what’s your title?
When I was single, I always heard the joke about the lame pick-up line: “what’s your sign?” The bright female response to this male inquiry was “exit”.
That came to mind when I wrote the blog post title “what’s your title?”
The idea is how silly we in the voice over community get with our titles. This is always evident when I plow through my LinkedIn email contacts, separating the voice-over world from the rest of my contacts.
Do you know how many VO’s list their title on LinkedIn as “President” or “Owner”?
It’s not always easy when I go through that LinkedIn list to figure out who is a Voice Over Talent, at least not via their job title listed on their profile. We make it more complicated than its needs to be, I think. It’s our own fault, myself included.
For a while I listed my title as President on LinkedIn and on my business cards. A one man company can have a president, right? Would owner have been better? Um, well, no.
Titles are all pretty EGO based (at least as I see them) and therefore not necessarily helpful for the prospect to understand what I do – what can a single owner in a voice-over company ‘preside’ over exactly? A bad choice on my part – I didn’t think it through. Shame, shame.
Something more descriptive seemed in order. Isn’t that what a job title should do, be descriptive, clarify?
Then I thought OK: Voice Over Talent/Producer. More information, more words, more important. I used that for a while. Something seemed to be missing there too but I lived with it for a while.
Then, when I was futzing with my branding (or my slogan or maybe tag line or however you want to encapsulate this overly analyzed and utterly useless “what is branding” topic – and yes I am also a marketing professional shooting myself in the foot) I decided to go with simplicity in my positioning (and position): Your Friendly, Neighborhood Voice-Over Talent.
A little branding, a little job description, a little positioning and a bit fun. If someone finds it too cutesy, screw ’em. 🙂
Don’t worry, I’ll probably hate this title in another 6-12 months anyway.
Ah simplicity!
Is Voice-Over a bad job title choice? Voice Actor? Voice Talent? No, none of them are bad because they are simple. They are also descriptive and make clear for the prospect what you do and the service you provide. And isn’t that the key to a good job title? Tweaking it just a little, though, for a more identifiable branding I don’t think hurts.
Think: “Professional Story Teller” or “Unnouncer” or the Hip Chick Voice.
What do you list as your job title or description on your business card? Do you get any client feedback specifically on it?
really good question! I LOVE the marketing of the 3 examples you chose…of course a bit prejudiced as I know them all 🙂
wow. I’ve been using “Female voice over talent” , producer…yawn.
but it comes up high on LinkedIn searches for those words!
maybe by the next faffcon I”ll have a creative brainstorm 🙂
I have ‘The Talent’ listed on my business cards, which is probably more because of the way the cards are formatted as anything. In general though, I pretty much list myself as VO Talent. Boring, yes, but plainly descriptive. I’ll probably revisit that a few hundred times as i ramp up all the other marketing and imaging in the next couple of months.
I would never have thought to bestow a title upon myself but certain online venues such as LinkedIn or Facebook seem to want one when filling out your profile.
On my business card, it used to just say “Voice Overs” beneath my name, followed by a small laundry list of the varieties of VO I do (i.e. Narrations, Commercials, E-Learning, Games, Characters, etc.).
But following a Faffcon session on branding (led by the Unnouncer, Doug Turkel), I was inspired to make a change. My business card now announces me as “Lee Gordon, Problem Eliminator.”
I’m not sure how much additional business is gets me, if any, but virtually everybody I hand the card to repeats the phrase out loud.
A great topic, as always, Peter. An interesting question, and certainly lots of very interesting answers. 🙂 For my own branding, it took a while to settle on something I was happy with, but when it came down to it, I decided to go with “the yummy voice” (there’s more to it than that, but that’s the gist) because it described the type of timbre and tone a client would be likely to get out of me (and added a bit of personality to the mix). This might hinder me with jobs that require a higher register, or something not usually in my wheelhouse, but the regular clients I have are willing to let me stretch and explore if the situation warrants and I’m always aware that clients talk to other people. 😉 In the end, branding might hinder you from getting some projects that are outside of what your branding says is your usual scope, but categorization happens in just about every business. To my mind, it’s best to start by choosing a niche and being the absolute best you can be at that particular niche (not to say that you can’t have more than one niche, over time – and I’m sure all the best voice talents do). I think what tends to happen with voice talent is that there’s a lack of focus – one can’t be all things to all people. In a business that kind of thrives on personality, (because really – that’s what truly makes us all different from one another) I believe it’s best to be pretty up front about what that personality is to a potential client. That kind of thing can cut through the clutter, you know? Just a theory, anyway. 🙂
Yummy voice = cake
Cake = Gooood
Ergo
Jodi = Good.
Works for me.
Best always,
– Peter
And that actual recognition on a voice-over business card, Lee, is priceless.
You owe Doug a beer. Pay him in Charlotte.
Case dismissed. 😉
Best always,
Judge Peter
Well, Bill, that is kind of generic.
How about “THE Talent” at least.
“Voice-Over Problem Solver”?
“Coolest Voice-Over Guy Ever”?
I want to see the new cards and the new title at F5. 🙂
Best always,
– Peter
Or….you could lead a session on that topic.
Just sayin’ 😉
Thanks Randye.
Best always,
– Peter