Jodi Krangle

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Jodi@VoiceoversAndVocals.com

creativity

Time For A Transition

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      TimeForATransition-BlogAudio-JodiKrangle - Jodi Krangle - voiceoversandvocals.com

Those of you who have been following this blog and accompanying podcast, have seen the direction I’ve been going with this. I know a lot of us are Creatives.  A lot of us need help understanding how not to beat ourselves up in our own heads. And helping people with that (in a distinctly NOT professional capacity!) will never stop being a priority for me.

If you’re still interested in that topic, I’ve created a Facebook Group, just for you. If you’re looking for a place to share your Creativity and get encouragement from fellow Creatives, I invite you to join me there.

HOWEVER, my passion is also sound.

Specifically, voice overs and music.  I use my voice both for my day job and for the pleasure of singing. I’d like to delve deeper into how that works in the greater context of branding – both mine and my clients’.

So while the Silver Linings blogs and podcast episodes will remain out there, and I hope you find them useful, I’ll be transitioning to a new podcast in a month or so.

I’m calling it: Audio Branding: The hidden gem of marketing.  And it really is a “hidden gem”.

In a lot of cases, people forget just how much audio – voice overs, music and sounds in general – influence our behavior on a regular basis.  We’ve gotten used to so many places sounds play a part.

Think about it for a bit.

We expect a car to sound a certain way (and am I the only one who’s freaked out when I’m in a Prius or a Tesla at a stop light??), even if that sound is changing. That’s why our phones still “click” when we take a picture, even if they don’t need to.  Or why that vinyl scratching sound is used in ads all the time to audibly tell us an interruption is happening – even if it’s rare that people listen to records anymore.

The sounds used in advertising, make us automatically familiar with a brand (like McDonalds’ “I’m Lovin’ It” (ba da ba ba ba!), the sound of the Taco Bell bell, the Intel sound logo, or the trill of the NBC logo).  We even recognize that an animated cartoon is The Peanuts (or a parody of it) by the trombone sound that happens when the adults speak.

We could all stand to learn something about audio branding.

Even those of us who make a living in the sphere.  ESPECIALLY those of us who do that. Learn how to leverage your own audio branding – whatever that may be – and you win at marketing.  The shortest bit of sound can be associated with your brand.  It can automatically identify you and bring you to mind.  And really – when it comes to marketing – that kind of instant recognize-ability just can’t be beat!

That’s why a lot of podcasts have musical and voice over intros (And if you need a voice for that sort of thing, that is certainly a service I offer. Feel free to get in touch).  It’s why TV shows have recognizable theme songs.  It’s why there are some pieces of music in a film that are automatically associated with a character – like Darth Vader’s Imperial March.  (And wouldn’t it be cool if we all had theme music?)

I’m certainly not the first one to talk about this …

… but maybe my perspective as a voice actor and a singer will be helpful in digging a little deeper.  And I fully intend to enlist the help of some very knowledgeable friends and colleagues who can also provide some insights.

For now though, I found a blog post on Gary Vaynerchuck‘s website that describes what “audio branding” means, and how he feels it’s the wave of the future.  I couldn’t agree more (and check out his own audio branding.  Pretty cool stuff!)

Here’s a quote from the article:

Over the next decade or two, what your brand sounds like is actually going to be an unbelievably crucial variable of success in a world that will be driven primarily by two things: voice and brand.

The Rise of Audio Branding

My Interview with Artist & D&D Enthusiast, Joe Nittoly

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I had the pleasure of talking with my friend Joe Nittoly about his art, his enthusiasm for D&D (and how the two merge), along with how he overcomes those nasty critical inner voices many of us Creatives deal with. I think lots of people will relate to this very frank discussion.

If you’d like to learn more about Joe and his art (and how you can purchase some for your very own!), you can visit his main website at https://joe.nittoly.ca . But you can also find his Etsy store at https://gaminggeekshop.etsy.com and you can connect with him on Social Media via Twitter (https://twitter.com/pasiphilo) and Instagram (https://instagram.com/pasiphilo).

This episode was very skillfully made to sound beautiful by the talented Humberto Franco (http://www.humbertofranco.com/).

My Interview with Creative Coach, Christine McAlister

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Christine McAlister (http://www.lifewithpassion.com), is an entrepreneur, business coach and the author of The Income Replacement Formula: 7 Simple Steps To Doing What You Love And Making Six Figures From Anywhere (you can read a free chapter of her book at http://lifewithpassion.com/freechapter). We had a wonderfully fun interview about how Creatives can get out of a funk, give themselves permission to have fun, and be kinder to themselves.

These are all subjects near and dear to my heart (and probably yours, if you’re listening to this!).

If you’re looking for a speaker who knows a lot about what it takes to overcome fear and push through to a fulfilling life, Christine would make an excellent one for your podcast or conference.  And if you’re interested in working with her one-on-one, here’s some more information on how to do that: http://lifewithpassion.com/6-month .

I hope you enjoy this interview as much as I did!

This episode was very skillfully made to sound beautiful by the talented Humberto Franco.

My Interview with Rosi & Brian Amador

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What a treat it was to sit down and talk with Rosi & Brian about their careers in both music and voice overs, how they keep themselves motivated and creative, where they find their inspiration and how they continue to practice kindness – both to themselves and the world around them.

If you’d like to learn more about their music, drop by the Sol y Canto website.
Rosi mentions her own website in this interview, and that’s here.
And for the entire Amador family, you can visit their website here (every member of the family has a page of their own).

If you’re interested, you can also contribute to their new Sol y Canto Indiegogo campaign here.

This episode was very skillfully made to sound beautiful by the talented Humberto Franco.

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

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      How D&D Keeps Me Creative - Jodi Krangle - voiceoversandvocals.com

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.

Creativity for Fun & Profit

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Being creative can be both a blessing and a curse.  Sometimes that means “conforming” is really hard.  It often mean blazing your own trail.  And that too, can be really hard.  Traditional jobs – working 9-5 in an office – doesn’t really work for us.  Or if it does, it only does for very limited amounts of time before we feel like we’re going to lose our minds.  I know plenty of people who work in regular jobs who then spend all their free time being creative.  And if that’s you, that’s great!  You’ve at least found a way to keep yourself sane by having an outlet.

What do you do though, if the idea of a 9-5 job working for someone else, puts a pit of dread in your stomach?  If you hate where you find yourself right now and wish that you could find something to do that would actually make you money – and be creatively rewarding for you at the same time?

Often, creative people feel like they have to do one or the other.  You can either be creative and be a “starving artist”, or you can work a regular job and make money … but not have time to do the creative work you feel called to do.

That’s where Lisa Robbin Young comes in.  She gives you a clear strategy to take your creative idea for a business and turn it into a reality.  First off, I love that she’s a fellow musician.  But secondly, she seems to have the near mystical ability to drill down into the essential parts of your creative personality, and help you focus on how you can take your business to the next level.  By that, I mean – make your creative business into something that’s sustainable and that will actually make you living – so that you don’t have to take a soul crushing 9-5, and can do the work you feel you’ve been put on this earth to do.

How does she do this?  Well, to start with, she asks you to take her Creative Freedom Quiz – which will fill you in on some personality traits of yours that will help guide you in figuring out how to put together your creative endeavor.  After all, why start a business in a way that doesn’t fit your personality?  If you’re constantly fighting yourself to get things done, you’re just not going to be successful.  Once you know your creative “type”, it’ll be much easier to craft your business in a way that suits your personality.  Or as Lisa herself put it, “By uncovering your Creative Entrepreneur Type, you shine a light on your blind spots, so you can finally build your Noble Empire and live an inspired life – without selling your soul.”

It’s a brilliant strategy.  And for those of us trying to find our way as creative entrepreneurs, it can give us clear direction when we haven’t had any before.

There are a lot of ways you can learn from Lisa.  First off, she has a book called Creative Freedom: How To Own Your Dreams Without Selling Your Soul. She also has a membership called A Club – which has a lot of resemblance to the Mastermind groups I’ve mentioned before.  This kind of arrangement can work really well because it puts you in touch with other creatives who are struggling, just like you, and holds you all accountable to each other.  That’s a fantastic way to make sure you reach your goals!

And lastly, she also has a YouTube channel.  I’ve linked to her latest video about Branding for Creative Entrepreneurs.  And I don’t know about you, but branding for creatives has always been a particularly fascinating subject for me.  Have a look and see if she can help you!  There are a ton of free resources here that Lisa has very generously put together – so no, you don’t have to spend money.  But if you’re wanting to actually make money from your creative idea? You might want to consider joining her A Club.  (And no, I’m not getting a kickback here.)

Thanks for all you do, Lisa!