Melissa Harlow Podcast Transcript
Melissa Harlow joins host Brian Thomas on The Digital Executive Podcast.
Welcome to Coruzant Technologies, home of The Digital Executive podcast.
Brian Thomas: Welcome to The Digital Executive. Today’s guest is Melissa Harlow. Melissa Harlow, Founder of Volunteer Voice Over is an experienced voiceover talent and voiceover mentor on one of the largest freelance platforms. Melissa spent many years working and volunteering in nonprofit organizations like the American Red Cross blood services and organizations that helped women, children, families, community schools, and the fragile elderly.
Well, good afternoon, Melissa. Welcome to the show!
Melissa Harlow: Thank you. It is such a pleasure to be here.
Brian Thomas: Absolutely. It’s really all my pleasure because this is the thing that gets me going every single day of my life. It’s awesome. And I appreciate you hailing out of the great state of California, there in LA, I’m in Kansas City. We love to get a little bit of distance on our podcasts.
So, Melissa, let’s just jump right into it. Can you share with us your journey from working and volunteering with nonprofit organizations to becoming a seasoned voice? A seasoned voiceover talent and mentor. What inspired you to bridge your passion for volunteering with your professional skills and voiceover?
Melissa Harlow: Well, let’s see It kind of started in 2016. My husband and I quit our, our corporate jobs. I was working at a hospital. I’ve always worked in nonprofit, my degrees in psychology. So, I was naturally drawn to that. And my dad got me into volunteering very early on in life. My husband and I decided to quit our jobs.
We sold everything and we made a plan to buy a sailboat and sail down the coast of Mexico across the Pacific Ocean and, you know, sail all the islands. And then we were, when we were done with that, we decided to sell the boat and buy an RV. And then we traveled around the United States and went up through Canada and Alaska.
And then our end plan was to come home and rent the RV, but we had no jobs when we came home. So, I decided to because I had done so much blogging and, you know, about our adventures, I thought to myself, well, I, I can certainly do voiceover. So, I said, I’m going to try and that’s kind of how, how it all happened.
Brian Thomas: Thank you. I appreciate the backstory. I love that. And at the end of the day, you know, my grandfather told me it doesn’t take age to retire or travel. It takes money. Right? So, but you followed your passion. I really like that. And we’re going to talk a little bit about more on the volunteer voiceover here.
So, the concept, Melissa, a volunteer voiceover is quite innovative. Could you. Talk to us about the moment or series events that led you to realize the need for a platform dedicated to connecting rising voice talents with nonprofit organizations.
Melissa Harlow: Such a good question. When I became a little bit more proficient and I would say a little bit more professional with my voiceover and my skills, it’s very technical by the way.
I decided that it was time for me to give back and volunteer. So, I reached out to a handful of places, and I saw a broadcast on CNN about this, these young women who were doing some food recovery. And I thought, oh my goodness, these girls are amazing. I want to volunteer my voice. Of course, I was thinking, of course, they’re going to want that.
And of course they did, but they really didn’t know how to go about. You know, getting me to volunteer my voice, it was a little confusing for them. And two years later, you know, we still had not gotten a plan together to volunteer. So literally after our conversation, and I realized this was going nowhere.
I said, you know what, I’m going to buy this URL, volunteer voiceover, and I’m going to start a platform and I’m going to take nonprofits who need a voiceover. And I’m going to put new beginners and rising talent of voiceover talent. Together and, and, and we’re going to work together and we’re going to produce free things together because I know they need it.
I was in nonprofit. I know that there’s, there are budgets, but there’s never enough. And you know, one person does five things. So I thought to myself, okay, I’ll use my experience with nonprofit, my experience with voiceover and bam, there it is.
Brian Thomas: Love it. You combined your experience and your passion together, which really had an amazing outcome.
I love that you found something that connect with that nonprofit community with a service that generally is always at the last of the line of budgeting things, right?
Melissa Harlow: I was just going to say, it can be quite expensive.
Brian Thomas: Oh, absolutely. We, we know how that is for sure. So, thank you for sharing that and bringing this to light Melissa with the evolving landscape of voiceover work requiring talents to have a broad set of technical skills.
How do you see the role of volunteer voice work changing in the future? And what skills do you think are most. Crucial for rising voice talents to develop.
Melissa Harlow: Well, I think there’s a fear in our industry about synthetic voices, of course. And so right now, really the most important thing is to be, to be able to be natural and it is the most hard.
The most difficult thing to do is to be natural because you get in front of a microphone and somehow you change. You don’t, it’s difficult. You want to, you want to be somebody else. You want to be a character. But what is, what is, you know, popular now is natural. And this is how, you know, we can combat the synthetic voice because they’re not natural.
And we are, we’re people, we have human emotions, and you know, it, it requires a certain amount of shifting and pivoting and breathing and, and all those things that make us human. So, you’re going to have to be just. Natural is, is the best way I can put it. And you have to have a really good recording space.
You cannot, you cannot get over that. Many places can be good recording space and you have to have good equipment and you have to get trained. You have to have a coach. So those are the things that really any voiceover future talent. Needs to know, and there’s within each one of those, there’s about a million things to know, but for anyone going into the voiceover arena, that’s the most important thing.
Brian Thomas: Thank you. And I would add just this goes, I think, for anything. And as you know, when you started this program is just to get started as well. I think that’s so, so important, but thank you for sharing that. I think that’s awesome. And at the end of the day. The humans have the emotions, and they will always basically trump any new artificial intelligence or, or generative conversational AI that we have produced today or in the future.
I really do think so, Melissa, last question of the day, finally, for someone interested in both voiceover work, either as a career or as. A way to volunteer. What advice would you give them to get started? And how can they make the most of the platform like volunteer voiceover to hone their skills and contribute meaningfully?
Melissa Harlow: Oh, that’s such a dynamic question. You know, I would say, I don’t have a stat for you, but I would say just my experience. So many voiceover Artists are second career people. These are people who’ve already had a career. They have a lot of wisdom. They have a lot of experience and life skills. So, some go into it thinking, Oh, this is going to be a breeze.
But the first thing you’ve got to do is practice. You have to practice making sure that you want to do this because you have to have a passion for it because. It’s difficult. It’s, you know, it takes a while for you to improve and get your skills and work and, and that sort of thing. And you have to make a plan.
You have to create a good, solid business plan because being a voice artist is a business, it’s a small business. So, those three things you’ve got to practice, you have to have the passion and you have to make a plan. And, and our, our VVO or volunteer voiceover really gives new talent a way to practice the skills that they’re learning and also connect with colleagues and professionals that are already in the field.
And When I was, when I was starting as a voice talent, I wish I had something like this, I would have done it in a heartbeat. It’s a membership platform, and the, the voice talent pay a small fee, it’s like $7 a month to be a member. And, you know, they have access to working with nonprofits that are in, in the industry that need help and, and be, you know, they’re able to give back.
They’re also able to connect with colleagues and, and resources and coaches and, and all those different things. And you know, we’re, we’re not going to squeeze money out of anybody. So, it’s, it’s just a wonderful platform to trust and nonprofits want to trust who they’re working with. And so do the new voice talents.
And I really am glad that I’m doing this because I’m somebody that can be trusted. But you know, people can always go to organizations like the National Association of Voice Actors and they have up to the moment you know, what’s going on in voiceover. So, but BVO, volunteer voiceover is an excellent way for new, new beginners to kind of put their toes in the water.
Brian Thomas: Thank you. And I love you brought some of those things together. The three P’s, right? You got to have passion. You know, planning gosh, I just lost this practice. I’m sorry. Practice makes perfect, but those three yourself. Yeah, absolutely. Those three Ps are so important, but you really have kind of put the icing on the cake here for us is, you know, having that resource where people can come together and learn and grow and do something that they’re really passionate about.
So, I appreciate the share on that. Melissa, it was such a pleasure having you on today and I look forward to speaking with you real soon.
Melissa Harlow: I feel just blessed that I’m on your podcast and I appreciate everything that you do.
Brian Thomas: Thanks so much and bye for now.
Melissa Harlow Podcast Transcript. Listen to the audio on the guest’s podcast page.
