Lovely Laundry, Valuable Voice

I’m back this week with another wee analogy. A couple of weeks ago I talked about running your own race in relation to voice over. This week I’ve gone down into our basement with the washing. Bear with me. Or ‘bare’ with me if your washing is piling up like mine is (groan).

Lugging the laundry

With a cheap zip top laundry tote from the local hardware store - £2.50 thank-you-very-much.

This basic laundry bag is okay to move the washing from the machine to the line and onwards when dry. It’s functional. It works.

It was easy to pickup when I was passing the local shop. It needed no thought, there was no choice, and the budget? Well… If it all went wrong it was only £2.50. Wasn’t it?

A thing

Ugly.

Disappointing.

Just a little soul-sucking every time I carried that bag up from the washing machine.

An unattractive ’thing’ in our lives when it was waiting for someone to take it back downstairs, or when it was sitting full of dry washing hoping someone would take it upstairs.

It sat around, saggily disappointing us all.

Easy, cheap, functional

Yes. But COULD DO SO MUCH BETTER.

A bit of internet searching, about £20 and a week of waiting for the post later and we are here:

Ahhhh! 

Good quality. A delight to use. A nice thing to have in my life. Pleasant. Satisfying. Does the job and so much better.

I’m super happy about it.

More than words

Yes, you can grab any old amateur voice over from a race-to-the-bottom ‘pay to play’ voice over booking site. These cost-a-few-quid folk can record your words in their under-stairs cupboard on their iPhone. They might even throw a blanket over their head and record onto a laptop with a USB mic. But professional voice artist they are not.

Yes, that cheap voice over will ‘do the job’. But it won’t do it well. A poor-quality voice over degrades the quality of the message you’re delivering. It transmits to the listener ’this message is not terribly important, we didn’t invest in it, so we don’t expect you to, either.'

By casting a professional voice over you are doing your production justice. You’re respecting your own work, giving value to the words of your message. And if you’re producing something for someone else, you’re respecting them too.

If you think about it, with a quality professional voice over you’re respecting your listener as well. You’re transmitting the message that their listening time deserves the best.

The cost of time

Time is valuable. All those walks up and down my basement stairs with the laundry honestly feel so much more worthwhile now I’m carrying my lovely basket. The washing inside it somehow looks nicer; the kids are happier to come and help - because the job simply looks more attractive.

I won’t bang on. You get the message!

Get a professional voice over quote

Get in touch to discuss voice over needs and get a quote for your upcoming project.  Or hop over to my ‘Listen’ page to hear my demo reels.  I’m an English female voice artist with a natural RP accent.