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Barry Trailer

Training From The Heart

Almost everyone would agree with the statement that a work group should know its goal or with the dictum that a trainer should tell the students what they are to learn. We wish, in this artide, to discuss some of the implications of these statements, and

The Importance Of Criterion Definition

Geri McArdle has been a practitioner in the human resource field for 25 years.  She has published nine books on human productivity and numerous research journal articles in the area of human resource development and training.  She has service as the coordinator of a Ph.D. program in human resource development at Barry University in Fort Myers, Florida, and is one of the ATD seven master trainers recognized by TD magazine.  Her Ph.D. is from Syracuse University and is a Harvard University postdoctoral fellow.

Geri McArdle

I have good news and bad news. The good news is that you now have access to affordable, high-quality recording equipment and software. The bad news is that even though your equipment may be semi-pro, your voiceover performance is still amateur. And, hey, that’s not something you should beat yourself up about. If it were just a matter of showing up and talking into a microphone, there would be no such thing as a professional voiceover actor. Unfortunately, you can’t always afford a pro, but you can learn from their craft to improve your own DIY performance.Get Over YourselfSo let me guess…you hate the sound of your own voice, right? We’ve all had the experience of hearing our voice on a recording and wondering, “Do I really sound like that?”  Yes, you really do.That “awful” voice you hear in the recordings? That’s what the rest of us hear when you talk, and we think it’s just fine. As a voiceover performer, your voice is your instrument, so you had better make friends with it. The more you practice and listen to your recordings, the more comfortable you’ll be.Got a bad case of the nerves? Practice is the best medicine for that, too. You might lock up when you sit down in front of a microphone the first time, but the more you practice, the easier it will get. Remind yourself that no one listening to your performance is judging you as harshly as you are. Take a deep breath and just keep practicing.Preparing for the GigProfessional voiceover performers drink water like it’s their job, because it is. Hydration will have a huge effect on your performance, so be like a pro and start sipping water at least two hours before you’re scheduled to record. This prevents strained, rough-sounding recordings full of the dreaded “mouth click.” Avoid smoking and spicy foods before a performance unless you’re going for the Clint Eastwood/Batman/sandpaper sound. Also, don’t eat dairy the day of your performance—it produces mucus (a.k.a. “mouth sludge”). While you’re drinking your water, take a look at the script and read it out loud. Are there any tongue twisters? Awkward phrases that look fine on paper but sound weird when you say them out loud? If this is your own script, you still have time to improve it. If it’s someone else’s and you’re not allowed to touch it, at least you can practice those tongue twisters so they don’t sneak up on you during the recording.  Give yourself some direction. Take a pencil and mark up the script. If you want to emphasize a particular word, underline it. If a phrase should be spoken with a rising inflection, draw an upward arrow next to it. There are some industry norms for markup notation, but use whatever works for you. ShowtimeThe best way to deliver copy is standing up, but that’s usually not practical in a DIY recording situation. If you must sit, sit on the edge of your chair with your left knee pointed down at the floor. This forces you to straighten your back and allows you to breathe more easily. It also gives your diaphragm plenty of space. Also, keep your chin parallel to the floor. (When you look up, your vocal chords stretch; when you look down, they constrict. Neither is good for your performance.)Your breath is the fuel of your performance, so take a deep in-breath before starting each new line of copy. This will prevent you from needing to take a distracting catch-up breath in the middle of a line. A deep inhalation should move your belly, not your chest. Shallow chest breathing will cause you to run out of gas in the middle of a phrase.When you deliver, don’t try to imitate a “radio voice.” You don’t have a radio voice, and even if you did, that probably wouldn’t be the right tone for your e-learning project anyway. Instead, visualize a member of your audience and imagine you’re talking directly to him or her. A conversational voice is going to carry more credibility than the kind of smooth announcer voice that most people associate with used car ads.Put some emotion in your voice when the script calls for it. In fact, ham it up a little. Remember that the audience will not be able to pick up on your non-visual cues. What feels like a subtle, understated performance to you will sound like a boring monotone to your audience. What feels like a slightly over-the-top emotional performance to you will usually be just enough for your audience to hear in the final product.Deliver multiple takes for each line of copy, even if you think you’ve nailed it on the first one. Your perfect delivery might have the sound of a chair squeaking in the background. Having multiple takes to choose from is called “coverage” and you want lots of it. It will help you later in the editing process if you call the take out loud before each delivery (“Take 1…” “Take 2...” etc.).Cut!If your nerves get to you, take a couple of deep breaths and start a new take. If you’re really stuck on a given section, just move on to the next one and come back after you’ve built some momentum. Just keep going until your nerves cool off. Remember: you’re recording digitally, and you’re not going to run out of tape.If your mouth is sludgy and you’re getting a lot of “mouth click” or other gross sounds in the recording, take a few sips of water. (You should be drinking it throughout the session anyway.)  If you’ve got really stubborn sludge, eat a green apple. The acid will dissolve the mucus and other gunk to give you a clean, click-free mouth.That’s a WrapEven if you’ve got a good voice and a decent recording setup, you might still feel unsatisfied with the results. Keep things in perspective: you’re not recording a movie trailer or a luxury car commercial. E-learning is about learning, after all, and your audience will probably learn just as much from you as they would from James Earl Jones. Now go have some fun and don’t forget to keep your most embarrassing recordings for the outtake reel.

Inside the Voice Actors Studio

We are fortunate to work with some of the leading facilitators in the worldwide talent development community. Our facilitators bring a wealth of experience and insight to their classrooms. We’re spotlighting their stories here.Meet Jonathan Halls!Jonathan is the award-winning author of Confessions of a Corporate Trainer and bestselling author of Rapid Video Development for Trainers.What is your favorite motivational quote?It changes every week but at the moment I like this one from Carl Rogers: “I can’t teach you anything but I can help you learn.” It emphasizes that our role is to partner with learners.How many years have you been a facilitator? Did you find the career path, or did it find you?I like to say I’ve been a facilitator for more than 10 years and that’s not lying. But, errr, I’ve been doing it for more than 30 years. I’m a bit unusual in that I’m not an accidental trainer. I always intended to be a trainer due to the influence of a mentor in my teenage years. In fact, I was teaching broadcasting skills in my teens, so I was geeking out on andragogy and adult learning skills before I left high school.What is something you wish you knew before becoming a facilitator?I wish I realized that being a polished trainer with nice slide decks and well-formatted handouts isn’t necessarily learner-centric. My bachelor’s and master’s degrees are in adult learning so I knew all the theories from Knowles to Rogers to Freire. But knowing them and practicing them are different. What took me years to learn was that the key is trusting the learner and all the knowledge, skills, and intentions they bring to the learning experience.What is your go-to facilitation tool?Questions are my number 1 tool, partly because they’re easier to carry than trainer toys and laptops and projectors. But mostly because when a trainer asks questions, it unlocks the learner’s long-term memory to help them build new mental models for cognitive and psychomotor learning. That’s not all–questions also provide dignity. When we ask questions, we show that we value and honor the learner’s perspective and trust their capacity to learn. And we get to learn from them too.How has hybrid learning changed how you facilitate?Not a whole lot. Our job is still to help learners build their skills. I think it’s more important to focus on trusting the learner to learn than being polished with technology. And I’m not a luddite. Hybrid situations still require the learner to do the work. It’s less about what we do than what the learner does.What is your best piece of advice for anyone looking to become a facilitator?Study how the learner builds their learning and reflect on what your role as a trainer is in helping them do that learning. Ask yourself, do I really need to present? To talk? Have cool slide decks? Or do the learners need to be doing stuff? Then grab a glass of your favorite wine, sit back, gaze into the distance, and marvel at the incredible capacity humans have to learn.What is your favorite part about being a facilitator?It’s the privilege we have to partner with folks as they walk on their learning journey. It’s truly awesome and it teaches us so much about life, other people, and ourselves. I love connecting all that to organizational performance, which is about helping people learn new skills, gain confidence, and help their organizations thrive. It’s an awesome part of the job.What is your favorite song these days, the last great book you read, or your favorite hobby outside of work?I’m a classical music buff and like some jazz. I know this sounds really nerdy but every month I get hooked on different composers. This month I’m reveling in Mozart piano concertos because of their incredible precision and light touch, especially Piano Concerto No. 21.How have your facilitation skills and training aided you in other aspects of your personal or professional life?Gee, where do I start and where do I stop? They help me understand people. They help me be patient (well some of the time). They help me know when to shut up. Most of all they teach me about other people and all they bring into our lives.

“It’s more important to focus on trusting the learner to learn than being polished with technology.”

Evaluating Industrial Trainers

Larry Jacobs, host of Corporate Training Talk Radio, has many years of experience in the publishing and education industry, as well as radio broadcasting on WRKO Boston and WSMN in Nashua, New Hampshire. With a Master’s degree in Education, Jacobs  hosts each Corporate Training  Radio broadcast, interviewing authors, thought leaders, association professionals, trainers and companies in the field  with probing questions and a sense of humor to provide the training and talent development segment  cutting-edge information.

Larry Jacobs

ATD facilitator Julie Patrick discusses how the training facilitator needs to be a strategic listener with Larry Jacobs on his Corporate Training talk radio show. Julie Patrick is a learning and performance consultant with JP Learning Associates. She has been a trainer, facilitator, and instructional designer since 1992. As a former manager of a corporate university, Julie was responsible for new employee orientation, leadership and management, sales, client training, systems, and administrative training programs. She holds numerous certifications, including DDI, AchieveGlobal, and the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator assessment, and designs and implements training and development solutions that help clients achieve their desired business results.    Check Out Training Podcasts at Blog Talk Radio with Training and HR Talk Radio on BlogTalkRadioLearn more from Julie on this topic and several other core training issues during one of her ATD Education programs, including: ATD Master Trainer™ ProgramCreating New Manager Training Programs CertificateIntroduction to Training CertificateDesigning Learning CertificateTraining Certificate. Julie also is the author of  the ATD Infolines "Creating Training Manuals" and "Creative Facilitation Techniques for Training."

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