Unfiltered Thoughts

2023.06.14 – 0895 – Studio Workaholism Workaholic-ismStress may come from being too focused on your mic work, at the expense of your family and friends, hobbies and health. If you have too much on your plate or are continually hunting around for scraps, then anxiety may be caused by being too laser-focused on working hard: being a workaholic. A versatile voice belongs to someone who is experienced in the world, not world-weary, who brings life experiences to the recording, not exhaustion from life. Seek a better balance to ease yourself out of the rat race. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2023.06.13 – 0894 – Studio Perfectionism  PerfectionismYou may get stressed in the studio because everything has to be ‘just so’: asking for take-after-take because the next one will “be the best one”; continually cogitating about the cadence of every sentence; editing and re-editing so much that your saved files have names like ‘final’, ‘final version 2’, ‘final version 3’, ‘final final edit’ and ‘final edit, this one’. Those with perfectionism set themselves unreasonable goals. Constantly striving for the very highest standards is good and honourable, but when perfectionists achieve less than that, they can be excessively hard on themselves and a vicious circle of worry and self-doubt can follow: getting stressed and depressed, with panic attacks and social anxiety. Instead, set smaller goals in shorter, more realistic timeframes – achievable steps on the road to greatness. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2023.06.12 – 0893 – Studio Imposter Syndrome Imposter syndromeDo you sometimes feel overwhelmed by self-doubt and nervousness before turning on your mic or camera? You feel as though you’re “not good enough” and that you “may be found out”, “exposed as a fraud” and “don’t deserve success”. That’s even though you know you’ve had ten tons of training and continuous career accolades.  This may be imposter syndrome, a misplaced feeling of inadequacy that affects many successful people, (but not of course actual imposters, those who really aren’t any good!). These feelings are really common and are no respecter of age, status, experience or reputation. It might be narrow and only emerge around certain situations in specific locations and certain ‘important’ people, or broader and occur in the build-up and during every show or recording. Look back at your achievements, your body of work and your income and reflect on your success to realise that what you have done is really, for real! And don’t let imposter syndrome stop you from pushing yourself to do new things. Although it’s natural to feel wary of say, putting a new character voice out there, or putting yourself up for an audiobook recording, remember: the successes of your past are the foundations of your future.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2023.06.11 – 0892 – Studio ‘Voice Confrontation’ Voice confrontation (or “I Don’t Like My Voice!”) You may be visibly uncomfortable hearing your voice live, in your headphones, or when your recorded-voice is played back. You may become stressed at what you think others may think about your pitch, accent or diction. As we have seen before, this is down to a mix of physiology and psychology. First, the sound of your voice that you normally hear ‘live’ is a mix: partly out of your mouth and in through your ears, but mainly through your skull bones which give you the impression your voice is deeper and richer than it is. But when you hear yourself through headphones, or on a recording, it’s how everyone else hears you, through air conduction alone, that is, only through the ears, and sounds, by comparison thinner and higher pitched.[1] But there’s another reason hearing yourself back can be disconcerting: it’s the auditory disconnect between your self-perception and reality. Because your voice is an important part of self-identity, realising that others have been hearing something different all along, can be jarring.[2], [3] In psychology, the phenomenon of a person not liking the sound of their own voice is voice confrontation (related to self-confrontation). So, if your ‘voice in your head’ hates your ‘voice out of the speaker’ (or headphones), then you’re probably judging yourself a little too harshly.
[1] We looked at ‘why your voice sounds different to you’ in episodes 207[2] https://www.npr.org/2019/07/15/741827437/finding-your-voice-how-the-way-we-sound-shapes-our-identities [3] In this 2005 study, patients and clinicians rated the patient’s ‘recorded’ voices. Patients tended to negatively rate the quality of their voice compared to the objective assessment of the professional. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2273.2005.01022.x Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2023.06.10 – 0891 – Studio Embarrassment EmbarrassmentAs a voice-over, you have perfected a cast of characters while alone in your home studio and then you get your big break: a director wants you for a big-budget part! You sit in the big-city studio, the microphone facing the control room and through the glass you see directors and producers, engineers and executives, script-writers and sales managers, assistants and interns… they’re talking but you can’t hear them… and you feel like a goldfish in a bowl.  It’s understandable that embarrassment means you struggle to find the thunderous voice of Thor for an interactive game, ‘Silly Billy the Steam Train’ for the kids’ cartoon, or that of the wicked witch for the theme park animatronics, that you had produced at home… alone. He’s another example of embarrassment, rather than nerves.Terry (not his real name) had bad teeth, they were stained from years of drinking coffee on overnight radio shifts, (and red wine at weekends). He also had rather more fillings than he’d have liked, the result of too many sweets and chocolates to help him ‘power-through’ the night. Terry was self-conscious of his physical looks and so was careful about opening his mouth when he spoke so he didn’t show his yellowing teeth, flecked with silver amalgam. And that caused him to mumble, and trip over his words. An easily-solved physical issue (teeth whitening and tooth-coloured fillings), would mean he’d be more confident in opening his mouth when he spoke and develop a richer, clearer voice.   Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2023.06.09 – 0890 – Studio Disillusionment Disillusionment On occasion, you may simply not feel up to presenting a podcast. Your voice may be fine but you’re not ‘feeling it’, not in ‘the zone’ and don’t know why. This may be boredom or negativity about the podcast topic, maybe disillusionment or resentment about its ‘return on investment’, the amount of work balanced with the number of downloads, feedback, reviews or sponsorship and it gets harder and harder to keep up the momentum. You may be able to ‘fake the feeling’ for a few episodes, but if you resent doing it while your friends and family are socialising, then the stress, frustration and tiredness will all affect your vocal performance.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2023.06.08 – 0889 – Studio Claustrophobia  Claustrophobia Sitting alone in a home studio booth with several screens, a mic and a mixer, but no air conditioning, recording a voice-over session for an hour, or an audiobook for even longer, may be enough to make anyone feel odd. If you feel a need to break out and run away, it may not be down to nerves, but claustrophobia or loneliness.  You may feel these emotions, and others may hear them in your voice which may become dull and drained, tense or nervous. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2023.06.07 – 0888 – Studio Depression
If it’s not nerves, stress or anxiety, it may be something elseLet’s not just stick with ‘feeling nervous’, there are other feelings and emotions which may arise in and around a studio and affect your voice, sometimes these are temporary feelings, and sometimes they can last a long time. Here we look at other things that go on in your head, and how they affect what comes out of your mouth.  I am not a health professional and I would always urge you to seek personalized advice from someone who is, whether you are experiencing these emotions yourself or see them in a colleague.  Depression or PTSDIf you work as a news broadcaster you will be exposed to so much more evidence of the world’s problems than most other people: not just “man’s inhumanity to man”, wars, violent crime and so on, but also political tussles, economic worries, worldwide pandemics, sudden celebrity deaths and more and more. Day after day. And with many of these issues, the journalist sees or reads much more detail in terms of violence or hate than is ever passed on to listeners and viewers. Such ongoing exposure may lead to severe anxiety, depression, or PTSD.  You may feel these emotions, and others may hear them in your voice which may become flat and tired, or thin and strained, lacking resonance. You may lose confidence and concentration, tripping up over words.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2023.06.06 – 0887 – Studio AnxietyAnxiety is persistent and may not be linked to a specific situation. The intensity may ebb and flow, but it never completely goes away, and with ongoing feelings of unease or dread, anxiety can prevent you from doing something you enjoy and make it difficult to focus and go about your day. Persistent anxiety has links to physical illness including gastrointestinal conditions and heart disease.[1] Again, all of these thoughts feelings and emotions may be heard in your voice, and that’s what we’ll be looking at over the next few days/pages.  
[1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5149447/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2023.06.05 – 0886 – Studio StressStress may be seen as ‘extreme nervousness’. It too is triggered by a ‘presenting situation’ and is usually short-term. If controlled appropriately, a rush of chemicals in your blood can lead to a heightened state of awareness, and a more powerful performance: a stressful person may be loud and energetic, seemingly thriving on the pressure (‘nervous energy’ or ‘nervous tension’), with symptoms similar to nervousness: a raised heartbeat and faster breathing. But stress can also show itself as irritability or even anger, nausea and a feeling of being overwhelmed.  Pressures in the news production process can be hourly, and largely unavoidable. Live ‘to time’ programmes, breaking news, altered running orders, no-show show guests, lost links to a reporter in the field, a frozen autocue, a producer in your earpiece as you present…  and you’re the ‘name and the face’ of this output… . Some people seem to love these kinds of settings, at least in the short to medium term and with the knowledge that there will be an obvious end to the pressure, say when an election programme comes off the air, so some kinds of stress isn’t bad. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.