Tim Burton says, “One person’s craziness is another person’s reality.”
I feel one of life’s challenges is to understand other people. You must accept their ideas, understand their emotions, and participate in their activities, even if you don’t always agree. We all do this every day, with more or less delicacy.
As Voice Consultants, it is a key part of our job. I don’t always think a script is funny, or that a music bed is enjoyable, but it is my job, my responsibility to think “what do THEY need” and stop wondering if I like their choice.
There are two essential questions I ask myself: “Do they have the necessary information to make an educated decision?” and “What is their request based on?” The best way to answer those questions is to get out of my comfort zone. I need to switch sides and think as the other party. In order for the client to make an informed decision, I must give them just enough information, without getting into too much unnecessary detail. Once I am sure they know enough about us and our services, I try to stay in their mindset a little longer to better understand what they need.
Different clients have different audiences and offer different services, and a big part of my job is to see not only from our clients’ perspective, but also from their customers’ in order to be able to choose the right words, voices, accents, intonations, music, frequency and length of messages. Maybe I tend to prefer an upbeat female voice to a mature one, but would a bubbly, excited young voice fit for a hospice or cancer clinic? Probably not…
Looking at things from another perspective can be the key to this daily life and professional challenge. In the end, it’s only a matter of remembering that one person’s craziness could be another’s reality. We see things from a different angle, even when we are looking at the same thing.
– Submitted by Valerie Libersat, Voice