Business Connections

Alright, Time for a Tune Up

As a voice actor, and audio production entrepreneur, I conduct a Social Media Tune Up at least twice a year. I rely heavily on social media and the internet as one of my main marketing and branding tools. So at least twice a year, I make time to do a Tune Up. I spend a few days – sometimes even weeks – going through my web site, my social media accounts, my marketing pieces, and my advertising, to improve them and optimize everything. A social media and marketing tune up. No better time to do that than the new fiscal year. I usually also do it again around the new calendar year too.

Steps Toward Making it All Run Smooth and Optimizing My Brand

As I go about my daily social media activity, I add new content, edit things, and make improvements. As I’m doing that, along the way, items get what I call “fragmented.” What I mean by that is, over time some of the content, marketing, logos, and other things, lack consistency across all the social platforms. In order to keep your message on target and your branding consistent, it all needs a periodic tune up.

Starting Out

I usually start out my social media tune up by focusing in on my LinkedIn account – Mike Laponis Voice Talent. Since that is much more of a B2B platform than any of my other social media sites, I start there and work out to my web site and the other sites. It’s a process of completely going through my profile. These steps include:

Checking all links to be sure they are functioning as they should.
Updating my Profile section, including ABOUT section. This is probably one of the most important areas.
Adjusting, modifying, and adding Keywords to improve SEO (Search Engine Optimization).
Improving and adjusting the FEATURED section. That is where my demos reside. There are both audio and video clips, featuring my work. I make sure those are still functioning properly and up-to-date. I add new examples and optimize the order they are presented.
Then I move to the EXPERIENCE section. You can also include media content and links to videos in this section. Another great opportunity for relevant keywords that will aid potential clients so they can easily find you in a search.
From there, on to EDUCATION, and LICENSES & CERTIFICATIONS. Bring those up-to-date and add any coaching, training, and classes since your last update.
Take another look at your SKILLS AND ENDORSEMENTS, and then your RECOMMENDATIONS. These may need some adjusting. How long has it been since you looked at those? If needed, change the order of the skills listed, edit or delete anything to fine tune your listing.
Lastly, I check to be sure my profile photo and and Background Photo are current. I want to be sure my photos and logos are consistent across all my social media platforms to help build my brand.

What Comes Next

From there, I go to my Mike Laponis Voice Over web site, and go through the same process there – updating information and bringing consistency to all of the branding. It’s a good time to update ABOUT info and to re-work and improve keywords to improve SEO. A great way to update your keywords and improving your SEO is the Google Keyword Planner. It might be best by starting out with this step so you are utilizing these keywords in your LinkedIn update too. I always re-work most of the pages in my web site to add to and improve any content I have there. It goes a long way in SEO to always be adding content to your web site.

Branch Out From There

Next on the list is to branch out to each and every social media site you utilize. For me, that includes listings on, Twitter, Instagram, SoundCloud, and YouTube. It’s usually a good time to expand and improve each of those. You should also consider adding and growing your social media accounts. What about adding a Twitch, or TikTok account? Depends on who you are trying to reach and how many social media accounts you can keep going to engage your audience. If you have too many, you may need to hire help in keeping them up-to-date and active.

Additions and Improvements to Support Clients

This is also a good time to improve or enhance what you have to offer to serve your clients. Let them know what else you have to offer. These improvements and additions are things worth including on your web site, and on all your social media. I have recently enhanced my services in these ways:

• Upgraded my internet connectivity in my studio to be significantly faster. I am now able to access the internet at a whopping 400 MBPS!

• Added significantly to my sound design capabilities with additional sound effects libraries and specialized audio plug-ins.

• Enhanced my skill set with considerable experience teaching classes on Zoom and utilizing WebEx . (I am also a Professor of Communications and have considerable classroom (face-to- face and online) teaching experience.)

The Social Media Tune Up

This Social Media Tune Up will tighten up your branding and let your potential clients find you easier. They will know how to reach you and what solutions you are offering that are of benefit to them. Go ahead, and complete your social media tune up!

Thanks for reading! -Mike

Your Voice…The Human Connection

Business, Business Connections, Voice Over

By Tim Keenan and Mike Laponis

The Human Voice

Every one of us has an imprinted memory from our youth of an unusual or significant VOICE – either a voice talent or on camera actor, or even a singer or music group. That voice or collection of voices resonated with us somehow and planted those memories. In today’s new norm of separation, your VOICE has the ability to bridge the gap and may, for quite a while, be able to professionally replace the connection of the handshake or the hug.

In these times of physical distancing, our voice already has an increased importance with staying closely connected to family, friends, business associates, clients, and potential clients.

Content Creators Benefit from an Experienced Voice Talent

The intimacy that the human voice conveys has tremendous power and impact, that is now even more important in business communication. Communication professionals and content creators will need to tap into the skills you’ve developed in abundance moving forward. The business world has already seen a tremendous surge in targeted consumer and business podcasting as well as distance learning.

Sales of audio books are booming right now, and the trend toward creating pre-produced educational content, instead of using live instructors in a group setting, will also expand for business and education over the next year in order to avoid the impact of the current COVID19 contagion.

Voice Pros Are In Demand

Voice professionals will be in more demand as we move forward. The best part of this is that each of us has our own unique voice and sound. And it communicates so much. Not with just the actual vocabulary, but intonation, pitch, attitude…emotion. Your voice says so much. It conveys so many emotions. It creates a common bond…a human connection. Is there some science that back all this up? You bet.

Science Confirms It

There are studies that show babies recognize their Mom’s voice even from inside the womb. Even that early in life, we can already distinguish who is speaking. These sounds stir emotions, quicken heartbeats, create bonds – all by the sound of one’s voice. The connections are real. It’s all a part of a bond, that even with physical distance, your voice maintains that human connection.

Try This Interactive Map of Human Emotions and the Human Voice

The human voice can even create emotions without really saying any words. Such a range! Or the very same words you say can vary in meaning by the emotion expressed. All with your voice. The human voice creates emotions. In this wonderful, and well-written article there is an interactive map, that when activated you hear different emotions communicated through vocal sounds.

By hovering your mouse over the particular emotion, you hear vocalized sounds that convey particular emotions. It is incredible! Especially as you move from emotion to emotion and the parts in between. You hear it morph into another emotion. You have to try it! This clearly demonstrates the ability and range of human sound.

The Human Connection

Our vocal chords convey meaning through the sounds we are able to make. This is the amazing ability to CONNECT. It is why the voice is so powerful in reaching and connecting with others. The human connection. We convey meaning, and express emotion with our voice.

It’s up to you to tap into all that your voice can convey to deliver a message with impact and warmth and honesty. Now is the time to be ready to use all your tools and share your gifts in order to help the business world communicate and CONNECT to their employees and customers like never before.

Tim Keenan is the owner of Creative Media Recording, a full service, Southern California audio production company serving independent producers, corporations and ad agencies. At Creative Media he is the senior audio engineer, casting director and an active voice talent.

creativemediarecording.com

Mike Laponis is a Southern California based Voiceover Talent, and Audio Producer with a Pro Home Studio. He is a dedicated professional who will deliver the sound you want. He is creative, dependable, reliable, and responsive.

MikesVO.com

Refresh & Renew for 2019

Business Connections, Social Media

Time to Reflect and Renew

Happy New Year! As we end this calendar year and start a new one, it seems it is a fitting time to take stock of our accomplishments, triumphs, and growth. This allows me to get set to move forth, in a strategic way, into the new year! So, here are some steps, goals, and ambitions I have that may be useful for you and your business too.

Bringing the Old Year to a Close

As we close out 2018, it’s a good time to do a few things to prepare for the new year. So, here are four simple things I find helpful:

• Be mindful of any end-of-the-year deals on gear you may want to purchase. The end of the calendar year sometimes brings good cost savings. It might be a good way to close out your tax year on something you need with a business tax deduction.

• During the last week of the year, I like to reorganize and clean up both the voice over studio and my office. (I’m not going to lie or try to mislead you, sometimes I don’t get this task completed all in one week and it goes into the first few weeks of the new year – after all, it took all year for it to get like this!). Doing this, allows me to concentrate on the new projects and tasks that are ahead, as the new year gets underway. I find it helpful in clearing my mind and concentrating on new goals and objectives.

• Close out the tax year by closing out your books, and categorizing receipts, and other paperwork. This helps later in preparing your income taxes. It makes it easy to gather what you need, in the next few months, for your trip to your tax appointment, or if you do your own taxes, for example.

• I like to use the last week of the calendar year to go through my emails that I receive each week – from lists, services and marketers – and unsubscribe from any I no longer want or need. This starts my new year off a little more “spam free”, which is a liberating feeling.

Starting the New Year

As the new year starts, I look over my goals and objectives from the previous year. This allows me to evaluate which of those goals I accomplished, which I am in process of achieving, and which (if any) need to roll over into my new strategic plan.

One exercise I find useful in coming up with the business plan for the new year is a SWOT analysis. SWOT is an acronym for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. It’s useful to look at each of these in analyzing your goals and objectives for the new year.

• Strengths – Currently, what are the strongest parts of your business? What do you do well? What aspects of your business do you have a competitive edge over others in the same line of work? List these strengths, you will need them to put together your action plan.

• Weaknesses – These are things you need to improve to be more competitive. Is there needed equipment, improvement in workflow, or perhaps more education and training is needed? What about your marketing and use of social media?

• Opportunities – These are external factors that are likely to contribute to your overall success. Are there trends headed in your favor? Is there anything upcoming that your business is poised and ready to pursue?

• Threats – These are external factors that you have little or no control over. Are there market trends that are shifting in a way that might have a negative impact? Are there changes in technology that may be an impediment or challenging to your workflow? Is the competition increasing?

The Next Step

Once the SWOT analysis is complete, it’s time to put together an effective action plan. Go ahead and look at your strengths. How can those be used in maximizing the opportunities? How can they be used to minimize the threats or counteract them? What goals and objectives can you put into place to achieve those outcomes? What goals and objectives can you put into place to rid or improve the weaknesses? Now, take this information and put them into actionable goals for the new year.

Tips for Implementation

Great job, with your SWOT analysis, and the action plan. Now, here are some tips to make it work:

• Keep the goals for the year manageable – not too lofty or too many.

• Break the goals into daily, weekly, or monthly action steps.

• Make sure all the goals are attainable and measurable – having clearly defined metrics will allow you to analyze the progress in attaining those goals.

What it All Means for Mike Laponis Voice Talent

Here are some of the goals and action steps from my SWOT analysis and action plan. I have already put some of these action items into place:

• Rebranding and redesign of the Mike Laponis Voice Talent website.

• Concentrated effort in writing and promoting my blog.

• Improved marketing efforts through phone calls and community events.

• Updating my demos and adding new specific genres.

• Utilizing social media avenues for specific marketing efforts.

• Continue to sharpen my skills with ongoing training, and coaching.

Happy New Year

Of course, there is a lot more to a happy new year than just success with your business. I wish you success with your business plan and all that goes with it. But most of all, I wish you good health, happiness, peace, and prosperity in the New Year!

Chief Cook and Bottle Washer: Everything Benefits You as a VO Talent

Business Connections, Voice Over

As you try and find your way in the voice over world, don’t lose sight of what all you have done to get to this point. Although you may think marketing your voice talent is all about your acting chops, great voice, or ability to lift the words off the page and bring meaning to the copy, there is much more you should include.

Types of Experiences

Many of us have had other careers, avocations, interests, and hobbies that make us “experts” in certain areas. Perhaps you know a lot about the automotive industry. This could make you extra valuable in corporate narration for that type of VO work. Maybe you are an expert with medical terminology, thus giving you the edge in any type of voice over for the medical industry. Or maybe you have experience as a teacher, thereby giving you some extra ability for eLearning presentations. Whatever your background and training, use that as part of your marketing and expertise for your voice over career.

No matter what I have been involved in through my life and career, I’ve found that it all relates and somehow it benefits me in opportunities I have before me now. I used to be an electrician. Those skills benefited me as I needed to wire up studios for radio production rooms, and now studios for voice over work. My degree in Fire Technology has benefited me too. That knowledge and training has been invaluable as I have helped organizations with emergency planning and fire safety procedures. I have experience as a video producer. From that background I know how to communicate visually and tell a story. Many years of experience as a Professor of Communications has given me a lot of classroom teaching experience. This helps with all of my communications skills and gives me an understanding of how to present material for eLearning projects.

Other Items that may be Unique to You

There are many things outside of our past jobs and schooling that provide expertise that are good for certain types of voice over work too. I am now the proud owner of an all-electric vehicle. I have had a Chevy Bolt for about 1 and a half years now. I’m a strong advocate for electric vehicles with all the benefits they offer towards clean air and healthy environments. I am familiar with, what is called, “range anxiety” and all the challenges of driving an electric car.

Everything we do, have training in, have experience with – makes us better at any voice projects dealing with those subjects. These should all be areas we include in our marketing to find voice over jobs. Things that we have in our backgrounds, in our repertoire, that makes us who we are!

That’s why I love what I do as a voice over artist. That’s why I value having lots of experience in many areas. I am proud of being a Chief Cook and Bottle Washer – because everything benefits me as a voice over talent!

Twitter is a Goldmine Pt. 2

Business Connections, Social Media, Twitter, Voice Over

About 8 years ago, I authored one of my very first blog entries as part of mikesvo.com. It was about using Twitter. At that time, I had been using it for a little over 1 year (I began on twitter in May of 2009). I wrote that it was a gold mine for me and my voice over business! As I embark on some new marketing, new branding, and an entirely new website, I thought it would be a good time to reflect back over the 8 years, and see if that still holds true.

Some eight years ago, I had almost 4000 tweets, and only a couple of hundred followers. Now, a little more than eight years later, that number has grown to 22,500 tweets! I follow a little over 3,000 people and have close to 3,000 followers myself.

I still say Twitter is a gold mine! Looking back at all the connections I’ve made from using twitter almost daily, allow me to identify MANY golden opportunities! I have made important business connections (and YES, some of those connections have turned into actual voiceover jobs, with return business!), met some fantastic mentors, found some excellent #vo coaching, learned about techniques, equipment, and software – important to my job as a voice actor, and made some personal (and virtual) friends! So, YES, it has been a gold mine!

The analogy is a good one. You don’t just turn over a shovel of dirt and find gold. You have to actually prospect a little and dig to find the nuggets that make you “rich!” Seems odd, until you get into it, that you or anyone could offer any meaningful info, or discussion with only 280 characters at a time – it used to be only 120 characters. But actually, I have found that trying to say as much as you can in as few characters as possible, is a good writing exercise that translates well to voice over, audio content, and video – say as much as you can, in a meaningful way, with the fewest words possible.

I will continue to enjoy the wonderful friendships, and business relationships that are built with Twitter, and hope we can connect there too. Find people you would like to follow – those with tips, ideas, experience and knowledge about your interests and likes – business interests, life goals, hobbies, music, vacation destinations, just about anything you want to know more about! With a little digging you will find a gold mine with your name on it!

I am @MikeRaphone and would love to make the connection!

Client Relations

Business Connections

No matter what business you are in, you probably have clients or customers – or at least you hope you do. After all, that is part of what it takes to be sustainable as a business. Without clients you can’t exist – or if you do exist without them you won’t for long!

What is the difference between a customer or client? The words are used interchangeably at times. There is an important distinction between the two. At least in the mindset of what is best for your clients and what will help keep your business sustainable. As your “customer” you are hoping to sell to them a product or service. As your “client” you are looking out for them and what is in their best interest. You truly want the best for them. You approach the relationship in a manner of “here is what I can do for you,” and “here is what I can do to help.”

With that approach, it isn’t about what you can “sell” but more about how you can help them. If you are good at what you do and can provide for them in that manner, you will have a happy, satisfied CLIENT. They are much more likely to return to you the next time they need something. Voila! Return business! In any business, voice over or otherwise, it’s all about client relations!

May you live long, help others, and prosper.

Mike

Mike Laponis

VO