My New Year Career Glow Up

Happy New…. oh

I know, I know, it’s April already, so why am I still banging on about the New Year? Well, with the New Year comes the dreaded Q1, am I right? Hands up who else is glad to see the back of it? I generally always look forward to a New Year the same way I look forward to a Monday morning, excited to see what the year/week will bring me. I’m either a bit odd or an eternal optimist but, like my old Dad Lex, I like to find the silver lining in everything and, yes, that includes Mondays! But woah, this so called New Year turned out to be a toughie which didn’t quite deliver on the goods as quickly as I had hoped!

As a Voiceover Artist, or for anyone else who works predominantly in the Advertising Industry for that matter, Q1 generally sucks. I notice it mostly in terms of a drop in Radio Commercials coming my way, but that’s standard for the time of year. I’m used to it, it literally comes with the territory and there’s always work coming in from other sectors to keep me occupied and my bills covered. But I had a sense that this Quarter was going to be longer, colder, darker and starker than ever before and I wasn’t going to let it drag me down. Nope, if I was going to be inside hiding from January, February and the best part of March, I was going to make the most of the quiet time. I had a plan up my sleeve and it didn’t involve sitting on my backside wishing away the weeks. I decided it was time for a rebrand…

First Things First

My Logo, Images and VO Reels all required a refresh but first up was the challenge of building a brand new Website, from scratch, by myself. I’ve had a Wordpress site since 2006. It was built for me and, for all these years, I’ve had little to no creative control over it. Instead, I’ve had to rely on, at times, unreliable developers to make updates for me. It had served a purpose but it was no longer serving my needs.

I’m a big fan of Squarespace sites, having built them for my Vinyl DJ work and my Husband Adam’s Motocross brand, 250LONDON. Squarespace just keeps improving their editing interface to help you create beautiful, user-friendly pages, so it just made sense to build one to showcase my Voiceovers. So I set to work, knuckled down and pretty much neglected everything and everyone in my life for at least a month, while I created my new site. Ok, not really, but my dedication to the cause was pretty impressive!!

Girl on Film

I’ve always tried to be self-sufficient, in the interests of saving time and money, but if there’s one thing you can’t scrimp on, it’s other people’s talents. iPhone photos weren’t going to cut it on my new website, I needed a professional Photographer and I knew just the Woman. I’m a big supporter of other Women and their skills and like to showcase and lift them up them as often as I can.

A local friend and Photographer, Terry Joshi, is incredibly talented and her style and approach are right up my street. Terry specialises in Brand Photography, and that’s exactly what I needed, so within days of our meeting to plan out the shoot, she was booked and round at mine quicker than I could say “action”!

*Terry and I on the morning of the shoot*

Terry and I had a very productive and fun few hours and by the end of the afternoon we’d got everything covered, with many of the shots centred around my beautiful Voiceover Booth, which is my pride and joy. Within a few days, Terry sent me a few cracking images to tide me over whilst I finished building my website and, within 2 weeks, delivered a full set of professional photos for use on my website and social media. I was so happy with them. Plus my Husband Adam was relieved he was no longer required for iPhone photo duty!! Here’s a few pics… (she’s good isn’t she??)

Logo a Go Go

At the same time, I was working on my new Logo, because it was overdue a facelift. I wanted something that was colourful and went “pop” so played around with fonts and colours, before settling on an idea. It went through many transformations, including an early version directly below, before I felt I’d nailed it. Then a logo specialist fine-tuned it for me and gave it the “sheen and glow” I was after!

Voiceover Reels Revamp

One thing I hadn’t done in a while was update my Voiceover Reels, specifically my Commercial Reels, so that was another priority. Luckily I’d been collecting and practically hoarding lots of my favourite Commercials in a virtual folder, so I contacted my old friend and Commercial Producer/ VO Reel Extraordinaire, Iain Job, sent him all my files and he rapidly refreshed my reels, ready for uploading, downloading, sharing and showing off! Have a listen to my new Commercial Reels below….

The Moral of my Story

And then it was done! I’m really pleased with my “Glow Up”, it’s been worth the days and weeks of effort and focus. Yes, it’s cost me money too, but because I love my career, I’m so proud of it, I knew investing in other professional people would pay off, just as booking a Professional Voiceover is worth the investment too! (Of course I would say that!!)

But you know that old saying “A change is as good as a rest”? Well, I can’t say my rebrand was restful, in fact, I did go a bit loopy after a couple sleepless nights obsessing over my new logo! But it did enliven me and reassure me that there’s still plenty of fuel in my tank. i.e. many years of Voicing and Performing still ahead of me. I’ve always been a fan of giving my career a “makeover” every few years, “switching things up” now and again and showcasing my talents to old, new and potential clients, and it’s always SO much easier to get their attention when you have something new to show them.

Thanks for reading!

Jen x

p.s. Feel free to have a nosey around my website while you’re here. Click here for all my Reels and Videos…