We hear the term ‘Signature Personality’ a lot and many know what it means but may not understand how to apply it to their business and their deliveries. One of the best ways to understand what a signature personality is to analyze and compare to popular celebrities such as a Mike Myers or Jim Carrey. These actors are popular because of their personality. They are Mike Myers and Jim Carrey in everything they do. This doesn’t mean they are the best actors, but they are brilliantly funny personalities. Even great actors such as Meryl Streep and Jack Nicholson have a core base of who they are in every role they take on. You are attracted to their friendliness, their weirdness and all the unique things that make them who they are!
One of the first things you need to do for your business is to truly understand your personality and know how to sell it, not only in your branding/marketing/web presence, but also in your deliveries. You are going to take on multiple characters no matter what genre you pursue, (lets say it’s a profession such as a teacher, or a role such as mom) and it’s how you approach each character that brings out your signature personality. The teacher you mimic will be different than the type of teacher I might approach and that’s what keeps our auditions unique.
For some of you knowing what your signature personality is will take a bit of work, and soul searching. Your own personally social circle is the best place to start. Ask your friends and family to describe 10 things about your personality, the good, bad and the ugly.
Once you have this list and or an idea of who you are, now you have a better idea of what it is your selling. Make sure all of your marketing material suits your true personality, not a fake version of what you think a ‘Voice Talent’ should sound/look like. If you are not a high corporate business type, don’t sell yourself that way. Yes there is a means of professionalism in our industry, but that doesn’t mean we need to sound like corporate drones with NO personality, or to be manufactured products of your training, you need to sound like YOU but trained.
I have had the privilege to help many talents find out who they are within a matter of minutes and helping them brand that to the world. The Voice doesn’t lie and it’s easy to read, at least for me. I’m like a personality psychic LOL, but even better I know what to do with it and how to sell it to the world. I like to be me in everything I do. I own that, I know how to package that and I’m proud of who I am, yet there are many voices out there like me, but there is only one VO Chef Deb. It’s getting harder and harder to get into a good agency if you sound like anyone else on their roster, so again you need to find out what makes you unique and how to sell that to the world and have the confidence to own it!
Until next time everyone
All my best
VO Chef Deb – aka Deb Munro
