VC Radio
Voice Coaches Radio #517 – Consistency Is A Learning Curve
Voice coaches, radio, everything voiceover.
Welcome to a brand new episode of voice coaches radio. My name is Marissa. Thank you so much for joining us here on whether it's, you know, release day or maybe it's 10 years from now and we're somewhere in the future. Please actually tell me about your life. What is it like? Are we through the pandemic yet?
Are cars really flying in the air? I know they're trying to make that happen, uh, but tell me about your world. It's probably a little bit more interesting than living through this wild time that we've all been dealing with, but I will tell you this, you know, living through a pandemic, what I've noticed is The, the days feel like they're going so much slower than they actually are, because then you look at the calendar and here we are, it's already February.
I'm still mentally trying to process 2020. I'm sure you are as well, but here we are. It's already two months in to 2022 and it's been a crazy wild ride. Uh, but I mentioned this last podcast episode where. This pandemic, there's a silver lining, right? Like I had the opportunity to sort of venture outside the comfort zone a little bit and really start diving into some things that I always had wanted to, but it wasn't necessarily a hundred percent sure as to how, or didn't really have the time.
And all of a sudden I found myself with an abundance of time, just like a lot of people and I had a home studio set up. So why not? So I did start like auditioning for audio books. And, uh, the first one that I got. Made a lot of sense for me, you know, because I know that I am, I'm a very engaging sort of read, you know, when I go ahead and I do that, I'm very animated when I, when I speak, when I read and that comes back to my radio background all in all honesty, because I'm supposed to sound like I'm having a party in the studio by myself, which honestly, it might sound that way right now for all I know, but you can be the judge on that.
But you know, this, this book that I did, it was just, it was meant to be an engaging read and it was all about, networking. Now the book itself you can no longer hear because turns out the person that had the publishing rights or claimed to really didn't. And now it's been taken off of Audible. But that's besides the point.
It allowed me to go ahead and step outside that comfort zone a little bit and start, you know, spreading my wings, uh, if you will. And it was, it was a great experience because it did allow me to do that, you know, and now I feel a little more comfortable. And we always suggest that if you, you, if you're gonna be.
Starting something, and it's brand new, and you're still learning, like, the best ways to really navigate that is with stuff that you have a background in. Stuff that you're passionate about. Stuff that you enjoy and have fun with. Because then you're automatically going to start sounding... A little bit more believable, maybe a little bit more conversational, just overall you fit the piece maybe better because of that passion that you hold for it.
So networking, that made actually a lot, a lot of sense for me just because I've done a lot of that within my career over the last almost 20 years. But then because I was doing these different auditions and whatnot and I was putting samples up, this girl came across not only my samples but my photo. And what was crazy was the email that I had received.
Said something like, oh my god, you look just like the character in my book when I picture her and then you sound like her on top of it, would you be interested in voicing my teen novel series? And I was like, well, I mean, first of all, yes. Uh, and secondly, if it ever gets picked up on TV, I mean, I can't play a teen at this point, but I will play the cool mom, I promise.
But, uh, you know, it was one of those things where I, I just, I, I was excited, but I was also a little nervous. And I actually just got done voicing the fourth and final book of the series. And what I'll tell you is consistency can be... A strange little thing, uh, it's, it's difficult at first, you know, and I have a lot of students and, and, you know, listeners of, of this podcast who will reach out and, and ask questions like how can, how can I keep consistent in a longer read like that?
How can I, you know, naturally maintain a certain level of energy or, or how do I keep in character or how do I get that accent to, to stay, you know, the entire time that I'm doing something? And I think even in my practice, even in my career, the only thing that I can really suggest is keep Keep working at it, keep doing things, keep going, because even myself, here I am, 17 years to be specific, you know, in this career, still rather new to this, I was having those struggles of, of the overthinking as I was doing it, because In this book, you've got not just the main character, who I apparently sound like in this publisher's head, uh, but also, you've got her little brother, you've got the love interest, you've got the boyfriend who turns into an ex boyfriend, you've got her friends, you've got her parents, then you've got the love interest's parents.
Like, you know, so it's like, I'm over here... trying to differentiate my voice enough, but then also trying to remember, well, wait, how did I, how did I make that character sound in the last chapter or even in the last paragraph? And as I was going, you know, there were periods in between each book that I wasn't recording anything, you know, there was a good couple months in between each and it's like, well, what did I sound like in the last book?
Does it still sound the same in book three as it did in book two or one? And I, I guess, you know, the, the problem is, is that we do tend to overthink it a little bit. I even caught myself overthinking it. And it's very easy to do that because it's, it's just, you're going to constantly be wondering. Does this sound the way I think it sounds and I found the best thing for me to do was shake off that, that voice in the back of my head and just do it, you know, and the more that I was doing it, when I was listening back, I was like, Oh, all right, well, that doesn't, that doesn't sound as bad as I thought it did.
It actually sounds pretty good. Uh, you know, and it goes back to something that I know that I have said in a past episode with Josh. In in my radio career too, where we are always going to be our own harshest critic. So you've gotta take that into consideration because next thing you know, I mean, if you are constantly picking yourself apart, You are going to stay in that same place, you know, you're, you're going to be constantly just overthinking it stumbling maybe because of it, or the product maybe is not coming out in the ways that you would hoped because of that overthinking, but the moment that you just push that inner voice aside for a moment, and you just do.
All of a sudden things start to come into focus and they start to really come together and I noticed that especially with that last book because I had been going through, I mean, I recorded it all through December, there were the holidays, I was sick at one point for a while actually and then I was just incredibly busy between working with voice coaches on top of a bunch of radio stuff and a lot of fill ins because of the holiday as well.
So me trying to figure out how can I keep this going, um, and keep this consistent, you know, I really just had to push that inner voice aside and just keep going. And when I went and I sat down to edit it, I was actually incredibly pleasantly surprised. The best things I can say. You know, it is keep going, you know, push that voice away.
And the more experience that you have, the easier it's going to get because you're going to start trusting yourself a little bit more. So, I mean, if you have any takeaways from, from my experience in this teen novel series, let it be those three, you know, couple things, because I think, you know, the more that you do, the easier it gets, but.
As long as you keep going, it's going to get easier. It's going to get better and you're going to trust yourself a little bit more. So we are going to have more episodes of the podcast coming. If you have any questions that we can answer, make sure you reach out at info at voicecoaches. com. Keep being safe and we'll talk to you next week.
Visit voicecoaches.
com for more voiceover news and information.
Welcome to a brand new episode of voice coaches radio. My name is Marissa. Thank you so much for joining us here on whether it's, you know, release day or maybe it's 10 years from now and we're somewhere in the future. Please actually tell me about your life. What is it like? Are we through the pandemic yet?
Are cars really flying in the air? I know they're trying to make that happen, uh, but tell me about your world. It's probably a little bit more interesting than living through this wild time that we've all been dealing with, but I will tell you this, you know, living through a pandemic, what I've noticed is The, the days feel like they're going so much slower than they actually are, because then you look at the calendar and here we are, it's already February.
I'm still mentally trying to process 2020. I'm sure you are as well, but here we are. It's already two months in to 2022 and it's been a crazy wild ride. Uh, but I mentioned this last podcast episode where. This pandemic, there's a silver lining, right? Like I had the opportunity to sort of venture outside the comfort zone a little bit and really start diving into some things that I always had wanted to, but it wasn't necessarily a hundred percent sure as to how, or didn't really have the time.
And all of a sudden I found myself with an abundance of time, just like a lot of people and I had a home studio set up. So why not? So I did start like auditioning for audio books. And, uh, the first one that I got. Made a lot of sense for me, you know, because I know that I am, I'm a very engaging sort of read, you know, when I go ahead and I do that, I'm very animated when I, when I speak, when I read and that comes back to my radio background all in all honesty, because I'm supposed to sound like I'm having a party in the studio by myself, which honestly, it might sound that way right now for all I know, but you can be the judge on that.
But you know, this, this book that I did, it was just, it was meant to be an engaging read and it was all about, networking. Now the book itself you can no longer hear because turns out the person that had the publishing rights or claimed to really didn't. And now it's been taken off of Audible. But that's besides the point.
It allowed me to go ahead and step outside that comfort zone a little bit and start, you know, spreading my wings, uh, if you will. And it was, it was a great experience because it did allow me to do that, you know, and now I feel a little more comfortable. And we always suggest that if you, you, if you're gonna be.
Starting something, and it's brand new, and you're still learning, like, the best ways to really navigate that is with stuff that you have a background in. Stuff that you're passionate about. Stuff that you enjoy and have fun with. Because then you're automatically going to start sounding... A little bit more believable, maybe a little bit more conversational, just overall you fit the piece maybe better because of that passion that you hold for it.
So networking, that made actually a lot, a lot of sense for me just because I've done a lot of that within my career over the last almost 20 years. But then because I was doing these different auditions and whatnot and I was putting samples up, this girl came across not only my samples but my photo. And what was crazy was the email that I had received.
Said something like, oh my god, you look just like the character in my book when I picture her and then you sound like her on top of it, would you be interested in voicing my teen novel series? And I was like, well, I mean, first of all, yes. Uh, and secondly, if it ever gets picked up on TV, I mean, I can't play a teen at this point, but I will play the cool mom, I promise.
But, uh, you know, it was one of those things where I, I just, I, I was excited, but I was also a little nervous. And I actually just got done voicing the fourth and final book of the series. And what I'll tell you is consistency can be... A strange little thing, uh, it's, it's difficult at first, you know, and I have a lot of students and, and, you know, listeners of, of this podcast who will reach out and, and ask questions like how can, how can I keep consistent in a longer read like that?
How can I, you know, naturally maintain a certain level of energy or, or how do I keep in character or how do I get that accent to, to stay, you know, the entire time that I'm doing something? And I think even in my practice, even in my career, the only thing that I can really suggest is keep Keep working at it, keep doing things, keep going, because even myself, here I am, 17 years to be specific, you know, in this career, still rather new to this, I was having those struggles of, of the overthinking as I was doing it, because In this book, you've got not just the main character, who I apparently sound like in this publisher's head, uh, but also, you've got her little brother, you've got the love interest, you've got the boyfriend who turns into an ex boyfriend, you've got her friends, you've got her parents, then you've got the love interest's parents.
Like, you know, so it's like, I'm over here... trying to differentiate my voice enough, but then also trying to remember, well, wait, how did I, how did I make that character sound in the last chapter or even in the last paragraph? And as I was going, you know, there were periods in between each book that I wasn't recording anything, you know, there was a good couple months in between each and it's like, well, what did I sound like in the last book?
Does it still sound the same in book three as it did in book two or one? And I, I guess, you know, the, the problem is, is that we do tend to overthink it a little bit. I even caught myself overthinking it. And it's very easy to do that because it's, it's just, you're going to constantly be wondering. Does this sound the way I think it sounds and I found the best thing for me to do was shake off that, that voice in the back of my head and just do it, you know, and the more that I was doing it, when I was listening back, I was like, Oh, all right, well, that doesn't, that doesn't sound as bad as I thought it did.
It actually sounds pretty good. Uh, you know, and it goes back to something that I know that I have said in a past episode with Josh. In in my radio career too, where we are always going to be our own harshest critic. So you've gotta take that into consideration because next thing you know, I mean, if you are constantly picking yourself apart, You are going to stay in that same place, you know, you're, you're going to be constantly just overthinking it stumbling maybe because of it, or the product maybe is not coming out in the ways that you would hoped because of that overthinking, but the moment that you just push that inner voice aside for a moment, and you just do.
All of a sudden things start to come into focus and they start to really come together and I noticed that especially with that last book because I had been going through, I mean, I recorded it all through December, there were the holidays, I was sick at one point for a while actually and then I was just incredibly busy between working with voice coaches on top of a bunch of radio stuff and a lot of fill ins because of the holiday as well.
So me trying to figure out how can I keep this going, um, and keep this consistent, you know, I really just had to push that inner voice aside and just keep going. And when I went and I sat down to edit it, I was actually incredibly pleasantly surprised. The best things I can say. You know, it is keep going, you know, push that voice away.
And the more experience that you have, the easier it's going to get because you're going to start trusting yourself a little bit more. So, I mean, if you have any takeaways from, from my experience in this teen novel series, let it be those three, you know, couple things, because I think, you know, the more that you do, the easier it gets, but.
As long as you keep going, it's going to get easier. It's going to get better and you're going to trust yourself a little bit more. So we are going to have more episodes of the podcast coming. If you have any questions that we can answer, make sure you reach out at info at voicecoaches. com. Keep being safe and we'll talk to you next week.
Visit voicecoaches.
com for more voiceover news and information.
Have you ever went into a recording session and felt like you were losing yourself along the way? Your energy level was dropping midway through? That character you thought you had perfected seemed to lose it’s shine a bit? You’re not alone! Marissa chats about her time recording a teen novel series and the challenges that presented itself.
