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Whenever I tell anyone that I’m a working Voice Over Artist most people give me one of those all too familiar blank looks that generally mean “Huh? What’s that? I have no idea what you’re talking about mate”.

Fair call I guess, after all, I probably wouldnt be able to tell you what a  Derma-Pigmentation Technician does either….not really my industry.

You see, it turns out that most folks I come across in everyday life don’t have a clue about what a voice over artist does, and for a small number of folks who manage to avoid the blank look and seem to think they know what that means, well, for some reason they all seem to think I spend my time making silly cartoon voices.

Geez, if I had a dollar for everytime someone asked if I “do cartoons” I’d have  probably paid off my mortgage by now!

The truth is, I haven’t voiced a cartoon character in my life, but that’s not to say other voice over artists around the globe don’t voice cartoon characters (someone has to voice them!). I know a few folks who DO voice cartoon characters, and they’re pretty good at it too, but that’s just not what I specialise in.

You see, like many folks in my social circles I’ve spent most of my adult life as a “corporate warrior”. I suspect if you’re reading this right now you too have probably been a corporate warrior at some point, or at least know someone who has. During my corporate career I’ve worked for some of the biggest corporate names in Australia, toiling away across a number of functional areas and divisions in roles like Corporate Accounting, Controls & Internal Audit, Systems Implementation, Shared Services Implementation, Organisational Change Management and last but not least, Corporate Training (or as it seems to be called these days, Learning & Development).

Yet, no matter what my job title seemed to be, I always somehow gravitated towards roles that involved training and coaching others…..call it fate, call it kismet, call it what you will, it just always worked out that way. Which isn’t such a bad thing actually, because that’s one of the things I enjoy most – training and coaching others, sharing what I know with folks who may find it useful.

I’ve delivered face-to face training to hundreds over the years, but as the number of people who needed training grew, especially as a result of large-scale technology roll-outs I’d worked on, it became harder and harder to rely solely on face-to-face training to deliver timely results to an ever increasing number of trainees.

And that’s when I first encountered e-learning, and if truth be told, I’ve been  enamored with the concept ever since.

Since my first introduction to e-learning (or CBT, Computer Based Training as it was known back then) I’ve gone on to work both sides of the e-Learning development fence, both in Training Development (as a Trainer, Developer and Script Writer) and in Training Delivery (as a Corporate Narrator and e-Learning Voice Over Artist).

Working both sides of the fence has given me some amazing insights into both realms, and I’m hoping to share some of these viewpoints with with you all here on this blog.

Every day, you and I learn something new, whether its something in our professional lives, or even in our personal lives…(Lord knows my kids teach me something new every day!).

Some choose to take that learning, reinforce it through action and then help others do the same thing. These people transition from being a “Doer” to a “Sharer” to a “Teacher”…and in doing so, help more people begin their own transition. Imagine what this little planet of ours could achieve if we all traversed this path.

Have you started this transition?  Let me know how below.

Speak Up. Be Heard.

Con