My pal said to me yesterday ‘Exercising is the new socialising ‘ which I gaffawed at and then proudly told her I had started doing hot yoga. I have found practicing yoga really beneficial to my voiceover work and my sanity. I love it and over the years have tried to practice regularly, especially whilst pregnant. Having a check in each morning to do some sun salutations before climbing into my red telephone box aka my voiceover booth means I can spend a short period imagining a beautiful sea vista whilst in tree pose rather than just overlooking Navigation Road park, as my little house in Altrincham does. Visualisation is a powerful thing.
Along with my yoga I’ve been investing in some actual voiceover workouts, as taught my fabulous pal and awesome voice coach and voiceover artist Nicola Redman. Although I’m a voice ‘actor’ I have had no formal acting training. My background is in radio presenting. I stupidly always thought as I wasn’t an actor that kind of training wasn’t for me. I was wrong. Really I just was scared of making a fool out of myself. However having moved to the same city as Nic and knowing her personally, I figured how embarrassing can it be. Before I moved here we started off with a Skype session and stuck out tongues out at each other as well as doing other stupid things. I was quite uncomfortable with it, but it really wasn’t that bad. Then I went to Nic’s house for a one to one and again felt stupid, pulling faces at her and in the mirror.. but you know what, I lived to tell the tale. Then I went to her workshop and along with a group of other voiceovers messed around making noises, doing silly voices and throwing some bizarre dance moves. I LOVED IT! It was such fun and I felt like I was getting better as my craft. It felt like I was safe within the pack mentality.
I’m going to another class tomorrow night, where we’ll be working on our ‘SPLATTING’ this is a special technique to help your breathing. Today I used splatting whilst I was recording a voiceover for a commercial. I did the job quicker.
You see we all need to put ourselves outside our comfort zone in order to get better at what we do, whether it’s professional or personal. My voiceover training continues every day, with my Gravy for the Brain mentoring membership. I’ve just completed a course from Peter Dickson, you know who I mean..sharing his wisdom on how to voice amazing commercials
Plus, I’ve just recorded a brand new commercial voiceover demo with the lovely Kirsty Gilmore of Sounds Wilde. So if by any chance you are someone who works in an ad agency and picks voiceovers as part of your job – then I’ve done a bloody good job with my SEO and marketing campaign.. but I can assure you I’m on a mission and will hopefully be speaking to you… and for you…very soon x