble and Zoho, but my voiceover business needs did not fit well with these one-size-fits-all off-the-rack CRMs. They were too cumbersome and clunky for me to work with and I never got far enough in either of them to be useful to me.

Kim Handysides Voiceover Enter VOICEOVERVIEW (or VOV) the brainchild of two voiceover industry dynamos: Dani States and Joe Davis. This CRM was created by voice over people for voice over people. It took me a while to get in the habit of opening up the program every day and just leave it there, but doing so has helped me immensely in three areas:

Tracking Voice Job Progression

Juggling several jobs at once, plus auditions, plus pickups, plus the follow-up paperwork is sometimes too intense for my grey cells. My system of writing where I was in my jobs in a notebook was not foolproof, especially for jobs that extended over days or weeks, or for jobs that would come in just before I was about to close shop for the night. So, one of the features I like the most in VOV is the way you can flag your jobs either “Booked” “Delivered” “Invoiced” and “Paid. This has saved my bottom (and my bottom line) many times.

Invoicing & Collections

The tracking feature also helps me sort out who I’ve invoiced and who I haven’t. (I’m still not quite as organized as Dani who invoices a few days – not weeks – after delivering a job. It’s a goal to which I aspire). Then when payments come in, I have a way of checking that against who has paid and who I need to send reminders to. (yippee)

Tracking my Monthly Income

My third fav feature is seeing where I am in my monthly (and annual) financial goals. Interestingly, the software also shows where I am compared to the community at large. Personally, I prefer not to focus on that as I survive by being competitive with myself. However, it is an interesting reference to see if others are finding the month slow or booming. The VOV rationale for the comparative part of the chart is so when there’s a downturn we can check and feel comforted that we’re not alone.

Other Cool Components

I’ve found the VOV tracking of what genres I’m making money in and how much to be really insightful. Ask me where I made most of my money before this CRM and I would have said it’s about 30% commercials, 40% eLearning and 30% a mix of everything else. But seeing what I actually did the past six months gave me a different skew. I had two large jobs, a trilogy audiobook in the fall and a TV series narration in the winter that shifted those numbers around.

The Jobs Status By Month tab gives me a quick glance at my cash flow. Telling me how much I have in receivables, something my partner (i.e. husband) always asks before agreeing to purchases. Nudge, wink.

I can see my Top Ten Customers by how much I made with them and by the number of jobs we did together. I can also see where my jobs are coming from, whether through agents, online sources, marketing or referrals. From this I can also see what’s working in my marketing mix, what’s not and areas I might want to focus on next.

The Reminders section pops up suggestions for clients to contact that I haven’t heard from in a while, reminds me of unpaid jobs in case I skipped or missed something in my collections. I can also set custom reminders if I want to, for example, make sure I stay in touch with a client on a regular basis. You can also create custom tags to further differentiate your workflow.

Digging Deeper into VOV

Other features I know are useful, but I haven’t spent much time on (yet!) are the ability to create reports, better manage the contacts/clients I have through the Contact Listing capability (including inputting their social media info and other groovy stuff).

My relationship with the Audition Tracking feature has been on again-off again. I audition goals for myself daily. Sometimes I track them, sometimes I don’t. This feature would help me track that. I guess I haven’t yet built that habit. But within that function is not only the possibility to track how many auditions you’re doing per day/week/month, but also what your hit rate is. I don’t know about you, but that interests me greatly. And I am promising myself to put more time into that so I can bring that elusive ratio into better focus.

As I grow more accustomed to the software, I’ve become open to learning more about what it can do for me. This year in January, I also began inputting my expenses into VOV with a view to helping me BIG time keep tracks of outgoing as well as ingoing money. Being in Canada, I submit quarterly sales taxes (GST & PST) to the federal & provincial governments. Something I have done myself since I began making enough money in my business to become a tax collector for the government. I anticipate VOV is going to make this much quicker.

My VOV Wish List

What would I like to see next? VOV has links with popular accounting software like Quickbooks, Freshbooks, Wave & PayPal. I haven’t yet sorted out how to integrate them when I reconcile my accounts. So, currently, I have to double the entries, one in Quick Books and one in the VOV CRM. But Dani has said that is coming. She also suggested trying exporting expenses from VOV & importing them into QB, which I haven’t tried yet, but will attempt.

Also to I’d love to have the option of entering the money in different currencies. Currently about 40% of my work is in Canadian, 55% in US and 5% in Euro. That may be wishing on a star though, because fluctuating exchange rates would probably make this too difficult to incorporate. But coming soon, they will add a link to an exchange rate site, so we can make calculations and then keep everything in one currency.

In all, I love this program and give it a giant thumbs up and a hearty endorsement. It’s helped me become more organized, waste less time searching for things, and has probably saved me at least $500 in collections that would have previously fallen off my radar. It’s helped me serve my customers better, because I rely on it to track the progression of my jobs instead of my (sometimes overwhelmed and occasionally forgetful) brain. It’s definitely a time saver during tax season. Plus, I get a kick out of seeing the bar charts and percentages. It helps motivate me and further solidify the notion that my business is a bonafide success.

How do you track your business? Have you used VOICEOVERVIEW? Or are you still stuck using an abacus & quill? Tell me your thoughts.

How to Run your Professional Art like a Small Business

Voiceover Business

Business. The word alone used to send icy shivers down my spine. But, to be a professional artist, as in be able to write “artist” or “musician” or “dancer” or “actor” on your annual tax forms (aka more money coming in than going out) you must understand your talent or product IS your business. Perhaps it was my childhood, growing up lean, but I’ve always had a healthy respect for money and when I began cashing checks, I thought of my voice work/acting as my business. But when I began running my voiceover gigs like a small business, I noticed a huge shift. And took it to the next level.

I had the advantage of watching and learning from my husband who studied Commerce at McGill and ran a successful recycling business for a couple of decades. His bizzy side rubbed off on me and this is what I learned one should do to take on that small business mentality and apply it to your art/dancer/musician/acting business.

Kim Handysides Voiceover Run your Professional Art like a Small Business — Credit: Alexander Milo

Goals – set them.

Start long term and work backward to short term. What do you want to have accomplished 10 years from now, 5, 2, and in one year. Break them down as much as you can by filling in steps you will need to take to accomplish them.

Business Plan – come up with one.

To create a business plan, you forecast what sales you will be able to make. This is part of your goal setting, but now you are putting it in another form. How much you will make in sales, how much you will reinvest in your business (skills, equipment, conferences, coaches, product materials, promotional materials, subcontractors, etc.) You create kind of like a budget, and estimate not only how much you’ll pay out and how much you bring in, but where your sources of work will come from, how you’ll budget your time, including whatever equipment/resources you need to make it work.

Sales – make them.

Easier said than done? Sales goes hand in hand with marketing and its set of related tools you’ll need to create your marketing plans/materials. If you’ve never done sales before, it’s a great idea to either read up on it and/or make one of your supporting jobs in something like retail sales. You have a product (or service), your client has a need, you want to close the deal. It sounds so foreign to an artist, but when you substitute the words of our trade, it makes more sense. You have a song (or audition piece, or sculpture), your client (or producer or director or dealer) has a need (to sell your song, cast his film, showcase your work) and you want to close the deal. Make sure they pick you. So, you can make money at your art and then go make more of it. Closing the deal often involves more than your talent. It involves finesse. Respecting the other person’s position and time. Letting them know that a you understand there’s a bottom line to your work that you value. I asked one of my clients once why they regularly hired me as the voice over actor for their advertising campaigns, and they said, “Because we know you deliver the right read, in the time frame, on budget, every time.”

Marketing – make it reflect you.

Twenty years ago everyone needed to have business card. Perhaps business post cards. Five to ten years ago, to be considered serious, you needed to create a website. Even one page. The must-have now is a video on your website. That’s just so you can be found. There are social media sites to consider. LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram. Pick one and make it yours. Don’t forget one-to-one marketing communications. People who market in the arts appreciate creativity. So have fun with your marketing plan. Although now somewhat out of date, a couple of decades back, in order to break into my local major market advertising agencies, I hired a fellow actor to accompany me Signing Telegram Style along with my commercial demo and complimentary coffee and chocolate biscotti. The theme was “listen to the demo on your next coffee break” and by the way, here’s some coffee and cookies to supply you with on that next break. The campaign was successful. We were never turned away. My client list went from 3 to 30 within a few weeks.

Financial Control – keep it.

Your dollars in have to be more than your dollars out. As an artist, one of the ways I have been able to thrive is to squirrel away money for the slow times. Learn about money so you can make what you have grow, and be smart where you spend it. My car is always second hand and that’s ok. It means I can afford the kind of vacation I want. I make my own coffee and pizza and reinvest in equipment, marketing materials, courses and coaches.

Discipline – develop it.

Yes, with your craft. Work on it every day. But also work on the more practical aspects. Your invoicing, your banking, your marketing, your taxes. Doing a little every day will avoid the spring dread and horror of a week to ten days of sifting through receipts and sorting out your tax stuff. If it helps, enlist a partner or group to help keep you on track. In my accountability group, we check up on each other and hold the rest accountable on 5 weekly goals: financial, craft, marketing, equipment, and physical (cause healthy body, healthy everything else, right?) Build yourself a schedule. A flexible schedule, if you like, but make it as unshakable as brushing your teeth or putting on deodorant everyday.

Start thinking of your art as your small business and acting like it is one and see if it doesn’t bring you greater returns, more joy and more time and love for your art and craft. And let me know how it goes!

A voice actor, coach and narrator extraordinaire, Kim Handysides loves expressive arts in pretty much any form.

Dream Counsel: How to Find a Mentor in the Entertainment Industry

Voiceover Coach, Voiceover Coaching

The Dream Counsel Kim Handysides — Credit: Travelled Earth

Breaking into the entertainment industry whether voiceover and acting or music and producing is not a clear-cut path. It’s not like medical school or studying for the bar. The road is circuitous and different for everyone. Like the traditional professions, it does take an investment of time and money and a coach or mentor that offers good advice. Good counsel.

When I was asked to be part of TheDreamCounsel.co I jumped at the chance. I’ve been in the entertainment industry and specifically as a voice actor for over thirty years. I’ve set and met goals and have carved out and kept a six-figure salary for over half that time doing what I love, watching the industry shift and flow, riding the waves and staying on top. And as I continue to create and take on exciting, challenging voice work for myself, more and more I find myself mentoring others who want to do the same.

Enter Dream Counsel Mentors

Darryl Duncan, a top-of-his-game composer and music producer of Game Beat Studios in Chicago, enlisted me and five others (an actress/model, a dancer/choreographer, a songwriter/poet, an entertainment lawyer & a business/deals maker) to become a team of personal consultants or mentors. Together, we help those new to this world get a leg up in the entertainment industry with one-to-one advice, guidance and direction.

How Does Dream Counsel Work?

The Dream Counsel Kim Handysides All you need to access the Dream Counsel is a phone and a way to pay. Sessions are broken into 15 minute “talk blocks.” You can schedule your mentor/advisor for 15, 30, or 45 minutes any time within the schedule they set up on the site. You prepare your questions and then ask the mentor what you need to know during your call. Simple as that.

The Dream Package

The deluxe version offered is the Dream Package and comes with as the name implies, a bunch of goodies. A 45-minute session, a 15-minute talent review or coaching session, where you can perform and get immediate feedback/direction on where you stand, and 15 minutes with an entertainment attorney (learn how to protect yourself and your creative efforts going in). You also get a number of lists and directories. They’re full of tips, advice, contacts, industry events, books, podcasts, apps and resources specific to the branch of the entertainment industry you want to be part of. On top of that, your mentor will offer a written critique of your talent (strengths/weakness/areas to polish your craft, etc.) demos and marketing material and you get to showcase your material on the Dream Counsel website. Lastly, it comes with a 10% discount on future Dream Package consultation.

The Cool Thing about Dream Counsel

Accessing thedreamcounsel.com brings the kind of advantage that separates the wannabes from the be’s. Entertainment is a tough industry to break into because there is no road map and the ground is always shifting. Getting advice from a respected professional will only help make your path more solid and sure, show you safe, time saving shortcuts and ensure the work you do brings value to your craft.

A heavy hitter voiceover artist and keen supporter of next Gen talent, Kim Handysides coaches, directs, mentors and leads workshops on voice acting in Canada, the USA and internationally on the Internet.

514-803-2296

kim@kimhandysidesvoiceover.com