Ever find yourself wondering how a thick Boston accent might play out in the voiceover world? This week is about speech impediments and regional accents in the voiceover industry. It's not just the hurdles; the BOSSES cover strategies and encouragement for those voice talents looking to make their mark while staying true to their sound. From the importance of clear articulation to embracing the quirks that make your voice distinctive, they cover the gamut of what it means to stay authentic. It's not about mimicking a character; it's about bringing them to life with your unique vocal fingerprint. And for those thinking about their own twang or drawl, we discuss whether it's a hindrance or a hot commodity. This episode isn't just a discussion; it's a roadmap for voice actors striving to find their niche and shine in the competitive voiceover landscape.
00:01 - Intro (Announcement) It's time to take your business to the next level, the boss level. These are the premier business owner strategies and successes being utilized by the industry's top talent today. Rock your business like a boss a VO boss. Now let's welcome your host, Anne Ganguzza.
00:20 - Anne (Host) Hey everyone, welcome to the VO Boss podcast and the Boss super power series. I'm your host, Anne Ganguzza, and I'm here with my very special, wonderful friend, special best boss guest co-host. Well, that was a big old mouthful.
00:35 - Lau (Guest) Well, I'll see you next time. Thank you, Anneie. It's awesome to be here. What a great introduction, oh.
00:40 - Anne (Host) Lord, you know how I was like. That was such a mouthful to say and literally I try to talk for a living, and it's a great segue into the topic that I'd like to chat about today, and I know we've discussed this briefly before, but you and I have both had either people on your roster or people that submit to you, and I have students that ask me. They come to me, they have a heavy accent or they might have a little bit of a list or a speech impediment and they will say to me so is this going to affect my voiceover career? Will I still be able to do this Lau? I'm going to ask you, how do you approach that?
01:21 - Lau (Guest) It's a lot, Anneie. Well, truth to tell, the agency does get quite a few submissions. We just got a couple today that clearly, if anyone has a pretty decent ear can pick up some sort of speech issue going on, whether it's an impediment, a slur, a sibilant sound, whatever it is, and it's common. It's actually quite common and I'm careful not to tell people oh, forget it, count yourself out, can't be in this game, forget it, forget it. I always like to say let me offer some.
01:52 If I'm going to do it, let me offer some strategies based on what I'm hearing and what you could be doing as the talent to see is it accurate what I'm hearing.
02:02 So the first thing I would suggest with talent is cross check it and pull it with six or eight of your closest peeps connected to the industry, if you can, whether it's an audio engineer or a coach, a couple of VO talent, and say, hey, listen to my recording. Do you hear any kind of an articulation issue? Do you hear a slurring issue? Do you hear anything? And be honest with me and get kind of like an informal poll on that first, because I never just take one person's opinion on it. So that's the first thing I would do. If they are hearing issues, if they are hearing problems, I would actually say, okay, let me see who is around that I can be getting on a consultation with, who is maybe a therapist, a speech therapist in figuring out how do I diagnose where I'm at right now with my speech and who can help me get to a cleaner, clearer sound. That's really the first thing you have to figure out.
02:57 - Anne (Host) Yes, my prerequisite is that I need to be able to understand you. So I like to say there's a lot more acceptance for, let's say, minor speech impediments and dialects and regionalisms. I mean. It's more accepted than ever before. However, I need to be able to understand what you're saying. So if it gets in the way of me understanding what you're saying in a normal conversational speed, then I feel as though you might want to either talk to a speech therapist or a dialect coach to see if it's something that can be cleaned up.
03:28 Sometimes it's a physical impediment, like it's placement of your teeth, or I've had people that come to me with braces and they're like I want to do voiceover, and so they have a big mouthful of lists and saliva and sometimes that's not going to be hireable and I'll just say well, at some point you'll want to make sure that you're going to be getting those off and whatever it takes for you to be able to speak a little bit clearly. Now, I'm the big fan Lau and I don't know about you, but I don't want people to be too articulate.
03:56 I need to be able to understand you, but too articulate creates a persona which is maybe not forgiving enough for the copy. A lot of times it might sound too proper, it might sound too robotic, it might sound too perfect, and I don't want that.
04:11 - Lau (Guest) But I certainly want to be able to understand you Right and I think it's the old rule of thumb, like if it's something that is pulling focus away from the messaging and people will tell you. A listener should be able to tell you. Even just a layman listener should be able to say am I focused on what you're talking about or am I focused on the particular speech or the particular dialect issue that you may be having?
04:33 - Anne (Host) Sure.
04:34 - Lau (Guest) And I would even talk to voiceover coaches that deal with speech, articulation and breathing, as many of us do. Many of us are trained in that and oftentimes that unto itself can help Learning breathing. Are you breathing properly? If you did have those braces and you had them taken off 10 years ago, did you ever learn to speak with proper placement, based on now where your teeth are and where your tongue is going and all your major articulators? Did you ever acclimate to the speech? Of that, I think it's a really good question to ask. And also we can't discount any mental acuity when it comes to our habitual patterns that we're doing. Are we even aware of them? Do we even hear them? Do you mumble? Do you mumble? People will say, oh, I know, I do that Lau, oh, I know, I've been told.
05:22 - Anne (Host) And I said well, do something Exactly. Yeah, right, right. It can't just be all. I have knowledge of it. Right, I have knowledge.
05:30 - Lau (Guest) Right, exactly, and it gets me into accents and dialects a little too, in the sense that we just had met with a potential client today and talked about that, where he came from. I said where's your background and where do you come from? You have such an ethnically amorphous dialect and it's so fascinating. And he said here's what one of my coaches told me Don't bother trying to eliminate that sound, it's going to be really hard, really impossible. You get to a certain age. You know you don't want to be spending tons and tons of cash on dialect coaches. It's immense to do the training to really flatten out that sound, to get what's called a North American dialect, which you probably can't get after a certain age. It's very difficult. So I said no, you have to celebrate what you have. You have to celebrate, celebrate your diversity.
06:17 - Anne (Host) Celebrate your uniqueness, yes, but Absolutely.
06:19 - Lau (Guest) But yes, but instead of yes and yes, but you have to be real about what placement that's going to give you. Sure, I'm a commercial agent. If I got a bunch of North American clients coming through, they're probably not going to want your particular sound just because the target market you don't represent that and basically tacking on the end of that Lau.
06:41 - Anne (Host) I get a lot of people British accents right that want to do commercial and I'm like, well, your market is probably not the United States right now. The wonderful thing about voiceover is that it's global, but probably in a commercial market in the US you don't hear a lot of commercials that have British accents right. However, you'll hear a lot of e-learning that has British accent, because, hey, who isn't a sucker for a really lovely British accent and it's pleasant to listen to you, for sure. But I think you have to talk to someone, and your coach or your agent should be very real and very honest with you to understand that there can be limitations to your market, for sure, and they should advise you as such.
07:21 I would welcome the diversity, I would welcome your uniqueness and your sound. If you have an accent or a regionalism, and I think that it's wonderful. I mean, I am so happy because, god, how many dollars did I spend trying to get rid of my? First? I had an upstate New York accent and then I moved to New Jersey and then I had a Jersey accent and then I moved to.
07:39 California. So I've got a mishmash of all of them and over the years when it was important to people to have that very neutral whatever a neutral accent is these days right, and I beat it out of myself and so in reality it's not uncommon for people who've been in the industry for a while, they're used to that. But I think today I welcome, I welcome people that sound unique, that sound like themselves. I think it's wonderful. But again, you have to understand your market may be limited, but also embrace what it is. And if it is an impediment or it's a problem physically with how you're speaking or you're physical in your mouth, I think it's something to maybe take a look at if you truly want to be in this business.
08:22 - Lau (Guest) Oh, I couldn't agree more. And the vocal patterns that we create over time. I'll get a lot of submissions of people that again, they have a beautiful voice and they're articulate, they're fine. But they're in these patterns and what we call them as mono patterns, where they're not one tone specifically they change their tonality. But it's patterned, it's like rhythmic or rhyming, or there's a certain cadence to what they're doing, so that it's formula, it's expected, it's a rhythm. And I say, take your acting classes, work in your coaching sessions to break that.
08:53 - Anne (Host) Well, yeah, that's absolutely where acting comes into play, because you're basically just trying to do voice acting by mimicking what you think you hear, or what you hear in your head is to what you think people want to hear, and in reality, just wipe that out and just act, because we don't ever think about what we sound like when we talk to one another. We just, you know, I'm not, oh, do I inflict up? How do I, how do I sound?
09:17 - Lau (Guest) You know I'm talking to you right now, laura, I'm not concerned with how I sound, to be honest with you.
09:22 - Anne (Host) I mean, I just we're talking, we're having that conversation, but yeah, you're right. There are patterns and anything that is repeated or consistent can become very white noise, very robotic, very reedy sounding, which does not engage your listener, and the whole purpose of what we do is to be able to connect with our listener.
09:44 - Lau (Guest) Yeah, and I think that just the basic rule of thumb is and again you can ask around to get this feedback is is there anything that's getting in the way of my messaging? Like, whatever it is, just tell me what it is, and it may even be something beautiful like oh I have a sexy seductive sound and I turn that on. I turn that on all the time. Well, sometimes it's not appropriate to do that.
10:04 Yeah, stop that Sometimes it's, yeah, sometimes it's coming out on a product that they're not looking for. That Exactly so it's getting in the way. The mechanics of that are getting in the way of the product itself.
10:16 - Anne (Host) And I have a big issue, and I know that you brought that up. I have a big issue with females trying to sound that way and people expecting that female sound that way. Because, number one, that's a horrible stereotype and that's the chocolate commercial or the alcohol commercial you know what I mean.
10:29 - Lau (Guest) Yeah, I can't take another job commercial. I just can't. I just can't.
10:32 - Anne (Host) As a matter of fact, there's so many ways to be sexy with your own voice and not trying to put on any kind of sound. So, yeah, ladies, please leave that one, or even men, too, that have that please. And women who have that voice, that can be yes, hello, it's my elegant. Well, elegant is different than sexy. And then there's the male voice that you get a lot of Anneouncers right and they just wAnnea hear themselves land the word right, and then we'll land it like this and they like to hear the end of that and that becomes a pattern, it becomes repetitious, it becomes something that is expected and certainly does not engage your listener. It just becomes something that becomes boring after a while.
11:11 - Lau (Guest) No, and credibility in any kind of style that you're doing is a sort of unintentional kind of delivery that it really is about connecting with the other person that you're connecting with, rather than sounding like you're connecting with the other person you're connecting with Right, and so that sameness whatever that is that sameness oftentimes comes from let me manufacture, let me create, or I hear a lot of clients say Lau, you want me to sound like this. I say no, I don't really want you to sound like this, I want you to be this.
11:43 - Anne (Host) Yeah, yeah, yeah, I want you to be it.
11:45 - Lau (Guest) I want you to be it. I don't want you to sound like it, because it would be like in our terms, like can you just sound like a mother? Well, I'm a mother and I can tell you there's many different sounds to being a mother. It isn't just a mother sound Right, or I want you to sound sexy. Well, there's many different intonations of what that could be like, so I would caution people to be careful of sounding the mechanics of sound and getting too much into that versus the landscape of intrinsic emotional value and authentic connection?
12:17 - Anne (Host) Oh, absolutely. And especially when you get, when you're auditioning, too right and it'll say you might have a sound delay. So what you do when you have a sound delay, you're trying to just sound like them. And then what you forget to do is you're trying so hard to sound like them that you forget to tell the story.
12:31 As a matter of fact, I always say when casting specs come out and they say think Jennifer Garner or think whoever they might have, whoever the voice of the day is Chris Pratt, don't think that way, but just chAnnel their personality and that's where the acting will come in. And then, because nobody wants you to necessarily, well, sometimes there will be special occasions where they really do want a sound alike, and in that case I think there are people out there that have very, very, it's unmistakable, and you're like, oh my gosh, you sound just like, and that, I think, is a separate marketing tactic. However, for the most part, when casting is asking for a particular sound, I always say, well, don't try to reproduce the sound or mimic the sound, just chAnnel the actor.
13:16 - Lau (Guest) Oh, I love that. ChAnnel the actor. And you'll notice, with actors, especially those that are mimicking, say, a political figure or something, because they're comedians, they're going to throw their whole body into their whole, their mind, their body, their content, their whatever. They won't just sound like that person, they'll start becoming that person.
13:36 - Anne (Host) They have to embody that person.
13:38 - Lau (Guest) Yeah, they have to embody that person really, to do it authentically and to do it well. And so we do the same thing. We're mimicking as well in terms of we're mimicking a real person in this industry, but in order to do it, we have to embody.
13:50 - Anne (Host) Yes, yes, so you know you don't sound but embody the sound.
13:54 - Lau (Guest) Yeah, it's like oh, can I mimic an executive? Let me mimic an executive. Sound, don't sound B. It's hard because I have to know, like, well, where are they and what's the situation and what industry are they in and how old are they, and that's going to give me a lot of cues as to the authentic connection versus just the pattern of a sound that they're creating. This is a great conversation. I love this.
14:14 - Anne (Host) Yeah, so if you have somebody who is Latino and has a very heavy right Spanish accent, what would you say to them?
14:20 - Lau (Guest) Well, in regards to there's a market, there's certainly a market, I think. In regards to Latino, you've got a lot of different dialects. I'd say. First thing that comes to my mind is Are you accent free in your native language? You would know that, or you could ask to find out if you're accent free and if not, what is your dialect? What is the particular dialect, so that we know for the particular castings, if they're looking for certain dialects, that you've fallen to that, and a lot of them are not. A lot of them are saying we would like native, authentic Spanish, latino, but not particular dialect. So that's interesting. That opens up the playing field for you.
14:56 - Anne (Host) I think it's great yeah.
14:58 - Lau (Guest) I think being able to speak Spanish is just like a gold card.
15:01 - Anne (Host) Oh, absolutely, to a ton more work, right, absolutely. And understanding that and understanding where the markets are for that. And so I might have somebody that says to me, well, will this work for e-learning or will this work for corporate? And I'll say, well, you have to understand that your market is going to be more of a global market or your market will be those companies that are looking to be able to expand in that region. So I'm not going to say no and I'm not going to say that you necessarily need to go spend thousands of dollars on dialect coaching, right, and it's also difficult.
15:32 That's not like oh here let me sound like somebody from Minnesota, but yet I I'm.
15:37 - Lau (Guest) And also Anneie. It's not fun. It's not fun work.
15:40 - Anne (Host) No, it isn't. It's very hard, it's very boot camp.
15:43 - Lau (Guest) It's very drill. It's very hardcore, Like in conservatory actor training. Oftentimes they'll do a training system where they'll learn a particular dialect or they'll have to get a particular accent. It's hard. It's a regimentation that you have to go into and really prescribe to and you have to have a reason to do that. Most people don't have a reason to do that.
16:02 - Anne (Host) Yeah, so that's a good question, laugh. Now, is there a reason? I mean, there used to be a thing we have dialect coaches, but we also have coaches that teach dialects, right? So I have a role and I need to have an Irish accent. So is it something these days that you believe voice actors should pursue, and what type of genres could be looking for that these days, or are they all looking for authentic? That's a?
16:26 - Lau (Guest) good question. Right, it's a good question. I think, years gone by, when I was training, yes, you'd have more reason to do it Now. No, you don't have as much reason to do it, because even in animation, oftentimes we're looking for more authentic native sounds and accents of people, talent that really come from the place that they are voicing, and so I'd be very careful of spending too much time and energy and money and resources learning accents when really oftentimes you're going to see those auditions calling for indigenous speakers to these particular areas, absolutely.
17:01 And if it's something that they're asking you for and they're interested in working with you, then it's really a pointed reality of why you would do it Like there's an end game to it. You know what I mean. Otherwise I wouldn't. I wouldn't do it so quickly.
17:14 - Anne (Host) All right. So we've discussed people who have, let's say, accents, dialects, regionalisms let's just say a Boston accent that are not necessarily a different language but definitely a regionalism, and what would you say to them in terms of their marketability, let's say in commercial or their marketability, right, okay, so I have a strong Boston accent and I want to get into voiceovers and do commercials, and what do you do when you get a demo where you hear that everywhere?
17:47 - Lau (Guest) Right, I mean. I personally love it because I know there are a lot of gigs out there that look for authentic New England dialects, and there's many of them. There is no such thing as the Boston accent. Massachusetts has like over a hundred dialects. So, it really is specific. But the first thing I ask is can you drop your accent and do North American? Many Bostonians can, actually, if they're actors, they can and many cAnneot. They just know the difference whether you can do it or whether you can't do it.
18:14 - Anne (Host) Is it worth it for someone to invest in doing it, would you say, if they wanted to get into voiceover as a career?
18:20 - Lau (Guest) No, I do not think it is. I honestly don't think it is, because it only takes one or two slips on a vowel sound yeah.
18:28 And you know it and you know it. I think it would be very, very highly stressful to do that kind of thing, especially like as an adult. If you're a kid, that's different. You can pick it up young, but if you're an adult, I don't think it's worth your time. I think you should just go for the gold, just like, go for every single thing that that Boston dialect will offer to you. Yeah, absolutely, and just claim it. Say I'm the Boston gal, I'm the Boston guy. This is what I do.
18:54 - Anne (Host) And I'll tell you what I've created many a demo, many a corporate demo and an e-learning demo for people in New York and people in New England and people who have a bit of a regionalism Now, Southern, even Southern, like South Carolina, North Carolina and Texas I've definitely done Texas, so anybody that has somewhat of a Southern accent, as long as it's not, like I said, as long as it's not impeding my understanding of what it is that you're trying to convey, and I don't think that it's so full of the regionalism that other people can't understand either. But I always, always make sure that my students know that there may be a slightly limited market because of it.
19:32 - Lau (Guest) That's all, oh but listen, you know what, Anneie. Here's the truth. If you're in the larger market of, say, the commercial world in North American sound, it's highly competitive, Absolutely. Just because you're in the majority of what the sound is what they're looking for. It does not mean it's easier to book, oh gosh, it's harder.
19:49 - Anne (Host) In fact, oftentimes it's harder to book. It's harder.
19:51 - Lau (Guest) I'll give you a quick example, because you were talking about British earlier we just had a casting for British, authentically British, and we had in our roster we have about 500 talent.
20:00 - Anne (Host) Authentically British. I say, that's another topic.
20:03 - Lau (Guest) Native, native British. We had four people audition four and out of the four we had to drop one who we know was not Native British, and why she submitted, I don't know, but we ditched it, we dropped it right out. The others are natively. They live in the UK, right, and there you go, so they have much more chance of booking their job.
20:24 - Anne (Host) Oh, gosh, yeah, well, that's it.
20:26 - Lau (Guest) Then the 85 who just auditioned for our North American bank commercial.
20:31 - Anne (Host) That's just my thought and that's understanding your market and understanding. So, like I'm a big fan of target market specific demos right. So if you have a regionalism, if you're bilingual, if you have that capability, I always say let's showcase that in a demo right, so that the people who are hiring or want to hire you or potentially hire you, understand those are what I consider to be unique specialties and also understand for yourself that those are markets you will seek because it's great to be we always talk about. Well, you need to be versatile, but also knowing what your niche is and knowing where your market is is amazing because you can be the go-to for that market.
21:11 - Lau (Guest) Right, like I can't name all the talent in my North American roster, but I know my British talent. Wow, they're memorable, yeah. Well, it's not because the North American talent are not as important, it's because there's many more of them. Sure.
21:27 And a lot of them are very similar in traits, in terms of how they sound. So that's just me. But I say listen, if you're in a minority, I would boast that, I would brand that, I would have a ball with that, I would not hide that and I would never. Here's the thing don't try to be something you're not. Yeah, be the best version of you that you can be. If you want to work on the side, let's say you have some extra income and you say, oh, but I want to work on it I say, well, then go work on it. But don't have unrealistic expectations of being able to compete in a market with people who have those native sides, absolutely.
22:03 - Anne (Host) Wow yet another really amazing conversation, wow, I love it. Bosses, so embrace, embrace that individuality. If it happens to be something that might be a physical impediment speech impediment you might want to take a look at maybe how can you take steps to correct that if you truly want to be in voiceover to do that. And also, yeah, get the opinions of trusted coaches, trusted colleagues and friends, just to see. And if somebody tries to sell you a demo right away without addressing those things, I want you to just literally just run, run the other way. You should absolutely. If you're looking to get into this industry and you do have a regional dialect, if you do have a speech impediment, if it's your most cherished dream, I still don't want you to go ahead and get a demo right away. I would absolutely, absolutely speak to a few coaches about it, speak to trusted colleagues, trusted friends and family and absolutely get their opinions on it. So, la, thank you for great code as always Wonderful chat, as usual.
23:09 And, of course, bosses. We want you to create a world in which your voice can absolutely make a difference and you can by giving and finding out more at 100 voices who care to learn more, all right, big shout out to our sponsor, ipdtl. You too can connect and network like bosses. Find out more at IPDTLcom. You guys have an amazing week and we'll see you next week. See you next week, bye, bye.
23:39 - Intro (Anneouncement) Join us next week for another edition of VOBoss with your host and Genguza, and take your business to the next level. Sign up for our mailing list at vobosscom and receive exclusive content, industry revolutionizing tips and strategies and new ways to rock your business like a boss. Redistribution with permission. Coast to coast connectivity via IPDTL.
24:07 - Anne (Host) Hey, la, do you know what time of year it is? What time is it? It is the audition demolition holiday, holiday Audition. Oh my gosh, la, I am so excited for this audition demolition. It is, of course, holiday themed. Guys, it is on December 14th. Get those auditions in and of course, you're going to have so much fun with the themed scripts and what. I don't even know what I'm saying. Oh, I can't say A blooper. Yeah, there we go One more time.