VC Radio
Voice Coaches Radio #578: Under The Weather
Voice Coaches Radio. Everything voiceover. Welcome to a brand new episode of Voice Coaches Radio. My name is Marissa and as you can probably already tell, you do not have to adjust your headphones, your earbuds, your speakers. Uh, my voice is shot, man. Um, here's the situation. I'm glad, I'm actually, like I'm coming at you right now.
Like early morning, making sure that you hear exactly how awful I sound because this is like pre body fully waking up, pre caffeinated. Uh, this is pre medicine kicking in. Uh, though there's a whole lot of things, uh, but I think it's worthwhile to talk about stuff like this because guess what? I've got a lot of voice work I got to do today, somehow, right?
And I sound like this, so how am I gonna pull it off? Well, I'm gonna give you some ideas on how I'm gonna make this happen and I might actually surprise myself in this episode So here we go. But no, just to give you an idea here, like I I just had this trip to Detroit. Now, this was not just like, Hey, I'm going to have fun in Detroit.
This was, I am going for work. I do 10 different radio stations these days. So, you know, busy all the time. But they had a radio station concert that they had been putting on and it was supposed to be back in December, but it got canceled. One of the artists, you know, got injured or whatever. So rescheduled it for this this past weekend.
It was actually on a Monday night. So, I had to go ahead and fly out late Sunday, I stayed there like all Sunday night, Monday, flew out early Tuesday. Um, now to make all this happen, like I said, I'm on 10 different radio stations now, so it's, it's busy anyway. But, when I'm doing this on a regular basis, it's like a couple hours a day, like you spread it out, it's like totally doable, and you've got the rest of the day to play, and like relax, and not overuse your voice and whatever.
But, to get into this trip, Marissa just had to go ahead and like jump through all sorts of hoops to make some magic happen. Um, you know, basically, I mean, I'm looking at the checklist that I accomplished before leaving, and I mean, even I'm a little mind blown, cause I got a day. further ahead than I even planned, which is good because I came back sounding like this.
Uh, but I, I had to take what I normally do a couple hours a day. And, and cram, like, a couple extra of those days into, you know, the days leading up, which means, you know, that couple hours turns into about eight hours on a couple of those days. There were a couple bad nights sleep. Um, you know, there's just overuse of the voice on top of, you know, just the regular life stuff, you know, trying to get laundry done and dinner done and, uh, you know, taking care of pets and, and all those kinds of things.
So it was just incredibly busy leading up. And I, I go to Detroit. And I could feel it like, you know, on the way, like my throat was starting to bother me, but I'm like, yeah, it's just cause I over, I overdid it. Right. I just got to stop talking, which is fine. Cause I wasn't, I had no reason to talk until I actually saw people that I knew.
Um, so I got there though, and they had a car service for me, which was like, so VIP. I've never had that by the way. So like, yeah, that was lit. That was cool. Uh, but I got into that car and I felt like. I don't know. I got run over by a truck. I'm like, man, I'm tired. So I just thought, exhaustion, right? Good. I get to go to bed early.
All is good. I, uh, I ended up walking the next day to get coffee, because this was a really fancy hotel, and I wasn't about to even touch the espresso machine that was in there, because that probably would have cost me a hundred bucks just touching it. Uh, but, I, uh, I went to find some coffee, and, of course, it's chilly.
There's a little drizzle happening. I go back to the hotel. I'm there all day. I'm just really just... Relaxing as much as I can, but you know what happens, right? If you're go, go, go, go, go, and then you finally relax, Excuse me. Your body all of a sudden is like, oh wait, is, is now a good time to get sick? Right now?
So I think that was when it started working even more on me, but I had the show that night I went to bed. My throat was on fire by the morning. It felt a little bit better I actually was kind of blaming the room because it was very dry and that might actually have just made it worse truthfully But got got to the you know airport Got back home and instantly just was like this, um, you know, and it's, it's just a head cold.
I mean, I did a COVID test. It's not COVID. So I didn't get COVID on a plane, you know what I mean? Uh, but, you know, it's now the case is like, what do I do? How do I get past this? I've already actually done some recording since I've been home. Uh, and, you know, maybe yesterday I just didn't seem as bad. Um, maybe I just need to drink some more tea today.
Maybe I just need to do some vocal warm ups. But that is exactly the kind of like trajectory that's gonna happen this morning. So once I am done talking to you, I have to go ahead and get that throat coat tea going. I gotta do some vocal warm ups. Maybe do a little... running in place, if you will, uh, I definitely need to get some more nasal spray into my system.
Um, you know, but you kind of learn yourself and the tricks that help you. And listen, sometimes the show must go on, you know, there's going to be times where you're, you know, obviously set up for an audio book or something and you go in and you sound like this, they're gonna be like, yeah, we can't, we can't use that.
Uh, and listen, you might lose the gig. That's. It's part of life, honestly, it sucks, uh, but like you can't always control everything. In fact, you have no control over anything when you think about it. And I think that when you realize that, it puts a lot of things into perspective. You know, it, it just, it kind of like clears a mindset.
It stops the worry a little bit because what are you worrying about? You can't control it anyway. Like so why are you worrying? Um, you know what I mean? Um, and like, listen, easier said than done. Um, but. Really, at the end of the day, you've got to take care of yourself. So, The best suggestions, I mean, just don't overdo it, right?
Like, I overdid it, and sometimes I know you've got to. But, you know, make sure that you're taking care of yourself along the way. I tried. Uh, but there was a couple nights I just couldn't sleep. And like, listen, I take a pill that helps me sleep and it still didn't help me. So I think it was just I had too much going on in my brain, I couldn't shut it off.
Um, you know, so you've gotta make sure that you're getting a good night's rest. You've gotta make sure that you are having some decompression time. If you're not, you end up like me, uh, cause I definitely didn't have much time, like downtime leading up to that trip. And then, you know, along the way, it's just, if you start to feel something, then you gotta start, like, doing stuff to help it.
And that was probably also a big oopsie on my part, cause like, I felt it, but I was just like, meh, it's just from overuse. Uh, so like, I was drinking water, but like, Not taking anything for it or, like, doing any kind of sprays or, um, you know, a tea. Uh, no, that, that happened once I already was feeling it too much.
And once you're already feeling it too much, it's too late. Seriously. You just then have to, like, let it play its course. So, you know, for me this morning, it is going to be the, the vocal warmups. It is going to be, um, making sure that I do have a good amount of medicine in me to, to kind of open me up a bit.
It is going to be the tea, um, and you know, exercise is always a good thing. I'm going to admit my asthma is not super great right now. So I'm not going to be doing like some extensive cardio by any means, but, you know, just getting my blood flowing a little bit is going to, you know, help, help the process.
So. I'll let you know how it goes, but brand new episodes of Voice Coaches Radio again, coming at you next week. If you've got a topic that you would like me to discuss that you can actually, you know, understand me vocally next time, uh, info at voicecoaches. com, info at voicecoaches. com. Stay safe and hey, do me a favor, stay healthy too, all right?
Visit voicecoaches. com for more voiceover news and information.
Like early morning, making sure that you hear exactly how awful I sound because this is like pre body fully waking up, pre caffeinated. Uh, this is pre medicine kicking in. Uh, though there's a whole lot of things, uh, but I think it's worthwhile to talk about stuff like this because guess what? I've got a lot of voice work I got to do today, somehow, right?
And I sound like this, so how am I gonna pull it off? Well, I'm gonna give you some ideas on how I'm gonna make this happen and I might actually surprise myself in this episode So here we go. But no, just to give you an idea here, like I I just had this trip to Detroit. Now, this was not just like, Hey, I'm going to have fun in Detroit.
This was, I am going for work. I do 10 different radio stations these days. So, you know, busy all the time. But they had a radio station concert that they had been putting on and it was supposed to be back in December, but it got canceled. One of the artists, you know, got injured or whatever. So rescheduled it for this this past weekend.
It was actually on a Monday night. So, I had to go ahead and fly out late Sunday, I stayed there like all Sunday night, Monday, flew out early Tuesday. Um, now to make all this happen, like I said, I'm on 10 different radio stations now, so it's, it's busy anyway. But, when I'm doing this on a regular basis, it's like a couple hours a day, like you spread it out, it's like totally doable, and you've got the rest of the day to play, and like relax, and not overuse your voice and whatever.
But, to get into this trip, Marissa just had to go ahead and like jump through all sorts of hoops to make some magic happen. Um, you know, basically, I mean, I'm looking at the checklist that I accomplished before leaving, and I mean, even I'm a little mind blown, cause I got a day. further ahead than I even planned, which is good because I came back sounding like this.
Uh, but I, I had to take what I normally do a couple hours a day. And, and cram, like, a couple extra of those days into, you know, the days leading up, which means, you know, that couple hours turns into about eight hours on a couple of those days. There were a couple bad nights sleep. Um, you know, there's just overuse of the voice on top of, you know, just the regular life stuff, you know, trying to get laundry done and dinner done and, uh, you know, taking care of pets and, and all those kinds of things.
So it was just incredibly busy leading up. And I, I go to Detroit. And I could feel it like, you know, on the way, like my throat was starting to bother me, but I'm like, yeah, it's just cause I over, I overdid it. Right. I just got to stop talking, which is fine. Cause I wasn't, I had no reason to talk until I actually saw people that I knew.
Um, so I got there though, and they had a car service for me, which was like, so VIP. I've never had that by the way. So like, yeah, that was lit. That was cool. Uh, but I got into that car and I felt like. I don't know. I got run over by a truck. I'm like, man, I'm tired. So I just thought, exhaustion, right? Good. I get to go to bed early.
All is good. I, uh, I ended up walking the next day to get coffee, because this was a really fancy hotel, and I wasn't about to even touch the espresso machine that was in there, because that probably would have cost me a hundred bucks just touching it. Uh, but, I, uh, I went to find some coffee, and, of course, it's chilly.
There's a little drizzle happening. I go back to the hotel. I'm there all day. I'm just really just... Relaxing as much as I can, but you know what happens, right? If you're go, go, go, go, go, and then you finally relax, Excuse me. Your body all of a sudden is like, oh wait, is, is now a good time to get sick? Right now?
So I think that was when it started working even more on me, but I had the show that night I went to bed. My throat was on fire by the morning. It felt a little bit better I actually was kind of blaming the room because it was very dry and that might actually have just made it worse truthfully But got got to the you know airport Got back home and instantly just was like this, um, you know, and it's, it's just a head cold.
I mean, I did a COVID test. It's not COVID. So I didn't get COVID on a plane, you know what I mean? Uh, but, you know, it's now the case is like, what do I do? How do I get past this? I've already actually done some recording since I've been home. Uh, and, you know, maybe yesterday I just didn't seem as bad. Um, maybe I just need to drink some more tea today.
Maybe I just need to do some vocal warm ups. But that is exactly the kind of like trajectory that's gonna happen this morning. So once I am done talking to you, I have to go ahead and get that throat coat tea going. I gotta do some vocal warm ups. Maybe do a little... running in place, if you will, uh, I definitely need to get some more nasal spray into my system.
Um, you know, but you kind of learn yourself and the tricks that help you. And listen, sometimes the show must go on, you know, there's going to be times where you're, you know, obviously set up for an audio book or something and you go in and you sound like this, they're gonna be like, yeah, we can't, we can't use that.
Uh, and listen, you might lose the gig. That's. It's part of life, honestly, it sucks, uh, but like you can't always control everything. In fact, you have no control over anything when you think about it. And I think that when you realize that, it puts a lot of things into perspective. You know, it, it just, it kind of like clears a mindset.
It stops the worry a little bit because what are you worrying about? You can't control it anyway. Like so why are you worrying? Um, you know what I mean? Um, and like, listen, easier said than done. Um, but. Really, at the end of the day, you've got to take care of yourself. So, The best suggestions, I mean, just don't overdo it, right?
Like, I overdid it, and sometimes I know you've got to. But, you know, make sure that you're taking care of yourself along the way. I tried. Uh, but there was a couple nights I just couldn't sleep. And like, listen, I take a pill that helps me sleep and it still didn't help me. So I think it was just I had too much going on in my brain, I couldn't shut it off.
Um, you know, so you've gotta make sure that you're getting a good night's rest. You've gotta make sure that you are having some decompression time. If you're not, you end up like me, uh, cause I definitely didn't have much time, like downtime leading up to that trip. And then, you know, along the way, it's just, if you start to feel something, then you gotta start, like, doing stuff to help it.
And that was probably also a big oopsie on my part, cause like, I felt it, but I was just like, meh, it's just from overuse. Uh, so like, I was drinking water, but like, Not taking anything for it or, like, doing any kind of sprays or, um, you know, a tea. Uh, no, that, that happened once I already was feeling it too much.
And once you're already feeling it too much, it's too late. Seriously. You just then have to, like, let it play its course. So, you know, for me this morning, it is going to be the, the vocal warmups. It is going to be, um, making sure that I do have a good amount of medicine in me to, to kind of open me up a bit.
It is going to be the tea, um, and you know, exercise is always a good thing. I'm going to admit my asthma is not super great right now. So I'm not going to be doing like some extensive cardio by any means, but, you know, just getting my blood flowing a little bit is going to, you know, help, help the process.
So. I'll let you know how it goes, but brand new episodes of Voice Coaches Radio again, coming at you next week. If you've got a topic that you would like me to discuss that you can actually, you know, understand me vocally next time, uh, info at voicecoaches. com, info at voicecoaches. com. Stay safe and hey, do me a favor, stay healthy too, all right?
Visit voicecoaches. com for more voiceover news and information.
This week on Voice Coaches Radio, Marissa is, well…not 100%, to say the least. But, wait…she has a ton of recording to do, so how is she handling it?
