A Voice Over Values Exercise

What Are Values?

The definition of the term “values” seem subjective, but it’s not. Also, many people don’t know the difference between values, morals, and ethics (usually those who don’t have them).

So, what are values? Values are what are important to you. They’re not intrinsically good or bad. They’re often what you or a group of people agree upon. For example, a street gang operates under a set of values. I, for one, have no interest in arguing the validity of their values, do you?

What are the values of a voice actor?

It depends on the person.

In doing research for this post, I found an interesting article on the Mind Tools website. It states that your values should be reflected in your career. Makes sense.

However, I’ve noticed that many voice actors have staggeringly diverse sets of values.

What does that mean? I think it means that people brought their values to their career and have different motivations. They also have different ideas of what success means.

For some, success means being rich & famous and popular to boot.

For others, it means having the ability to consistently express themselves artistically.

And yet for “other” others, they do it to put food on the table whilst avoiding being stuck in a cubicle so as not to go postal.

Do they all have the same values? If not, is one set of values “better” than the others?

Values Exercise

What are your values? Are they reflected in your voice over career?

If you're not sure,  the Mind Tools article had some great stuff so let’s use their exercise, shall we…?

When were you happiest? The most proud? The most fulfilled/satisfied?

Now, determine your top ten values based on your answers. Here’s their list:

• Accountability

• Accuracy

• Achievement

• Adventurousness

• Altruism

• Ambition

• Assertiveness

• Balance

• Being the best

• Belonging

• Boldness

• Calmness

• Carefulness

• Challenge

• Cheerfulness

• Clear-mindedness

• Commitment

• Community

• Compassion

• Competitiveness

• Consistency

• Contentment

• Continuous Improvement

• Contribution

• Control

• Cooperation

• Correctness

• Courtesy

• Creativity

• Curiosity

• Decisiveness

• Democratic-ness

• Dependability

• Determination

• Devoutness

• Diligence

• Discipline

• Discretion

• Diversity

• Dynamism

• Economy

• Effectiveness

• Efficiency

• Elegance

• Empathy

• Enjoyment

• Enthusiasm

• Equality

• Excellence

• Excitement

• Expertise

• Exploration

• Expressiveness

• Fairness

• Faith

• Family-oriented-ness

• Fidelity

• Fitness

• Fluency

• Focus

• Freedom

• Fun

• Generosity

• Goodness

• Grace

• Growth

• Happiness

• Hard Work

• Health

• Helping Society

• Holiness

• Honesty

• Honor

• Humility

• Independence

• Ingenuity

• Inner Harmony

• Inquisitiveness

• Insightfulness

• Intelligence

• Intellectual Status

• Intuition

• Joy

• Justice

• Leadership

• Legacy

• Love

• Loyalty

• Making a difference

• Mastery

• Merit

• Obedience

• Openness

• Order

• Originality

• Patriotism

• Perfection

• Piety

• Positivity

• Practicality

• Preparedness

• Professionalism

• Prudence

• Quality-orientation

• Reliability

• Resourcefulness

• Restraint

• Results-oriented

• Rigor

• Security

• Self-actualization

• Self-control

• Selflessness

• Self-reliance

• Sensitivity

• Serenity

• Service

• Shrewdness

• Simplicity

• Soundness

• Speed

• Spontaneity

• Stability

• Strategic

• Strength

• Structure

• Success

• Support

• Teamwork

• Temperance

• Thankfulness

• Thoroughness

• Thoughtfulness

• Timeliness

• Tolerance

• Traditionalism

• Trustworthiness

• Truth-seeking

• Understanding

• Uniqueness

• Unity

• Usefulness

• Vision

• Vitality

Now, prioritize them. How does it look?

Do you think it matches up with your current career?

How do these newly-discovered values reflect how you work from home? Negotiate rates? Network with your peers and potential clients?

From my village to yours, this is Tom Dheere, the H is Silent, but I'm Not.

Thanks For Reading!

To learn more about me, hear some samples, or download my demos, just go to www.tomdheere.com.

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Tom Dheere is a 30-year veteran voice actor who has narrated virtually every genre of the industry, from high-stakes corporate narration to complex technical medical scripts. Known as a "street-smart professor," Tom blends a human-first performance style with a CEO’s understanding of ROI and project deadlines. When he isn’t in the booth helping brands find their resonance, he mentors new voice actors and produces the sci-fi comic book Agent 1.22.