I had an actual conversation very similar to the one above with a former boss at my former day-job. I’m always amazed at how (mostly) intelligent people are kind of clueless about voice over, even though they’re surrounded by it every day. When you are asked to do your “voice”, most people suddenly expect you to bust out a Bugs Bunny or a Yoda impression. Or worse, “the movie trailer guy”. Caryn Clark just Facebooked about this very thing. When some kids asked her to do a voice, she whipped out her Hannah Montana commercial. It’s awesome that she keeps that in her mental Rolodex. For her, that’s her elevator pitch.
Elevator pitch? What?
The elevator pitch is your 30 second explanation of what you provide the customer: the amount time you’d have to explain your business when riding with someone from the ground floor to your desired location. For me, the usual question is “So what is voice over exactly?” I explain that it is everything from audio books to commercials to e-learning narration. Any time that you hear a voice without seeing the body, that is voice-over.
The real point of this is to understand that while you may be an expert in your field, there are people out there who have no clue what you do. And being able to nail the answer of “What is voice over” with a perfect elevator speech might just be the ticket to get someone more interested in what you do.