Feeling confused? Uncertain? Can’t remember your name? Never fear! The Doctors are In!
Dr. Ganguzza and Dr. Nistico specialize in voiceover identity crises and branding mistakes and they are here to help you conquer your VO self.
No need to run to the pharmacy either! Just sit back and apply this podcast to your ear canal for approximately 20 minutes. You’ll be feeling better in no time!
Takeaways
Quick Concepts from Today’s Episode:
You must know who you are as an artist, as a person, before you can make a brand.
Your brand must be unique and personal to you, and must come from an authentic place.
Your brand will evolve with your career.
Use emotions to connect with what you want and use that to develop a brand, and a niche for yourself.
Referenced in this Episode
Direct links to things we brought up ++
Get Help For What Ails Your Brand with Brand Aid!
Transcript
VO: Today’s voice-over talent is more than just a pretty voice. Today’s voice-over talent has to be a boss, a VO BOSS set yourself up with business owner strategies and success with your host, Anne Ganguzza along with some of the strongest voices in our industry, rock your business like a boss, a VO BOSS Anne: Welcome to the VOBOSS podcast, I’m Anne Ganguzza along with my beautiful cohost, Gabby Nistico, hey Gabby. Gabby: Who’s that? Who’s Gabby, I don’t know, what’s going on? Anne: My VO BOSS bestie. Gabby: Who am I, what’s happening? Anne: You know I don’t know, who are you and who am I? I’m having an identity crisis, Gabby. Gabby: You are? Anne: I am, I am, you know what I think we should talk about it for our podcast. Gabby: I think so too. Anne: How about that, who are you? Business identity crisis. Gabby: Well I know who I am, I’m the Voiceover Vixen, dammit! Anne: And I am Anne Ganguzza, my personal brand is just Anne Ganguzza out there. Gabby: It’s all you need. Anne: All I need out there with you know hopefully a couple of good identifiers so people understand who I am as a person and like me and then want to hire me, that’s like marketing 101, right? Gabby: Yeah. Anne: People will buy from people they know, like and trust and so. Gabby: Got Ganguzza. Anne: That’s right. Gabby: It’s what you need. Anne: Anne Ganguzza, and it’s always helpful when you’re trying to get your brand out there that you start to understand who you are first. Gabby: It is. Anne: And then also listen to how other people see you or hear you. Gabby: Yeah, I’m being goofy today I know, but it’s essential that we have an understanding of who we are in business. And honestly, I think and this is so funny because Anne has seen it, I’ve seen it. Other coaches have seen it, some of you may have seen it, it’s really funny when you have someone who’s relatively new to voice-over, they’ve been training, they’ve been taking classes, they are on the cusp of entering the marketplace and they’re literally asking other people who am I? Who am I in this business and you know what’s my brand? And I’m like whoa, that’s pretty heavy stuff. Anne: It is heavy. Gabby: Because how can you enter any marketplace in business without having a clear indication of who you are and what you do? And what makes you marketable? Anne: I absolutely think that other people can help see you from their perspective. Gabby: True. Anne: However, you really have to know who you are and I’m gonna say, one of the most important things is who you are as a singular brand, it doesn’t necessarily have to be all voice-over. For example, my brand, well at least I hope, my brand that I want to portray out there is smart, tech savvy, you know that professional voice that you want you know behind your brand to bring that intelligence out. And that is who I am, that is who I want my brand to be, so before you go and ask 100 people who you are, try to ask yourself the same question and bring in the principles of your core personality. Not like, oh how do I sound, because it’s not just about how you sound, it’s about who you are as a person and who you are as a person, what you bring to your voice and your product as a person, that doesn’t necessarily say, oh I’m raspy, friendly, conversational, that’s not just about that. And Gabby, so important, it’s not just about a tagline, it really has nothing to do with your tagline. Gabby: Hey! Anne: Or it can have something to do with your tagline, but taglines are not completely definitive, of the brand, right? Gabby: No they’re not, they’re not. Anne: They’re so much more. Gabby: It’s true, so there’s a couple points here that I wanna make. So the first goes back to what you were saying a minute ago, you can also reverse engineer that process. Sometimes you can start out by first of all, figuring out what you aren’t. Who am I not, is a great way to narrow down your brand because it eliminates a whole bunch of stuff and the other thing that you have to ask yourself is what do I want? See now, Anne, you said something really critical when you said, I want to be known or seen as smart. And that’s the key, what do you want? Because what you want, ultimately, is where the brand success comes from and how you identify that market share, that’s what every business goes through regardless of what they sell or what service they provide. What do you want, hugely important. Anne: And then also keeping in mind though that what you want is synonymous with a valuable product for the marketplace. Gabby: Now it’s not all in the tagline, some people don’t even need a tagline. Anne: Right, I don’t have one. Gabby: Is it essential to have one? Absolutely not, you don’t, I do, whoop-de-do, you know what I mean? Anne: Right. Gabby: It’s so not a big deal. Anne: I had one, at one time. Gabby: Some people have had them, not had them, sometimes they work out, sometimes they don’t. But here’s what’s critical and this is what I see a lot and I get asked this a lot because I do have a tagline and I have a tagline that’s fairly well-known. People come to me all the time with different ideas and I shoot down probably about 95% of them. Anne: Yeah, me too. Gabby: And the reason they get shot down is usually they’re so generic, they could be any voice actor. Anne: Yes, absolutely. Gabby: They aren’t specific to the individual, they’re not personality driven and they’re just kind of fluff statements. I think probably my all-time dreaded, most hated one, because I’ve seen it so many times and I’m sorry if someone out there is like using it actively, but I gotta tell you it’s not original and it’s not unique so get rid of it. The voice of choice. Anne: Yeah, yeah, I’ve seen that– Gabby: All time, all time– Anne: Quite a few times. Gabby: My most hated tagline because I’m like who, what is that? Anybody could be the voice of choice, what does that mean? Anne: You know what, Gabby, I think if people were to sit and let’s think about this, when you’re looking for something, right? You’re online or whatever, you’re looking for something that you’re going to purchase and let’s say your potential client’s going to purchase your voice, right. Are they gonna type in, the voice of choice in the tagline? No. Gabby: No, of course not. Anne: I want people to know me for me, I want people to know Anne Ganguzza and what I truly want, right, like I always go back to Charmin, like Charmin is my brand of choice. You know I don’t care– Gabby: Yeah, yeah, we know, squeezy, squeezy. Anne: I know it by name, that’s right, it’s soft and it’s pliable. When people search, I want them to know me by name, I want them to search for Anne Ganguzza, that is the brand that I want them to look for. Not the voice of choice. Gabby: Thank you, I now have the image in my head. Anne: Of me squeezing Charmin. Gabby: Of your, yes, of your lovely caricature of you that every one knows and loves, squeezing the Charmin, that’s awesome. So yeah, now I’m gonna be, thank you, that’s gonna be with me all day. Anne: It’s all about the Charmin. Gabby: Oh my God, how funny. If you don’t have a clear, at least idea, a concept in mind right now for who you are in voice-over don’t start asking a million people and kind of randomly throwing things out there, it’s not gonna get you anywhere. And honestly it’s kind of dreaded, people sort of hate it, I see people get fileted on Facebook and social media all the time for throwing these questions out there, very randomly. What you want to do, and Anne, I don’t know about you but I really love this method, is create a focus group. Big companies, major corporations, brand names, put together focus groups all the time when they’re launching a new product or when they’re considering new ideas. So you have to create your own little focus group. Anne: Focus group. Gabby: It might be anywhere from five to maybe 15 people, I think anything more than that might be a little excessive. Anne: Yeah, that’s a great idea. Gabby: And you know what, ask them very, very specific questions, not open-ended questions, not you know, well who do you think I am in voice-over? No. Anne: Right. Gabby: Things that are specific that can help you to find your way to an answer. One that I think is really important is, what celebrity do I remind you of, vocally? Does my voice sound like anyone that you know? Does it remind you of a notable figure? And the reason that’s important is because there might be an alignment there through someone else’s brand that you can capitalize on and make some changes to make it your own. Anne: Strategic brand association. Gabby: Yes. Anne: That’s what I call it, yes, absolutely. Gabby: And it’s really important. Anne: It is, it’s fantastic. Gabby: Another question that I like for people to explore with their focus group is, and it’s a little fruity, I know. The question of feelings, how does my voice make you feel? Anne: Yes, absolutely. I love that because you know what sells? Emotion, emotion sells. Gabby: Yeah, yeah. Anne: It’s not facts and figures that sell. Gabby: No. Anne: It’s about an emotion that you evoke when somebody comes across you in social media or somebody comes across you on a webpage, I love that you just said that, because you just got me all excited. It’s about the emotion and the feeling that you create or evoke out of a potential client. And that’s what’s gonna make them pull their credit card out and say, here, let me, you know, I’m gonna buy your services. Gabby: Totally, because if the feeling of your company and the feeling of their company are the same, that’s what’s gonna do it. Anne: Right. Gabby: And you’re right, they are, they’re gonna whip out the card. Anne: And if you make them feel good, if make them feel good– Gabby: Oh, yeah– Anne: About their brand, that’s even, that’s really I think the key to it, is that you make them feel good about their brand because you’re going to help their brand elevate. Gabby: Bingo, it’s one of the areas in which I actually think that modern voice-over casting and online casting has done us a disservice. The descriptive words, the adjectives that used to be used to describe a voice talent, have become so overused, in the online arenas. So words like friendly and warm and– Anne: Conversational. Gabby: And guy next door and conversational and the list goes on and on, have become so over used and over saturated. Anne: They’re not unique anymore. Gabby: No. Anne: And that in terms of SEO, is a big thing, right? Gabby: It is. Anne: You’re competing with everybody else who is conversational. So think about your uniqueness in your brand and what makes you different from everybody else. It’s gonna help you all the way around. Gabby: It is, and emotions are gonna help you to get there. Anne: Yeah, absolutely. Gabby: Emotions are gonna help to bridge that process because you’re gonna be thinking about your voice in a wholly unique way as opposed to trying to figure out what box do I fit into? Forget the boxes– Anne: You’re your own box. Gabby: Yeah, when you go to a pay-to-play and you fill out a profile, that’s what you’re doing, you’re checking boxes. You don’t have to conform to a box. You want to kind of reinvent the box a bit. Anne: Well, I understand the need for the boxes on the pay-to-plays, that’s just a tech– Gabby: All I do is– Anne: Well, that’s the technical backend of it, right? But I love that you’re telling people– Gabby: But that has to do with their algorithm. Anne: Not to conform. Gabby: Yeah, with their algorithm. Yeah, that all has to do with the algorithm and the way they’re website functions and the math that literally fuels it. But what’s interesting and Anne you brought up SEO, see what’s happening is, guys, clients are having to reinvent the way they think about what is they’re looking for. Anne: Right. Gabby: Because when we go to a website, when we go to Google and we’re looking for something if we become inundated or overwhelmed with choices, what do we do? We reinvent the search cue, we change the language of what we’re looking for. Anne: We can’t just type voice-over, you become inundated. Gabby: Even a client who goes to the web right now and types in, conversational voice actor is going to be inundated with results. Anne: Overwhelmed. Gabby: So instead, they’re gonna find new ways to describe what they’re looking for, they’re gonna get more specific. They might start saying things like, well, we’re looking for a young, Millennial, male, who is smart and conversational. And that new search cue, is gonna narrow down choices, significantly. So, it starts to change the way we brand, it starts to change the way we market. Anne: And again,– Gabby: The more specific you are, the easier it’s gonna be to find you. Anne: And what’s so funny is that everybody wants to be known for voice-over, that keyword. And the funny thing is, is that that’s not gonna ever happen. Gabby: No. Anne: Yes, i mean voice-over should be in your website somewhere because that’s what you do, that is a description of your business, but all of those other unique search words, those are gonna be the ones that truly get you found for what you are special at and what you are unique at. And those are the ones that you concentrate on the marketing for. And most people are afraid to actually narrow down the choice because they want to do it all, but they really, it’s the first rule over and over again, you read about marketing is you need to really focus and create a niche for yourself. Create that uniqueness. Gabby: Yes. Anne: And that is how you are going to get found, over and over again. Gabby: Yeah, because here’s the thing, and your right, Anne, the Voice123 and voices.com and other pay-to-plays they’ve got it, it’s done, they have, their website have that word listed 50 to 100,000 times. Anne: Well, exactly because of all the people who are on them. Gabby: Right, and they’ve bought, they’ve bought the keyword in essence. Anne: They have, they’ve purchased it. Gabby: So sometimes I do this when I’m working on branding with a voice actor, you know I hack into their source code which is not hard by the way, it’s super simple to do. And I look at people’s meta tags and I’m like, no wonder you’re not getting hits, like your meta tag just says like voice actor. you know you’re in a sea and you’re afloat. You’re getting lost. Anne: SEO’s going to be another podcast I believe. Gabby: Oh yeah, we’ll get into that more. Anne: That can be an entire new podcast. Gabby: Yes, definitely. Anne: But you’re right, you’re right and you need to find those words that are unique to you. There’s lots of tools out there that can help you to find good keywords and description adjectives for your business but I think it truly starts with you, doing a little bit of fundamental looking inside yourself and asking yourself the questions, what services do you offer? What do you want to be known for? In the community, in your business? And then you can have your, I love your focus group, you can have a focus group, people that can help you. Because sometimes they’ll bring a perspective to your business that perhaps you didn’t think about. Gabby: Yeah. And be true to yourself, be true to who you are. Anne: Oh, gosh, please. Gabby: Be true to your personality. Years and years ago, long before Voiceover Vixen ever existed, I was– Anne: You were a vixen. But that describes you, that describes your personality to a T. Gabby: It does, but see back in the day I was trying to conform, I was trying to be this business person and I was trying to, it was almost what I was doing early on was too conservative, it wasn’t me. And it didn’t work, it wasn’t until I embraced my sense of humor, my personality, my viewpoint on the world, that Voiceover Vixen was born and the language and every thing that goes with it came to be. Anne: Yeah, and exactly again, remember people hire people that they know, like and trust. Gabby: Yep. Anne: And then your product too of course, but notice how the order there, they know, they like and they trust. And because you know, Gabby, you were able to embrace your personality and embrace who you were and myself as well, people are initially attracted to that, not necessarily, I mean I’m sure they’re listening to your voice-over demos, but it’s so much more than just that product, it’s the whole experience. It’s the Gabby experience, it’s the Voiceover Vixen experience they’re getting, the Anne Ganguzza experience they’re getting, because we are selling a personal brand. It is an inherent part of this industry. You know if we had a product that we’re making, like Charmin, that would be a different story, then you’re branding Charmin. Gabby: Right. Anne: But again, it’s go with your emotions first, because know, like and trust, have people get to know you, have people like you and then they will trust you. Gabby: Very well put, and guys, here’s the key if you’re going through an identity crisis right now you’re not, you already know who you are. Anne: You do. Gabby: Just show us. Anne: Yeah, everybody truly knows, it’s whether we’ve decided to bring it out. Even if there are parts of you that you’re not necessarily sure of, those can evolve, I don’t want people to be frightened that they’re business has to stay the same, because goodness, God only knows that we’ve evolved. Our VO BOSS brand as time has gone on as we found out what people like, what people don’t like, we’re evolving, I’m evolving as a person, I’m evolving as a brand. You know Gabby, the same for you, we can evolve, we evolve with the marketplace too, and so don’t– Gabby: Everything. Anne: Don’t be in your box not willing to come out of it or to extend it or you know change it up a little bit. Because that’s just growth. Gabby: Yep, brands don’t stagnate, they really do, they evolve, they grow, they change. What it comes down to is does your brand have longevity? But that kids, is another podcast. Anne: Yes, there you go. Well Gabby, this has been a whole lot of fun. I know we can talk forever about this, but I’d like to give a big shout-out to our sponsor, IPDTL, for this quality recording and connection and you too can record like a BOSS Simply go to ipdtl.com and you can find out how to get your IPDTL on. Gabby: From all of us at the VO BOSS podcast, have a kick-ass week, stay focused and rock your business like a BOSS Anne: A VO BOSS Gabby: Damn right. Anne: That’s right, don’t forget to Like us on Facebook at VO BOSS podcast and Twitter at vo_boss. Gabby: And subscribe to us iTunes or Stitcher and make sure to visit us on voboss.com for those exclusive content and offers and tips and more fun stuff that Anne and I have for ya.
VO: Join us next week for another edition of VO BOSS with our host Anne Ganguzza and Gabby Nistico. All rights reserved. Anne Ganguzza Voice Talent in association with Three Moon Media. Redistribution with permission. Coast to coast connectivity via IPDTL