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| One thing people always ask when they find out I make my living as a professional voice talent: "Where have I heard you?" Well, there are MANY possible answers...but here are some of the main kinds of work I do: |
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BROADCAST COMMERCIAL VOICEOVERS |
| This is the work that reaches the largest number of people. From Mother's Day spots delivered barely above a whisper to hard-driving car dealer spots...they are everywhere. Also, every couple years, things get extremely busy for me around September and October. The reason? I do a lot of work for political campaigns and political media creators. I have done spots for everything from local school board elections to U.S. Presidential races, with straight reads, inspirational delivery, tongue-in-cheek tone and punchy "tough-on-crime" content...from radio and TV commercials and narration for long-form image pieces to live-on-tape candidate introductions for fundraisers and personal appearances and even outbound call messages for autodialers. All this means a lot of late nights and quick turnarounds. Campaigns start early to carefully craft their image, but as the election approaches, they often find themselves forced to quickly counter the punches of the opposing campaigns with their advertising efforts. (Columbus Dispatch article) |
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CORPORATE IMAGE VOICEOVERS |
| Every company has an image, and the wise ones (especially as they grow larger) spend a fair amount of time crafting that image. Whether it's their voice mail system, marketing videos, broadcast commercials or web audio, the image-crafters for a company (often an outside advertising agency) understand that audio is a big component. I've done a lot of this work for home-based businesses with a staff of one, all the way up to large companies such as American Electric Power and Sequent. |
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LONG-FORM MARKETING VOICEOVERS |
| Companies have a product or service to sell. They create media materials in support of such sales for trade shows, sales calls, and sometimes even for broadcast. They build their case by stating the problem first, and then demonstrating how their product or service comes to the rescue. Some of the clients for whom I've provided the voiceover support for such efforts include Ohio Willow Wood, Telesis Marking Systems, Wayne-Dalton Garage Doors, Liquibox, Frigidaire, Eagle Crusher Company and The Grote Company. |
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TRAINING VOICEOVERS |
Whether training their own in-house staff, training their customers to use their products, or as part of an educational curriculum...more and more companies are finding that it's more cost-effective to create dynamic training materials online, via PowerPoint presentation or using other Computer-Based Training (CBT) technologies. Some of my voiceover clients in this area include: staff training for Wendy's International, phone switch technician training for Alcatel-Lucent, first responder training for a number of agencies in various states, teaching customers how to operate their water softener for Hague Quality Water, helping Riverside Methodist Hospital patients who are facing hip replacement surgery to prepare physically and emotionally for the procedure and online training coursework for many software applications thru Mindleaders. |
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ON-HOLD & VOICE MAIL |
| With the recent surge in outsourcing and home-based businesses, once of most significant challenges for companies with just a handful of employees is to "sound like the big boys". A professional voice can work wonders in this regard. And, of course, the "big boys" themselves need a quality voice for their systems as well. Additionally, most companies have learned to take advantage of the "dead time" while their clients wait on-hold to educate them about their products and services. Some of my phone voiceover clients have included: Vineyard Church of Columbus, Waste Management and the Florida Fruit & Vegetable Association. |
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WEB AUDIO |
| Whether it's a quick single-word title for navigation rollovers, reading a large page of text, an Ebay auction audio product description designed to enhance its legitimacy and appeal or a narration underneath a Flash presentation...web audio has really caught fire as broadband internet connections are becoming predominant in the market. (McKelor Technologies) |
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AUDIO BOOK NARRATION |
| We're a mobile society...but we still love our stories. So, for stories on cassette or CD (or MP3 download), I provide voices for book narration. Additionally, I've had a great deal of experiencing narrating textbooks to tape, which educational publishers provide as part of their compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (and for those who learn best auditorily). I've done a lot of this work for Glencoe Publishing. You can also download some free MP3 audiobooks I've narrated from Free MP3 Audiobooks, or some for children at LightUpYourBrain.com. |
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CHARACTER VOICES |
| Animated characters are no longer exclusively for children...as anyone who uses Microsoft Word can attest (remember the little paper clip Help Wizard?) Characters help "humanize" difficult concepts and make them more memorable. And kids ARE definitely drawn to characters as well. Some of the characters I've done include: "Nubby the Pencil" for Glencoe/McGraw-Hill Publishing, "Stumpy the Tree" for Santa's Village...as well as bringing many Bible characters to life for Group Publishing. And here are a couple interesting examples of characters I've voiced on the web: Roary the Lion...who provides musical entertainment at the Plainview McDonald's on Long Island, created by Mannetron....and (although you can't hear it online), the voice of The Borgia Knight (the school mascot at Borgia High School in Missouri). |
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RADIO STATION IMAGING |
| Radio and TV stations use "imaging" voices to help drive home their brand identity in your head. "You're listening to the Greatest Hits of the 70s, 80s & 90s 24 hours a day, 7 days a week...on 3WJ, 103.3". While it's not something I do a ton of, my voice has been used over the years for imaging on fine stations like Pax 51 (WSFJ), The Light (WLRY) and the Ohio News Network. |
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Perhaps you have more questions about the kind of work I do.
[frequently asked questions here] |
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And, finally...while I have never kept track of the kind comments I've received from clients over the years...I figured it was probably time to do so, cuz that's sort of the point of a web site, isn't it? ;-)
[select client comments here] |
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