679 Elaine Clark:

One of the reasons podcasting is the fastest growing media of all time … is because it’s gradually fade music here intimate, it’s in-depth, and done right, it’s authentic. And it’s a powerful way to connect with your customers and your community to catalyze the impact you want to have in the world, as my guest the communications guru Elaine Clark talks about today. Because your voice is your value.

MELINDA

Hi, I’m Melinda Wittstock and welcome to Wings of Inspired Business, where we share the inspiring entrepreneurial journeys, epiphanies, and practical advice from successful female founders … so you have everything you need at your fingertips to build the business and life of your dreams. I’m a 5-time serial entrepreneur who has lived and breathed the ups and downs of starting and growing businesses, currently the game changing social podcast app Podopolo. Wherever you are listening to this, take a moment and join the Wings community over on Podopolo, where we can take the conversation further with your questions, perspectives, experiences, and advice for other female founders at whatever stage of the journey you’re at! Because together we’re stronger, and we soar higher when we fly together.

Today we meet an inspiring entrepreneur and specialist in all things voice and communication who built her first voiceover business back in the 1980s.

Elaine Clark is also the author of There’s Money Where Your Mouth Is and Voice-Overs for Podcasting, creator of two voice and diction apps, Activate Your Voice and Adding Melody to Your Voice, and host of the speech communication podcast, Real Talking Tips. She’s a true pioneer in the voiceover industry with 40 years’ experience in all areas of Voice: As an actor, director, teacher, producer, coach, business entrepreneur, casting director, audio engineer, writer, and podcaster. She coaches some of the top podcasters, voice actors, business executives, and sales execs to motivate their audiences to stay engaged and take action! So we’re going to dig into all things voice today on Wings.

Do you have a podcast? Are you thinking of launching a podcast? Or are you trying to grow your confidence as a speaker, with dreams of a keynote or a Ted Talk? Perhaps like most entrepreneurs and business owners you simply want to get more confident communicating your ideas effectively, in whatever setting.

Today we get tips from one of the top communications experts Elaine Clark about how to leverage your voice as your value, no matter your goals.

And if you haven’t downloaded Podopolo yet, take a moment and download it for free in either app store so you can join the conversation after you listen with me and Elaine, share your perspectives and get advice.

Now let’s put on our wings with the inspiring Elaine Clark.

Melinda Wittstock:

Elaine, welcome to Wings.

Elaine Clark:

Hi. Happy to be here.

Melinda Wittstock:

I am happy to talk to you. You’re a pioneer. I love pioneers. You really paved the way in voice communication way back in the 1980s and you became the communication guru. Tell me about your journey and let’s go back to the beginning. What was it, do you think, that put you on this particular path?

Elaine Clark:

Well, it’s an interesting story, at least for me. Hopefully, you think so too. But I was a theater major in college, I also got a degree in education and my father told me to take business classes. And I thought, “But my mother and my father were ridiculous. I’ll just do really well in theater.” And then I remember after I graduated thinking, “What else is there to learn?” And then I started looking for a job and realized that there was a lot to learn, that was just one chapter of my life. So, I moved to San Francisco and I started doing theater and I was gone a lot and I was a newlywed, and my husband was like, “I want to see you home a little bit more, but you’re gone for four to six months, sometimes, doing a show just in the evenings and weekends.”

So, I then stumbled onto voiceover. And it wasn’t a well-known business at the time and I just fell in love, because one of my students called it the schwing that you get when you perform and you just read a script and you get that little schwing for a 30 second commercial, 60 second, just being in the recording booth was just amazing. So, then people kept asking me, “How did you do this?” So, many people had asked me, so in 1986, I went into an office with a friend who ended up being my initial business partner and I thought, “You know, that corner of that office, I would rent for $200 a month.” And the guy said to me, who had the office, “Would you like to rent that space for $200 a month?” And I went, “Let me get back to you.”

Because one of the things I learned in business is that don’t get too excited quickly, because then they’ll double the rate. So, I waited a couple days and then I said, “Okay. Yeah. I’ll take that space.” So, I started my business then with an idea that hit me and then I grew that business over time. And then in the ’90s, I thought, “Well, I just want to go back to acting. I’ve been teaching. I created this school. It’s really doing well. I feel like I need to write a book.” So, once again, an opportunity knocks and it was a guy named Ed Hooks. I was talking to him on phone and said, “Hey, I just got off the phone with my publisher and they’re looking for someone to do a voiceover book. You would be the right person.”

So, he gave me the direct phone number to the publisher over at Back Stage Books, which is part of Random House. And so I called up and they said, “Yeah, go ahead and submit.” So, I submitted a book proposal and two weeks later, I got the proposal and an advanced and I wrote the very first voiceover training book, which is called There’s Money Where Your Mouth Is. I’ve since then written three other versions of it, so it’s currently in its fourth edition and I changed publishers a while back. I’m now with Skyhorse press. When you write something down, you realize what you believe in. And I had all this information that was just sort of rattling around in my head and in my body, but I didn’t have words to put to it.

Elaine Clark:

So, with my educational skills, working with talent all the time, and I would direct newscasters, and executives at businesses, that I thought, “Well, this is all about communication. It’s not just voiceover. It’s throughout the whole industry about everyone needs good communication skills.” So, I just developed the school from there and I just took advantage of opportunities. And more opportunities would knock. [inaudible 00:04:25] some would say, “Why don’t you direct video games?” So, I then would direct video games. And then they say, “Why don’t you lead this corporate training program?” And I said, “Okay,” and I go into the business and do that.

So, I just listened. So, I think that that’s really a good part of entrepreneurs is listen to yourself. You’re going to have great influences that will come into your life and ideas, and then it’s amazing how they just emerge in front of you when you think about it and then it manifests itself.

Melinda Wittstock:

It’s really knowing yourself and also being attuned to the opportunities. I find that when you really know what’s in your heart, what you love to do, what you’re great at doing, what your unique differentiation is, all of a sudden the right opportunities start to manifest as if like magic. Is that really what you’re describing here?

Elaine Clark:

Yes. I feel like if you’re a good person and your goals are from a personal place and not money driven, like, “I have to do that because I have to get money,” that seems to create more roadblocks that I found. But if you’re doing it from a truthful, heartfelt need inside your body, that it tends to manifest in some way. All of a sudden you say it inside yourself and it’s there. Even with my book, after the second version of it, there were some changes that were going over at Back Stage and I’d gone through a few different editors and publishers. So, I thought, ” want to have a new company that’s going to publish the next version,” and the person contacted me. And it’s like as soon as you say it, it comes out.

So, this is why I feel very fortunate, but I also was not the woman who said, “I…” I mean, I grew up during the women’s lib time, in the ’60s and ’70s so, I never really thought about… I never dreamed about my wedding. I never dreamed about having children yet. I met the person I fell in love with my freshman year in college, we fell in love, got married four years later and now 40 plus years later, we’re still together and have three children. So, I never thought about having children. I never even held a child until I had my own. So, I have part of my brain is missing. And I think that that’s what an entrepreneur has to have. You don’t know the problems that are going to… Oh, you dare?

Melinda Wittstock:

Exactly, because if you knew you wouldn’t do it right?

Elaine Clark:

Exactly. Yeah. If someone said, “You’re not going to get any sleep for six months or a year, you might not have children.” But if you just go, “Oh, I think I want one, because I feel this urge,” and then you do that, and then you realize that you have to accept it. I remember being pregnant with my third child and asking someone, “Oh, should I have… Is three children too many?” And someone said, “I think that ship is already sailed. You have to live with this result.” So, I was like, “Okay, good.” Because I wanted two or three. My youngest daughter always says she’s the or. And I couldn’t imagine life without her. So, it’s been, fun. So, it’s been quite a journey. And then the other part is I created apps to support my books, because people were then saying, “I want you to do the audio book version of it.” Which I did for my latest one, Voiceovers for Podcasting,” which is how we met.

Elaine Clark:

And so my published actually called me and said, “You should write this book. This Voiceover for podcasting, because your other book is so good. There’s Money Where Your Mouth Is.” So, I said, “Okay.” And I didn’t have a podcast at the time, but I did tons of research and I already coached a ton of podcasters. And I’d already been interviewed by a lot of podcasters. So, I thought, “Well, I know this, but I also came from a radio background.” So, I worked in advertising and radio sales, media buying. Worked at recording studios. Direct, cast, produce. I’d say that I have control issues, so I have to do all the different jobs so that I can like go of control and realize that my job is the easiest one. And they have their hard ones around me.

Melinda Wittstock:

That’s a CEO journey in many ways. And so many women approach it that way. It’s easier to inspire and manage someone if you actually really truly understand their job. So, as a company grows, you test something, you iterate it, you figure it out and then, okay, delegate it now with a process around it. But you have this really truly kind of, I guess, holistic or converged experience around all the different aspects of voice and media, which is really intriguing. And I want to go back to just what you were saying about, “Gosh, if you really knew all the things, would you do them?” Because entrepreneurship, in a way, I think we all go into it. Maybe there is something missing in our brain, right? We go into it thinking how hard could this be? Not even knowing what we don’t know.

But part of the joy for me, personally, is that discovery, that no two days are the same. You’re on a constant path of learning. There’s always a new challenge. There’s always something, always something, always something. I am invigorated by that, but I guess it’s not for everybody.

Elaine Clark:

Well, that’s where I learned a long time ago that there are two different camps, if you will. There’s the pioneer and there’s the settler. And the entrepreneur is the pioneer. And so there are challenges, but fun with the pioneer. I’m not so much of a settler. As soon as I get bored with something, then I let it go. Or I go, “I’ve already reinvented that 6 or 7 or 10 times. I don’t think I have it in me anymore to reinvent that again.” So, someone else can take it with a fresh. But it’s nice in the aging process and being in this business for over 40 years of just growing with it, because my studio, for a while, I had to go and clean it out, was an archive of audio equipment that’s antiquated. From real to real, to cassettes, to DVDs, to before we started going more digitally. But it was like this archive of different equipment that is also part of the journey of looking back at what you’ve done.

Melinda Wittstock:

And so where you are right now, in looking at the industry, with all your expertise. Everything that you’ve proven out, Elaine, and everything that you’ve innovated or pioneered, and you look at the rise of podcasting. It’s the fastest-growing media of all time, where at this stage now, you could safely say that everybody’s voice is truly their value. So, not only have you served this market, but you’ve created a bigger and bigger and bigger market. You’ve been part of the impetus of that. What do you think is really driving that? Why is voice so powerful and people so attracted to podcasting as opposed to other forms of media as a consumer, say, first of all, of podcasts?

Elaine Clark:

I had to think about that when my publisher proposed that I write voiceovers for podcasting. They said, “You need to take it from a voiceover and a speech perspective.” So, my book has the business side of it, but it’s more the creative approach about how you say words and why you say them this way, as opposed to just “Here’s this information. Take it or leave it.” So, the whole business has evolved out of like A.M. radio on demand in a way, because people aren’t listening to radio as much as they used to and they want to do it when they wanted to listen to it in their own device and on the very specific niches that you want.

So, I think the voice is sort of the window to your soul, just like your eyes are. And it allows you to share how someone really feels and if they’re moving or if they’re bored or if they’re  active and invigorated by this. So, you can tell certain people who I would coach as podcasts who are then going, “I’m a little nervous about this. I’m not sure about how to do this.” And then you could hear that in the voice. Then it’s just like, “Here’s what we’re going to talk about. This is going to be easy.” It’s just a bunch of hot air. You can always get rid of things that you don’t want when it’s audio and delete it. And then it goes off somewhere where old audio goes.

Elaine Clark:

But it’s just a matter of trusting that you’re enough. And that you’re interesting. And did you have a message to say. Because we all have a history and our history is so important. And to share that with the world. [crosstalk 00:13:54] this voice.

Melinda Wittstock:

Right. Well, so podcasting is very intimate medium. It’s this appointment listening in a way, but appointment listening on your own schedule as a consumer, but what is it about the human voice? In our context, in our society right now, where you have all this fast-moving social media and all the trolling and the disinformation and the just back and forth. A lot of it’s very ephemeral, but there’s something about podcasting that’s deeper and more intimate. Do you think that’s the reason for its growth?

Elaine Clark:

Well, I think the growth during the pandemic was mainly because people said, “What am I going to do?” And it’s interesting, having been on voiceover for so long, we were considered the lowest wrong of the acting business and now we’re considered the privileged actors. And so with podcasting, you can have your booth, you can have your recording in your house, you can plug in a USB microphone if you want and it’s just the immediacy of what you can do, and the I’d say ease in one way. But as a podcaster, it’s more difficult than that, because there are all the backend stuff that you have to do and the support systems and the other…

Melinda Wittstock:

All the marketing.

Elaine Clark:

And building an audience and then blah, blah, blah, it goes on and the other [crosstalk 00:15:13].

Melinda Wittstock:

Yes. So many things.

Elaine Clark:

But the creative process is I think people have a story to tell and every story connects with a different group of people. And so if there’s someone who’s talking about one subject and their best friend might love that subject, you could listen to it and go “That doesn’t ring true to me, because I don’t really care about that.” And then you can listen to another one and go, “Oh, my gosh, this is the best thing ever.” So, I think it’s an awareness and an acceptance, but it grew so much during the pandemic. And it’s really part of people’s business plans now. So, and one of the things that I had to do, because people said, “You wrote this book on voiceover, where’s your podcast?” It’s like, “There it goes again. I have to pioneer something else.” So, I thought, well, I had my business for 32 years and I sold it in 2019 and then I stayed there for a short period of time while it was getting set it up. And then I was on my own.

And I thought, “Well, I have so much to say and I’m going to support my book with a podcast. And I want to do it for free. I want people to have it in a podcast environment,” that either through YouTube or however you listen to your audio podcast and on my website so that I could share these little bitty communication tips, because there’s so many little things that I’ve learned along the way that make a huge difference and how someone receives the information, because our job is to make people feel and take action. That’s really what the voice is about that you just say, “Oh, I get that. I feel it in my heart. And now with that, I’m going to take action. That’s given me the encouragement to go out and solve this problem,” or, “The confidence to build my own business,” or whatever, or, “The validation that I needed that I’m not crazy.”

Melinda Wittstock:

Well, so many podcasters start podcasts, because they have a lived experience or journey or skillset or something that they’ve experienced themselves that they want to share over the world. And it’s very unique and I think the best podcasters can really drill down into what is that unique differentiation. It’s true of all things marketing, but especially with podcasting. And it means knowing your voice, having something really to say that you can sustain over time. And I think of why I created Wings. It was a podcast that I wished that I’d had coming up as a serial entrepreneur, where there weren’t really very many outlets for “Okay. So, what is the female on entrepreneurial journey? What are the specific challenges for women? Where’s the affirmation of women entrepreneurs?” All of that. “Where are the specific advice?” All of those things that I wish I’d had this podcast. So, created it for others.

Elaine Clark:

Well, I totally relate to that. That’s why I wrote the book. I wrote the book, because the part of my brain was missing, so that people would leave me alone. I said, “Here it is. You take it.” And then it double, triple, quadrupled my business. It was like, “Oh, I didn’t ever think of that.” So, I think the difference is the settlers then say, “Oh, I see how that works with other people. I’m going to do it with that goal in mind.” And when you’re pioneering, you go, “I’m going to do this, because I have to. And I didn’t have that for myself. So, you need that. I know you need that.”

Melinda Wittstock:

It’s interesting though, because a lot of people come to me and ask me, “Hey, I want to start a podcast. Can you help me?” And I’m like, “Well, yes.” But their first question is “What kind of mic do I need? What kind of tech?” And that’s totally the wrong question, because that’s the easiest thing. The hardest thing is knowing your own voice, knowing what your message is, knowing who you’re trying to talk to, what is the transformation you want to see in the world as a result, what is your plan? What’s to your marketing plan? Who are you talking to? Why? All those things. And that’s usually the thing that hasn’t really been focused on in any real depth by a lot of people who want to start podcasts. What’s your experience in that, because you work with a lot of podcasters? Is there usually a gap there or by the time they come to work with you, do they already have that figured out?

Elaine Clark:

My Voiceovers for Podcasting book, I interviewed five different podcasters at different levels and in different areas. And one of them was huge and I coach him every week with his podcast. And from there, he just started it in the initial time, in the ’90s, when people were still dealing with their dial-up internet. But he went ahead and did that, and we’ve just become friends over the many years. And then someone else who’s like, “Okay, I’m struggling to do this. This is what I think. I’m doing it, because I have this passion for it.” And everyone is coming from a different direction. But if they’re coming from a truthful, heartfelt place to offer change, change in a positive way, change in a way that makes people think, makes them feel, want them to do something is really what they need to do. So, there’s a whole process of thinking about that rather than “Let’s put on a show.” That naive thing, but still saying what’s your business plan.

And so, creating a business plan of what you expect to do and what you expect to get out of it. And if a part of it is a business, making money with a podcast, takes a lot, a lot, a lot of work. Sending out your information to your handful of friends is a fun project that people will give you kudos for. And all of them are correct there. It just depends on what you want your voice, which is the voice of how you sound and the voice of the message. And so they’re two different elements there and they have to work together. So, my voice that I try to give is I think it’s just a normal, everyday, average kind of voice, but it’s coming from encouragement and help. Because I just love seeing people improve. I would rather help other people than work on myself, which is a fault, but it’s also a gift to others. So, that’s why I always look for “What is the gift that you’re giving the world in your voice?

Melinda Wittstock:

Ah, that’s beautiful. But that presupposes a level of self-awareness.

Elaine Clark:

Yeah.

Melinda Wittstock:

And an understanding of what your unique value is and having a mission, having a why.

Elaine Clark:

Yes.

Melinda Wittstock:

But you also touch on something else, I think, that between the lines here is the authenticity of it.

Elaine Clark:

Yeah. If you’re doing it to the best of your ability and doing it with a really good reason for doing it, it comes through. So, I think it should be a selfless pursuit. So, that you’re doing it with, of course, you’re the voice of it and you’re the person behind it, but you’re doing it, like you said before, so that they don’t have to go through the struggles that you did. That’s why I wrote my book. I was like, “Oh, my goodness,” if I had only had my book when I started, I wouldn’t have hit so many walls. And the only thing better than not hitting walls is walking around them. So, if you just find out the answers and you still have to hit some walls along the way, because that’s part of our learning process, but you just dust yourself off and you keep on going. Because you remember those moments that when you had a mistake and you didn’t do things right, that sticks with you forever.

When you do it well, you have that feeling of joy for a while, but then you go like, “What was it that I did well? I don’t really understand. It just happened.” That’s why you have musicians that are one-hit wonders. They hit it and they had a fabulous song, but how do you recreate that? What is that magic? That takes a special person.

Melinda Wittstock:

Oh gosh, that’s so true. Because at any given day, any of us, as people, get inspiration and the type of thing where you’re literally like, “I don’t know where that came from. I wrote that. It just came through me. It was almost like channeling.” And to what extent are our minds open to receiving that? So, if you’re constantly in the busy work grind or whatever, you’re not going to be hearing that. But then the next part of it that you’re talking about is actually understanding where there’s a pattern, where there’s a marketable pattern, how to repeat something and make something into a really good product or service or podcast or whatever, how to sustain that inspiration is an interesting thing. I think it’s something that entrepreneurs, artists, all sorts of people can have intuitively. How does that become bottled up into a scalable company or a podcast that’s going to grow?

Elaine Clark:

Well, I think that what an entrepreneur has to do is be ready to pivot at any moment. What you think the business is going to be is not how it’s going to end up exactly. Or the results of what happened are not necessarily going to be what you anticipated they were going to bake. Hopefully, they’re better. But also with any product, if it’s something that you can hold in your hand, which the voice is so tough, because you can’t hold it in your hand, so it’s not a tangible thing. But you can look at a product and say, “Ah, that is tangible.” But when we’re using our voice, we just have to have trust that what we’re doing is right and it’s our message, and that it’s helpful and not hurtful, because that’s my main thing. I don’t like the words and the message to hurt people.

But sometimes you have to say things that may be interpreted that way in order for them to get to the next phase. So, you just have to break through that wall and once you get there, you’re great. But we all know that those walls are hard. That’s why they’re called walls. And we have to look at those and hold a mirror up to ourselves constantly business and say, “What am I doing right? What am I doing wrong? How can I change this? Should I continue down this path? What is successful? What could I rearrange and pivot? Or are things going well? Because I don’t know if it’s going to always be this way.” That’s where we’re open.

Elaine Clark:

In fact, you had wanted some pieces of advice. And I say one of the things is to follow your creative urges. But also when people are talking to you, take notes. Because sometimes that message and what someone has said to you triggers this either adjustment or this new idea or this new entrepreneurship that was so simple and you forgot to do it.

Melinda Wittstock:

Very, very true. So, Elaine, take me through your process of how you work with podcasters and how you help them really find their voice and their authenticity and their authority in their voice, to the ends that they want to use their voice for.

Elaine Clark:

Okay. So, I usually listen to what they’re doing and then if they’re going to do the intros and the outros and they have some written things, we’ll just go through “What’s the emotional purpose of what you’re doing and let’s tap into that emotion,” so it’s too logical perhaps. Because in my real talking tips podcast, I go through all the different things and one is going back to Aristotle and the rhetorical triangle of using ethos, logos and pathos. So, that have your authority, your logic and your emotions. So, you’re not either just all emoting all the time or you’re just “I’m an authority. This is it. You need to do it.” Or you have the logic, “This is it. That’s that.” But you have to put all three of those things together. And if they’re out of balance, people realize something isn’t going right.

So, one of the things I’m going to listen to is how well balanced their message is. And if they are changing their tempo. I was working with someone yesterday and I said, “You just need to hunker down more on this part.” And by that it just meant he was going bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam with information. And it was fun to listen to, but after a while the ears start feeling accosted. And so it just like, “Now, breathe, bring it down and build it up again.” And that gives us a chance to experience that again. So, everyone has different issues. And so I just listen to it and I have… Well it’s is funny, but in the book and in Real Talking Tips, I have 52 lessons that I expected everyone to do, like one thing a week or they can binge on it if they want. But then I’ll go, “Oh, you’re missing number 27. You’re missing 18. This is it.”

So, then they can go back and watch and it’s set up as an educational course, really. So, that you go, “Oh, I missed that one little thing. If I just did this one little twist.” That’s how it would work. So, what I assume that everyone’s coming in is that they’re good and what my job is to make them brilliant.

Melinda Wittstock:

Yes. And so what kind of resistance do you get from people? Because this is a subconscious battle as much as anything else. This is a mindset one.

Elaine Clark:

The higher up someone is, the more accepting they are. The more beginner they are, they feel like they’ve already done all this stuff. This goes back to being an entrepreneur and just saying, “Well, I already figured it out. This is it and you’re going to love it.” And it’s just like the other one’s going, “Look, I know I’ve screwed up on certain things. I’ve done really on the other things. I messed up on this other thing. Oh, my goodness, what’s happening?” So, I acknowledge what they’re doing well, and I say, “Now, we’re going to work on things that need a bit of improvement.” And then you have to follow along and see whether someone’s… there’s only so much people can take at one time. And then they start going, “Oh, my goodness, I saw that this improved.” Now, they’ll be like, “Oh, give me more, give me more, give me more.”

But at first we’re all nervous about change. And that’s really what it is. You’re used to doing something one way. But I just know that when you use your a voice well and you communicate in a way that is with the intentions of good results, that people are receptive to it. And our idea is to give a suggestion, not a demand and so that they think it’s their own idea. And then they take action with it. And that’s really what the voice is about. So, that we’re not always just saying, “Do this. Try that,” because it’s too much. We have enough influences throughout our daily life of things we have to do. Part of a podcast is for enjoyment, for escape, for additional knowledge, for fun, for laughs. Or just to open up your mind to other possibilities.

Everyone listens for a different reason and listens to different stuff for different reasons. So, if someone wants to laugh and they’re listening to a serious podcast, you’re like, “That’s not for me today. Maybe tomorrow or next month.” But this is where we’re trying to fill someone’s need at that particular time, to make it better and make it more easily taken in as the words come into their body and they feel it intrinsically. So inside their body, so it’s not just head knowledge. So, our job of using the voice is to get people out of their head and into their body, so that they really feel what they’re saying and understand what they’re saying. Rather than just saying, “Oh, yes, I understand that. That’s great. I always do that.”

You get a “No, I get it.” It’s the grounding and that’s what gives people such confidence and they can hear the difference. And the change that happens even with the audience as they’re listening to it, a lot of the podcasters I’ve worked with said that then their number of listeners has increased, because the listening skill became easier for certain people who have trouble listening. And that’s what I’m listening for is how much of my brain do I have to put into this to take in the information? Or can I just absorb it intrinsically, internally and I get it?

Melinda Wittstock:

Yeah. Great listening skills, I think, are the, I don’t know, it’s the magic that allows someone to be a great interviewer, say, in a podcast.

Elaine Clark:

Absolutely. Yeah. And, by the way, you’re a wonderful interviewer. You’ve done your research. You know what’s going on. You’re asking all the right questions. Because I have a section in my Voiceover for Podcasting book about how to do interviews. So, sometimes when I get interviewed by people going, “Was I okay? Did I do okay?” We’re all just as insecure as the next person. We’re all trying to do our best, but we also all need validation.

Melinda Wittstock:

It’s so true. I’m a recovering journalist, so I started out in the print world as a journalist, but then transitioned into television as a television news anchor and increasingly landed more the big reviews and then did an interview show. And I remember I really found my confidence when I did not follow a prepared script of questions. That I knew the themes that I wanted to deal with. But like you were saying about entrepreneurial pivots, be able to listen well enough that I could extemporaneously change the game depending on what someone just said, rather than sticking to a prepared script, if you will.

Elaine Clark:

Oh, I totally get it. Yes.

Melinda Wittstock:

But it took the confidence to do that. And I remember literally I would prepare, but then I’d turn the piece of paper upside down, so I couldn’t even read it during an interview to force myself to do that. But it was a leap. I remember at the time being really nervous about that, because it’s just having the belief in yourself or your own confidence that you can have a conversation with someone and you’ve done your work.

Elaine Clark:

Yeah. And this is also so interesting because this is something that everyone should do anyway is have their own mantra that they say before it. And it could be just “Go ahead. This is going to be great. I’m going to trust myself. Let’s go have fun.” What that mantra is. And mine is “This is going to be fabulous or horrible. I don’t know which.”

Melinda Wittstock:

It’s leap into the unknown, every conversation.

Elaine Clark:

Yeah. Because it can go either way and that’s out of my control. So, by doing that my muscle’s just relax, my body relaxes, because I realized that I can’t control that issue. That it’s going to be what it’s going to be.

Melinda Wittstock:

Yeah. It is what it is.

Elaine Clark:

And it’s okay. My joke before was that no one’s going to be hurt by voiceovers or podcasting. But that was before shared air became deadly. But now where people are separated in their homes and listening to it, so that’s safe. But we have messages to tell and we love sharing our history. But there’s a difference between sharing history that’s all about me, me, me, me, me versus “This happened in my history, so you can learn from this.” And I think that that’s the big difference of how a podcaster should go about it. Or an entrepreneur, “I’ve learned from this, therefore I want to deliver this to you.” And so you’re going to have your own challenges that we can’t even foresee, because technology changes, everything happens. Oh, my goodness. So, much stuff.

Elaine Clark:

But what I tend to do is just say, “I’ve recognized a problem and therefore I want to solve it, because it’s been a universal problem with a lot of people.” And that’s why I also created a couple apps, Activate Your Voice, which it’s a super cheap. Five minute voice and diction warmup, because some people in business use that as they’re grounding for saying, “Okay, I have to do that,” because the number one fear of people is public speaking. And so it’s like a grounding thing before someone goes into a presentation at their business. So, they have to do a PowerPoint in front of a group or whatever it is. And it’s also one that just for people who have, especially women, who have either higher pitched voices or have thinner voices. It really helps strengthen the voice so that you feel confident about your voice. So, that’s what the Activate Your Voice is.

And then Adding Melody to your Voice. I found that a lot of people were complaining about having flat, monotone voice where it didn’t have a lot of melody. And so it just sort of goes like this. And so that makes it harder for people to take in the information without a good tune in the voice. So, I created Adding Melody to your Voice. And it’s an interactive thing, so people can record and listen and listen to my samples and go from there. So, once again, it’s not that much, but it’s ways to help people for little money. And maybe that’s from my theater background that my whole thing is about helping people and finding different ways for them to get better without having to mortgage their home.

Melinda Wittstock:

You raise a point, because it’s not just a podcaster. It’s anybody in business, anyone with a career, anyone who has to make a presentation, increasingly CEOs, founders have to have their own personal brand. That means doing videos. That means doing, obviously, speaking, appearing on podcasts as guests. Doing all these different things to market their business. And, obviously, the better storytellers we are and can relate to people on that emotional level, and the more compelling our voice is or our presence or our confidence, the better the company is going to do. So, it seems to me that almost everybody in business needs this training. It comes naturally to some people more than others. In my case, I’m just blessed with this long media background before I became an entrepreneur.

So, I already kind of learned that stuff and can apply it to business, this now with Podopolo, the podcasting platform being my fifth. But, yeah, everybody needs that and everybody is lacking that confidence, but what a difference does it make if you show up and you’re listening to a presentation by, say, a potential vendor or someone that you’re wondering whether or not to hire or whatever. If those people have those skills, they’re so much more advanced, I think, than anyone else that they’d be competing with.

Elaine Clark:

Absolutely. It is universal, because communication is communication. That’s why I’m called a communication guru. And that’s also kind of a joke, because at one company the CEO had studied with me and said, “I’m taking you to India with me,” and then like six months later he actually did. And I then created training videos for his business and then taught most of the CEOs in India .and talk about being prepared. I have a lot of information that I can just do off the top of my head, but coming in and then saying, “Okay, so what are you presenting tomorrow in Bangalore?” And that was the first time I even knew I was going to Bangalore when I was already in Chennai. And I was like, “What is it?” And so “Well, we have the CEOs of the major companies coming in to listen to your presentation.” Well, it would’ve been really nice if I was told that information prior to that, but since I just had to get on a plane in about three hours, I just sat down with the team and say, “We’re going to go, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.”

Elaine Clark:

I left. They created a PowerPoint presentation. I did a full day now presentation with this room full of people. And I was written up in about 10 of the newspapers in India and they kept calling me the communication guru. So, I thought, “Well, I’ve never been called a guru before, but I have to embrace that. It’s so interesting. I just think my name is Elaine.” But now I’m a guru, but I came about it, because someone called me that. Not because I think of that myself. It’s just like, “All right.” And I went, “Yeah, okay.”

Melinda Wittstock:

Well, there’s nothing stronger than third-party endorsement. So, that’s amazing. So, Elaine, I want to make sure that people know how to find you and work with you, because you’re the communication guru.

Elaine Clark:

Absolutely.

Melinda Wittstock:

So, what’s the best way?

Elaine Clark:

Well, they should go to my website, elaineclarkvo.com and there it shows all the different backgrounds that I have with coaching and production. And also it has my podcast on there. And for people who may be British, it’s Clark without an E. So, it’s E-L-A-N-E C-LA-R-K V-O. And the V stands voice and O stands for voice over, voiceover.com. So, elaineclarkvo.com.

Melinda Wittstock:

Wonderful. And also I’d love to invite you to join us over on Podopolo and the Wings community, Elaine, as well. When you download the app and join, I can list you as a guest and we can keep the conversation going. So, if anybody has any questions for you or wants to share their perspectives or whatever, I’d love to invite you to be part of that ongoing conversation.

Elaine Clark:

I would love to be part of it. Thank you so much.

Melinda Wittstock:

Wonderful. Well, thank you for putting on your Wings and flying with us today.

Elaine Clark:

It was my pleasure.