Who is Richard?
Richard is an award-winning voice actor working with Your Script, Telling your Brand Story to Deliver Clear, Articulate, Warm and Engaging Results. My Story Telling Process will Assess Your Script to deliver :
🎤 What is important, what needs to be emphasized?
🎤 What is the script trying to portray?
🎤 Is it informational, instructional or a warning,
🎤 A call to action, an invitation to participate or purchase?
🎤 To whom am I speaking, where are they, why is this information important to them?
🎤 What might be their reactions and how do I incorporate those into the telling of the story?
🎤 Who am I and why am I imparting this information?
Key Takeaways
Where do you get your voice from? 0:00
What are the problems that you help companies solve? 1:48
Working with people who have no idea what they’re doing. 3:38
What drew you into the voice acting life? 8:30
The importance of thinking about the customer’s problem. 11:50
Ai speech or text-to-speech. 15:11
We can bring the emotion and passion. 16:48
Stuart’s thoughts on the robotic voice. 18:35
Valuable Free Resource or Action
listen to Richard’s demo at https://voiceactingmagic.com
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Transcript
Note, this was transcribed using a transcription software and may not reflect the exact words used in the podcast)
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
voice, richard, narration, medical, message, voice actor, ai, people, listen, question, training, record, cartoons, demos, fantastic, scottish, elearning, voiceover, various parts, script
SPEAKERS
Richard Crossman, Stuart Webb
Richard Crossman 00:00
Hi
Stuart Webb 00:20
Hi, and welcome back to it's not rocket science five questions over coffee. I'm here with my coffee. Probably had too much of that already. Actually Richard is here with me Richard is a voice acting magic maker. I'm gonna say that I love the I Love the Doctor Who thing we've got going on so far. Richard. That's brilliant. Richard got an amazing career and range of voices as well to go with it. So I'm delighted to have you on the podcast. Richard, welcome to It's not rocket science. Five questions over coffee. Thank you so much. I'm so happy to be here. We have to get into the voices before we even started, didn't we?
Richard Crossman 00:58
Sorry, Stuart. I couldn't resist. Richard,
Stuart Webb 01:01
you've got a such a fantastic range of voices. I'd like to start by asking you where they come from before we get into the into the five questions because you've demonstrated to me so many voices in the past when we've talked what where do they all come from? Where's the inspiration?
Richard Crossman 01:17
That's a really good question. Some of them come from family. I have Scottish and English Heritage. So I have those accents that come sort of naturally to me. I'm also a trained opera singer. And so I have French and Italian as well. I was spent a number of years in a French classical kitchen as a cook and a chef and a pastry chef. So I have that French coming with me as well. And other stuff I've just sort of created as time has gone along. Having listened to cartoons and all kinds of radio dramas and all that sort of stuff, I can come up with a voice. I wanted to be the villain today.
Stuart Webb 02:05
Richie fantastic. Listen, tell me about the sort of people you work for, what are the what are the problems they have that you're trying to help them solve?
Richard Crossman 02:14
Well, the main problem is trying to get their message out. They want to get their brand out there, they want to get an idea of what they do and who they are or what sort of services and products they offer, or they want people to learn more about them. And then there's also the the client who wants to do internal training with staff. So I do a lot of that much of my work is corporate facing. So not a lot of it is out there in the public, because it's proprietary. I do a lot of elearning stuff, training of staff, and so on and so forth. So that's that's kind of where they are. They're trying to get their message, whether it's an internal message or an external message, and that's when I do my best to help them with.
Stuart Webb 03:05
And you've got a fairly nifty sideline there as sort of working with medical practitioners, because you're one of the few people I know that actually understand all of those deeply scientific Latin names in order to sort of get that message across, which is a pretty unique skill.
Richard Crossman 03:20
Yeah, I did one couple of weeks ago. It's a new drug called Zobo. rituximab relating to gastro esophageal junction adenocarcinoma. So I think I can throw that around in my mouth fairly easily.
Stuart Webb 03:38
Don't we all have to have to worry about that one. So that's a it is really fantastic that you you bring that? Do you find that you're constantly having to work with people who have tried sort of, well, let's take an example of a medical drug company that have done their best to sort of produce their own sort of promotional video, and even half the people working for them, I've got no idea how to pronounce that particular word. And they've eventually sort of given in and sort of found somebody like yourself to sort of help them out. And then you've got to sort of educate them on the fact that it would have been cheaper if they started that way in the first place. Well, I'm
Richard Crossman 04:12
not so sure how many people have tried it on their own first because I generally get them at the point where it's like, we need to hire a voice actor. Right? So what they've done before that I have no idea but I get everything from medical studies done in universities or research labs down to the medical disclaimer at the bottom of a television commercial you know, if you're pregnant if you do this and if you have that if you have that you shouldn't take this please consult your doctor and also, I work with companies who create medical equipment new new tools for dentists and doctors and and so on and I do the explainer videos on how to use those or how they came about and you know, what was the reason for their for their creation?
Stuart Webb 04:58
Do you know it It's, it's it's it's amazing that we even have to have the discussion about why you why you get involved in the first place. But I guess I guess I'll ask it, you know, there are there are people out there who and I know because you know, I've come across the, the the narrate your own video is not always particularly successful because you get the pacing, right, don't you that is the one thing that I think most of us really struggle with, without the sort of training in terms of acting and singing that you've got, we all really struggle to get the pacing, right, when it comes to sort of explain what we do. And we can we don't get the the excitement necessarily, you bring all of that to the video, don't you?
Richard Crossman 05:42
Well, that's what I try and bring. And sometimes I'm allowed to do what they call a self directed session where they send me the script, I prepare it, record it, send it in, and they like it, or they don't, and we have to redo or whatever. And that doesn't happen very often. The redo part, I may have to fix a word or something, but it's rare that I have to redo the whole thing. And then the other side of the coin is a directed session where I'm recording with somebody on Zoom or in some other form, you know, stream yard or whatever. So that they're right, they're directing me as I go. Letting me know that, you know, this is the the attitude we want, this is the vibe we want. And you know, can you take this a little faster? Can you slow it down? Oops, you made a mistake, in the words, you inverted words. Which is which is great, because it means they have exactly what they want when we're finished.
Stuart Webb 06:35
Brilliant. Tell me I mean, I think I'm going to do it now where can we find out more about your sort of work? And I hope that I've got the right thing here. I'm going to put up a a website there. What What can we do when we get onto that website? What can we find? What help can you give us to understand how you help people
Richard Crossman 06:50
with voice acting magic.com is the is the website, I have several domains, but that's the main one. And everything else comes into there. Basically, on that website, there is a sampler of sample player of a number of my demos in political spots in elearning. In medical narration, in commercial work in I missed one narration, that's the one I was looking for, for documentary or whatever it is. And you can listen to various parts, various samples and demos or parts of those demos, and decide whether or not I'm the voice you want. There's there's character samples up there. And if you go to write on that, that's on the homepage. And then if you go to other pages, you will learn more about who I am, what I do what I've done, who my agents are representing me in various parts of the world. And you'll also hear some other demos that I haven't put on the player. For instance, one of my demos is a reading of a section of the first chapter of Harry Potter in full scale Scottish dialect.
Stuart Webb 08:01
Oh wonderful. wonder are you going to do this? Are you going to do the Scottish voice first now I don't know whether or not I can even cope with Harry Potter being Scottish but it must be worth a listen.
Richard Crossman 08:14
Well, you know I do provide voiceover for business explainers social media promotional videos, telephone answering systems and stuff, training videos if you want something like that. And also costs us a bottle of McAllen, 50 year old
Stuart Webb 08:29
Richie. There must have been a book or a course which really started you to understand and get you into the into the voicing voiceover. way of thinking what was it that really drew you into this life?
Richard Crossman 08:43
I have been enamoured with VoiceOver in cartoons since I was a child. But I didn't understand what it was at the time. I just knew I loved all the voices, you know, Mel Blanc and his 300 characters, the Looney Tunes, you know, and the Hanna Barbera and all of those from way back in the 1600s or whenever it was I was born. And as I got older, I understood what was going on. And as an actor. You in film and television, I started to look at ways to get in. And before COVID Everything was done in Studio, you had to travel to the studio to record. There was no such thing as a home studio. For the vast majority. There were a few artists who had their own studios but not not the vast majority. And getting in was extremely expensive. demos were expensive training was expensive. And it just wasn't something I put my focus on at that point, although I still had the the pathway open. And then in 2019 I met a fellow who was a voice actor for an animated television series. And he and I got chatting and I discovered he had at a studio in the hometown that I lived in, and he was doing courses. So I went in and did some studying with him, did my first demo, and then started looking for other voice coaches and other training that I could get and found some fabulous stuff. And I've trained with some of the top voiceover artists in North America and in the UK. Over the past five years, I started doing it professionally three years ago. And I've done reasonably well, for the first three years, it's a long game, it's not something where you go and pick up a microphone and say, Tomorrow, I'm going to make a million dollars, it doesn't work that way. unless somehow or you get really, really, really lucky.
Stuart Webb 10:41
Well, that would be the story of actors as well wouldn't know.
Richard Crossman 10:44
Exactly, exactly. And one of the main things I do eight, almost 80% of my time is spent marketing. Yeah. Marketing myself to various production companies and video videographers and, you know, elearning companies and medical companies and everything else. And I had to create a brand, which the first one we created didn't work for me, as well as I thought it might. So about a year in, we changed it to the voice acting magic, which it is now. We changed the colours, we changed the logo, we changed everything. And that has proven to be very, very beneficial to me. And I also have a secondary website, that is only my medic, medical narration stuff. And that's your medical narration.com. And that's a very different branding, from what my voice acting magic is. Because for commercials and animation and all of that stuff, it tends to be a lighter brand. But for the voice actor for the medical narration, it's a more professional, professional brand and professional looking website.
Stuart Webb 11:50
So you know, I think that's a really important lesson there, Richard, and I'm gonna sort of hijack it a little bit and just sort of talk about that. But that's a really important lesson I think a lot of business owners tend to miss which is, you know, they don't think about the problem that their customer has. And for you, you are thinking about the medical narration, which is, you know, to serious problem. It's somebody who doesn't want to think about cartoons, because that they're not, they're not, that's not their problem. They're trying to get across a very serious, heavy subject. And so reaching out to them with the wrong message or reaching out to them with the wrong solution, which is what you were doing is not it's not helpful. It's counterproductive, isn't it, and you had to adapt your message to help them understand how you can help them solve their problem.
Richard Crossman 12:37
One of the first things that I discussed with my medical narration coaches, was a change in branding for medical narration. It was almost even before we started doing any work on pronunciation and delivery and telling the story and finding the story. It was you need a different brand.
Stuart Webb 12:57
Yeah, interesting.
Richard Crossman 12:58
It's already it's worked. Well.
Stuart Webb 13:00
Just before we come to my final question, I just want to give you a chance to highlight one other particular skill that you've got, which, for those people that are currently watching. Rather than just listening to this, you have a certain look, shall we say that you have a certain look, which, combined with a slightly red or a suit, would perhaps go down? Well, a particular time of the year. That's something that I think you must, you must enjoy doing.
Richard Crossman 13:28
And Stuart, I can tell you, you're on the nice list with just a little bit of naughty.
Stuart Webb 13:34
That's where I like to be Richard. That's exactly where I like to be.
Richard Crossman 13:37
Yes, I do. I've done well. I played Santa professionally for 35 years, but it's actually in my blood. The very first acting gig I had was a recitation of the poems was the night before Christmas. Oh, fantastic. At the age of three years old. Oh, fantastic. And we have we, we this year discovered a photograph of me in one of my mother's albums, at 10 years old dressed in a Santa suit handing out Christmas gifts on Christmas morning. So it's, it's been in my blood my entire life.
Stuart Webb 14:09
You know, you know, I would never have guessed a 10 year old could develop such a such an impressive beard, but well no, so that's pretty impressive.
Richard Crossman 14:21
Well, I'm actually 16 112 Christmas Day, but I've really enjoyed that aspect of of my career as I have enjoyed all my, all the aspects of my careers. I think I'm a number 13 Now or 14. And since COVID, has started it's been really wonderful because I've been able to do virtual visits all over the world, New Zealand, Australia, South America, North America, the UK and Europe. And I've two years ago, I started doing video Christmas cards, where I would talk to the client find out what it is they wanted Santa Claus to say as a greeting. Then we record it and they can do it. they want with it posted on the Internet, put it on YouTube, send it out as a link or send it out as a video or whatever, to whoever, whoever and how many people, they want to do it. And it's gone over very, very well with the clients. So
Stuart Webb 15:10
that's fantastic. That's absolutely brilliant. I love it. I love it. Richard, you know, we're coming to the end of this because I don't want to take up any of your really valuable time when you've got marketing to go and do. But tell me, there must be one question that you currently are thinking I wish you'd asked me about such and such. And so I'm going to give you the opportunity to tell me the question I should have asked you. And then whenever you've asked the question, you better answer it otherwise none of us we won't sleep tonight as we wonder what it is you would have said? Well, one
Richard Crossman 15:39
of the big things that's in the mind of pretty much every voice actor right now is AI speech or text to speech. It's it's a really difficult situation that's that's starting to poke its head up. And one of our voice actors actually had her voice stolen by tick tock, wow. A couple of years ago, and there was a huge outcry from the voiceover community. And she actually filed a lawsuit against tick tock and, and one. So there's, there's a lot of stuff happening right now with AI. A lot of companies are trying to put text to speech together, because it's cheaper, quote, unquote, than hiring a voice actor. But what we try and educate the clients to is that by having a real voice, you are investing in your project, not just making an expense, because it does improve. If I hear and even before I became a voice actor, if I hear artificial voices, I just tone out almost immediately. But we can bring the emotion we can bring passion, we can bring all kinds of nuances to a script that AI can't.
Stuart Webb 16:57
Richard, that is fascinating. I joined a group of academics and senior business level advisors, most most Fridays for what we call our Friday coffee. And you know, for the last four weeks now, despite everything that's going on, I mean, we've got we've got one UN ambassador, as part of the group and several professors of universities, every single one of them was bringing up how AI is affecting their, their, their their industry at the moment and the impact of AI. And do you know, the one thing that seems to be coming through on all of it is the fact that we have to remember that as humans, we still have got unique capabilities and unique characteristics, computers still don't have, and maybe they will start to develop some of it. But the thing is, we still have our humanity and we should learn to work with our humanity rather than sort of kicking back against the computer. So emphasise the positive of being a human, I guess is the message behind that, isn't it?
Richard Crossman 17:58
I actually did a script two days ago, no Friday it was. And part of that one statement in the script, which is stuck in my head is that AI will replace 800 million jobs by 2030. And I have a sneaking suspicion, that's a conservative estimate the way things are going. But it's going to be a very interesting few years as we go through that and realise what AI can do, and what we still need humans to do. And it's just going to be an interesting time, a difficult time for a lot of people. But an interesting one.
Stuart Webb 18:35
I will only say having heard a video posted recently that I was very interested in watching. The voice that was behind it was very obviously robotic quite quickly. The emotion was missing from the narration of what was a really interesting topic. And I was very quickly turned off from the listening to the video, because I was distracted by the rather robotic and cold voice and had it had a human being narrated with the warmth that you can bring with the interest with rise and fall of the voice and all the intonation. I might have actually stayed with that video to the end. But unfortunately, I clicked off in about 28 seconds. And that I'm afraid probably defeated the object to the person that put that video together in order to try and save a few pennies. And yeah, I didn't get to the end of the message and didn't take in what they were trying to teach me. So you know, there are still very large numbers of people out there who I hope are taking that on board and thinking about that before they start to turn away from human beings and what they can bring to their video production.
Richard Crossman 19:44
I am a robot from the satellites surrounding the Earth at the moment and I am asking you to please listen to human voices rather than me.
Stuart Webb 19:54
Interestingly, even trying to sound like a robot Richard, you failed miserably and still sounded like a human be just the message, we want it brilliant. Richard, thank you so much for spending a few minutes with us, I really do think you could not do better than go to voice acting magic.com That's voice acting magic.com and listen to some of the great accents that Richard puts across on there, they really are quite fantastic. And if you need, if you need somebody to come and visit you in your home, come come around November, December. And you would like somebody to give you a special message, or here's the man to come and contact you because he does a really wonderful sideline in helping you to still believe, you know, I'm I have now passed the threshold when I shouldn't believe. And it's quite difficult to believe that he's not the real man. So, Richard, thank you so much for spending a few minutes with us. I really appreciate it.
Richard Crossman 20:49
It's been my pleasure, my friend. I'm so happy you invited me to join you today.
Stuart Webb 20:55
And if you would like to get onto our mailing list so that you see an email that comes out both Mondays and Tuesdays that lets you know who's going to be with us on it's not rocket science five questions of coffee this week. This is the link to go to which is https colon slash slash TCA dot FYI TCA your FYI forward slash subscribe, get onto the list. Come and find out who you are going to be listening to this week. And join us live on the recording. Richard, thank you so much for spending a few minutes with us. Much appreciated. I'll let you get back to your day job now of making people happy with the voices you produce.
Richard Crossman 21:33
It has truly been a pleasure, Stuart, thank you so much for the invitation.
Stuart Webb 21:38
It's wonderful to hear those voices. It really is
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