Recently I was invited to guest on Jo Troy’s A voiceover’s Adventure Podcast. I jumped at the chance!
I first heard of Jo when he won Voiceover Newcomer of the Year at the One Voice Awards in 2021. And then got to know him a little better through his regular guest spots on The Voiceover Social Podcast. Hosted by my good pals Nic & Leah – they followed Jo’s career with mini interviews over several shows and a rather fabulous theme tune. “Jo, Jo, Jo. Jo J-Jo Jo…” (it’s much better with the music!). When I finally got to chat to Jo it was a warm summery afternoon and in no time at all Jo had launched his new podcast and our chat was playing in people’s ears.
I’m not about to transcribe the whole podcast (Jo’s already done that here). It’ll be much more fun for you to listen to the episode anyway. So here you go…
Listen to the Branding In Voiceover episode
What do we talk about?
Voiceovers all have different and unique selling points. But working out how to make ourselves stand out from the crowd and get booked can feel like an uphill battle.
We chat about:
- Why is branding important in voiceover
- What to do and not do when creating your brand
- Branding fundamentals
- How to grow your brand
Jo talks about his own experiences of branding himself when he started out in his voice career. Initially he realised he needed to have a brand and knew he needed to be visible to potential clients. Initially taking inspiration from other voice over websites, he realised what he had wasn’t enough. Jo realised that a voiceover website should showcase the talent, yes, but also needed to give a sense of the individual too. I’ve talked about how to find your fabulous – your USP (Unique Selling Proposition) or your secret sauce. It’s essential to help you stand out in a very crowded voiceover market.
Over Jo’s 2 plus years professionally voicing he has had 2 websites and 2 brands. He started with nothing – no logo, no assets, no website. And – like many starting out – he had a limited budget to set himself up. Demos, recording space, studio setup and coaching are essential items on a voiceover start-up’s list. Frequently it’s the branding and marketing budget slice that is reduced and many DIY their first brand and website.
There were questions from other voice artists – some really great, big questions!
I may have uttered ‘whoa’ and ‘blimey’ and ‘starting with a light topic then?!’ more than once!
Lucas Keen says “If I could speak to a branding specialist, I would ask how I can sell my niche and my USP as a voiceover whilst not disqualifying myself from other genres. And how I could do this consistently across multiple platforms.”
Alix Perry asks “What is the timeline of your brand? How often should you be updating it to keep it fresh, but also not lose what you’ve created in the first place?”
Sally Vanderpump asks “How can I ensure that my branding continues to reflect my brand as it grows and evolves?
If you want to create or update your voice over brand, you can find out more about how I work on my brand services page. If you’d like to see some of the voice artists I’ve worked with and what we produced together, head over to my portfolio.
What is branding?
I’ll quote myself (if that isn’t too strange a thing to do… it feels kind of weird)…
“I think there’s a misconception of what branding actually is. It’s not just about colours and logos and fonts and typefaces and all that kind of stuff. Branding is how you chat to potential clients, existing clients, how you talk in the world and how you turn up in the world. Whether that be in conversation, online, social media, through your demo reels. Absolutely every element of you. Telling people what you do and trying to get work is branding. The colours bit and the logo bit are a part of it – that’s one of the ways you become recognisable. But the branding itself is very much about how you communicate with other people.”
Branding can easily feel overwhelming. Knowing where to start, facing our own imposter syndrome and lack of confidence are common blocks. And many of us find talking about ourselves and promoting ourselves absolutely horrible and icky.
There is a HUGE positive side to this approach to branding though.
YOU OWN IT. It is yours and it is you.
You are great BECAUSE you are different. Because you have different interests. Because you have different experiences (both good and bad) that have influenced how and why you do things. You are fabulous.
How do I ‘do’ brands for voiceovers?
One thing I absolutely, truly believe is that – when it comes to branding voice over artists – you should brand the person NOT the voice. And yes – there are some very prominent vo brand specialists who say the opposite.
I go into my reasoning for this in the podcast, but I think it’s so important I’m going to mention it here too (although DO listen too!). So why not brand the voice? I’ll answer with another question – how can you brand a voice when that voice can change? If your specialism is character voices, you’ll be using multiple voices all the time. Attempt to brand one voice, and you’re missing out on all the other wonderful things you can do. Also – things change. People age. Voices rise and deepen. An older voice has a different tone to a younger voice. So if you want your brand to grow with you, branding only the voice means it will soon become outdated.
I brand the person – the way they work, what values they hold, what experiences and skills they have had. Everything that makes that person unique. That way your voice can change, the services you offer can change. But the very core of your business – your values, your ethos – they don’t change as often, so your brand will last far longer and grow side by side with your career.
“It’s not what you do – it’s the way that you do it.”
Or – to quote poet and maths geek Harry Baker:
“When one does what one does, one can cause wonders.”
So go out into the world and do what you do best. And be uniquely fabulous along the way.
Where to find Jo and the Voiceover’s Adventure podcast
Don’t forget to listen and subscribe to the podcast. It swiftly became one of my faves and I always listen to new episodes as soon as they’re released. There are some cracking interviews and nuggets of voiceover career wisdom from a huge range of industry people. Advice on how to get started in voiceover, demos, freelance sites, rates and usage, coaching, planning and well-being. Honestly – it’s a great podcast.
Need a podcast guest?
If anyone who has their own podcast and is looking for guests to chat about voiceover, branding or websites, I’m always happy to chat about what you’re after. Get in touch via our contact page or email me directly and let’s see if we can arrange something.