Huge thanks to Marc Guss and his guest on the Marc Guss Voiceover Club last night, Jeff Bell! Jeff has been the voice of Ford for 20 years, and last night talked about his first career in radio before getting into VO.
We learned that Jeff doesn’t follow trends, and he focuses on being himself. His authenticity comes across because stays true to who he is, and says that “even as a DJ, I wanted to be the guy sitting in his living room, playing records, and talking about weird shit.” As a voiceover artist, he always tries to being some levity in the studio, and to be fun to be around. “I’m a rock and roll DJ and that’s how I approach life,” Jeff says.
His work in radio has given him an innate sense of timing that serves him well in the voiceover world. I loved his suggestion for anyone to practice improving their sense of timing with an electric toothbrush. If your brush has a sequence of four 30-second cycles for example, try to get a sense of what 30 seconds feels like by trying to predict when those cycles will stop. For him, he knows that he’s a bit hyper or a bit slow that day based on how ahead or behind the timer he guesses.
Moving from having a sense of time to focusing on the body, I loved the care and thoughtfulness that Jeff puts into his physical and mental health, and the time he has spent learning his instrument. “You cannot neglect your physical health. It’s the most important thing you can do to maintain your business,” he says.
His daily routine of singing as loud as he can stretches out his ribs, opens up his chest, and warms up his diaphragm and lungs. He discussed how he can’t reach certain parts of his register after he eats, so he has found that eating once a day in the evening works for him. Even the way he half-sits on a bar stool and arches his back to reach the “really nasty low notes” is something that he has discovered about himself and incorporated into his craft. As Marc said, “You know the intricacies of your body.”
And in terms of promotion and hustle online, Jeff says, “If you feel like social media is wearing you out, pull off the road for a bit and take a minute. Take care of the most important asset: you.”
Jeff’s laid-back confidence was a refreshing contrast to the neurotic hamster wheel of doubt that my brain sometimes gets stuck in. What I took away from what Jeff shared is that he knows who he is, what he’s capable of, and what he’s worth. I think it takes a combination of experience and of paying attention to oneself in order to learn and grow to that level. This is something I will try to be more mindful of going forward.
Thanks so much to Marc and Jeff for the amazing conversation, and for the insightful audience questions that furthered the discussion!
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Fantastic summary! Thank you so much for taking the time to write out those details for those of us who are unable to make it at that time slot. Jeff’s insights are massively helpful and worth reading every word of.
Thanks so much! I’m so glad that you found it helpful. I love to share what I’ve learned and hear other insights into parts that I missed or hadn’t considered in the same way. Listening to Jeff was almost reassuring; I felt like everything is going to be OK, just take care of yourself and keep doing your thing.