Transcript of Understanding Your Client's Needs and Being Believable

[Opening Music]

Julie-Ann Dean: Welcome to Voiceover Experts brought to you by Voices.com, the number one voiceover marketplace. Voiceover Experts brings you tips, pearls of wisdom and techniques from top instructors, authors and performers in the field of voiceover. Join us each week to discover tricks of the trade that will help you to develop your craft and prosper as a career voiceover talent. It has never been easier to learn, perform, and succeed from the privacy of your own home and your own pace. This is truly an education you won't find anywhere else.

This week, Voices.com is pleased to present Debbie Munro.

Debbie Munro: There are always characters in the copy. I've talked about this before. For those of you that are new to my podcast, please do listen to some of my previous ones. Best thing to do is start thinking first of who the audience member is, so you can decide who your character needs to be. If you don't learn voice acting, you're never going to truly connect to your copy. You will be able to put on a great voice. And you may even get hired on that great voice. But if you don't truly act, if you don't truly connect to character and finding out who you are and really, truly meaning what you're saying, why would the client hire you?

The client put everything they have into this little baby, every ounce of money they have. They put every ounce of time that they have. They put a lot of effort into this stuff. It goes through a million hands before if it ever gets to ours. That's why we have to deal with so many points all the time. But if I was a client, and I put all my investment into this project, have you ever done that? Have you ever put everything you have into one little basket? Doesn't that basket hold a lot of value to you? We need to hold that same value on that project. Each and every project we have, we need to put the value of who is saying it and why they're saying it and how we can make that realistic for the client because we need to believe in the product whether we do or we don't.

We need to believe that we're the teacher whether we are or we're not. We need to believe that we're this hard sell aggressive salesman who really needs to make a sale before his wife kills him or not. Our job is to be believable. Our job is to convince you that you must have what we're selling and that's not an easy task. So I encourage you all if you have avoided taking training with me because you think I focus on character too much, give me a chance. Let me show you why I do that and let me assure you. It has nothing to do with animation.

There are a lot of different characters. We all have characters in us. In fact, your brothers, your sisters, your aunts, your uncles, your nieces and your nephews and your friends are not only the best characters you could ever develop and bring to the table. But they're also potential clients. Don't forget that.

It's hard for me to talk for such a short amount of time. I have lots to share with you. If you want to listen to some more of my podcasts, please go to my website at DebsVoice.com and click on Mic & Me and my podcast section. And also, in my Chanti Cast section where we're starting to also post the tip of the months turning them into little mini podcasts. We're going to get a CD compilation put together for you very soon so keep watching for that. Please keep in touch. We would love to hear from you. Send us an e-mail or sign up to our newsletter at Newsletter@MicNMe.com or info@MicNMe.com.

Until next time, everyone. Take care. I'm Debbie Munro.
Julie-Ann Dean: Thank you for joining us. To learn more about the special guest featured in this Voices.com podcast, visit the Voiceover Experts show notes at Podcasts.Voices.com/VoiceoverExperts. Remember to stay subscribed.
If you're a first time listener, you can subscribe for free to this podcast in the Apple iTunes Podcast Directory or by visiting Podcasts.Voices.com. To start your voiceover career online, go to Voices.com and register for a voice talent membership today.

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Julie-Ann Dean: This has been a Voices.com production.

Links from today's show:

Debbie Munro
Debbie Munro's Voices.com Website

Your Instructor this week:

Voice Over Expert Debbie Munro

By employing over a dozen years wisdom in voicing and acting, Debbie Munro puts her talents to work to meet the challenging demands of today's fast paced voice market. Tired of not receiving constructive feed back on how to improve her craft, Debbie set out to make a difference for actors by creating, The MIC & ME Workshop Series. Keeping focused on the Global Freelance market, Debbie has combined her extensive Voice Over, Acting and Off Camera training into a series of practical, exciting workshops that will take you to that next step, no matter what your level.

Fueled by experience, talent, and unbridled enthusiasm for doing what she loves to do best - getting behind a microphone and speaking her heart out, Debbie is proud to share her insights, techniques and secrets with you. She works very hard to create courses that shed an honest look into the world of voice acting allowing you to work at your own pace, know if this is the industry for you and how to keep working. Her passion alone will engage you and give you the encouragement you need.

Did you enjoy Debbie's episode? Leave a comment with your thoughts!