Join Voice Over Expert Bettye Zoller in her lesson "Areas of Demand for Voice Overs Despite Economic Downturn". One of the greatest things about the voice over business is that it keeps reinventing itself. Why not reinvent yourself as a voice talent, too? Bettye helps you to rise above the doom and gloom and reassures you with facts and figures that voice over is close to (if not completely) recession proof.

Download Podcast Episode 82 »

Tags:

Bettye Zoller, VoicesVoices.com, Audiobooks, Voice Acting, Narration, Narrators, Voices.com

Transcript of Areas of Demand for Voice Overs Despite Economic Downturn

[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's 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 Bettye Zoller.

Bettye Zoller: One of the greatest things about the voiceover business and this is my 34th year is that it keeps reinventing itself just as we, voiceover talents should start reinventing ourselves periodically which I had certainly have done given the new fields in voiceovers to do new things.

When I first started, voiceovers were primarily commercials mostly for radio and some for TV. We seldom did anything else. Then narrations started getting more popular. One thing after another happens. That's why I have been saying since the start of this current doom gloom recession that I am rising above that. I have been around in this business a long time and I assure all of you, voiceovers are pretty much recession-proof certainly more so than the vast majority of other types of businesses.

Although the advertising business was worse in 2008, according to a recent forecast by a firm called Fitch Ratings in Chicago, the year 2009 will be different because while it may be true that airlines; automotive, car rentals, financial services, hotels, and retail spending may slow, the popular magazine, Advertising Age says that other things will fill the gap. Projections from several advertising research firms show that while local television stations probably will show revenues down and the networks will suffer certain amount as well.

Cable will stay strong as well advertising on special events. Narration is bigger and better than ever. The audiobook industry is better than ever. Internet advertising will remain strong and won't stop growing, 2009 and afterwards is straight up. And just in 2008, internet advertising zoomed up 16%. So be sure and get your act together as far as doing voiceovers for internet is concerned. Advertisers will take advantage of great cable rates which will remain lower than network TV rates and so, we're still going to have a lot of commercials to do for cable TV.

And by 2010, most people say that the economy with luck will emerge from this so-called recession and internet advertising may account for 17%, nearly one-fifth of advertising spending. And film and video companies can produce for this studio media, another area of voiceovers that is going nowhere but up is telephone messaging. A recent article in the Wall Street Journal talks about voiceover talents who do telephone work for credit card companies because there is so much delinquent account calling to do.

Scripts usually are based on the instruction from the client, the material is then fine-tuned to the company and the particular exact financial condition of this particular customer they're phoning, you work from home and currently, the pay scale for this delinquent account telephone calling ranges from $100 to $300 per hour. It's going nowhere but up.

Do some research on the firms that are providing voiceover talents for delinquent account calling. This is another fabulous area. The voices of toys will not slow and toy manufactures very soon will be taking about Christmas 2010 and beyond, so be sure that you include some voices of toys on your demo. It always stays strong.

The video game work, it is going nowhere but sky high. A number of national reports have commented on how the popularity of games always increases in times of recession or depression. Investigate the people who are designing games. They're everywhere, little pockets of video game designers. Become friends with them and get on their roster of voices. The other thing is video games require a large cast of voices so there are lots of jobs to be had. And remember, there are local businesses who could certainly use more business. So, go say hello and take your voiceover demo CD and tell them you're a voiceover talent and perhaps you can program their telephone providing sold on hold messaging so that people who call hear sales messages while they're on hold. That's a great idea.

Maybe you can voice a commercial for the merchants. They might become a steady advertising account for you. In this age of specialized advertising outlets and specialized voiceover jobs, I suggest to my students that if their talent lies perhaps in video game voicings, do a video game demo. Anime? Do an anime voicing demo. Anime is a very special thing. Find out about it before you even think about doing a demo. It's a very special type of read and a special type of demo.

Audiobook demos are longer than regular demos. Usually, 6 to 10 minutes. Those who hire audiobook voicings want to know that you can sustain the read and you should put a wide variety of literature on your audiobook demo. Just a commercial demo won't cut it anymore. You need a narration demo too, of course and be sure it includes some corporate training because corporate training will never end.

A recent article in Marquee Magazine, January-February 2009 talks about a new field called shopper marketing which is this touchscreen technology. These types of products used to be called point-of-purchase advertising and it used a video that was looped and ran endlessly on a little TV in various departments in the store. That still happens but also the interactive video presentations with the touchscreens are getting more and more popular. A recent study by the Grocery Manufacturers Association conducted in 2007 shows that shopper marketing is going to zoom and by 2010, it will account for 17% nearly one-fifth of all advertising spending.

Hope this helps. Bettye Zoller, voices Voices.com.

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.

[Closing Music]

Links from today's show:

VoicesVoices.com
Bettye Zoller Voices.com Website

Your Instructor this week:

Voice Over Expert Bettye Zoller

Bettye Zoller is an award-winning voiceover talent in her 34th year as a worldwide voice talent and educator (voice, speech, voiceovers). She currently is teaching at universities accepting Guest Professorships and presenting workshops by invitation all over the U.S. and Europe. She is a lifelong educator holding advanced post-graduate degrees. She is a Simon and Schuster audio book author and voice (Speaking Effective English, a 2-CD set). In August, she's guest professor at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in NYC and delivers workshops at the NY conferences of the American Assoc of Theatre in Higher Education. She continues as the Feagin Guest Artist Professor at Tulsa University, Tulsa Oklahoma. Home is Dallas Texas where she is an audio engineer in her Voicesvoices Recording Studio.

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

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Join Voice Over Expert Bettye Zoller as she introduces you to "Getting Started in Audiobook Narration". Bettye is a veteran audiobook narrator and coach who has been there, done that and got the t-shirt. Listen to this snippet from her audiobook about... audiobooks!

Download Podcast Episode 46 »

Tags:

Bettye Zoller, VoicesVoices.com, Audiobooks, Voice Acting, Narration, Narrators, Voices.com

Transcript of Getting Started in Audiobook Narration

[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's 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 Bettye Zoller.

Bettye Zoller: Hello. I'm Bettye Zoller and this audiobook is about audiobooks, more particularly, narrating them. In a recent study after the American Federation of TV Radio artists found that in the US, paying jobs in the voiceover area of audiobook narration is one of the fastest growing segments of the business today.

There are special voice techniques required to become a sought-after audio narrator and among these are certainly a heightened sense of text interpretation often facilitated by a background that includes some type of theatrical or dramatic training. You may not be equipped to narrate all genres of audio. What type of read are you best suited for, fiction, non-fiction, children's books, business or medical or self-help topics, the Boddess Rippers - those are the romance novels so many of us love. Can you voice characters or dialects well?

If you're not world-class, don't do it. It limits your narration scope to choose genres certainly but I believe you have to honestly ask yourself, "What do I want to put on my audio book demo?" And honestly, you should only put on any kind of any demo those things you do the very best. Voice talents must be aware that this field differs markedly from other voiceover job areas. There's no point in seeking work as a narrator and expecting to get paid for it in the audiobook field unless you are really skilled and really good at reading long texts.

When you feel ready to do so, consult with an audio producer who is skilled in audiobook production or narration, about creating your new audiobook narration demo. This demo will be much longer than any other type of voiceover demo, unless that's my belief. The demos that I produce for my clients are between 6 to 12 minutes long and show a wide variety of audiobook literature genres. Those who hire readers insist on hearing longer demos to determine if you can sustain a narration, if you can prolong a characterization, if you have the stamina and also, publishers and audio producers insist on finding out how good you are at reading various types of material. You're more likely to get work from a small publishing house when you're first starting out without credits, of course.

Seek out small niche publishers. A niche publisher is one who publishes only things in a small area of knowledge particularly if you know a lot about their subject. Be sure and tell them that when you submit your demo to them.

Keep your ears open for audiobook authors or wannabees who are considering creating an audio product of some kind and might use you to narrate it. Network of business and writer's groups and keep searching for publishers who welcome new people and hone your skills by reading every chance you get.

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.

[Closing Music]

Links from today's show:

VoicesVoices.com
Bettye Zoller Voices.com Website

Your Instructor this week:

Voice Over Expert Bettye Zoller

34 years as a respected university and private educator in voice, speech, theatre, radio-TV, and voiceover techniques along with her award-winning career in voiceovers and jingles has won Bettye Zoller an international reputation that brings clients and students to her workshops and to work in her Dallas recording studio (she's an accomplished audio engineer/producer) from all over the globe! She is educated through the doctorate (from Missouri University, University of Texas at Dallas, University of North Texas) with faculty positions in the past at Southern Methodist University, University of Texas at Arlington, Dallas County Colleges. She has also studied with famed NYC acting coach Uta Hagen, in Chicago at the "Second City School" and her career began long ago at Metro Goldwyn Mayer's Hollywood studio school (as a child performer signed to MGM).

Her voiceover credits number in the many hundreds (she's never counted!) and range from voiceovers and jingles for national TV commercials to audio books to cartoons, from toys to podcasts to anime. You've heard her for decades worldwide! Clients have included American Airlines,Pepsi, Visa, Lifetime TV Channel, The Weather Channel, Pace Picante Sauce, Lionel Trains, Texas Instruments Talking Toys, Seven Seas Dressings, Pedialyte Vitamins, promos for ABC, NBC, and BBC America. She is a Simon and Schuster audio book author, narrator, and producer. She has won ADDYS, CLIOS, GOLDEN RADIOS, and AUDIE awards over the years. She is the author of eleven audio titles sold worldwide and continues to produce new titles annually. She is known for teaching voiceover techniques including audio book narration and production, and her BUSINESS OF VOICEOVERS workshops are legendary with students who credit her with starting them in their lucrative voiceover careers!

Bettye, with four top male announcers, has written and produced a wonderful CD program entitled "COMMERCIAL$PEAK" featuring interviews and sections announced by guests and male announcers of reputation. The foreword is by Dick Orkin of Hollywood Radio Ranch, a man who is well known in the U.S. as a commercial creator producer as well as Voice Over performer and teacher.

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

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Join Voice Over Expert Bettye Zoller in her lecture "Stop! Put First Things First! The Newcomer's Training". People everywhere are spending money and maxing out credit cards building home studios when it is premature to do so. Don't get stuck in this trap -- listen to Bettye's advice first and get trained!

Download Podcast Episode 41 »

Tags:

Bettye Zoller, VoicesVoices.com, Inspiration, Voice Acting, Voice Over Training, Voices.com

Transcript of Put First Things First! The Newcomer's Training

[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's 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 Bettye Zoller.

Bettye Zoller: I'm on my soapbox again. Cover your ears. This morning I answered two e-mails, the kind I get regularly week after week and the same message people tell me on the telephone and in my seminars and this is it, "My husband and I are planning my studio, my recording studio and we're trying to choose equipment and we're making budgets for the expenditures so that I can get my recording studio setup in my home, on my computer. Of course it's going to be very expensive because I realized now that I'll also have to buy a new computer."

They don't have a demo yet. They haven't even had much training. Read my lips. Oh, you can't. Well, keep listening. This is the wrong progression for starting a voiceover wannabe career, whether you make it or whether you don't. You don't need the studio equipment now, you need to get trained. Next, you need to spend your money on a killer voiceover demo that is produced for you by a seasoned professional who knows what he or she is doing but the training comes first. Your dollars should go into workshops, phone consultations, private one-on-one consultations. You should be networking, you should be on the internet reading all various wonderful voiceover groups and sites and podcasts we have now.

There's a wealth of education on the internet and it's free of charge, just as the wonderful things Voices.com does right here on this site and you should be networking, you should be getting into actors' groups, you should be making friends of people who are already doing voiceovers and you should have a realistic attitude about this business. Be sure and take a business course too. Be sure to know about structures and pricings and read all you can, read magazines, start reading Adweek and Advertising Age. Study, study, study. Practice at home too. Learn from the pros. Listen to television, the national commercials. I always tell my students if you are a woman, just listen to the female stuff, if you're a man you want to listen probably mostly to the male stuff because never the twain shall meet. Female work is pretty much different from male work in our business. Capture some of the professional you like on a recorder and then sit and practice. Also listen to the narrations on video games, cartoons, anime, podcasting all over the internet, telephone messaging. Study, study, practice, practice. Don't spend money on that studio right now.

And another thing, if you don't know how to operate recording equipment at all, you'd best get training in that as well. The most expensive recording equipment in the world and all the recording software is not going to do you any good if you don't know how to use it. If you live in a big city you won't have any trouble finding some recording training often at a community college or the support groups that exist but if you live in a small city, you're probably going to have to travel to a larger city to enroll in a course in recording engineering. I urge you to take some recording engineering training. It's so important. And you have to get your room soundproofed. Don't forget that but that all comes later. If you're not a working voiceover talent, if you don't know how to do voiceovers and how the business really works, you're not ready to build that studio. A word to the wise, that's my soapbox installment for today. I'm Bettye Zoller. Visit my website, VoicesVoices.com.

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.

[Closing Music]

Links from today's show:

VoicesVoices.com
Bettye Zoller Voices.com Website

Your Instructor this week:

Voice Over Expert Bettye Zoller

34 years as a respected university and private educator in voice, speech, theatre, radio-TV, and voiceover techniques along with her award-winning career in voiceovers and jingles has won Bettye Zoller an international reputation that brings clients and students to her workshops and to work in her Dallas recording studio (she's an accomplished audio engineer/producer) from all over the globe! She is educated through the doctorate (from Missouri University, University of Texas at Dallas, University of North Texas) with faculty positions in the past at Southern Methodist University, University of Texas at Arlington, Dallas County Colleges. She has also studied with famed NYC acting coach Uta Hagen, in Chicago at the "Second City School" and her career began long ago at Metro Goldwyn Mayer's Hollywood studio school (as a child performer signed to MGM).

Her voiceover credits number in the many hundreds (she's never counted!) and range from voiceovers and jingles for national TV commercials to audio books to cartoons, from toys to podcasts to anime. You've heard her for decades worldwide! Clients have included American Airlines,Pepsi, Visa, Lifetime TV Channel, The Weather Channel, Pace Picante Sauce, Lionel Trains, Texas Instruments Talking Toys, Seven Seas Dressings, Pedialyte Vitamins, promos for ABC, NBC, and BBC America. She is a Simon and Schuster audio book author, narrator, and producer. She has won ADDYS, CLIOS, GOLDEN RADIOS, and AUDIE awards over the years. She is the author of eleven audio titles sold worldwide and continues to produce new titles annually. She is known for teaching voiceover techniques including audio book narration and production, and her BUSINESS OF VOICEOVERS workshops are legendary with students who credit her with starting them in their lucrative voiceover careers!

Bettye, with four top male announcers, has written and produced a wonderful CD program entitled "COMMERCIAL$PEAK" featuring interviews and sections announced by guests and male announcers of reputation. The foreword is by Dick Orkin of Hollywood Radio Ranch, a man who is well known in the U.S. as a commercial creator producer as well as Voice Over performer and teacher.

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

---

Join Voice Over Expert Bettye Zoller as she reveals that a career in voice over starts not just in a niche education acquired for videogames, cartoons or movie trailer voice overs, but with a strong foundation rooted in the rudiments of learning voice over as a whole before jumping into any one specialized field.

Download Podcast Episode 30 »

Tags:

Bettye Zoller, VoicesVoices.com, Inspiration, Voice Acting, Voice Over Training

Transcript of Learning Voice Over as a Whole

[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's 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 Bettye Zoller.

Bettye Zoller: Today I'm speaking my mind in this Voices.com podcast. Once again today, I received an e-mail form a person who wanted to know about studying with me or when my next seminar in a certain city would be and he began his e-mail by saying, "I'm interested in doing movie trailers and movie promos and I want to get in to voiceover training in that area." I answered, "One does not get into voiceovers by studying movie trailers and movie promo techniques." Movie trailers and movie promos come form mostly Hollywood. They often are given as political or social favors to friends.

I often get e-mails that say, "I want to do cartoons and video games and can you train me for that?" and I answered, "No, I do train people for that but I won't train you exclusively for that because I would be doing you a disservice while is it true that video games are fun to voice, it may not be the highest pay in the world but they're fun and while it is true that cartoon are also fund although most of them come from certain cities. I certainly do give a seminar called, "Character in cartoon voices," and I'm hoping you can attend one sometime but it would be unfair of me to say that I could train you and you would probably get a character in cartoon work right way because that probably isn't going to be the case."

What people need when they are starting out in voiceovers is not to isolate want they want to do. Don't say, "I want to do movie trailers, I want to do promos, I want to voice cartoons, I want to be a video game voice." That's pointless. You want to get in to this voiceover job field. That encompasses many things. It encompasses corporate training scripts that are very dry and boring, e-learning, flash presentations and guess what? There's a lot of that work out there. You maybe bored but you'll get paid.

Think about commercials for your local market. Don't think about doing national commercials right off the bat. I hope you do and some of my students have. Stop limiting yourself. If you get in to voiceovers and you actually get hired, your producers will choice you and they will tell you what you're going to do. You may never voice a video game, you may never voice a movie trailer or promo but I hope you work. I hope you do voiceovers of many kinds and that should be your goal and you want the voiceovers that pay you money, plain and simple. This is Bettye Zoller.

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.

[Closing Music]

Links from today's show:

VoicesVoices.com
Bettye Zoller Voices.com Website

Your Instructor this week:

Voice Over Expert Bettye Zoller

34 years as a respected university and private educator in voice, speech, theatre, radio-TV, and voiceover techniques along with her award-winning career in voiceovers and jingles has won Bettye Zoller an international reputation that brings clients and students to her workshops and to work in her Dallas recording studio (she's an accomplished audio engineer/producer) from all over the globe! She is educated through the doctorate (from Missouri University, University of Texas at Dallas, University of North Texas) with faculty positions in the past at Southern Methodist University, University of Texas at Arlington, Dallas County Colleges. She has also studied with famed NYC acting coach Uta Hagen, in Chicago at the "Second City School" and her career began long ago at Metro Goldwyn Mayer's Hollywood studio school (as a child performer signed to MGM).

Her voiceover credits number in the many hundreds (she's never counted!) and range from voiceovers and jingles for national TV commercials to audio books to cartoons, from toys to podcasts to anime. You've heard her for decades worldwide! Clients have included American Airlines,Pepsi, Visa, Lifetime TV Channel, The Weather Channel, Pace Picante Sauce, Lionel Trains, Texas Instruments Talking Toys, Seven Seas Dressings, Pedialyte Vitamins, promos for ABC, NBC, and BBC America. She is a Simon and Schuster audio book author, narrator, and producer. She has won ADDYS, CLIOS, GOLDEN RADIOS, and AUDIE awards over the years. She is the author of eleven audio titles sold worldwide and continues to produce new titles annually. She is known for teaching voiceover techniques including audio book narration and production, and her BUSINESS OF VOICEOVERS workshops are legendary with students who credit her with starting them in their lucrative voiceover careers!

Bettye, with four top male announcers, has written and produced a wonderful CD program entitled "COMMERCIAL$PEAK" featuring interviews and sections announced by guests and male announcers of reputation. The foreword is by Dick Orkin of Hollywood Radio Ranch, a man who is well known in the U.S. as a commercial creator producer as well as Voice Over performer and teacher.

Enjoyed Bettye's episode? Leave a comment with your thoughts!

---

Join Voice Over Expert Bettye Zoller as she explores the subtleties of honing an individual's acting or voice acting craft by being attentive and observant in the most universal of people watching places on earth, the local supermarket or grocery store.

Download Podcast Episode 18 »

Tags:

Bettye Zoller, VoicesVoices.com, Inspiration, Voice Acting, Supermarkets, Grocery Stores, Commercial$peak

Links from today's show:

Bettye Zoller Voices.com Website
COMMERCIAL$PEAK

Transcript of Finding Voice Over Inspiration in Supermarkets

[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's 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 Bettye Zoller.

Bettye Zoller: What, you may ask, does a supermarket have to do with voiceovers? A supermarket is one of the finest acting schools on the planet. Why you may ask? Listen. There's a lady upset with her little child. There's the man cajoling his wife to please not buy so much fruit it will only spoil. There is the woman who's talking sadly to another woman about a death in the family. There's a man excited about the date he has tonight and telling his friend how excited he is, that the girl would finally go out with him.

Life is your best acting coach. Famous film actors have wonderful stories about learning their craft best in the street, at a funeral, at a wedding, in a supermarket. Life around you is your best voice acting coach.

There are two classes of voice actors, two groups of voice actors. Some voice actors really are announcers or primarily announcers. They tend to be good at straight reads, radio sound. They do the hard sell, hard sell car commercials we all love to hate. Those are our announcer voices and some of them are making a lot of money.

Then, there are the characters in voice actors who often come from an acting background. They can change their voice so dramatically. I'm one of those that when you listen to their demo, you can't believe it's all the same lady or the same man. It sounds like 10 or 15 different people but it's all the same voice actor.

Students ask, "Do I have to do all those voices? I really haven't developed that skill. I'm really more of an announcer." The answer is no. You have your own set of skills and you are what you are. You are unique. That's why we call it a voice print. Everyone has a voice and an attitude for that voice as unique as a fingerprint. But if you are the type of voiceover talent that has the ability to do characters and dialects and various approaches, play on that. You'll expand your market dramatically.

Practice in front of your bathroom mirror. Read cartoons aloud. Read children's books. You'll delight all the youngsters. Read at a library story hour. What a great way to volunteer your services and practice your characters at the same time. Listen, listen, listen to the world around you.

If your acting coach or voiceover coach hasn't done this for you yet, make a list of voice attitudes and practice them. Record your reads and play them back. Try to do each read three times. Your list might include, the woman is sad because her son has just died of a drug overdose, the man who is ecstatic because he just won the lottery, the classroom teacher who is stern and matter of fact, the preacher, the salesman on the used car lot trying to convince you to buy this car. Make up a couple of lines for each attitude and practice. Take acting courses but don't get too theatrical. Be careful who you study with in that field.

One of the common problems with voiceover talents is being too stagy, being too booming voice, being too theatrical. And go to the supermarket often. Browse the miles of aisles. Go to a funeral list and to help people speak. Go to a wedding, listen to your girl friend or guy friend when they're really, really happy. Listen on the telephone when people call you. See how quickly you can pick up their moods on the phone. You can tell what attitude they have, what mood they're in, in the first five or six words.

Here's a brief compilation of some of my recent voice attitude work, just a small sample. I have hundreds of dialects and attitudes in my repertoire and celebrity impressions and even languages.

Get rid of costly mandates that make health insurance coverage prohibitive.

If you're interested in long lasting energy staying trim, taking control of your metabolism then, Jet Fuel is for you.

It was 50 years ago. I was a young woman then. But oh, how I loved roller coasters.

Cellular One wants to know when was the last time you rewarded for talking back.

In the actor studio, spend time with Kevin Costner tonight at 8 on Bravo.

Here at my salon, we got three styling cares and good customers.

Let's get serious.

Oh, boy.

Toss and bake with Homestyle Bakes and you've got something for everyone.

Those vertical stripes are so slimming.

I've seen how you look at those flat screen. You hardly ever look at me anymore. Now, it's over.

Voice acting. See you at the supermarket.

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.

[Closing Music]

Your Instructor this week:

Voice Over Expert Bettye Zoller

34 years as a respected university and private educator in voice, speech, theatre, radio-TV, and voiceover techniques along with her award-winning career in voiceovers and jingles has won Bettye Zoller an international reputation that brings clients and students to her workshops and to work in her Dallas recording studio (she's an accomplished audio engineer/producer) from all over the globe! She is educated through the doctorate (from Missouri University, University of Texas at Dallas, University of North Texas) with faculty positions in the past at Southern Methodist University, University of Texas at Arlington, Dallas County Colleges. She has also studied with famed NYC acting coach Uta Hagen, in Chicago at the "Second City School" and her career began long ago at Metro Goldwyn Mayer's Hollywood studio school (as a child performer signed to MGM).

Her voiceover credits number in the many hundreds (she's never counted!) and range from voiceovers and jingles for national TV commercials to audio books to cartoons, from toys to podcasts to anime. You've heard her for decades worldwide! Clients have included American Airlines,Pepsi, Visa, Lifetime TV Channel, The Weather Channel, Pace Picante Sauce, Lionel Trains, Texas Instruments Talking Toys, Seven Seas Dressings, Pedialyte Vitamins, promos for ABC, NBC, and BBC America. She is a Simon and Schuster audio book author, narrator, and producer. She has won ADDYS, CLIOS, GOLDEN RADIOS, and AUDIE awards over the years. She is the author of eleven audio titles sold worldwide and continues to produce new titles annually. She is known for teaching voiceover techniques including audio book narration and production, and her BUSINESS OF VOICEOVERS workshops are legendary with students who credit her with starting them in their lucrative voiceover careers!

Bettye, with four top male announcers, has written and produced a wonderful CD program entitled "COMMERCIAL$PEAK" featuring interviews and sections announced by guests and male announcers of reputation. The foreword is by Dick Orkin of Hollywood Radio Ranch, a man who is well known in the U.S. as a commercial creator producer as well as Voice Over performer and teacher.

She began as a singer and actor, opening act for the legend, Tony Bennett, touring America with her show group and releasing hit records as an RCA artist and songwriter produced by the late Chet Atkins. Voiceovers entered her life by accident when another jingle singer mentioned her work in the voiceover area. The rest is history! She served as Creative Director of several major production houses in the past, which she credits with "making me the audio engineer and producer that I am today. I sat beside some of the greatest audio pros in our business and learned from them." Now, her Dallas recording studio is constantly busy cranking out voiceover demos, commercial projects, audio books, and more! "I'm like the shoemaker's daughter...some days I can't find a minute to voice the projects I'm supposed to do myself... I'm wall-to-wall with studio clients! But I love it."

She continues to teach "mass media singers" in her Dallas studio and periodically gives "studio singing workshops" too. "I can't let singing go away...it was my total life and I'm an excellent coach who knows the business!" But her voiceover career has really taken "over" full time in the past decade or so. "Voiceovers know no age and that's a big plus. Singing tends to favor the very young...been there, done that."

"The 'Internet revolution' like this excellent resource, Voices.com, is what's new, what's fresh, and what's happening! Voiceover work worldwide is better than ever before and growing exponentially!" We're fortunate to be able to make this kind of fabulous money without ever leaving home (except when I travel to teach elsewhere by invitation!).

"Always check out my homepage on my website VoicesVoices.com to see where and when I'm teaching. And if you want to come to Dallas to work with me, I always help with travel facts and sometimes even have my staff pick you up at your hotel or whatever we can do to ease your travel."

With her husband, a professional bassist with major music credits worldwide, and her Chow dog "Sammy," she loves travel and teaching in other cities. "I love the new sights, meeting new people, learning new things." Her two adult sons live in NYC and Switzerland with great careers in journalism and computers. She has three young grandchildren."They still are babies, but I'm going to try to get them into showbiz... it's my life."

She teaches several university guest professor appointments next Fall and will do workshops again in Dallas and elsewhere. She's always happy to speak with you via phone or email!

Check out COMMERCIAL$PEAK at Bettye's website.

Enjoyed Bettye's episode? Leave a comment with your thoughts!

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Join Voice Over Expert Bettye Zoller as she discusses "Making the Most of Your Message". Bettye reminds us that the voice over biz is about more than just having a great voice, it's about branding, marketing and serving your clients.

Download Podcast Episode 05 »

Tags:

Bettye Zoller, VoicesVoices.com, Elevator Speech, Self-Promotion, Sales, Marketing, Voices.com

Links from today's show:

VoicesVoices.com
Bettye Zoller Voices.com Website

Transcript from Making the Most of Your Message

[Intro music]

Julie-Ann Dean: Welcome to Voice Over Experts brought to you by Voices.com, the number one voice-over marketplace. Voice Over Experts brings you tips, pearls of wisdom, and techniques from top instructors, authors and performers in the field of voice over.

Join us each week to discover tricks of the trade that will help you to develop your craft and prosper as a career voice over talent. It's never been easier to learn, perform and succeed from the privacy of your own home and at your own pace. This is truly an education you won't find anywhere else.

This week, Voices.com is pleased to present Bettye Zoller.

Bettye Zoller: I'm Bettye Zoller. Let's talk about making the most of your message. You've heard about elevator speeches. That's when you have about 30 seconds to tell your story to a perspective client.

This is a world of instant messages, sound bytes, text messages. You only have about five seconds to make your message matter to your audience. That's why some people call it the elevator speech. You keep your message highly audience focused.

What are the benefits of knowing you to your customers? How are you delivering the best product for your customers? Remember, you need to start thinking from your customer's perspective, not yours.

Your perspective is something like: I need to make more money. Or, I want to leave my day job and do voice work. Or, I want to show the world how wonderful I am and how beautiful my voice is. Those are all the wrong messages.

Your message, to catch and keep your target customer's attention, needs to be on their needs. Back up your key messages with everyday language. If you say you deliver excellent voice overs, that's fine, but can you make it more personal? Can you create a message experience for your customers and prospects?

What is your company's message? Remember, you are your company. What is your company's message, regardless of if you're new or trying to keep a career going or trying to rejuvenate an older career?

Getting your audience's attention is over half the battle, but remember to save some energy for talking to them once you have it. Catching their ear is great, but holding onto it is even more important.

So say you've been in the business for awhile. What do you do now? How do you keep their ear? How do you remind them that you're here? How do you get them to hear a new side of you?

I believe self-promotion never stops. When you're new, self-promotion is everything. When you're in mid-career, self-promotion is everything. And when you've been in the business 34 years like me, self-promotion is everything. What else is new? Self-promotion. Once they know you, you've got to keep them wanting more.

So what do you do to put things in the client, the customer's perspective? You talk about what you do for them. You talk about how you can voice their job in a way that makes them a winner. It makes them a hero. Always remember everybody wants to be a hero and it's your job to make them.

When you're networking and meeting people in person to hand out your demo, or you're mailing your demos out and you're enclosing a short cover letter, focus on what you can do to meet your customer or your client's needs.

Talk about how you make things easier. Talk about your expertise areas and how you can help them simplify the job and simplify their life.

Online, when you answer a potential job, don't talk about how great you are. Wouldn't everybody say how great they are? What are they going to say, "I'm terrible"? No. The clients expect everybody to say, "I'm great. I'm wonderful." Forget that; that's a waste of time.

Talk about why you should be the one to voice this job, why they need an audio engineer with your capabilities. Oh, and by the way, don't answer the jobs that you really aren't suited for. That just will cause problems for everybody concerned, most of all you.

Talk about why you are the best person for this job, because you are the most suited for it. Your audio engineering skills are what this person needs for this job. Zero in on your customer, your client's needs, and business will come your way.

When someone asks you why they should hire you, switch it around. Don't say, "Because I'm wonderful." Switch it around to why you need me, why you will be happy now that you have me, and you will return to me again and again because you enjoy working with me. I make it easy. I satisfy. Client-centered messages.

You are a business and your business is you. If you think you are not in sales, you better get out of the business. Because sales make the world go round, and selling yourself is what makes a successful voice over talent.

[music]

Julie-Ann: Thank you for joining us. To learn more about this special guest featured in this Voices.com podcast, visit the Voice Over 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's podcast directory or by visiting podcasts.voices.com. To start your voice over career online, go to Voices.com and register for a voice talent membership today.

[Closing Music]

Your Instructor this week:

Voice Over Expert Bettye Zoller

34 years as a respected university and private educator in voice, speech, theatre, radio-TV, and voiceover techniques along with her award-winning career in voiceovers and jingles has won Bettye Zoller an international reputation that brings clients and students to her workshops and to work in her Dallas recording studio (she's an accomplished audio engineer/producer) from all over the globe! She is educated through the doctorate (from Missouri University, University of Texas at Dallas, University of North Texas) with faculty positions in the past at Southern Methodist University, University of Texas at Arlington, Dallas County Colleges. She has also studied with famed NYC acting coach Uta Hagen, in Chicago at the "Second City School" and her career began long ago at Metro Goldwyn Mayer's Hollywood studio school (as a child performer signed to MGM).

Her voiceover credits number in the many hundreds (she's never counted!) and range from voiceovers and jingles for national TV commercials to audio books to cartoons, from toys to podcasts to anime. You've heard her for decades worldwide! Clients have included American Airlines,Pepsi, Visa, Lifetime TV Channel, The Weather Channel, Pace Picante Sauce, Lionel Trains, Texas Instruments Talking Toys, Seven Seas Dressings, Pedialyte Vitamins, promos for ABC, NBC, and BBC America. She is a Simon and Schuster audio book author, narrator, and producer. She has won ADDYS, CLIOS, GOLDEN RADIOS, and AUDIE awards over the years. She is the author of eleven audio titles sold worldwide and continues to produce new titles annually. She is known for teaching voiceover techniques including audio book narration and production, and her BUSINESS OF VOICEOVERS workshops are legendary with students who credit her with starting them in their lucrative voiceover careers!

She began as a singer and actor, opening act for the legend, Tony Bennett, touring America with her show group and releasing hit records as an RCA artist and songwriter produced by the late Chet Atkins. Voiceovers entered her life by accident when another jingle singer mentioned her work in the voiceover area. The rest is history! She served as Creative Director of several major production houses in the past, which she credits with "making me the audio engineer and producer that I am today. I sat beside some of the greatest audio pros in our business and learned from them." Now, her Dallas recording studio is constantly busy cranking out voiceover demos, commercial projects, audio books, and more! "I'm like the shoemaker's daughter...some days I can't find a minute to voice the projects I'm supposed to do myself...I'm wall-to-wall with studio clients! But I love it."

She continues to teach "mass media singers" in her Dallas studio and periodically gives "studio singing workshops" too. "I can't let singing go away...it was my total life and I'm an excellent coach who knows the business!" But her voiceover career has really taken "over" full time in the past decade or so. "Voiceovers know no age and that's a big plus. Singing tends to favor the very young...been there, done that."

"The 'Internet revolution' like this excellent resource, Voices.com, is what's new, what's fresh, and what's happening! Voiceover work worldwide is better than ever before and growing exponentially!" We're fortunate to be able to make this kind of fabulous money without ever leaving home (except when I travel to teach elsewhere by invitation!).

"Always check out my homepage on my website VoicesVoices.com to see where and when I'm teaching. And if you want to come to Dallas to work with me, I always help with travel facts and sometimes even have my staff pick you up at your hotel or whatever we can do to ease your travel."

With her husband, a professional bassist with major music credits worldwide, and her Chow dog "Sammy," she loves travel and teaching in other cities. "I love the new sights, meeting new people, learning new things." Her two adult sons live in NYC and Switzerland with great careers in journalism and computers. She has three young grandchildren."They still are babies, but I'm going to try to get them into showbiz... it's my life."

She's teaching workshops in Dallas July 21-28. Visit her site for details. She's in Denver August 3-10. She teaches several university guest professor appointments next Fall and will do workshops again in Dallas and elsewhere. She's always happy to speak with you via phone or email!

Enjoyed Bettye's episode? Leave a comment with your thoughts!

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