VC Radio
Voice Coaches Radio #441 – Under the Weather
Voice Coaches Radio. Everything voiceover. And welcome to this week's edition of Voice Coaches Radio. I am Josh Heller. Delighted to have you joining me as we do each and every week here. Thanks so much for tuning us in. Uh, we're going to continue along with what we have done, uh, we've done recently, and that is just kind of taking a look back at the archives a little bit of some of the, some of the best of some of the greatest hits of voice coaches radio, since it has been on for over 10 years now, hard to believe been on for over 10 years, but, uh, some great discussions, some great interviews that we've seen and heard over the years that, you know, uh, I get it.
We all don't have the time to, uh, to dig through the archives and find some of those gems, but I do, I do have that time. So I did. I did do that time. So, what we're gonna do today is, uh, and then this seems fairly apropos, is we're gonna listen back to, uh, to a, a, a, a, a, a podcast from back in 2012. Uh, this is all the way back in 2012.
It features Warren Garland and Mike Spring, who we've already heard from, uh, recently, but it's, uh, featuring Warren Garland and Mike Spring, and they're talking about, uh, like I said, something I think that's, uh, that's pretty important, especially this time of year. They're talking about what to do when you get sick.
What to do when you get sick and how it can affect you and, uh, and obviously what steps to take, uh, as far as, uh, being able to do jobs. If you have to cancel jobs, how to kind of deal with those types of things and how to hopefully prevent those types of things. And the reasons why it's apropos is I, I don't know about those of you who are listening, but I'm looking outside right now.
It is currently snowing, uh, and that's on top of the 22 inches of snow that we got just. Absolutely crushed with last week. So, uh, uh, it certainly seems, uh, fairly apropos for the time being that, uh, winter, although not officially here yet, we have not hit the winter solstice just yet, but man, it sure, uh, it sure feels like winter out there at this point.
So, uh, cold flus, things like that certainly are, uh, are going to be on the rise. Obviously, you know, we've talked in the past about, uh, about taking care of yourself about things like that. But like I said, we're going to take a listen back from back in 2012, uh, a, uh, an episode of voice coaches radio featuring Warren Garling and Mike spring talking about exactly what to do in those particular situations.
Have a listen.
Hello and welcome once again to Voice Coaches Radio. I'm Warren Garling.
And I'm Mike Spring.
How are you feeling today, Mike?
Ah, feeling pretty good, I think. Maybe a touch of the allergies, but overall pretty good. Can't complain.
But if somebody called up and said, Hey, can you do this thing for me in the next couple of days, you know, voiceover wise, you'd be set, right?
Absolutely.
What do you do when you're not? What do you do when you're all stuffed up, you've got a cold, and you've got a session coming up? I mean, you know, there are many different answers to this, and we're going to explore a whole mess today, correct?
Well, yes, and what I do personally is I curl up into a ball on the bed, and I just rock myself.
And I just, you know, I cry a little bit.
Yeah, I kind of feel the same way, especially when it comes to not having, you know, being able to do a job for somebody. I feel the same way. Well, let's start backwards a little bit. Let's back up all the way to the beginning. I guess what we are going to talk about here today, obviously, is, is. you know, staying healthy. Yeah. And when you're not healthy, what do you do as a voice actor? Exactly. So let's talk about the staying healthy part first. What do you say?
Absolutely. I mean, there's really, it's, it's a simple thing, you know, it's cold and flu season. And just like with any job you want to try and stay healthy, but as a voice talent, of course, it's a little bit more important.
You know, you can, you can muddle through a day at the office when you're not feeling a hundred percent, but if you lose your voice, uh, that you can't, you can't make your way through a voiceover job. So some of the things that you can do to stay healthy, first of all. As always, hydration is really important.
I know that people think that's more just for, uh, you know, for vocal tone and stuff like that, but it really is important for your body as a whole, and it's especially important for keeping your voice strong, especially if you do have a hint of a cold or maybe a little bit of allergies going on.
And then somebody once said, cleanliness is next to godliness, and I truly do believe that.
Wash your hands more often. This is just the time of season. You have to be doing that. And then, you know what I actually do occasionally? I actually, some of our doorknobs around here, you can open with your elbow. And I do that occasionally, especially like right now, Christy at the front desk, she's, you know, got a real bad cold, lost a little bit of her voice.
And so whenever I'm anywhere near where I think she's touched something, I just try not to touch that.
Yeah. See when I'm near her, actually, I try not to breathe. I just, I just, yesterday I held my breath for eight minutes, but no, that's it. And that's a great idea. And that's, you know, it's, it's one of those things I, we don't want to make you paranoid, but like, let's say maybe you've got a job scheduled for the end of the week.
And so, and you know, there's some people at your workplace who have a cold, that's a good time to take a couple extra precautions, you know, wash your hands a little more frequently. Uh, maybe, you know, maybe do some of the vitamin C. C drops or things like that, you know, maybe drink some, some hot tea here and there, just things that you can do to sort of, you know, uh, an ounce of prevention is worth a whole bunch of a cure or something like that.
Is that how it goes? Yeah.
We're going to make these up if they're not real true. Right, right. Exactly. Um, and I keep some hand sanitizer right on my desk, you know, and every once in a while, you know, if, again, I've been walking around the office for a while, I'll just squirt a little bit. Now you can overdo it with that and it can backfire against you and not work as well.
So don't get carried away. But again, having it handy. It's not a bad thing. I see some right there next to you, Mike, now that I look at it in the studio right there.
You see that? Well, there you go. It's not mine, but it certainly is handy to have here. So clearly it's, like I said, it's that time of year, everyone's taking a few extra precautions.
Good. So what happens now if all those precautions don't work? And that's certainly possible, especially if you have kids that are going out to school and coming back and bringing all that fun stuff into your house. Oh, yeah. Mike, Mike can attest to that.
Oh yeah, that's good times.
So, a couple of things. First of all, keep in mind that occasionally, and this has worked for me, you may feel stuffier than you sound alright? Mm-hmm. , um, you, if you get on mic sometimes there's times, please don't get on me. Well, you know what I mean? , if, if, if you're on mic and you. Play it back, you know, try to record yourself, play yourself back, and I'll, uh, you'll be surprised that, you know, maybe, you know, better than 50% of the time, you really can't tell that you're all stuffed up.
Yeah. So, that, that's one thing. Don't, don't over worry about it if you've got a little bit
of a cold.
Yeah, I actually once, uh, did a professional job, a, a 15 page narrative while I was, when I would consider a little bit under the weather, um, but my voice was not affected, and, and, and that's really what you have to do is use your judgment and think about whether or not your voice has actually changed.
You know, you might wake up in the morning and have a little bit of a throatiness to your voice or something like that, but that doesn't necessarily mean that your voice is going to not be good for a job. Uh, you know, you just sort of have to take a, take a step back. Like you said, Warren, you can record yourself and just assess, you know, is your nose really plugged up?
Is it causing you to change the way you pronounce certain consonants like B's and D's and M's and N's? That's a warning sign. You know, if your voice doesn't sound dramatically different, chances are good. As long as your voice has the stamina that you need, that you can go in and record that 30 second commercial.
Or a three minute promo video without, without a problem. I wouldn't necessarily recommend doing an audio book like that when you have a four hour recording session, but for a regular session, you can probably get through it without a
problem.
And keep in mind that the people you're working for and that expect a good job from you have been in this position themselves.
They, they know what it means to, to catch a cold and there's nothing you can do about it. It just usually happens, especially at the most inopportune times. But what you want to do is explain the situation to them. And many times you can put off a session. for, you know, a few days, maybe even a week. I know somebody waited a whole week for me, which I thought was tremendous.
Again, if they're not in a huge rush, they'll wait for you because they've chosen you over other folks.
Yeah. Like you said, Warren, people have been in this position before everyone's gotten a cold before in their life. And they know that it happens. If you have to cancel a job, you know, the best way to handle it is contact the studio as early as possible.
The day of the job, if you're, if you know, if you've woken up, you've lost your voice or something like that, explain to them what happened, see if you can reschedule A lot of times, a couple of days will be, will be plenty for your voice to come back to a good enough strength to record the voiceover and just be professional about the way that you handle it.
Nine times out of ten, you're not going to lose that job because you got sick.
Yeah. And if it's the stuffiness that you're worried about, keep in mind that a good antihistamine, which I have found, you know, one that works for me, usually within a couple of days that kicks in and it does, you know, free you up a little bit and perhaps get you back to sounding a little more normal, whatever normal is for you.
So yeah, getting a cold happens. It can sometimes affect your voice. Don't worry too much about it. If it occurs to you and there's a job on the line, you know, just handle it in the most professional way possible. And like I said, the producers, the clients, they've been in this position before, they know it can happen.
And as long as you handle it, well shouldn't be a problem for you at all.
So, there you have it from back in 2012. Uh, a little chat between Warren Garling and Mike Spring, talking about what to do and what happens when we, uh, We're feeling a bit under the weather, and, uh, certainly I think a lot of us are feeling under the weather right now.
Again, it is currently snowing as I, as I do this podcast today, and, uh, I've had enough. I've had enough. Enough, enough, enough, uh, of, uh, of all of it. Really? What would we get over 20 inches? I actually, 22 is what was officially listed in Albany. I live out in, uh, in a little west of here, and I believe we got 26 inches of snow was one of the eight.
I think it was the eighth largest storm in history. It's it's only the beginning of December. But again, some good advice there as well to hopefully mitigate some of those factors. Hopefully you won't have to deal with that. But if you do, at least now, you know, kind of the best practices for off. For, for taking care of that.
So, uh, hopefully you enjoyed that. Hopefully you got something out of that. I know. I certainly did. And I'll continue to call through, uh, all of the archives here of Voice Coaches Radio and find some other beauties that we have in there, uh, each and every week for upcoming. Again, uh, some changes coming up to Voice Coaches Radio, uh, down the line.
But for now, we're gonna keep looking back At the time that was voice coaches rated that walls, unless you have something you would like, You have something you would like me to discuss, you know, I'm certainly more than happy to do that. You can reach out to me by emailing me at [email protected]. Again, that's [email protected]. Uh, you can get in touch with me and I'd be happy to, uh, to answer any questions or, or delve into any topics that you may, uh, uh, may want to take a listen to. Because remember, it's not my show. So, uh, thanks again so much for tuning us in this week. We'll be back next week, and until then, so long everyone.
Visit voicecoaches. com for more voiceover news and information.
We all don't have the time to, uh, to dig through the archives and find some of those gems, but I do, I do have that time. So I did. I did do that time. So, what we're gonna do today is, uh, and then this seems fairly apropos, is we're gonna listen back to, uh, to a, a, a, a, a, a podcast from back in 2012. Uh, this is all the way back in 2012.
It features Warren Garland and Mike Spring, who we've already heard from, uh, recently, but it's, uh, featuring Warren Garland and Mike Spring, and they're talking about, uh, like I said, something I think that's, uh, that's pretty important, especially this time of year. They're talking about what to do when you get sick.
What to do when you get sick and how it can affect you and, uh, and obviously what steps to take, uh, as far as, uh, being able to do jobs. If you have to cancel jobs, how to kind of deal with those types of things and how to hopefully prevent those types of things. And the reasons why it's apropos is I, I don't know about those of you who are listening, but I'm looking outside right now.
It is currently snowing, uh, and that's on top of the 22 inches of snow that we got just. Absolutely crushed with last week. So, uh, uh, it certainly seems, uh, fairly apropos for the time being that, uh, winter, although not officially here yet, we have not hit the winter solstice just yet, but man, it sure, uh, it sure feels like winter out there at this point.
So, uh, cold flus, things like that certainly are, uh, are going to be on the rise. Obviously, you know, we've talked in the past about, uh, about taking care of yourself about things like that. But like I said, we're going to take a listen back from back in 2012, uh, a, uh, an episode of voice coaches radio featuring Warren Garling and Mike spring talking about exactly what to do in those particular situations.
Have a listen.
Hello and welcome once again to Voice Coaches Radio. I'm Warren Garling.
And I'm Mike Spring.
How are you feeling today, Mike?
Ah, feeling pretty good, I think. Maybe a touch of the allergies, but overall pretty good. Can't complain.
But if somebody called up and said, Hey, can you do this thing for me in the next couple of days, you know, voiceover wise, you'd be set, right?
Absolutely.
What do you do when you're not? What do you do when you're all stuffed up, you've got a cold, and you've got a session coming up? I mean, you know, there are many different answers to this, and we're going to explore a whole mess today, correct?
Well, yes, and what I do personally is I curl up into a ball on the bed, and I just rock myself.
And I just, you know, I cry a little bit.
Yeah, I kind of feel the same way, especially when it comes to not having, you know, being able to do a job for somebody. I feel the same way. Well, let's start backwards a little bit. Let's back up all the way to the beginning. I guess what we are going to talk about here today, obviously, is, is. you know, staying healthy. Yeah. And when you're not healthy, what do you do as a voice actor? Exactly. So let's talk about the staying healthy part first. What do you say?
Absolutely. I mean, there's really, it's, it's a simple thing, you know, it's cold and flu season. And just like with any job you want to try and stay healthy, but as a voice talent, of course, it's a little bit more important.
You know, you can, you can muddle through a day at the office when you're not feeling a hundred percent, but if you lose your voice, uh, that you can't, you can't make your way through a voiceover job. So some of the things that you can do to stay healthy, first of all. As always, hydration is really important.
I know that people think that's more just for, uh, you know, for vocal tone and stuff like that, but it really is important for your body as a whole, and it's especially important for keeping your voice strong, especially if you do have a hint of a cold or maybe a little bit of allergies going on.
And then somebody once said, cleanliness is next to godliness, and I truly do believe that.
Wash your hands more often. This is just the time of season. You have to be doing that. And then, you know what I actually do occasionally? I actually, some of our doorknobs around here, you can open with your elbow. And I do that occasionally, especially like right now, Christy at the front desk, she's, you know, got a real bad cold, lost a little bit of her voice.
And so whenever I'm anywhere near where I think she's touched something, I just try not to touch that.
Yeah. See when I'm near her, actually, I try not to breathe. I just, I just, yesterday I held my breath for eight minutes, but no, that's it. And that's a great idea. And that's, you know, it's, it's one of those things I, we don't want to make you paranoid, but like, let's say maybe you've got a job scheduled for the end of the week.
And so, and you know, there's some people at your workplace who have a cold, that's a good time to take a couple extra precautions, you know, wash your hands a little more frequently. Uh, maybe, you know, maybe do some of the vitamin C. C drops or things like that, you know, maybe drink some, some hot tea here and there, just things that you can do to sort of, you know, uh, an ounce of prevention is worth a whole bunch of a cure or something like that.
Is that how it goes? Yeah.
We're going to make these up if they're not real true. Right, right. Exactly. Um, and I keep some hand sanitizer right on my desk, you know, and every once in a while, you know, if, again, I've been walking around the office for a while, I'll just squirt a little bit. Now you can overdo it with that and it can backfire against you and not work as well.
So don't get carried away. But again, having it handy. It's not a bad thing. I see some right there next to you, Mike, now that I look at it in the studio right there.
You see that? Well, there you go. It's not mine, but it certainly is handy to have here. So clearly it's, like I said, it's that time of year, everyone's taking a few extra precautions.
Good. So what happens now if all those precautions don't work? And that's certainly possible, especially if you have kids that are going out to school and coming back and bringing all that fun stuff into your house. Oh, yeah. Mike, Mike can attest to that.
Oh yeah, that's good times.
So, a couple of things. First of all, keep in mind that occasionally, and this has worked for me, you may feel stuffier than you sound alright? Mm-hmm. , um, you, if you get on mic sometimes there's times, please don't get on me. Well, you know what I mean? , if, if, if you're on mic and you. Play it back, you know, try to record yourself, play yourself back, and I'll, uh, you'll be surprised that, you know, maybe, you know, better than 50% of the time, you really can't tell that you're all stuffed up.
Yeah. So, that, that's one thing. Don't, don't over worry about it if you've got a little bit
of a cold.
Yeah, I actually once, uh, did a professional job, a, a 15 page narrative while I was, when I would consider a little bit under the weather, um, but my voice was not affected, and, and, and that's really what you have to do is use your judgment and think about whether or not your voice has actually changed.
You know, you might wake up in the morning and have a little bit of a throatiness to your voice or something like that, but that doesn't necessarily mean that your voice is going to not be good for a job. Uh, you know, you just sort of have to take a, take a step back. Like you said, Warren, you can record yourself and just assess, you know, is your nose really plugged up?
Is it causing you to change the way you pronounce certain consonants like B's and D's and M's and N's? That's a warning sign. You know, if your voice doesn't sound dramatically different, chances are good. As long as your voice has the stamina that you need, that you can go in and record that 30 second commercial.
Or a three minute promo video without, without a problem. I wouldn't necessarily recommend doing an audio book like that when you have a four hour recording session, but for a regular session, you can probably get through it without a
problem.
And keep in mind that the people you're working for and that expect a good job from you have been in this position themselves.
They, they know what it means to, to catch a cold and there's nothing you can do about it. It just usually happens, especially at the most inopportune times. But what you want to do is explain the situation to them. And many times you can put off a session. for, you know, a few days, maybe even a week. I know somebody waited a whole week for me, which I thought was tremendous.
Again, if they're not in a huge rush, they'll wait for you because they've chosen you over other folks.
Yeah. Like you said, Warren, people have been in this position before everyone's gotten a cold before in their life. And they know that it happens. If you have to cancel a job, you know, the best way to handle it is contact the studio as early as possible.
The day of the job, if you're, if you know, if you've woken up, you've lost your voice or something like that, explain to them what happened, see if you can reschedule A lot of times, a couple of days will be, will be plenty for your voice to come back to a good enough strength to record the voiceover and just be professional about the way that you handle it.
Nine times out of ten, you're not going to lose that job because you got sick.
Yeah. And if it's the stuffiness that you're worried about, keep in mind that a good antihistamine, which I have found, you know, one that works for me, usually within a couple of days that kicks in and it does, you know, free you up a little bit and perhaps get you back to sounding a little more normal, whatever normal is for you.
So yeah, getting a cold happens. It can sometimes affect your voice. Don't worry too much about it. If it occurs to you and there's a job on the line, you know, just handle it in the most professional way possible. And like I said, the producers, the clients, they've been in this position before, they know it can happen.
And as long as you handle it, well shouldn't be a problem for you at all.
So, there you have it from back in 2012. Uh, a little chat between Warren Garling and Mike Spring, talking about what to do and what happens when we, uh, We're feeling a bit under the weather, and, uh, certainly I think a lot of us are feeling under the weather right now.
Again, it is currently snowing as I, as I do this podcast today, and, uh, I've had enough. I've had enough. Enough, enough, enough, uh, of, uh, of all of it. Really? What would we get over 20 inches? I actually, 22 is what was officially listed in Albany. I live out in, uh, in a little west of here, and I believe we got 26 inches of snow was one of the eight.
I think it was the eighth largest storm in history. It's it's only the beginning of December. But again, some good advice there as well to hopefully mitigate some of those factors. Hopefully you won't have to deal with that. But if you do, at least now, you know, kind of the best practices for off. For, for taking care of that.
So, uh, hopefully you enjoyed that. Hopefully you got something out of that. I know. I certainly did. And I'll continue to call through, uh, all of the archives here of Voice Coaches Radio and find some other beauties that we have in there, uh, each and every week for upcoming. Again, uh, some changes coming up to Voice Coaches Radio, uh, down the line.
But for now, we're gonna keep looking back At the time that was voice coaches rated that walls, unless you have something you would like, You have something you would like me to discuss, you know, I'm certainly more than happy to do that. You can reach out to me by emailing me at [email protected]. Again, that's [email protected]. Uh, you can get in touch with me and I'd be happy to, uh, to answer any questions or, or delve into any topics that you may, uh, uh, may want to take a listen to. Because remember, it's not my show. So, uh, thanks again so much for tuning us in this week. We'll be back next week, and until then, so long everyone.
Visit voicecoaches. com for more voiceover news and information.
Hosts Warren and Mike discuss techniques for dealing with sickness and cold-like symptoms as a voice professional in this throwback episode of Voice Coaches Radio.
