Let me do your talking
Getting hired for one project is good.
Becoming the person a producer calls again is better.
Talent may get someone through the door, but reliability, communication, and taking direction well are what build a lasting working relationship.
When you hire creative talent, what makes you want to work with that person again?
You can learn a lot about a business in the first 30 to 60 seconds.
The way someone answers the phone.
The way you’re greeted when you walk through the door.
The feeling that the person helping you is genuinely glad you called—or walked into their shop.
Before customers know the quality of your work, they experience the quality of your welcome.
What makes you immediately feel that you’re in good hands?
There’s a big difference between knowing
how to do the work and knowing how to
build the business.
I started training for voiceover work in the
late 1990s. I learned how to read a script,
take direction, and deliver a performance.
Then COVID came along, and suddenly
people were working from home.
I remember thinking, “Wait a minute—I
can do voiceover from home?”
Then came the questions.
I need a recording booth?
I have to build one?
What microphone do I need?
What about the acoustics, the
software, and all this other equipment?
Are you kidding me?
I had experience behind the microphone,
but I was starting the business side almost
from scratch. So I learned the same way
most people do—one question, one
mistake, and one small victory at a time.
Have you ever discovered that knowing how to do the work and knowing how to build the business were two completely different things?
There’s a big difference between giving someone information and giving them something they’ll remember.
Information explains what happened.
A good storyteller makes you feel like you were there.
That applies to children’s stories, corporate videos, training programs—and even an ordinary conversation. Facts may teach us something, but it’s often the human voice and the story behind those facts that stays with us.
What’s something you still remember because of the way someone told the story?
#Storytelling #VoiceOver #CorporateNarration
Yesterday, I completed the fifth and
final manuscript for Season One of
Beyond the Stone Path: Zacky’s Woods™.
What began as a memory of the
woods I explored as a boy in
Iselin, New Jersey, has grown into
a world of friendship, curiosity, hidden places, and adventure.
There is still plenty of work ahead,
but today I’m taking a moment to
appreciate this milestone.
Sometimes momentum doesn’t need
to be forced. It just needs to be fed.
What childhood place still lives clearly in your imagination?
#ZackysWoods #ChildhoodMemories #Storytelling #CreativeJourney
Common sense isn’t always about knowing the answer.
Sometimes it’s having enough sense to admit that the answer you started with isn’t working.
Imagine a voiceover session where a client is completely committed to one particular idea or direction.
Everyone keeps trying to make it work, but the message simply isn’t landing.
Then the producer or director says, “Let’s step back and approach this from a completely different point of view.”
At that moment, there are two choices:
Keep forcing the original idea because you’re emotionally attached to it—or listen to the people around you and try the solution sitting right in front of you.
We all do this occasionally. We keep pushing harder because it was our idea, our plan, or the answer we wanted.
But more effort cannot always rescue the wrong approach.
Sometimes common sense is simply having enough humility to say:
“This isn’t working. Let’s try something different.”
Have you ever watched someone keep forcing an idea when a better solution was right in front of them?
What have you built that made you proud before anybody else noticed?
Years ago, I would pull into my mom’s property and see the three trucks from the moving business Tommy and I had built from the ground up.
I remember thinking, “That’s us. That’s ours.”
Success isn’t always about what other people see. Sometimes it’s that private moment when you realize your hard work has become something real.
What was that moment for you?
#Entrepreneurship #SmallBusiness #BuiltFromTheGroundUp #PrideInYourWork #LifeLessons
Yesterday, I mentioned three things I’ve been thinking about lately:
Loyalty. Respect. Common sense. Let’s start with loyalty.
It’s easy to call yourself loyal when everything is going well. I think loyalty shows itself when standing by someone—or standing by your word—becomes inconvenient.
That’s when you find out whether it means something.
Lately, though, it seems like loyalty has become conditional. Some people are loyal only as long as the relationship benefits them.
But I can show you what true loyalty looks like and he has four legs and a fur coat. He stands by me no matter what.
That’s loyalty. So let me ask you:
Has loyalty really disappeared—or have we changed what we expect it to mean?
I’ve been thinking about three things lately:
Loyalty. Respect. Common sense.
It’s not just that they seem unusual anymore. Sometimes it feels as though people have decided they’re unnecessary.
There was a time when standing by your word mattered. Treating people with respect mattered. Thinking about how your actions might affect somebody else mattered.
Now, some people just don’t seem to give a damn—as long as they get what they want.
Maybe—no, not maybe. Definitely. The world has changed. Our expectations have changed with it.
What do you think? Are loyalty, respect, and common sense disappearing—or have we simply stopped expecting them from one another?
#VO #Loyalty #Respect #CommonSense
For the last four and a half years, Maverick and I have taken our morning walk at about the same time every day. I don’t need to remind him—he expects it. That’s what consistency does.
Over time, it turns an action into a habit and a habit into something people can count on.
I learned the other side of that lesson when I stepped away from marketing my voice-over business for several months. When the consistency stopped, so did the momentum.
Whether you’re in voice-over or running any small business, marketing isn’t something you do only when you feel like it. Keep showing up—even when the results aren’t immediate. Consistency is what keeps your business moving forward.
#Consistency #SmallBusiness #Marketing #VO
