VAM 075 | Building Your Voice Acting Brand, Part 1
Welcome to episode 75 of the Voice Acting Mastery podcast with yours truly, Crispin Freeman!
As always, you can listen to the podcast using the player above, or download the mp3 using the link at the bottom of this blog post. The podcast is also available via the iTunes Store online. Just follow this link to view the podcast in iTunes:
http://www.voiceactingmastery.com/podcast
In episode 74, I discussed at length how important it is to develop a public persona in order to interact more fruitfully with the public and with fandom. I described your public persona as the face you show to the public, to your fans, to the press, to anyone outside of your intimate circle of family or friends. Such a persona is not only useful to help you maintain a gracious and respectful relationship with fandom, but can also serve as emotional armor when you feel the need to protect yourself from public criticism. How you design your public persona depends on your own artistic values, and also on the brand you choose to build as an industry professional.
The concept of branding oneself as a voice actor can be confusing, especially when you’re just starting out, so in this episode I’d like to share some tips on how to approach the subject. Having a solid grasp of your own brand can not only help you decide how your public persona will behave, it can also shape your marketing, your overall business strategy, and your personal interactions with fellow industry professionals. Building a strong, positive brand and then staying true to it can help it grow, which strengthens your ability to stand out from the crowd and be remembered by employers, peers, and the public. On the other hand, a weak or inconsistent brand can make you less memorable or even undesirable as an actor.
In the podcast, I explore in detail what it takes to create an effective and consistent brand. I hope you find it helpful in your voice acting endeavors.
Thanks for listening!
Download Voice Acting Mastery Episode #75 Here (MP3)
22 Responses to “VAM 075 | Building Your Voice Acting Brand, Part 1”
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- VAM 076 | Building Your Voice Acting Brand, Part 2 | Voice Acting Mastery: Become a Master Voice Actor in the World of Voice Over - […] episode 75 I explained the importance of creating and maintaining a positive and consistent voice acting […]
I was planning on having my domain name be straightedgevoiceactor .com. That’s the name I have on my blog. I wanted that to be my brand name. So, I guess I should change it?
Also, my e-mail is just the initial of my first name and my last name. So I guess I should change that too?
I’m asking just to be sure. Don’t want shooting my brand in the foot to be the first thing I do.
Is “Straight Edge” your full name or your stage name? If not, then how will a casting director ever remember you? Unless you’re going to change your name to “Straight Edge” it’s not a helpful way to market yourself.
You want a casting director to know your full name.
Let me repeat.
You want a casting director to know your full name.
Make sense?
Yes, sir. Crystal clear.
Thank you Crispin for another episode. When I come to think of it I would use my full name as my domain name and my professional name because I believe if that’s the name you’ve been given then there has to be a reason why I’m named Anthony Berbey. I practice with my voice playing as dark, sadistic, psychotic, anti-heroic or villianous characters. I can sometimes practice honorable leader voices or easy-going characters by just being casual. How would I brand my work with those archetypes?
I’m glad you enjoyed the episode.
It’s not really feasible for me to give you personal branding advice in blog comments, primarily because I don’t know you well enough as an actor so I don’t know what branding advice to give you. You tell me what characters you can play, but I don’t know if you can actually play those characters competitively or not. The only way I would know that for sure is if you took class with me so I could evaluate your skills first hand.
You should ask your voice over coaches or mentors what they think would be helpful in terms of branding you.
Okay. Thank you sir. Hopefully I’d be able to get the money needed to take the class.
Well I do have a question. The method is to be consistent on the work and not to goof around with other professionals when it comes to projects. Am I correct?
You need to prove that you can do the work and do it well. Once you demonstrate that you’re capable, if your colleagues seem to be relaxed, then you may have some time to joke and pal around, but not before you deliver the voice acting goods.
Okay.
Thanks for going more in depth into the more business side of voice over. Really looking forward to rest of this topic.
You’re welcome! I’m glad you’re finding it so useful.
“Oh look! A cat video!”
Yeah, I know some people who put their demos on YouTube. It’s not just voice demos, but animation reels and other media too. I’d hope they get their own site when they want to pursue their craft more seriously.
I’ve actually been working on my branding already for awhile. Branding is a BIG topic in my graphic design classes. Everything from the colours to the typography speaks volumes to the audience. There’s many other subtleties that can boost or hinder your message.
I want to make sure I fully realised my brand before I make my website, but I’ve met with some unique hurdles. How does one do branding for writing, illustration, graphic design, game design, and voice acting? After several brainstorming sessions, I did get an idea for it that I shared with my graphic design instructor, which he thought was really strong and suited me very well and thought I should run with it. I think it’s strong as well, but you’ve given me more insight though which may present a new problem. Now I’m scratching my head at what I should do. I hesitate to share specifics this publically and requesting your time in private seems selfish and not befitting our current relationship.
…I think I need to go and untie my brain out of the knot it’s in now. Hopefully I can figure this out. You gave sound advice though and I urge everyone to listen well.
I’m glad that you’re becoming very aware of the importance of branding and how graphic design can affect how people perceive you.
I do not think there is one “brand” that can cover writing, illustration, graphic design, game design and voice acting. That’s too many subjects. You need to have separate websites or very separate website divisions for each of those pursuits. You could probably group them as 1) writing, 2) illustration & graphic design 3) game design and 4) voice acting.
Initially, I had tried to bring my voice acting, my voice coaching and my mythology scholarship all under one site. It was very confusing to my audience. I split them up. My voice acting is at CrispinFreeman.com, my voice coaching is at VoiceActingMastery.com and my mythology scholarship is at MythologyAndMeaning.com. I suggest you find a way to split up your brands as well.
Hmm… I certainly don’t want things to be confusing.
I think I may be able pull off something pretty cool with some more thought and work. Thanks for the advice Crispen! I found this helpful!
Great podcast! Very helpful. Really got me thinking about my personal website and what it would look like to a potential client.
Thank you! Looking forward to part 2!
You’re very welcome! Glad I could help.
Thank you for yet another wonderful episode. It is very helpful that you focus very much on both mental, and business factors of the industry. I am glad to have this advice and I appreciate your sharing of knowledge. I am very much looking forward to future podcasts. Thank you once again!
You’re welcome. Glad you’re enjoying the podcast.
I can’t wait for the next podcast episode. I know I’m going to enjoy it. Keep up the good work sir.
Everyday I day dream about becoming an actress, especially when I am scrubbing toilets and cleaning floors. Acting has been a passion of mine since middle school where I took classes an acted and sang in musicals and plays. I want to help people with my acting by making them happy and entertained when they are watching. maybe they are having a bad day, but watch this anime, that I’m starring in and feel better after watching. Or feel like they connect with the character through my acting. I want to inspire people to achieve their goals and dreams in life. i want others to feel like they can be anything they want to be, if someone like me who is from small town in Maine, can become an actress then so can they. Most of all I want to do what I love. The great thing about acting is you can play the part of a character that is the complete opposite of your personality or close to who you are. Also in that moment when you are in the studio acting you get to be that character and take on their personality and feelings.
The only problem is that I would like to record a demo and to go out and audition, but should I try if I don’t live near the studio? Or would it be okay if I were auditioning for a character that is only in a few episodes or a movie? Right now I don’t have the money to move out to bigger states.
Hi there Carley. It’s clear that you have a passion for voice acting! I’m sure that enthusiasm will serve you well as you travel on your acting journey.
I talked earlier in the podcast about the difference between doing Narration type voice over and Character type voice over. It’s in episode 16 of the podcast.
If what you truly want to do is character based voice acting work in animation, video games and anime, you will eventually want to move to a city where that type of production is done. However, you can practice your voice acting wherever you are right now. I never advise people to just pick up and move to a new city if they haven’t started building up their acting resume wherever they live right now. I talk about this in detail in episodes 17 and 18.
Check out those episodes and I think they’ll answer a lot of your questions.
You mentioned not to use decriptive titles in your email. So is yournamevoiceactor@gmail.com not acceptable?