Natalie Stanfield Thomas, copywriter, audio producer, and voice over extraordinaire on an early Sunday morning, met with me to discuss the twists and turns her career has taken since we last talked a year and half ago. I wanted to check in and ask Natalie about were her career had taken her; what success she has experienced?
Since that first phone interview http://voices.yahoo.com/that-voice-sounds-familiar-natalie-6653356.html?cat=31), Natalie has expanded her freelance entrepreneurship, besides adding her services as a copywriter and audio producer, a foundation of her talents in radio, but also adding E-learning, commercial work for online music streaming service Spotify and audio plays. Natalie has certification from the Radio Advertising Bureau as a Certified Professional Commercial Copywriter, and accreditation from the Society of Accredited Voiceover Actors. http://savoa.org/members
Natalie has definitely found a career that is both successful and fulfilling, meeting her in person quickly attest to those accomplishments. She enjoyed what she is doing, finding boy challenges and growth still ahead of her. She cares about the clients she works for and believes in what she is doing to assist them. For Natalie it is a win-win situation. She gains experience and depth to her body of work, and her clients receive a dedicated artist who wants to help them accomplish their goals. That first love of making stories come a live and capture the interest of the listener is still driving her enjoyment and development of her talent.
One of the more memorable moments Natalie shared with me, was when she realized she was no longer a novice. Her mentor, Bob Souer, a professional story teller, is someone she speaks of highly, helped her with that realization. Bob asked her if she recorded her voice for commercials, her answer “yes”. Then Bob asked if she was being sough out to be paid to record her voice for commercials, she had been for years, so her answer was “…..yes”. Natalie began to realize in that moment that she was not a ‘she’ll do’fill-in to get a spot on the air. “I am a professional voice over actor!” Despite this awareness, Natalie’s self view, “I kind of see myself as a Swiss Army Knife, because if you need it, I can get it…if you need it I probably have it and if I don’t’ have it, I can get it if it has to do with voice over.” Truth be told, since Natalie’s background includes copywriting, and audio producing as well as voice over, she has connections that place her in the ‘GO TO!’ category. Whether as a total package or ability to work well with others, Natalie is quite versatile in her profession, and it’s associated fields.
Natalie has enjoyed portraying characters such as those for Daisy Saves the Day, a sweet story for preschoolers for Wild Republic. The cartoon is meant to educate and inform about wildlife, also having a life lesson included that can be applied to everyday life. In this story, everyone has something they are good at, even if at first it isn’t obvious. Natalie and Daisy have that in common. http://www.wildrepublic.com/AnimatedMovie.aspx?v=DaisyFinal
Natalie is still accumulating characters, finding the development of characters for clients challenging and delightful to her creative nature, “I will do anything, it is according what the client wants. If they want you to act like a drain pipe… its fun to try to figure out what would a clogged drain pipe sound like and still be audible for the listener to figure out what the commercial is supposed to be about.”
Natalie Stanfield Thomas has accomplished quite a bit in the time since we talked about voice over acting. She has samples of her work on her website: www.nataliesvoice.com. Her list of clients has grown, working with 2 E-learning companies in the United Kingdom and United States, doing E-learning modules. Natalie’s spots on Spotify are both in the UK and US. In the US she has done both regional and national advertising spots. Some of these included series of characters spots that ran for companies such as Kerr Drug in North Carolina and Public Service Announcements – New York’s DUI series. Narration, Interactive Voice Response, and well anywhere a voice can be placed, these too are where you might hear her voice.www.nataliesvoice.com