I heard on a podcast recently marketing guru Donnie Deutsch say that a company’s brand is a set of values. Values are things that you believe in and drive the way you live and work. It got me thinking, what are my values and how do that relate to my brand? As you can imagine, I went down quite the rabbit hole on that. My brand is Voice Monkey Voice Over. Now, it sounds fun and neat, but where did it come from and what does it mean? The name came from a show I used to watch on the Discovery Channel called Fast N Loud. The show centered around a car customization shop in Dallas Texas called Gas Monkey. The dude who ran the shop was Richard, and whenever he sold a car, he would exclaim, “Gas Monkey gets paid!”. Whenever I would get a check in the mail from a client, I would say, “Voice Monkey gets paid”, and it stuck. I started referring to myself as the Voice Monkey. Not really in the third person like the Rock does, but in business, Voice Monkey stuck. Last year I worked with Corey Dissin on branding and marketing. He asked first and foremost if I wanted to continue with Voice Monkey branding or go a new direction. I decided to stick with it and a thousand monkey or ape or banana puns later, here we are.
Voice Monkey to me means I’m fun loving, can play around when needed, but will rip your face off to stand up for what my time and talents are worth. That may sound aggressive but you have to be in this business. You can’t sit on your ass and wait for work to come to you. I did a lot of brainstorming and Googling, and these are some of my values that I hold dear and relate them to my voice over business.
- Hard work ethic – When I get a booking, I will work as hard as I can, as fast as I can to make sure the audio is delivered the best it can be. No slouching or goofing off. I’ve always had that “first in the office, last to leave” mentality. Not healthy all the time, but it does serve me well.
- Loyalty and reliability – A lot of my current work comes from repeat clients. I work hard to maintain those relationships and they know I will always be there when they need something. Repeat work gets put to the head of the line.
- Family – My family is the most important thing to me. Everything I do in or out of the booth is for them.
- Sense of Humor – I love making people laugh. I love letting it all go and just playing. What’s life without joy and laughter? Pretty shitty I’d say. I’m never so serious that a joke can’t come out.
- Responsible – I get my stuff done. I respond to all messages, emails, phone calls, texts. You’ll never be left wondering where I am on something. I leave myself notes all over the place to remind me of things I have coming up. If there’s a chance I might be late or miss something, I will let you know up front.
- God – I’ve been exploring more of this side of me since my mom passed away in June 2016. Today’s her birthday. After losing her, it struck me that I’m “grown up” if that makes sense. There no one above me as a mom that I can ask advice from or get help from. It’s all up to me to make those decisions. I quickly realized that I was missing something out of my life. We started going to church earlier in 2016 and I found that piece of me that was missing in the text, the people, and the ways I could help others in my church.
- Helpful – I’m always looking for ways to help others. I’ve listened to countless demos, reads, and whatever other voice talent have sent me, and gave my opinions on how to improve. I’ve even edited others’ demos for them. Anyone that had a problem with anything knows that they can come to me. I may not be able to fix it, but I’m a great shoulder to cry on and an ear to listen.
- Stand Up guy – I generally am on the side of the underdog. I don’t like seeing people bullied. I will stand up for what I feel is right.
Those are just a few of the values that make me the Voice Monkey who I am. What are some of your values and how do they relate to your brand and business?