Jodi Krangle

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Jodi@VoiceoversAndVocals.com

Archives for August 2019

My Interview with Voice Actor, Tracy Lindley, Creator of TheLinkedInEdge

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I sit down with Tracy Lindley to talk about her reasons for becoming an entrepreneur, how she got into voice acting, and how she decided to put together an online course about LinkedIn. You can find TheLinkedIn Edge here.  And if you’re interested in learning more about Tracy’s voiceover services, you can visit her website here.  During our discussion, she mentions the book, Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story  And she also gives folks a discount on her course!  Though you’ll have to listen to get the discount code. 🙂

This episode was edited by the extremely talented Humberto Franco.

How D&D Keeps Me Creative (And Sane)… (Mostly)

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How D&D Keeps Me Creative

So today I’m going to reveal my really geeky self and talk about D&D (Dungeons & Dragons).  Why do I actually want to talk about this particular subject?  I go to conventions every once in awhile that are specifically for role playing and board gaming and all of that sort of thing. And I find that when I go to these sorts of things, they actually inspire me to get better at what I do (voice acting). And not only that, but they kind of inspire me to be a better person in general. It’s strange how that works, I know, but stick with me here.

So when I play a game with other people, it’s a collaborative event.  It’s something that we all have to work together to solve. There are problems that we need to overcome. There’s always some kind of conflict, which makes sense. And that’s life, isn’t it? So when we’re playing together, we have to collaboratively come up with solutions and coming up with solutions takes brain power. It takes working with other people. It takes thinking –  it takes empathy as well. So when I play these games it helps me think through problems, without having all that much in the way of consequences. I mean these are characters you’re playing, so it’s not a life or death situation. You can kind of experiment with problem solving in a way that really doesn’t have any consequences. Kind of cool. It also helps me take on different personas and for what I do in voice acting, that’s really helpful too in a kind of improv sort of way.

I’m not all that great in accents, honestly. So a lot of other people do that while I’m not. But it’s still a really useful exercise. And as I said, it brings me to conventions and conventions are ways to socialize with people. It gets me out there talking with people who share my obsessions, who share my particular blend of geekery. And it brings together a bunch of people who are sympathetic to one another. It’s a very rewarding experience.

I go to voiceover conventions for that reason and thoroughly enjoy them. I go to business conventions for that reason – to meet people in person so that you can actually get to know someone in a better way than you would be able to through social media.  We’re all on social media, yes.  That’s kind of a GoTo for a lot of people.  But it really gives you a nice connection when you meet people in person – when you can actually hear their voice, you can see the expressions on their faces while they’re speaking. You can understand where they’re coming from. So you get the real nitty gritty of a person where you only really see the highlight reels in social media.

So I bring up D&D because I think in general a lot of us could use a little more creativity in our lives. Now I know if you’re doing a nine to five, it’s really hard to do anything else. You come home exhausted, you take care of your responsibilities and you watch some Netflix. I get it. Sometimes there’s just a lot to do and it’s really overwhelming, but if you do something creative like draw paint, make music, write a story – and I know a lot of game masters who run roleplaying games and just love to build worlds and write plots for their games, which is certainly creative writing – it might just give you the outlet you need to stay sane and to continue growing.

Who knows? You might even find a side hustle from your creativity that won’t ONLY keep you sane but actually make you some money. I know folks who paint and make music or create gorgeous jewelry on the side. I haven’t written a song in a really long time, but I contributed to a talented friends music album as a backup singer just recently (and I’ll probably mentioned that in a future blog) and I had a blast doing it. I still sing karaoke online and at various voice conventions when the opportunity presents itself. I love singing and I always have. Being creative helps me to keep my mind open to possibilities.

And there’s a lot to be said for creative problem solving, which is what D&D teaches people to do. All that to say, don’t apologize for your own brand of creativity, or geekery, whatever that happens to be. Keep your mind open and you never know what the future holds.

Because this is such a beautiful story and truly captures the creative spirit of the game, please take a moment to read this Twitter thread: https://twitter.com/AntnHz/status/1165011404086284289

And here’s a TedxTalk that speaks more about how the creative spirit of D&D just makes better team members, along with some more about the game itself. You might find it interesting.  As you can see, the applications are endless.

Thanks for reading and keep looking for those silver linings. Until next time.

My Interview with ipDTL CEO, Kevin Leach

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Kevin Leach and I sat down for a detailed discussion about his journey into becoming an entrepreneur, his early influences, the world of connection services and the future he sees for ipDTL and its offerings.  If you’re not familiar, you can learn more about ipDTL here. This is a fantastic service for both podcasters and voice actors.
Thanks for talking with me, Kevin!

This episode was edited by the extremely talented Humberto Franco.

Know Your War

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Know Your War

What do I mean by that?  Well, I just finished watching another of Donald Miller‘s really informative Business Made Simple Daily Videos on How To Control Your Emotions (I’ve included the YouTube video below) – and he makes a lot of really helpful comments. If you’re focused on arguing your point, “winning” the smaller battle, you lose sight of the WAR.  And by that, I mean the BIGGER PICTURE.

Now, I’m a generally peaceful person, and I really don’t like talking about war in general, to be honest … but as I mentioned in a previous blog, pushing past my comfort zone helps me grow.  So I will say that in this day and age of high emotions and polar opposites, of people finding it difficult to meet in the middle, there’s a temptation to be angry.  All the time. I get it.  But there’s another way to think about this.

You have an ultimate goal – whatever that goal is.  It’s a big, lofty goal.  It’s may even be something that would help a lot of people and not just your inner circle.  If you get distracted by the small battles happening around you so that you lose sight of that goal … you’ll never reach it.    Not only that, but you might cost *other* people the war.

Mr. Miller equates this to a football game where a veteran player is being harangued by a younger player, wanting that veteran to get into an altercation with him so that he can be distracted.  But the veteran won’t let himself be distracted.  He knows that if he gets a penalty here and now, he might cost his team the game.  So he doesn’t give that small battle any attention.  He focuses on the bigger picture.  He keeps his goal firmly in mind, and he concentrates on that.  That concentration – that visualization – keeps him on point.

Now, I’ve certainly been guilty of this distraction myself.

I’ve been Keto for almost three years now.  In the beginning of my journey, when I found that this way of eating was the only thing that worked for me, I would talk about it everywhere.  I would try to tell people that every ailment under the sun might be cured, if they’d just give this way of life a chance. I imagine it’s similar for people who newly find and adore a particular religion or a particular political candidate.  And I understand the compulsion.  I HAD it, after all.  And nutrition can be a really contentious topic – ESPECIALLY now.  But after a couple of years, that need to “spread the word” simply became less and less of a compulsion.  Not because I stopped caring.  Mostly because I got caught up in some of the little “battles” of trying to explain my position and present logical arguments … that others weren’t really interested in hearing.  The drama was simply distracting me.  My WAR was actually a pretty personal one.  Ultimately, I’m after improving my own overall health.  That’s it.  Others can do whatever works for them.  My larger goal of personal health wasn’t being served by being distracted.

I’m not saying that engaging in respectful discussion of a topic between people who hear one another, isn’t warranted.  Not everyone is going to agree and that doesn’t make them bad people.  It’s educational to hear other perspectives and have respectful conversations.  But when there’s drama involved (name calling, finger pointing, personal attacks… that sort of thing), it’s really not doing your blood pressure any good to engage.  And it just might be time to take a step back and look at the “discussion” objectively.  Is this serving a purpose of some kind?  Is it getting you to your end goal?  If not, disengage.  You truly do have better things to focus on.

Controlling your emotions doesn’t mean not feeling them.  It just means that you don’t let them rule you.

Know what your overarching goal is and keep it in mind as you go through life.  And don’t think your overarching goal can’t change.  No plan survives contact with the enemy, after all.  But if you control your emotions so you can control your focus – it might just help you win your own personal war.

Your Voice Is A Powerful Tool

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Your Voice Is A Powerful Tool

In my quest to always be learning more about my own business – and other businesses in general, I’ve started reading a lot more non-fiction.  One of the books that was suggested to me by some very smart business people I trust, is called Never Split The Difference (Negotiating as if your life depended on it) by Chris Voss.  It’s a really interesting study in negotiation from the viewpoint of someone who negotiated hostage situations for the FBI.  Each chapter has a captivating story about a particular negotiation and explains key information on how the negotiation was successfully concluded.

In the second chapter, Mr. Voss says something very insightful (really, the whole book is full of insight) – and as a voice actor, it kind of affirmed what I do every day.  He says, “Smile at someone on the street, and as a reflex, they’ll smile back.  Understanding that reflex and putting it into practice is critical to the success of just about every negotiating skill there is to learn.”

Fascinating.

And it’s even more fascinating when you realize that you can *hear* a smile when someone is speaking.  He continues on to say, “That’s why your most powerful tool in any verbal communication is your voice.  You can use your voice to intentionally reach into someone’s brain and flip an emotional switch.  Distrusting to trusting. Nervous to calm.  In an instant, the switch will flip just like that with the right delivery.”

I’m really liking where this book is going.

To take that to a deeper level as it relates to voice over work, think of what you’re trying to make your listener feel, and use the tone of voice that will be most likely to get them there.   Are you talking about a difficult subject?  A calm, soothing tone of voice will allow the listener to relax a bit and take in the difficult information.  Are you on your listener’s side and telling them about a great new product or service that could help them in their daily life?  A friendly voice – that could almost shade to playful – might be more in order.  Never underestimate the power of a smile.  Your audience can hear it.  And that reflex to return the smile, takes over.

Now of course, this is really basic information and doesn’t take into account the skill of connecting with what you’re reading (which is where the acting comes in), nor does it really get down to the nitty gritty of understanding what the writer of that copy intended.  Again, that’s a skill that comes with time and experience. (And perhaps the aid of a voice acting coach.) But at its basic, lizard brain level, we humans are actually pretty predictable.

In many cases, negotiation has more to do with getting past our own biases, and understanding those of the person we’re negotiating with.  We can often get overwhelmed by our own thought processes – and negotiating from a point of strength means quieting those inner voices – and helping the person you’re negotiating with, to quiet theirs.  It’s a game of feeling and emotion – no matter how much we want to deny it.

I found this highly educational and entertaining TED Talk with Mr. Voss on YouTube (from March of this year) – and I really enjoyed it. (And the ending actually moved me to tears.)  Negotiation techniques can make people around you feel heard.  And that’s an important skill to have as a fellow human being.

Don’t Let Yourself Get Dilapidated

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DontLetYourselfGetDilapidated-JodiKrangle

I recently came across a fascinating article about an old concert hall, buried 40 feet below street level underneath a piano shop in Boston. In its heyday, it was surely beautiful.  Acoustically, it had every advantage.  (When you can craft an environment that far underground, silencing the city sounds above all but completely, it’s understandable!) And when it was built over 120 years ago, it was probably THE place to be and be seen by the Boston elite and the great musicians of the time.

Unfortunately, It’s been closed for over 70 years now.  Tragedy struck in 1942 when 492 people died in a horrific fire at a nightclub in that same city.  Building codes were especially stringent after that (understandably), and Steinert Hall, so far underground with so few exits and a seating capacity of 650 people, couldn’t possibly afford to renovate in order to meet those codes.  It’s been silenced so long that most people don’t even know it exists.  You can read more about Steinert Hall here.  There’s even a short video that takes you on a tour of the place (I’ve included it at the end of this blog).

Water damage has really done a number on this once beautiful gathering place.  And as the years pass, it’s only getting worse.  Could it have been restored or rescued if they’d taken it on as a project early on, before the damage had gotten so staggeringly bad?  Maybe.  Maybe not.  Hard to say.  Bringing it up to building code would certainly have been an expensive restoration, either way.  And it’s possible that they may yet try to do something with it.

Where did my strange mind go with this?  Back to that old chestnut of not putting off for tomorrow, what you could do today.  The longer you leave something, the harder it is to fix.  At this point, Steinert Hall may be a lost cause.  But who knows?  Maybe it didn’t have to be that way.

What are YOU putting off?  Do you want to change your career but it’s easier to just stay where you are without worrying about having to upgrade your skills so you can take the leap?  Do you want to finally start exercising more?  Eating healthier?  Do you want to learn how to play the guitar or piano or take singing lessons and just haven’t found the time?  Do you want to travel more?  Here’s the thing. The longer you wait, the harder it will be.  We as humans, naturally get complacent.  We’re hard wired to seek safety.  But it’s in pushing past safety that true growth happens.

As interesting as it is, watching the video about this once magical music hall just made me sad for all its lost potential.  Don’t let the magic in your own life be lost by putting off the things that could inspire you to grow.  Do them now.  Before it’s too late.

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