Toby’s Interview with Susannah Kenton on #VOLIFE

On today’s episode of VO Life Toby talks to British/Amercian Voiceover legend Susanna Kenton. We traverse many topics including;

– How to believe in what your reading
– The trick to doing accents authentically
– Voiceover warmups
– correct posture during voiceover recordings
– does voiceover give you energy or take it away
– How to get the ‘voiceover’ out of voiceover
– Giving or getting bad direction and how to overcome it
– Making your voice booth better to work in, making it a sanctuary,
– how to supply audio to studios
– How to work differently with different types of clients
– How to source voiceover work
– How to make the client experience better
– Panicking when the work dries up
– There is always more to learn
– Self-direction and how to do it
– Mental discipline during sessions
– Giving your best to VO
– What you will not voice
– What’s your best work

Here is a transcript of the interview:

Toby Ricketts
It’s my very great pleasure to welcome to the gravy for the brain Oceania interview Susanna Kenton who I’ve known for a number of years, I’ve been trying to remember how many years it is but she has been one of my kind of voiceover inspirations. And she’s in Christchurch, New Zealand. And I do want to just tell us a bit about where you are at currently with voiceover at the moment Susanna.

 

Susanna Kenton
You know, I oddly enough, I’ve been in it for a while and I am loving it more than ever, for really strange reasons that are very kind of inner The reason being that i i love the art of trying to find the truth in any given situation with any given script, no dive straight into like the deep end. But really, um and so what I noticed is there was a time when I was like, I really want to be voicing scripts that are more in alignment with my values What I love most and then I realized like what a blessing it was to have work when during this you know, period of lockdown when everyone was struggling and frightened about what’s next.

 

And I became just so grateful for the next project that would come into my inbox. And what I loved was the opportunity to voice it to really honour the product or the company and the acting job to find the right voice for each project which I think is something very nebulous, you know, every project Every company is different so

 

Toby Ricketts
So what kind of have you put yourself into a genre or an accent or area of voiceover?

 

Susanna Kenton
Um, you know, mostly Toby I’ve, I’ve voiced from my natural accent, which is probably mostly British, but because I’ve lived in the States and other places, it’s kind of a, it’s a bit softer. So it’s not, it’s not a very strict British accent. And sometimes when I hear strict British accents, it makes me realize how far from that my accent has has moved. But yeah, I don’t I sometimes do voice an American accent as well, because I was born in the States. And that comes fairly easily to me. But I wouldn’t say that I specialize in accents. I’ll have give one ago when somebody asked for one.

 

But what I found is, and I think this is, this is true for most people that are doing well in voiceover is more to do with the delivery than any particular accent. And it’s more to do with kind of coming from your heart and connecting with something that then translates people hear it. It’s, um, you know, I’ve said this to you before, that I tend to go by feel and you know, you and I recently had a question, a chat about rates and how rates change and what you should do and make sheets and you have the most amazing setup for that is very sweetly sent me a rate sheet.

 

And I was just blown away by how, how beautifully thought out it was and appropriate and kind of fair for companies of all different sizes with your tier system. But for me, across the board, I tend to go by feel with most of what I do, maybe that’s a more of a female thing, the male thing I don’t know.

 

Toby Ricketts
So you’re more of an intuitive sort of you feel your way around that things. Seem to Yes, I completely agree with you, though, in terms of like, people get hung up on accents. And I feel like I went through a phase where I was trying to do the accent perfectly. And then you kind of almost break through that and do realize that people are not actually listening to the accent necessarily.

 

And if you can tune into, like, for example, like Americans, how Americans speak, it comes from a different place to the way British people speak. And if you can find that place, rather than find the vowel or find the consonant or whatever, then, you know, it’s about listening more than is about doing I think, and yeah, totally right. You know, for me, too, yeah, to come from an intuitive place.

 

Susanna Kenton
There’s an American spirit. That is, uh, you know, I was, I got to live there for seven years in Los Angeles. And there’s a way that Americans talk that’s just kind of free flowing. And it’s just kind of easy. And it’s not, I mean, that’s a California or California way of talking. But if you get for those of us, maybe you are right to be maybe I am intuitive, but those of us that tend to go by feel, it’s, it’s catching the vibe of it, and letting that just kind of come through the voice.

 

Because if you’re voicing a piece of copy, and you’re trying to get the accent, right, think about so much of your brainpower is going towards trying to get it right. Whether if you whereas when you can just kind of relax into it, then you can focus more on on the intention, you know, as an actor behind the script.

 

Toby Ricketts
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. That’s so true. I’ve often one of the things that I the best advice that I heard for doing American accents was that Americans speak in. And they speak in concepts rather than sentences. So it’s like, there’s one point of the sentence and, and it’s easy to like, no, like, I’m going to go, I’m going to go get my coat from the car, rather than I am going to go and get my coat from the car. Like it’s like coat the car, and you just make the leap yourself, you know, so it’s like focusing on the intent of the script rather than the actual words itself.

 

Susanna Kenton
Yeah, and also, I’ve heard it said that Americans focus more on values rather than consonants. That’s I’m gonna go get my coat from car I’m gonna like they draw out the vowels instead of

 

Toby Ricketts
etc. And he also still voice in French. You did French for a while, didn’t you?

 

Susanna Kenton
Yeah, I lived in France for seven years. And there I was an actress and so I would act in French, but with a kind of a British or an American accent. I actually did a play there for two years where had an American accent speaking in French, but I don’t I mean, there are so many people that speak better French than me.

 

So I just let them do the French voicing Do you mean it’s like a. And I really believe you know, for people that are just getting into voiceover it’s about finding your own kind of excitement around it and what, what inspires you like people that love to do a lot of different accents or character voices are very well suited to animation or video games and stuff. And that can be so much fun to do, you know, the sort of stuff that I do tends to be more corporate. I would say you know, and, and not I’m not as much in that realm of playfulness.

 

Toby Ricketts
Hmm, absolutely. So speaking of bad people who are just starting out in voiceover, how did you first come across voiceover? How do you first start out?

 

Susanna Kenton
So I was an actress for about 12 years. And during that time, voiceover was just kind of something that would arise. So as living at the time, after I finished acting school in, in the UK, I went to live in Paris. And I think one of the first acting things I was doing things I started to do was, we would dub films. So it would be a film that would be being dubbed. You see, I think we would dub it again, into French but with an American accent. And it was amazing, you’d be in this huge sort of Sound Studio room, and the film would be there. And they were so clever, like they’d write in handwriting across this band that moved across the screen. And it was all beautifully synced to try to coordinate like a character was the actor was putting their lips together.

 

In a sound they try and match like the French word. We were dubbing it into English. It was French ones that we were definitely into English. I think that was it for the American market. But um, and another I remember another thing back in Paris there was just kind of in voiceover thing I just I guess I was very lucky. I didn’t know it was a thing that you did. And I think my was my acting agent just said one day Oh, you’re going to go do this. I didn’t even audition for it was like a pizza ad commercial. Where had to dub Cindy Crawford. So she obviously had tried to speak no, she was speaking English and the English version.

 

Then I had to do her bigger voice in French. The weird thing was a week later, I had to dub Cindy Crawford again. In an ad for Revlon. I think it was.

 

Toby Ricketts
funny. You could be one of those people. You know, there are these there are actors that just dub films and the like the German guy that voices Keanu Reeves, for example. He’s the one that always dubs Keanu Reeves. So you become like a surrogate in another language for that voice. Because when people go, and it’s a different thing, like that’s not Keanu Reeves. So you could be, you know, doppelganger voice with French.

 

Susanna Kenton
Yeah, that’s right. And, and the people that do that, Toby, they’re so amazing. They’re so skilled, you have to do that. Because, you know, they have to be in the right energy, they have to watch if the character is moving fast, or if it’s, you know, intimate, so not only the emotion and reading the script, but also conveying it to the size of the shark, for instance, might be a feature so many things to multitask, and they don’t have

 

Toby Ricketts
the physicality of acting as well, like they have to kind of come to that from somewhere, which isn’t,

 

Susanna Kenton
yeah, and I actually think like, oftentimes, people that dub films, well, they do use their bodies, you’ll see them, you know, moving moving around behind the microphone, and they try to imitate so if the character is you know, has just gotten up off the ground or something that they’ll be that they’ll do an effort to put that into the voice. That actually brings up a really important point because people ignore their bodies when they do voice over a lot, I think. And I’m always very careful.

 

Like, I often voice early in the morning being in our timezone, because I work with the States or Europe or whatever. And, and I’m always really careful to warm up first, because it is a whole body experience. If you’re voicing just, you know, from sort of the neck up that it doesn’t have the same fullness, as if you’re as if your whole body has woken up and ready and kind of the feeling of the emotion is moving through all of you.

 

Toby Ricketts
So interesting. Yeah, you do some sort of warm up. I know you said to roll out of bed. And that’s like you have this great gravelly morning voice. Exactly. That’s actually the thing I was about to say that, that my my warmup is not warming up because I’m warmed up. I lose like a whole octave. So yeah, I usually get up and voice first thing in the morning is great. And then last thing at night as well. So the whole if I try and voice something about now about sort of them, it’s actually not too bad today. But I’ve got also always got a lot of tension around to three o’clock and my voice and I’ve had sessions, where I’ve really struggled to match the audition either first thing in the morning isn’t something to consider.

 

Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And, and going back to the sort of physicality of voice work like I’ve really, when I’ve had to do a voiceover that sounds excessively kind of ponderous, or basically almost bored. You like is to like have your setup so that you can head put your head on the desk and just voice it from a completely bizarre voice because then you’ll sound so different from all the other auditions because you can actually, I’m amazed that microphones pick up everything, even the way your body is sitting, you know. So you know if if I’m doing games where someone’s like running or they’re, they’re basically up and excited.

 

I’ve got one of those desks that you can there that goes up and down electronically with all my gear on it. So you can see I can stand up and then actually start running and doing other stuff like and it really does come across On the mic, so I try and get around to make sure they’ve got a really flexible set up for that reason.

 

Susanna Kenton
That’s great. Yeah, I mostly stand to voice but there are some projects where I do. I do sit.

 

Toby Ricketts
So did we talk about, we talked about how you got into voiceover like from that first gig. And I mean, you know, talking about getting into voiceover, you’re kind of the reason I first got into voiceover because I used to own a studio in Christchurch. And tandem, I think you came in for some reason one time and, and you were like, you know, I’m a voiceover artist, I’d usually voice from home and I was like, that’s a thing, you can do that. Amazing, inspiring. So thank you for that. But um, but what was your mindset?

 

Susanna Kenton
I have to Can I just say something on that subject. I spend my go around spending my life trying to like lecture people on how to make their lives better, like how they should eat, what kind of healthy food, how they should move, whatever. And it is such a joy to have seen you take what smidgen of voiceover like inspiration I gave you and just run with it and explode with it across the planet. All the things you’ve done, I’m so, so immensely proud. And so yeah, honored to jump into that.

 

Toby Ricketts
I think you know that it’s right there when you when you hear about something so small, and it just gives you so much energy on a constant basis. Like I say to people that you know, if you if you’re doing auditions, and it’s getting you down, that you’re not getting any work and you’re just not into it, then it’s like, well, it’s probably not for you, like you need to absolutely love it like love every audition, you do love the challenge, love the craft. And if you do it enough, then it just you get work. And it’s you know, it’s like a rolling ball gathering snow or moss, whatever

 

Susanna Kenton
totally. And that’s not to say that sometimes it’s not really challenging or you’re reading a piece of copy that I had a very funny experience. I was once voicing it 100,000 word endoscopy project full of medical terms, like really complex that went on for ages and ages. And I like one day I was in the booth and I started to, to voice and the sentence had the word monotonous in it. And when I hit that word, I started to laugh, I started cracking. So I actually have that recording and it put it in my blog on my, on my website.

 

But the funny the funniest part was, the person who hired me was the only person that saw the blog. I don’t know how he came across it. Maybe he like, you know, a Google search for endoscopy or something. But he wrote a really sweet comment, but I thought it was hilarious that the one person that was sort of like would probably be embarrassing if he saw it happen.

 

Toby Ricketts
Classic, yeah, we all do have those gigs occasionally, which are a bit of a struggle that you do have to dig deep. Like I’ve definitely voice like a 35 or 40,000 word like TTS training demo for text to speech and to train. Speak. And

 

Susanna Kenton
when I was gonna ask, yeah,

 

Toby Ricketts
no, it didn’t, it didn’t go anywhere in the end, unfortunately, as the company when done it, but I’m involved. And the worst thing about it was that you had to read sentences. That didn’t make sense. And you weren’t allowed to put any emotion into it, you had to make it really flat, which I really struggled with, because that’s the one thing you want to do is for servers breathe life into things. And this was the opposite, we had to breathe life out of it. And that was a lot more of a struggle than I thought or when, like telephony stuff. And you have to read like one to 1000. And you have to do exactly the same and not very the way you say it, which is so challenging.

 

Susanna Kenton
Yeah, what astrological sign are you

 

Toby Ricketts
I usually say pirate. But Scorpio,

 

Susanna Kenton
your Scorpio, okay? Because I’m Gemini. And Gemini is love. Like they’re very changeable. And they love all sorts of different things. So the idea of doing like one flat, monotonous thing. But I love your trick about putting your head down, voicing that way. And listen, amazed at how little you have to do. And even like I sometimes still do some on camera stuff. And when I do that, it’s always when I’m auditioning things. There’s always the note from myself or somebody directing me do less to do this.

 

Toby Ricketts
That’s the advice I ever got the best, the best piece of work that was like one of the milestones in my voiceover career when I had some voiceover metric from a great American voice coach who just said, do less and every time I read she said do less and she just wore me down over like half an hour to just being absolutely flat. And then I thought this is gonna be awful and they listen back and I was like, that’s like a car commercial rate. And I was just like, you know, it was it was getting the voiceover out of voiceover, you suddenly become

 

Susanna Kenton
getting out of our own way. You know, I had I did a project once for Starbucks. It wasn’t an ad. I think they were just talking about some charitable work that they were doing or something. But I was directed by two directors that really knew what they were doing. And they got me to do it and i i think that’s on my website somewhere as well. It’s just like they just they just go Me to, say doing an American or Mid Atlantic accent? I don’t know. They just got me to talk in such an easy way. And it’s like, falling off a log.

 

Toby Ricketts
Exactly.

 

Susanna Kenton
And like you, I thought, Oh, that’s not enough, you got to push a bit more listening back with like the new.

 

Toby Ricketts
Exactly. And it’s isn’t it nice when you get really good directors, it makes so much difference to have all six.

 

Susanna Kenton
Exciting.

Toby Ricketts
Yeah, um, so like, I often say to them, like, I like compliment them on how well they direct because when you get a bad one or someone that’s like fresh out of the gates, and they think they know how to direct it can be an absolute train wreck. And I’ve I’ve actually come up with a way of, of trying to defuse if you ever get bad direction, or someone’s doing something, because because often what happens is directors will, they’ll tell you what they want, or they’ll tell you how to do it, right, because they, you know, their job is to get what they want out of you. So they’ll go, that’s wrong, do it this way.

 

And they’ll have the worst ones will give you a line reading and actually, like try and voice it. And it’s just an app, it’s horrible. Because you anyway, you know what I’m talking about. But what I say to them is like, instead of telling me how to do it, tell me what you’re trying to achieve. And then let me do that. Because it’s like, with a builder building a house, you don’t say you’re putting that nail in wrong, you’re doing that thing wrong. You tell them what kind of room you’d like, you know, you’d like I’d like it this dimensions and to feel like this.

 

And then you let them do the thing that they’re really good at. And so if you explain it like that to them and say like, I really want to get you the result that you’re after, tell me what you’re trying to achieve. And I will try and get there with you.

 

Susanna Kenton
Beautiful. No, that’s great. That’s great advice. And I love that you are confident enough that you can hear when someone’s doing that you can recognize and pick up as soon as you hear somebody giving you a line read. You know, anyone in the industry knows that you never ever ever give an actor a voice artist ally made its most insulting. Yang. Exactly. And not the way to get the best out of someone you know? Exactly. Yeah.

 

Toby Ricketts
So when Tell me about a bit about the sort of tech side of your setup, because you’ve been 70 years, have you been doing this? establish just how long you’ve been doing it for as long?

 

Susanna Kenton
Yeah. So I don’t I don’t really know. Because like, while I was acting, I was still voicing. But I think in terms of like, pretty much doing voiceover aside from some acting and some writing. I think I’ve been doing it for probably 15 or more years. You know, yeah. And I was, I was thinking about like, when I started, I didn’t have a studio home setup. And I actually went to do mother plains FM radio station in Christchurch here. And they very sweetly offered me studio space in exchange for my doing some radio liners for them. So I might I don’t know if that’s still a thing for people that are beginning I think nowadays, it’s, it’s a lot easier to just have your own setup and, you know, fairly inexpensively you can start to build that but that that worked out really well.

 

So once or twice a week, I would go in and record my project and had an engineer who engineered it for me. No soundproof studio nice mic. And from there I think I I must have bought a decent mic and I I began recording in a cupboard in my home. And it was tiny, I took the shelves out. And it was just like being in a coffin. It was about the size of a pocket. And I checked myself in it kind of like not at all like swing your arms around kind of get loosey-goosey with it and but I did that for a while and then built a five-sided studio, which you’ve seen Toby you’ve used it and which I just love, it’s all black on the inside.

 

And it’s pretty well soundproofed it has a door that kind of is like a safe door that cranks over and like blocks out the outside world and even has a ventilation system, which is really nice in the summer, which brings cooler air in but with a very soft fan that you almost don’t hear. And for me that’s kind of like a magical space. It’s like in, in the theater, we have black box theatres, and I’ve always loved them. We had one at university and it’s just like, in that space and that black space, anything can happen. You know, it’s not big, like I can reach the walls like this. And if someone’s too tall, they have to sit to voice in there.

 

But I have that and I work mostly with anointment TLM 103 Mike and I’ve I’ve messed around a bit I’m always on the quest for improving audio quality and always neurotic about it not being good enough. But over the years I’ve learned about plugins and things and learn to do a bit more of my own audio engineering. Well, obviously I do audio engineer my projects, but

 

Toby Ricketts
what some software to use to record into an edit.

 

Susanna Kenton
You know, I use a software that’s I work on Macs and they use a software called Sound Studio, which I just love and I’ve tried other ones. When it first started out I used cool Edit Pro which is Then became Adobe Audition. Is that right? That’s right. Yeah. But I also have twisted wave, which are sometimes used on other devices like an iPad. But I love Sound Studio in its simplicity, because it just has really what a voice artist needs. And for someone like yourself, who’s also an audio engineer, I would say that the, like EQ and things like that are a little bit crude. But for myself, it’s just so simple and looks very clean. And every time I try and move into another door, I just like, come back to it.

 

Toby Ricketts
Yeah, it’s interesting that Isn’t that how it’s just like it feel so comfortable. That kind of glove, put on that stuff. And I mean, it’s interesting, interesting that, I mean, a lot of engineers now, especially if you’re working in certain areas, like something that’s going to have post production, like commercials, or other kind of higher end elearning projects, that basically they just want raw audio these days, they want you to have a good and a good room.

 

But basically, they just want the sound as raw as it gets. And then their engineers will do and, and they actually don’t want anyone to mess with it. They don’t want compression on the way in because you can’t get rid of it. Like it’s you know, once it’s gone from raw, it’s gone. So, so you know it, I think I always say people like simple as best, you know, it’s nice to be able to know how to use compression. And I always give clients both things were given the raw and then I’ve given like a process question to use, depending on what their setup is.

 

Susanna Kenton
Yeah. And you never know, do you which kind of client you’re working with. And yeah, and there are some you know, sometimes you work with a company and they don’t know, they know, much less than, you know, even I know about audio engineering. So

 

Toby Ricketts
yeah. And you often hear ham, like projects that have gone to gone to the web or something where there are voices got no processing and sounds really distant and really kind of small, like, you know, they’re really quite weedy. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So I think

 

Susanna Kenton
I’m a little bit too hyper-vigilant around the noise floor. And so I do use a high pass filter.

 

Toby Ricketts
Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely want to get rid of the rumble.

 

Susanna Kenton
I’m trying to show off. There’s not that much. But I also do us a slight noise gate. Because I find it easier to then work with the voice file. And if there are, I don’t know, math clips, or things that I need to take out. It’s just you can bring it all down very quickly, but interesting to kind of open up the discussion a bit with you. And to know that most audio engineers and good ones like it to have the flaws

 

Toby Ricketts
still in there. Yeah, yeah. Cuz because, you know, audio engineers have often got quite advanced tools for getting rid of noise and for getting rid of rambles and noise and stuff. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. So

 

Susanna Kenton
yeah. You can be anything these days?

 

Toby Ricketts
Yeah, I mentioned the I’d like this in French thanks, Adobe edition. Auto translate, I bet it’s about 10 years away.

 

Susanna Kenton
You ever engineer other people’s stuff? Or it’s mostly your own?

 

Toby Ricketts
Yeah, sometimes? Yep. Sometimes I am. I’m in a project. And they’ll say Who else? Do you know who does voiceover so I’ll kind of end up casting for them, and then giving them all of the files at once. Because it’s clear that they don’t, they’re out of their depth. In terms of audio, you just want

 

Susanna Kenton
to map that Toby finesse around? Exactly.

 

Toby Ricketts
So, so yeah, sometimes I do do that. And it is interesting, how many, how many things I’ve learned from from other people giving me audio. And then me going, Oh, this is actually a lot harder, like I prefer it, you know, and I’ve given feedback sometimes in terms of, like, if you ask, you know, three takes from someone, and they give you three identical tags, and you’re like, well, there’s no point in that, because I’ve got three copies of the same thing. So like, do something not wildly different, but do something like quite different, so that you can choose to

 

Susanna Kenton
slow it down or put your head on the table.

 

Toby Ricketts
Try one with your head on the pillow,

 

Susanna Kenton
it’s up to you. Because I’m I tend to with most of the projects that I do, I record a piece of copy, let’s say it’s a two minute video or something, I’ll record it, maybe I’ll do one read to warm up and I’ll record a couple of takes. And then I just take the best take, but if there’s any bit of it that I don’t like, I will choose another piece that does that, you know, I am very perfectionistic around delivery.

 

And I like like even if the emphasis is in the wrong place in a word that shows that my mind was kind of wandering at that moment, and I wasn’t really focused on the meaning then I will you know, steal it from somewhere else. But I know a lot of voice artists, they do send two or three takes on a project.

 

Toby Ricketts
What was your what’s your policy? For me? It kind of depends if I’m doing a like a project at the bottom of my rates where it’s quite a long project like over five minutes and it’s and I’m not charging that much for it but I’m telling to just in one and say there’s nothing wrong with it just an extra engineering. exactly it is it’s it’s a big deal to do to multiple dates. If it’s something like you know, if it’s if it’s a 15 second drop for something, then you’re given three texts, you know, because it’s so easy and quick Pull off, was it just the multiple start to really add up a few anything beyond five minutes?

 

You know, because it turns into quite a bit production to record three texts or five minutes and edit those suddenly you’re at an hour, you know, in terms of studio time. So, yes, it depends how much how much they’re paying for. But, I mean, I often, you know, do stress with clients that, you know, if there’s anything wrong with this, and rerecord to completely free as long as it’s my fault and not changing the script, for example.

 

Susanna Kenton
Yeah, that’s, that’s really, really reassuring, I think and leads to having repeat business, which is great,

 

Toby Ricketts
exactly. But the flip side of that is if they’re in a hurry, because I’m in a different time zone, and they’ll only get it sometimes the next morning, and that’ll take me six hours to respond. If I know that time is of the essence, I’ll give them as much as I can on the front end, so that they don’t have to wait to come back to me. Yeah, exactly. So you do get, I think this is one of these intuitive things, going back to being a bit intuitive that you pick up from clients.

 

And you kind of you get used to working with different sorts of clients, and you get to know how to recognize them. And then what are the things that they hold as a priority? Uh huh. Yeah. So I want to ask you about where you get your work at the moment, because some you’ve got a wonderful website, and you go and do pay to be any part of any voice platforms like voices.com, or voice 1230. Yeah.

 

Susanna Kenton
So, um, for a while, and especially when you’re starting out, I did voice 123 dot com and voices.com. And eventually, I got like, a lot of clients. And, in fact, I think one of them I think it was voices came to and they said, Hey, you know, you should try us Super Deluxe pay thousands of dollars version, platinum, platinum. And I said to them, honestly, I really appreciate you inviting me to that. But I don’t want more work than I have, which was like such a, you know, privileged place to be and they were like, No, okay, good for you.

 

I’m so at the moment, I still have a voices account, it’s not the Platinum one, but I think it’s premium or something. And I don’t do a huge amount of auditions through that. But so I tend to set the rate fairly high that like, you can choose which jobs you want to audition for. And I don’t want my inbox flooded with voices audition. So it just maybe get an A one, one or two a day, something like that.

 

But um, some of my auditions come from other agencies in the States. And otherwise, a lot of my work these days is just sometimes through my website, but also just, um, clients that I’ve worked with for some, some of them for years, you know, and we just, we know each other well, and it’s just like, it just

 

Toby Ricketts
seems repeat business. It’s amazing, isn’t it? How it just builds up over time? Yeah, blessing? Yeah, it is. Absolutely. Because I think they this, you know, be interesting to actually, like, find some statistics on it. Like, you know, one out of every 15 clients will turn into a long term client, and they’ll give you work every three months. So if you if you get like every 15 clients you get, you’ll get one of those, and then that will give you more work every three months.

 

So it’s kind of like it slowly builds up until I can envisage a point in the future where it’s just residual work, you know, and you don’t actually have to market yourself or go to get new clients, because you’re just busy servicing kind of an old pool of clients. Plus, they referred to if you give them an exceptional experience, which has been my focus for the last three years, then and they become a real fan of yours, then you know that they’re in the same circles as other video, people. And they’ll recommend you usually,

 

Susanna Kenton
yeah, which is lovely. Yeah. And also, I mean, think about it, once you’ve established that connection with a client. Like they want it to be hassle free. They don’t want to have to do huge auditions, every time they have a project. They just want to know that, you know, you’ve got your act together on the, let’s say, the performance side on the technical side, that your turnaround times are fast that you’re nice to work with. And then they’re just Oh, thank God. So it really is win win, you know?

 

Toby Ricketts
Yeah. And you can tell the clients where you that you know, that they’re just like, they say something nice afterwards. And it’s like, they they found that they kind of like, Oh, thank goodness, I found someone that’s a really Yes, I really, I used to I do

 

Susanna Kenton
But I do want to say, Oh, sorry.

 

Toby Ricketts
I used to work in radio. And it was you know, we’d have copywriters, so we could go on to do voicing, and he wasn’t you the ones that were best at voicing, and we’re just so quickly and super easily and you just go to them by instinct, it was just because, you know, you knew it was gonna be easier for you. So if you can inspire that feeling and other people have just like this There were just so easy to work with you will be the first on the list that they call.

 

Susanna Kenton
Yeah, absolutely. I want to say as well like I really feel for people in the current climate with the whole, you know, COVID situation and there’s a lot of fear and anxiety around around earning a living. And there’s a question you know, when you are when you earn your living like pretty much my whole life I’ve been I suppose freelance, you know, I mean, I’ve you know, I haven’t had a job set for one and a half years when I was a copywriter in a company. But so I’ve had to really trust kind of that flow of the universe and what I’ve learned a couple of things about it and one is that I always say to my myself.

 

And so I say this to your listeners too, if it feels like the universe is withholding abundance from you, what are you withholding from the universe, staring straight into the camera. And, you know, it can be like that you have some hidden talents that are locked away that you haven’t really been sharing, or it could be even that you are angry about something. But you’ve got that anger locked up and sad, whatever it is, just listen in and see like, what do you need to unleash? Because I do believe in the flow. And I do believe that there’s enough work to go around, that we don’t have to be competitive one another with one another, we can find a niche. And we can think about this the other day, Toby, there is so much voice work in the world.

 

So many companies and projects and artists need voices. So you know, just a little faith and a little trust in the flow. And know that even for those of us that do and are living this way, there are times when things are slow. And then you just turn your attention to building your home, for instance. Exactly, say thank you universe for a little bit of a break. In a free

 

Toby Ricketts
house, I’ve only I still I still have weeks and sometimes like longer periods where they’re just they they’re the work doesn’t come in, and I don’t get the gigs. And I think I there’s this really like dark sense of me that thinks, well, that’s the dreams over time. So this is that like most just No, it just for whatever reason, that’s just not gonna happen anymore. And then like I and then I think No, no, no, this has happened many times before.

 

Just go and do something like treat yourself, this is your vacation, you don’t get to go away any other time of year because your voice artist, so like, this is your time to do some work or do some marketing if you feel like it. And then it always picks up always,

 

Susanna Kenton
right, I know, I don’t, I don’t get that number, I love that you thought you would share that. And it’s exactly the same for me. And I have the same, you know, demons that are just like, Oh my God, that’s it, nobody likes you, you know, you’ve slipped in your ranking, and it’s over. You know, but I also trust, like, if there comes a time, when voicing isn’t what I’m here to do anymore, that something will take its place. So really, we don’t have to worry. And I want to say to anyone who just kind of started to get into it. I mean, to be you and I just share this immense gratitude for this path of earning a living.

 

And, you know, you knew what it was like before this. And you were already working in a creative industry when you would, you know, producing and directing and audio engineering and things. But you also knew that there were like these hours of a day, it wasn’t really you were too creative for that, you know, for that space. And you were you felt kind of locked into it. And in my one and a half days and a half days, one half years of working in a company, I felt like I was a veal, like put in a box being ready to be slaughtered, like with no light coming in, and they put me in a cubicle eventually.

 

It’s just like, I just couldn’t do it. You know, so for those of us that, that a free spirits in that way. Just believe in it. It’s such a great thing to you, and you learn and grow as you do it. And don’t be too hard on yourself, because it is a real learning curve. A lot of people start out and they think, Oh, well, somebody said had a nice voice. And then they you know, they pick up a piece of copy and they start to read it. And they think that’s voiceover. And they pretty much think that anyone could do it. But there’s a real learning curve and a real art to it. I mean, I noticed that for you like when you started off, you were booking jobs anyway. And you had some avenues in. But there came a point where you actually understood what you didn’t know.

 

And you started to coach and your voice work just went to a whole nother level. My two, my two it’s like, we can say, Oh, yeah, no, the words coming in, I’ve got this, I’m really good. And then you coach with somebody really good. You’re like, Oh, my God, I had no idea. technically true. Different realm

 

Toby Ricketts
is so true. And there are just those I just love how there are these paradigm shifts where you get comfortable and you get complacent. And you do think you’ve got it all sorted. And as you say, you get you have some kind of experience or a session or a thought that just breaks it down. And you I love the fact that even when I’m sort of you know, voicing this level, which is more than more than I ever thought I’d be doing in the world, like 10 times as much. I still know, there’s room for improvement. And there are other echelons to go to like

 

Susanna Kenton
I think though Yeah, that’s not that’s not like, Oh, my God will ever get there. But it’s just like, what a ride. What a journey. Exactly, you can always do better. I have to be careful because I tend to be really hard on myself. And like the upside of that is the perfectionism that, that just takes great joy in finding getting it just right. I love working with a client who’s really fussy because I’m really fascinated when we were like, no, let’s see if we can get it better. Yeah, that was it. We nailed it, you know, but the downside of it is to be like sometimes I’ll be editing my something that I’ve recorded and There’s a perfectly good take. And I’ve gone with my dog clicker. Do you use the dog? clicker?

 

Toby Ricketts
I just use it. No.

 

Susanna Kenton
Oh, you do? Okay. No, it’s just a device that used to call the dog and puppy, are you putting a spike in your file? Oh, you’ve graduated beyond that. Anyway, what I’ll notice is in my file is that there was a perfectly good take. And somehow, in my mind is like, I’m not good enough, you could have brought out more on that word, or you could have, like, lighten up a bit. So, you know, it’s self-management, isn’t it?

 

Toby Ricketts
On the subject of self direction, because this is another hard thing. Like I, you know, I run a voice Academy here in New Zealand and in person. And people love the fact they get in the studio and they love, you know, they do reads and you and you say, Oh, you know, you were doing this, and I was doing that and everything. How do you? Do you have advice for people on how to self direct because it is a skill entirely separate from voiceover? Because it relies on you listening to your performance as you’re doing it and judging it? How do you I can’t remember when I started self directing, or I mean, it helped that I was, I was directing talent. So that kind of came first to me. But for someone who, like, you know, how did you realize to self direct and start that process

 

Susanna Kenton
I mean, I think I’ve been self directing in every area of my life since I came out of the womb. But, but it’s, it’s a really, it’s a, it’s an interesting thing to look at. I think, for me, I voice best when when there’s a sense of freedom and flow. So if I’m too hyper vigilant, maybe too caffeinated. I’m not going to do my best voice work. So this is way back at the beginning, I was talking about, like warming up the body and getting into the flow and feeling that the voice is just very kind of clear and free.

 

And then Oh, yeah. Okay. So Toby, let’s talk about this, like, you know, how in invoice coaching, they often talk about, like talking to a person. Mm hmm. Right? So is that something like, do you visualize a person and start to talk to them?

 

Toby Ricketts
Never know, it’s almost like I don’t know, it’s almost like I’m voicing to myself in a weird kind of way.

 

Susanna Kenton
And see, I think that’s super valid. And I often will voice to myself, because I’m the harshest critic. If I can convince myself my own authenticity and attack, then I’m doing pretty well. But one of the things that I do, I think of it in terms of dropping in, so you drop into that alignment, which is right for that particular project. And for me, it’s almost like, it’s a consciousness thing. It’s just like, okay, it’s almost like I set an intention, before I begin, I like to take a deep breath in and let it out, funnily enough, before I start to voice, and you think, oh, you need to take a deep breath in and start talking.

 

But try this, you take a deep breath, and you just let it out. And there’s a sense of relaxation, and then you begin to speak. And it’s like, you’re already the placement of the voice and the relaxation is already better. And then one of the tips from one of my voice coaches was, and I quite like this, was that you just read the first line several times until you’re ready. So it’s like, it’s not that thing of like, the fear of the bank blank page, or the blank audio file, you know, it’s just, they just start off. And there’ll be a certain time, maybe three, you’ve repeated it three or four or five or six times. And then you’re like, there’s a yes. And then you just carry on from there.

 

Yeah, cuz To me, this idea of like speaking to a person, sometimes, I’ll use that as a starting point, especially if the, like, say, if I were doing something that was for, I don’t know, a young audience, and say, I wanted to have that kind of intimate connection, if I were talking to my 18-year-old niece, for instance, and I might just, you know, imagine her, but then quickly, just kind of let that go. Because if you’re trying to put your focus on the person you have, again, it’s like your mind’s having to multitask on too many things. And

 

Toby Ricketts
that’s so true. I’m going back to what you’re saying about the like, you know, doing little things before your voice, I realized I had this real realization recently that when I was looking at my sessions, I’ve done live directed sessions, and I usually clean them up for them, you know, before, before I send them through, and I noticed that I slept the tape like I do with live drinks. And so I go, you know, this is a test, take one, read one. And then I got exactly the same throat clear every time I compared them. And it’s an idea and I do it completely. I don’t do it because I need to clear my throat.

 

And I don’t do it because I’m conscious of it. But it’s just it’s a bit like I’m in rugby too, because I’m from New Zealand Rugby analogy, right. Then when it’s not in the habit, it’s almost like you know, when the young guys about to kick the ball through the posts, and they have a little weird routine and so they drop the grass, or they lick their finger and put the wind and they take a number of steps backwards. It’s always exactly the same because they’ve been trained to do this. mindset thing, I realized it’s exactly the same for me. And I didn’t even realize that I’ve made this like, it’s like a mantra or something. It’s like the thing.

 

Yeah. Go into character. And yeah, so and I don’t know just how how people come up with that thing but, but be conscious that you can have a little thing, even like a little action like a like a rubbing your hands or something like just to get

 

Susanna Kenton
that could come and coming home to yourself, you know, and even where I’ve always I have a few things that are that inspire me like I have. I love redwood trees. And I have the in Northern California, the redwood trees, that’s where I was born. And I have a picture of them in my booth and just things that kind of tune me in and uplift me how it might be a quote or something, but it just,

 

Toby Ricketts
I love redwood tree so much. I’m just

 

Susanna Kenton
Aren’t they beautiful? And they’re in the North Island, there are some.

 

Toby Ricketts
Yeah, that’s true. Yeah, for a tough match in Hawke’s Bay that summer, as well as a plantation not know, as near as big as the ones in Northern California. But yeah, still lovely trees. And I think you’re totally right with your, you try and make your place you voice if you can, if you’re able to make your place a sanctuary, I can make it a place that feels feels nice, even if it’s just a cupboard. put something on the wall that that makes you feel, you know, nice, like a like a picture of a view or something, you know, like, at least, you know, try and trick yourself into thinking that it’s, it’s not a claustrophobic cupboard. You know, this is the place I get to do my creative thing, which I really enjoy. Yeah,

 

Susanna Kenton
I’ve got in my in my studio, I’ve got a window. And it’s one of those windows where there’s two pieces of glass, but they’re sloped or something or one sloped, I think so that it doesn’t reflect the sound in the same way. And inside between the two pieces of glass is a little turquoise frog. I love frogs and and so it just like it’s there was so yeah, just little things like that. It’s probably the frog is directing every session I do.

 

Toby Ricketts
And it’s quite important for people to have the place they go to do voicing, I think, like, I realize some people have to kind of set up in their lounges or set up temporary studios to do practice or to do auditions. But if you if you can have a place you go to do voiceover and that’s all you do there. I think that really helps with this whole because it is such a mind game. Voice

 

Susanna Kenton
it is it is and it’s amazing how we have to be feeling relatively well to voice Well, I think. And I think you can’t really fake it. And when you know, I did a number of years acting in theatre, and I made the commitment. There was one time I did a show in the I did the played Anna and the King and I am musical in touring the states for a whole year. And it was hugely demanding as it was amazing, but huge, hugely demanding.

 

But even when you know, you’d get up at five o’clock in the morning and go to the next place and fly or bus or whatever, and you get there and you’d be so tired and had to do two shows, whatever it was, I always was cognizant of the fact that that audience, a lot of them were, you know, in the middle of the country, maybe they didn’t have much money, maybe they’d saved up for that event, it was like, maybe the first time for some of them that they went to theater. And I was made the commitment to be true, and to really show up and to be real and not fake it because when you’ve done a play over and over again, sometimes it’s like, Oh, here we go again, same lines, whatever. But I would, you know, really forced myself to do my best to be in the moment and give it my all and because people feel the difference. They You know, I think it’s funny that when this T-shirt says authentic. But they you know that people deserve authenticity, and they’re not stupid, and people can hear the difference.

 

And you know, you and I Toby because we’ve been doing this for a while, you can hear that voiceover you know, as soon as like you hear somebody that’s like in stuck in a rhythm, or they just sound like they’re reading the script. And the art of voiceover is to make it sound like you’re saying it, and that it’s just the next thought that’s arising and then you just know you’re feeling and that you’re feeling it. So I love that so and we’ve both coached with Marla Monica urban in New York. And, and one of Marla’s things is that, you know, the, the copy travels in through your eyes, and it goes into your brain. And then it needs to drop down into your heart and connect with your feelings. And then it comes out of your mouth, you know, and that journey, it’s like, just seeing it and put going in your brain and having come out, it doesn’t do it. No, it’s got to also have that you know that circuit and be connected. And when somebody is

 

Toby Ricketts
if it’s not moving you then how do you expect it to move your audience?

 

Susanna Kenton
Yes. And we all do bad voiceover at times. I remember one time when you were here, and there was a file on my on my computer that said bad voiceover and you saw it immediately. Like it was just on my desktop you like what was that bad voiceover and I had Actually gathered like, I don’t know where I got them from but two peoples the male and female was because I wanted at some point and I’ve never done it. I didn’t want to shame anyone. But I wanted at some point to say, Okay, listen, this is an example of somebody who’s just reading it, or somebody that thinks that that kind of automated robotic read his voiceover

 

Toby Ricketts
and it’s interesting how the market has shifted in terms of like, it used to be about the, the the trailer voice and no one actually talks like this. And and now people have cottoned on especially with advertising and it used to be the hard sell kind of mattress commercial sort of like it kind of feel but now it’s it’s so much more like people have woken up to the fact that they’re being advertised to and it must they must be hooked, there must be a scam somewhere. Because of the way this person is talking, instead of it just being like your friendly neighbor who’s got a great suggestion for you.

 

Susanna Kenton
Yeah, that’s right. And when you hear TV, ads, radio ads coming at you, and then all of a sudden, you hear one where the person’s dropped in, and they’re just speaking to you like a person, you hear it. And the rest of it, you learn to just switch off and tune out of because it’s just not interesting, or whatever being, you know, smacked around the head by this car salesperson or something.

 

Toby Ricketts
Yeah. So in terms of like the connecting with your reads, and the script, like, I know, when we talked on the phone, we’re talking about like, what, what you wouldn’t voice and whether you need to really kind of believe in something like what’s being advertised in order to, like, engage with it. And to make it sound good? Do you reject jobs? Or kind of what’s your process for that in terms of betting what you will or won’t voice?

 

Susanna Kenton
Yeah, so um, it’s, that’s a really important question. In fact, I had it with a friend of mine. And this week in Los Angeles, we were talking about, okay, what can we still, from an ethical standpoint, feel okay, about voicing and where do we draw the line. And as, you know, somebody that came up through the acting world, it was like, your job was to act. So even if you didn’t believe in the character you didn’t like the character didn’t like the project, you showed up, and you act it.

 

And for a lot of my career in voiceover, I’ve done that, like, I am a health nut. I love health food.  And I have voiced for McDonald’s and unvoiced for Coca-Cola, you know, so you can say, well, that’s conflict of interest or whatever. But I’ve considered them you know, acting jobs. And my job is to say, if I’m voicing about eating, you know, some I don’t know, highly processed, whatever food that I wouldn’t put in my body. I might do a substitution and voice it as if I’m eating a beautiful. I don’t even know what so yeah.

 

Yeah. But But I do, there are projects that I just cannot do and when auditions come in that are it’s especially a way to reject auditions and I’m not getting up sorry, not gonna go there. And on the days when I have plenty of work coming in anyway, I’m like, Yeah, no, I love the luxury of being able to say no, no.

 

Toby Ricketts
About for you, Toby. What’s, what’s a no for you? Um, I’ve kind of boiled it down recently, in terms of like this, I’ve always had one, which is that I’m not a religious person. And when I when I get scripts that are that are trying to convert people or, like insist religion is is real, I can’t do it for myself. Like I just, you know,

 

Susanna Kenton
yeah, but you are a pirate.

 

Toby Ricketts
I’m a pirate. So I would do pirate scripts. No, exactly. Yeah. Um, but the other thing that came up recently was I started voicing for, for some kind of movement called the total human thought movement or true human thought on something. And they had a very vague script, which, which, which was sort of, you know, about, like, there was going to be some kind of world-shattering event, and everyone was going to be involved and, and I did it, but I was very uneasy about it.

 

And in terms of like, I don’t, I don’t know what what this is actually for, like, the language is so vague a bit, it sounds like it’s quite important to or, you know, which, which, if I don’t understand where something’s going, it kind of makes me a bit nervous.

 

And then it came back with another script that was like, something about it basically sounded like a cult, and it sounded like they were gonna exploit people because it said, you know, you can own your house within five years, you won’t pay any interest and anyone can afford this and, and it was like, stuff that was like, this cannot be true. Or everyone would be doing it. And I just said, Look, you know, I’m happy to post a script. Can you just tell me what you’re advertising and how people get this? And they wouldn’t, they wouldn’t tell me. They just flatly refused to explain anything until I was like, Well, I don’t I can’t be involved with this if I don’t understand it.

 

And I feel like so basically, I’ve kind of boiled it down to if it’s morally unethical to do it. Like if it’s a one of the biggest voice jumps that I regretted ever doing, which one of the first voice jobs I took it because I I really wanted to be a voice about this was like recording like prank calls. For people. Like there was a website where people could record like someone doing it, and I just, I did it and I just thought that’s, that’s my voice just hurting people and it’s awful. So yeah, that was

 

Susanna Kenton
I really honor you for that. I had one that was that I had to throw in the towel. And I actually can’t remember if I just I think I just let them not pay me or did a kill fee or something, but it was spandex. And it was all about like telling women how to you know, flatten their bum, or make their bum bigger and flatten their belly. I don’t know what it was, but it was just so disgusting to me. And they wanted me to really push it. Oh, this looks like one of the lines was like for a perky of bum.

 

And I was like, I’m just not going to be a part of body shaming for women. Yeah, it was no thank you. And it just it just didn’t feel right. And I have a thing in life, which is if it’s not a yes, it’s a no. And I and I honor that whether it’s, you know, say you’re out shopping and you see a T shirt that you quite like you think that something is to say, if it’s not a yes, it’s a no. And just you know, same with voice. It’s not a yes. It’s a no. And you know, there’s that mentality of well, beggars can’t be choosers.

 

But I think that you can trust that when you align yourself with your own values, you will attract the kind of work that is more appropriate for you. And oftentimes If you say no to something that just disgusts you something else really lovely shows up so

 

Toby Ricketts
small black animal, welcome.

 

Susanna Kenton
Okay.

 

Toby Ricketts
Well, we’re nearly done. But before we go, I’ve got a couple more questions. Small ones, which are basically I was gonna ask you what your biggest voiceover gig you’ve done, but I was gonna change it to say, what’s the voiceover you’re most proud of? Because that’s a bit more affirming.

 

Susanna Kenton
Beautiful question. Mmm

 

Toby Ricketts
hmm. put you on the spot. Now it’s hard. I know, it’s hard. It’s hard

 

Susanna Kenton
to choose, isn’t it? I was very proud of this. About a year ago, I was hired for several months by a company that was doing work that I really believed in. And it’s a company called possess, which is a sleep app that helps people to, to go to sleep with stories, and they were so sweet. And they actually hired me kind of with their salary and everything. And I had a company email, which is really unusual, because most of my projects, it just you know, and we work together, I just love the people, they were so young and kind of smart tech, technically and four months a voice and then wrote and voice scripts to help put people to sleep.

 

And I, I loved the possibility of helping, you know, being of service on the planet. But people that were, you know, struggling to sleep sleeps important. We got into doing some other stuff. There was another, there was some spin off apps that had to do with meditation, and I got to write and voice meditations. Yeah, so that’s, I don’t know that I was very good at putting people to sleep. I think I’m probably more interested in consciousness and waking people up out of like, the matrix that limits them or or restricts their freedom. So I think that they, they have a wonderful, a wonderful voice artist who actually I became friends with and she’d left the company. But she’s now back in it. And I’m really happy for them.

 

She has an American voice. And she just amazing to fall asleep. She’s one of the names Bethany. And she’s one of the top insight timer. Do you know that meditation app, it’s called insight timer, I think it’s the most listened to one on in the world. But she just has a quality. She’s not a voice artist. But she’s she began in corporate work. And she just found this kind of groove and she loves to guide people. But it’s so soothing and beautiful, amazing.

 

Toby Ricketts
When you come across someone that just has that as their special skill. They just have this amazingly lovely to listen to voice.

 

Susanna Kenton
Yeah. And she’s kind of felt that way about me. And I felt that we were house like, you’re the good one. And we had this mutual admiration society going on. But he is he’s way better at putting people to sleep

Toby Ricketts
And it is I love how voiceover by extension when you go out into the world and you meet all these different people like I really like I love finding interesting voices, not necessarily nice voices, but just the ways people speak is so interesting, because it tells like reading like someone’s someone’s poem or something like you can tell a lot about them, you know, by the way that they speak, and then terms of their life that they’ve had and that who they used to hanging out with and who they think you are almost because we’re all kind of social chameleons and we’ll change to each other.

 

Yeah. But you know, it’s it’s once you go down the voice rabbit hole in terms of analyzing However, in speaks, it’s just bottomless. You know, there’s, you know, what you talk about learning accents and and you know, you’re like, you know, American accent which American accent and you go out with text and then you go which takes an accent you know, you can you break it down into infinitely variable, you know, segments.

 

Susanna Kenton
I love your passion for it. Oh, I just thought of another project that I that I loved, which was I don’t know if he ever came across, you know, slavko Mart enough. Yeah, it’s not code. Did propaganda. As long as it

 

Toby Ricketts
was a pet that was like, Oh my gosh,

 

Susanna Kenton
it was amazing. And and what was funny about it was a very sort of politically, how would you describe propaganda? There’s quite a daring film. It was a documentary effectively was a mockumentary. Yes, that is like North Korea and sort of very covert and stuff. And I had to do this very flat read almost like a expressionless,

 

Toby Ricketts
like BBC World wasn’t that.

 

Susanna Kenton
I’m weirder, weirder than that. And Glasgow was amazing at directing it. But I was gonna say that what about oh, my gosh, that was one of the comments that people had because it went up in sections on YouTube. And one of the comments someone had is like, there’s something really spooky about that voice, like, they’re hypnotizing or something. It’s like they’re gonna take you know, and it’s just like, it was so innocent.

 

I was just gonna voicing just like when in the groove of what we decided we were going to do. But his his project ended up winning like michael moore’s best film in

 

Toby Ricketts
a tribe. Some festival wasn’t his first ever city.

 

Susanna Kenton
Yeah, yeah. Which is amazing.

 

Toby Ricketts
That was great. Fantastic. Oh, well, we’ve had such a great chat today, we’re nearly sort of at an angle, but it was there anything else that you wanted to want to talk about? And talk about for our listeners?

 

Susanna Kenton
Yeah, um, I think I just, I just want to inspire people really to trust themselves. And you know, like, you’re saying, Toby, everyone’s voices unique. And don’t, don’t think like, you have to sound like somebody else. You know, who you are, is enough. And it’s good enough, and just begin and practice and catch the joy of it. And, you know, there is tremendous freedom in being a voice actor, and we do voice in our pajamas. At times, and because what do you love about about being a voice actor?

 

Toby Ricketts
I love that I work with people all over the world, I find that really interesting. Is to Mongolia of late. That’s what we’re both involved in a project. That was great. Yeah, and, and I think I just I really, I, I like that I found something that I not only enjoy doing, but I turn out to be fairly good at. And, and I, you know, it’s, I wouldn’t say it’s easy, because like, a lot of people think voiceovers, you know, it’s just, it’s really easy to just, you know, it’s short hours.

 

Because the actual work you do in terms of when you’re voicing in front of a microphone, is maybe 5% of the time it takes to run the business, get it do the editing, you know, all the other stuff that goes around it. So people think that it’s all just that, but it’s, it’s most of it’s finding the work and promoting yourself. But some, it’s also like you have to work like I, you know, get up at seven in the morning, come straight down to the booth and do three hours and then do other stuff during the day. And then I go come back to the studio and work sort of through till quite late at night to catch the European.

 

Susanna Kenton
got nice and gravelly, again.

 

Toby Ricketts
Exactly, yes. So it’s, um, so it’s, I really enjoy having the middle of my day free, which is really nice. But I wouldn’t call it easy because you do have to, like, I have done sessions at like, three in the morning, when I’ve needed to. So you know, it’s, it’s sometimes you really have to kind of realize what a privilege it is, and realize that getting up at three in the morning, once every now and again is actually part of the job and it’s fine.

 

And the fact that when you go on holidays, you’re never really on holiday. You always have to take your gear with you. And you know, but but if you love it, that’s the thing I love. It was Oh, if you love it, it’s not a job. It’s something I really enjoy doing. Like, you know, yeah,

 

Susanna Kenton
that is such a great approach. Yeah, it’s the one that created the success you have because it’s just that that’s contagious, you know.

 

Toby Ricketts
Thank you so much. It’s been just utter joy talking to you today. So we need to do it again. We’ll catch up and have another chat. So yeah, thank you so much for joining me.

 

Susanna Kenton
Good luck to everybody. voice on

 

Toby Ricketts
Absolutely.