Overwhelmingly wonderful world of voiceover and how YOU can get involved

I tend not to blog about the voiceover work I do, mainly because there are plenty of more experienced colleagues writing the 'how to' guides and sharing other pearls of wisdom. I do however want to comment on is what an amazing group of people I seem to have met and keep on meeting. Voiceovers are an exceptional bunch. 

I'm not wanting to blow my own trumpet as I am part of this but I think it's important to highlight how important these people are. They are the voices that are all around you that you probably don't event think about. The TV and radio ads you hear and watch all the time, the voice telling what will happen later Eastenders, the person keeping you amused whilst on hold or directing you to the right person at your bank or mobile phone operator. It might be a training guide you're listening to at work. All voiced by people like me. 

This line of work is so varied it's brilliant. It can involve going into funky post houses in Soho and being waited on (plus my collection of pencils always grows after a vist). However more and more voice overs have home studios,  as I do, which can be quite a solitary existence. When you are building your voiceover business as with any business it can be daunting and often overwhelming. There's lots of questions to ask. I've used Jonathan Tilley and his VoiceoverGarden.com as a great resource plus Hugh Edwards High Score Productions course are invaluable. I even did a improvised character workshop on Skype with some hilarious American actors from LovethatImprove.com and am going to be doing JP's Showreel character course which comes highly recommended.  

Time and time again I've found that fellow artists are more than happy to offer their advice and that is why I'm writing this blog. 

My journey in starting my voiceover business started at Voxmas in 2012 with Ms Posy Brewer holding my hand as I was going there alone.. It became very clear I had nothing to worry about. Then VOX in April 2013 where I picked my lush Sontronics Orpheus mic. From that day on my fellow voiceovers welcomed me in with open arms. From showing you their home set ups  - Gina Mellotte to talking you through techy stuff Darren Altman, Mark Burford to giving you sound tips on profile sites -  Anna Parker Naples & Natalie Cooper. To talking rates Noni North and helping you out in a time of Adobe Audition meltdown - Oliver Dukcevic and then Rob Bee for fixing it for me! When it comes to marketing every one has their methods and Rachael Naylor holds the crown for her Voicever Network group, which held a wonderful soiree on the roof top of a soho post house, on Friday a fab chance to catch up with colleagues and network with industry folk. 

There are so many people I've met who surprise me with their generosity and support. I don't know it that makes me a cynic for being so taken with this bunch. 

Working as a freelance in the media as I do, especially in radio sometimes it can seem as people are quite guarded as to what people are doing with their careers or because of the hours we're all working you don't always get the time to meet up. 

This has changed somewhat since I have been involved in Sound Women. If you are planning on a career in voiceover along with building your contacts for work, build your contacts from a friendship point of view as it makes the glorious ride of talking for a living even more fun. 

If you're wondering if voiceover work is for you Sound Women are holding an event next month 

http://www.soundwomen.co.uk/event/is-voiceover-work-for-you/

Do you think it's important to have a profile?

Whatever ever you do as a job it's a given that you need to have some kind of profile whether it's within your company or your industry. How relevant is its presence online? How important is building it and maintaining it? 

About six years ago, when I trying to get on in my radio career I had a conversation with a boss at a London station who said to me 'Do you have a profile'? I remember, in my naivety, not really knowing what he meant. I'd been spending my time getting radio work . The twitter phenomena hadn't started, it never occurred to me to put my demos on MySpace or get myself invited to the hottest parties so I'd get snapped in London's free papers that were still lining the floor of the tubes. I was just busy juggling several jobs whilst making CD's and sending them to people. I didn't have a website my methods were calling and sending emails and asking if there was work - I didn't want to be famous, I just wanted to carry on being on the radio. 

Oh how that's changed (not the fame side mind you) I now have: 

A website www.natalieb.co.uk
Twitter @NatalieBonAir
A facebook page www.facebook.com/NATALIEBTALKSFORME 
I'm on linked in http://www.linkedin.com/in/nataliebonair 
Google plus google.com/+NatalieB 
I put snippets from my radio show on audioboo http://audioboo.fm/natalieb

It can feel like SOCIAL OVERLOAD!

I have a tumblr account but don't use it and I'm sporadic on Instagramme. Oh and not forgetting my You tube channel http://www.youtube.com/user/NatalieBonAir

So along with doing my day job, there is all of this to maintain and I do find it overwhelming at times. It's taken me a good while to get used to these outlets and enjoy using them. I'm learning about time saving tools, ways to schedule tweets and one of my tech savvy pals has been talking to me about ways in which you can consolidate all you can do.

In today's social media crazy world, if you want to work in the media you have to have an online and offline profile. There's no two ways about it.I was chatting with a younger presenter pal of mine the other day who is in her early 20's. She's a graduate, working three jobs in cool media agencies whilst presenting two radio shows. She's already got a good presence online and has been chatting to an agent - which is amazing and I've been brainstorming ideas on how she can maximise this opportunity. Her concern is that she's up against models being picked for their looks and given radio or tv presenting roles. It made me shudder to hear this. You just have to hope that real talent will be the ultimate winner but this proves you have to keep putting in the hours and chasing down these opportunities - which is where the online profile helps. 

I've been asking myself questions about what new challenges can I take on and I've decided to go back to University to study how we can operate better online. A 'techology'! There's so much that can be done in a free online space - the mind boggles and to deny the change is relevant to you is just plain stupid.

What it comes down to is working SMART NOT HARD. 

This week I got myself on National TV - on Daybreak (yes you have to look closely) 


Plus I got to give a little insight into what it's like doing a breakkie radio show for the brilliant Sound Women podcast which you can hear here
https://soundcloud.com/soundwomen/swp10?in=soundwomen/sets/soundwomenpodcast

All items of content I could tweet and blog about. Thus raising my profile. Along with my radio work there's my voiceover business and this week I've just started working with a new voiceover agent www.devinevoices.com and I'm currently on a 7 day course thanks to www.voiceovergarden.com on how to boost my business. Its non-stop which is what I expect. 

I can't help but wonder though whether life would be more straight forward if I did one job rather than several but I just don't think I was made that way. 

I guess I'm trying to highlight that if you thought working in the media was an easy ride - please don't underestimate what is involved. I do feel there are times in my working day when those around me think just because I'm leaving their office that my day then becomes leisurely. 

Oh how wrong they are. This switch is always on and I don't think it could be any other way. 

10 things I learnt from Sound Women

Last night was another event at Sound Women (www.soundwomen.co.uk)  - an amazing organisation for women in the Audio industry to have a sounding board for career matters, a meeting place for pals in the industry if like me you don't get to go to as many events as you'd like due to work hours. If you've already been to an event and hope to go to more, do join! Sound Women needs your membership to continue with it's brilliant work.

Last night was a session about 'Branding You' - a daunting task and something that I've now had confirmed is a constantly evolving process, phew - note to self to stop panicking!

The enticing Nataha Maw was introducing the panel, sporting her fab Audrey Tatou inspired bob - talking herself about the challenges she faces, with regards to branding herself. The speakers were Alison Hand from brand consultancy Quadrangle, Sue Llewelyn founder of @UltrasocialUK and the wonderfully entertaining Carole Stone from You GovStone Ltd

As an avid note taker at these things,I wanted to share some of the tips from these inspiring ladies:

1)Alison talked about making sure you can differentiate your brand, so people will really buy into YOU but never do this at the expense of your integrity or authenticity. So I'm off to figure out the brand values of Natalie B!

2)Be conscious of your story and inject personality into it

3)Be brave but not stupid

4)Sue used a rugby analogy of touch pause, engage - making sure there is a human face to your brand 

5)A great tip is to google yourself and if you don't like what you find, work to clean it up.. get yourself and make sure your social networking profile is in good shape -twitter /audioboo/soundcloud/linkedin/facebook/pintrest/instagram, which ever you are doing make them stand out as employers will be looking at them

6) On twitter, talk to influencers - become a trusted source and don't be afraid to get ideas from your competitors  - adopt, adapt and improve them

7)Suprise and Delight with your tweets

8)Carole Stone suggested holding weekly 'salons' as a great way of meeting people

9)Her motto is 'Always have a go'.. you'll never regret that one

10) From me @NatalieBonAir to you - shine bright and enjoy what you can see!!

Lovely to see @andrea_fox @posyb @catmcdonald
@MsMariaWilliams @carina_