Barb Lyon
Voice Artist

There’s a moment most people don’t talk about in voice over motivation. It’s not booking the job. It’s not the callback. It’s not the email that starts with “We loved your read…” It’s the Tuesday morning when you step into the booth and think,“Alright… let’s see what happens today.”

The first time I met Carrie Farris, what struck me was her calm confidence. Relaxed, self assured, but still able to laugh at herself. She didn’t compete for the room, she just quietly owned it. When you meet people like that in this industry and you remember them. I did and I’m so glad you agreed to be interviewed, Carrie! When I really looked at your body of work, I thought, Wait… what?

Some days inspiration shows up like a polite houseguest. It knocks. You open the door. It sits down at the table and gets right to work. The words flow. The ideas line up. And for a brief moment you wonder why anyone ever complains about the creative process. Those days are wonderful. They are also…not most days. Most days inspiration is nowhere to be found. Not late. Not stuck in traffic. Just gone.

2026 has been the year of due diligence for me. Every day you hear more and more really scary things about AI, it’s becoming more and more important to protect ourselves. So this year I’m having all clients sign the NAVA AI rider. Most seem to understand, and sign it willingly. I’m especially following through with new clients. I had two inquiries last week. One of them was super straight-forward and professional.

If you can overthink the worst, why can’t you overthink the best? We are fantastic at imagining the worst case scenario. It's just easier to envision disaster. We send a cold email and immediately assume we’ve annoyed someone. We reach out to a new agent and picture them rolling their eyes. We send a recording to a brand-new client and wait for the email that says, “This isn’t what we had in mind.” Our brains run straight to the worst-case scenario.

It’s National Grammar Day! Which may not sound exciting… unless you work in audio. Then it’s basically job security. Here’s something most people don’t think about: Grammar isn’t just about correctness. It’s about interpretation. Take this sentence: “Employees who complete training quickly advance.” Great motivation. Now imagine that line read flat. No inflection. No awareness of structure. No human deciding what matters. That’s where things get… unintentionally awkw

From time to time I meet someone who says, “Voice over? What’s that?” I’ll explain that a lot of the work I do—eLearning narration, YouTube videos, telecom applications—you’ll probably never hear unless you’re especially interested in paying an electric bill in Detroit, really dig solar panels, or just can’t learn enough about child car seats. It’s not glamorous. It’s steady. It’s useful. And every now and then I get lucky with a national or regional ad they might have seen.

So the last few weeks were…a lot. Like a lot, a lot. And it taught me things about myself. But let me set the stage a bit. See, last fall, I talked with an immersive audiobook company. I’ve done plenty of narration work before, but immersive audiobook narration is a different animal. It sounded interesting, so I went ahead and cut sample audio which they accepted. And then it got quiet. I figured I may never hear from them. Oh well. Easy come easy go. And then it happened.

So, who are you? Really. Do you answer that question with your job title? I’m a voice actor. Maybe you answer it with the hobby you pursue. I’m a dog trainer. Or maybe by what’s in your heart. Maybe you feel really good when you drop a well-timed compliment and see someone’s face light up. Or by that one quality that keeps coming up for you. Maybe you love solving problems. But not one of those answers fully captures who you are. You don’t have to limit yourself.

Somedays that’s exactly how I feel. It can be absolutely exhausting. You audition, you do your best to market, which always feels super icky. ( I swear I’m allergic to hubris). You even bought into CRM software so you can do easy, effortless followups. You post on social media and maintain your website, and yet…it feels like you may as well be a total novice. Where is all this effort leading?

Executive producers are often successful precisely because they make complexity look effortless. There’s a lot of invisible labor—especially surrounding the constant compromise that goes into any video production project. Everything starts off hunky-dory. Then the changes start. Legal wants safety. Brand wants consistency. Stakeholders want speed… like yesterday. Budget wants restraint aaaannnnddd the work still has to feel like something.

I get it. The days can be a real slog. You wake, work out, eat, shower, coffee (more coffee) and then begin auditioning. Maybe you get booked. Good for you! It’s your lucky day! And the next morning? Yeah, it starts all over again. That one booking didn’t change your life, did it. And before you know it, you’re living Groundhog Day. But you keep on trying, because that’s what you’re supposed to do. And maybe you’re content…or complacent.

I got a callback on an audio drama! Now, if you’ve never listened to one you are totally missing out! They started in the 1920’s, and really grew in popularity in the 30’s and 40’s. They reached an apex in the 1950’s and then were taken over by TV. My all time favorite is “Johnny Dollar” who is billed as “America’s fabulous freelance insurance investigator.” There’s tension, gunplay, fight scenes, romance and plenty of humor.

Right now. Today. In this very moment, you can find peace & joy, wherever you are right now. Or so says my “You Are a Badass” calendar. It’s right. I’ll prove it. Here’s my day thus far… My dog, Friday, greeted the day by giving me (basically) mouth-to-mouth resuscitation for about three minutes before I could even turn the alarm off. I wanted to push her away, but instead, I let her little kisses cover my face.

You tend to find what you focus on. Try it now. Scan the room and count how many blue things you see. Now, close your eyes and recall how many red things you saw. What you focus on becomes your reality. So if you want success, but keep thinking about failures or missed opportunities, do you really think that’s helping you reach your goals? A few months ago I decided to focus on the little moments of positivity that happen every day.

Some days I think it might be fun to be a casting director.Matching a client with the perfect voice for their brand. Having a front-row seat to the magic when it clicks. Watching the final spot air and thinking, Yeah… I had a hand in that. But I’m guessing it’s not all that rosy. Auditions can go off the rails in a bunch of different ways, and as a CD, you have to sort through hundreds of them!

Wouldn’t it be nice if achievement showed up wrapped in confidence? For me, it usually shows up stamped with a question mark. Where will the next winning audition come from? Could this turn into a regular client? That thing that’s been tugging at you and you finally decided to try…will it work? We’re taught to wait until we feel ready. Until we feel confident. Until the fear goes away. But experience, and science tell us something different: fear doesn't disappear first.

This is for my friends who procrastinate, or just enjoy life on a wire. You've waited as long as you possibly can. It's time to get off your duff and make those 2026 plans! Every January, there’s pressure to reinvent everything. New goals. New systems. New promises to “do more.” But if you’ve been in this business any length of time, you know the truth: what actually works is consistency, clarity, and a plan you can live with.

Opportunities don’t always arrive the way we imagine they will. Most of us grow up with a tidy picture of how progress is supposed to work: you aim, you plan, you climb. You do this so you can get that. And sometimes, sure, it plays out exactly that way. But just as often? The better things slip in sideways. They show up when you’re doing work that wasn’t part of the grand plan. When you’re helping. Learning. Filling in.

Most of us came up with heroes. The voices that made us stop what we were doing. The reads we rewound just to hear again. Maybe it was Don LaFontaine and that unmistakable authority. Maybe it was Will Arnett’s effortless confidence and wink-to-the-audience delivery. Maybe it was someone else entirely, like Mel Blanc (Elmer Fudd anyone?) but chances are, there was a voice that made you think, I want to do that.