Jen Sweeney: Master of Reinvention in Voice Over, Radio, and Beyond

I first met Jen Sweeney back in, gosh, I want to say maybe 1995. She was the go-to talent for Wells Fargo through Walsh Media, where I worked at the time, was brought on to service the account’s telecom needs.Jen’s personality is positively infectious. She carries this joy with her that just lifts the whole room. She has the most wicked laugh, and she has no problem laughing at herself. I’m glad to say those good vibes rubbed off on me and we became fast friends.

One of the things I love about Jen is that she has a million plates spinning, yet always has a smile on her face. And when I say that, I’m not even kidding. 

• She has always been a super mom to her now grown daughter. (I was there when we were embarrassing her by doing the YMCA in Ed Debevic’s) 

• She runs a thrift store. 

• She has a radio program called “Jen’s Den”, which she has now parlayed into a TV Show. 

• Jen has a small farm and is an equestrian. (Ask her about Fireball-her ass, and Little Bill, one of her peacocks!)

• She operates an Air B&B. 

• She recently started doing VO workshops. 

• Jen found such a love of Yoga that she’s now a certified VariYoga instructor, AAAANNNNDD has found a way to marry Yoga practice with equestrianism. 

• Oh, yeah, and she has a kick butt VO career and is represented by Atlas.  

The next time you think, “I just don’t have time” reread that list and get back to me.

Thank you so much my friend for agreeing to play with me! But I know you’re super busy and there’s probably an animal that needs to be fed, so let’s dive in.I could maybe handle two or three of the things you do, but that was a long list I rattled off! How do you manage? I need to schedule the insanity! Are you fine flying by the seat of your pants, or are you secretly Type A like me?  Do you have a pre-recording practice? Maybe some sun salutations, a favorite breathing exercise, or another thing you do to prepare?

How do I manage? 

Good Sleep.  Yoga. And Coffee.  2 big strong cups in the morning and one in the afternoon.  Lots of water in-between.  Coffee dries out the cords so I triple up on the hydration, so I feel like I’ve earned the coffee!  

I make my schedule in the morning with my coffee with   “notes” in my phone and I check stuff off or erase as I get tasks completed.  But you know as well as I do that Voice Over emergencies can happen at any minute.  Some of my “contract” work comes in at random during the day and I must drop what I’m doing and dive on turning that audio around.  So it’s a combo of flying by the seat of my pants with a structure that I know I’ll probably have to pivot with and alter.  Does that make sense?

I use notes in my phone.  I write stuff down on paper.  I have a google calendar AND I have what my bf calls my rock tablet and chisel….a good old fashioned day timer.  Sticky notes everywhere too!  

I do love a good yoga flow before a session if I have time.  I also warm up my voice every morning while I’m doing farm chores.  I sing!  I vocalize.  I sing to my animals!  I do vocal exercises.  I studied voice with a classical singing teacher in the past and I actually had vocal nodes when I was in high school but with Laura Stanely, using classical singing techniques and The Alexander Technique, I was able to CURE my nodes, yes they went away and also have a tool box of really valuable voice techniques at my disposal so that I didn’t strain my voice or use it improperly.  I use warm water…a lot, too.  

You took Jen’s Den the radio show and brought it to TV at Fayetteville Public Television. (The hand puppetry in one episode is hysterical by the way!) Talk a bit about the show and how you were able to launch it. Do you have an Executive Producer giving you guidance or a format, or is whatever pops into your brain fair game?

The Jen’s Den show originated as a “radio show” with my friend John Crowley.  We did several episodes that were just audio and they lived…ummm….shoot…I can’t remember where we posted them, but they were goofy and all over the map.  The Jen’s Den TV show version came about because I started dating the Director of FPTV and saw the amazing stuff they were able to produce there with top notch equipment, and I decided it was time to step out from behind the mic.  Dan Robinson at FPTV is the producer and director of Jen’s Den. He’s also my bf!  I give him a basic concept, and he fleshes it out, gets it organized and then I just show up looking cute and we roll with it!  Dan lets me just be my right brained self and he creates an  outline, and I take the baton and start running when he says ACTION!  Weeee!  Our prime directive for the show is FUN…so that’s where it all starts.  Also, it can be whatever we want so it’s a wonderful vehicle to exercise wild creativity!  

Is that how you got involved with the Fayetteville Film Fest? (See, I didn’t lie. She does do everything!) Any celebs coming you might get to interview?

Dan is the co director of the Fayetteville Film Fest and after the fest took a gap year and I watched behind the scenes I wanted to be involved so I offered to create their VIP lounge for the 16^th Annual Fayetteville Film Fest.  Not only did I make a BITCHIN lounge, but I scored a wonderful sponsor for the Fest, Wander Folk Spirits!  It’s a Boutique Distillery out of Oklahoma and their Vodka, Gin and Old Moses Bourbon are OUTSTANDING!  Highly recommend!  Here’s a link to them https://wanderfolkspirits.com/ The fest showed nearly a hundred films on 2 screens at the Fayetteville Public Library which is a monumental work of art in and of itself!  Our Library is truly epic!  We are really lucky!  The Fest  was a huge success, and The Blue Cheetah VIP lounge blew their minds!  

It sounds like the workshop you did at the  Fayetteville Public Library was also a success, and you got to work with a lot of budding voice over talent. When you’re coaching a person totally new to VO, what’s the number one quality you’re listening for? Is there one thing you almost always recommend?

Speaking of the Library, I offered an intro to Voice Over class at Fayetteville Public Libraries State of the art Center For Innovation.  It filled in less than 24 hours and there was a 30-person waiting list!  ☺  I was thrilled.  Dan and I created the program together.  Did I mention that he’s also an audio engineer?  So he was our engineer and I was the one directing talent and I really really LOVE getting reads out of people!  Helping them dial into a specific point of view!  I’ve personally had a lot of coaching, and I have an acting background so so much magic happened at the mic with everyone who jumped into the booth!  It was really fun!  Dan was able to give the participants direction from an audio engineer perspective and I from a director/acting coaches perspective.  We rocked it and plan to offer it again, maybe even virtually!

When we talk about comfort zones, I’d imagine yours is pretty spacious, and from working with you I know you to be positively unflappable. But can you recall a project that pushed you completely out of your comfort zone? How’d you find your space within it and what did you learn from it?

Comfort zones.  Ya know?  I don’t know that I’ve ever been pushed out of mine.  I’m courageous in the booth and I take big risks!  I remember early on in my career I had a director producer yelling at me that I sounded too announcery…she was rude and insulting.  I was doing EXACLTY what she asked of me.  I think she was just a bitch.  And after way to many attempts I said, “you need to work with someone else”. And I walked out of the session.  

Was there a particular project or client that you’d say “changed the game” for your career? Something that either pushed it to the next level, or opened a new door?

When I did the Orc Character for World Of Warcraft, the dialogue session went great.  Then they had me do a session of just fighting sound responses.  Grunts and moans and roars and such.  It was the hardest voice session I’ve ever done and then I lost my voice for 2 days.  Never again!  I don’t know if that answers your question.  

I did learn and grow from the rude lady director cuz I went back to a coach that helped me dial back into a more conversational read.  But most of the time…when a director asks for conversational…they want something a little heightened.  Anyway…the criticism bothered me so I used it to get better!

You’ve acted on stage, you’ve lived radio, you’ve voiced everything from image liners and commercials, to corporate narrations, video games, telecom recordings, even announced equestrian competitions, and I’m sure other things I haven’t listed. What’s been the most unexpectedly fun project you’ve ever voiced? Is there one project you’re most proud of?

I love the craft of acting!  As far as most fun goes…I would say the radio imaging is across the board REALLY fun because I get to be my wild and crazy self-most of the time.  My imaging work is very personality driven…Jenified…if you will.  I get to ad lib and have fun and try stuff and take risks.  It’s totally organic and original in the moment kind of stuff and then I send it off and the creative services director or imaging creative has their way with it putting in all the production and BAM…it’s MAGIC.  I love hearing what they choose out of my takes to make that promo that’s original, impactful, often funny and AUTHENTIC!  

I was proud of booking Shakira, the Orc Character because I know they tried to find a voice in the vast awesome sea of actors in LA and they could not.  They cast the auditions out to the rest of the country and I booked it.  I remember the female producer coming on to the phone patched session and saying “I can’t believe that voice is coming out of female vocal chords.”  I thought that was so cool and it made me very proud.  

Since I brought it up, we’ve gotta talk about image liners and Saga. For those who don’t know, Saga Communications (owners of some 113  radio stations) decided to replace their liner voices with AI. (You can read about it here.) Obviously you got caught up in that mess. Do you think the market for liner voices will ever recover, or is this the path forward? How safe is the VO you’ve already delivered? Can they use your voice to create new liners without compensating you, or can you force their hand and deny them?

Saga sucks.  They are cheap and they don’t appreciate REAL talent.  Ya know, I think there will ALWAYS be radio programmers who want to use human voices.  I mean, in my opinion?  Using an AI voice on the radio…is like lying to your listeners. I think EVERYONE will experiment with it.  Hell, I am using chat gpt for script writing, logo creation and a lot of other things so I DO think there will always be a place for authentic human voices.  The radio industry is hanging on a thread.  It’s the wild west out there in radioland and voice over land and AI  IS going to take SOME of the work, but not all.  The radio stations COULD use my voice.  In fact we should go and listen to my Portland station and see what it sounds like.  I have not.  WCLZ!  Different is good!  Hahahahahahaha. It’s so sad.  I need to go listen to see if they’ve stolen my voice print.  I’ll lawyer up if they did.  They better not be using ANYTHING that resembles my voice.    

Over the wide variety of work you performed, have your personal values ever conflicted with a booking? Maybe you were asked to read a line that made you queasy, or for a product that gave you the icks. How did you handle it?

Yes, my personal values have conflicted with my work.  Especially in the realm of political Voice Over.  But…I’m an actor.  I'm a voice actor.  If I play a serial killer in a TV show, that does not make me a serial killer.  I’m an actor, I also have a 25 acre farm and over 30 critter mouths to feed and care for not to mention a mortgage, utilities, health insurance and all that stuff so ya, I look at it like I’m an actor and I need to pay my bills.  

You still take coaching, do you not? Who are you coaching with now? What about them really connects with you? Do you use different coaches for different genres?

I have not coached this year…taking a little breather but in the past I’ve worked with many.  I would say it is mandatory for a voice actor for many reasons.  We get stuck in ruts sometimes and also voice over trends change!  Marice Tobias is one of my very favorites!  There’s Dave Walsh, Nancy Wolfson, Jodi Gottlieb, David Lyerly and many out there who are AWESOME!  I DID do specific coaching to try to get more TV affiliate work and It worked!  I got a really nice gig!  I busted my ass for them and then they fired me.  I jumped thru hoops to accommodate their needs and they totally disobeyed our contract but I was kind of a start up and I knew it would play out that way but after 2 years off dancing like a monkey for them and then they drop me like a hot potato, I realized The TV affiliate Golden Handcuffs gigs are NOT for me, personally.  I say that but if the price is right, I will commit!  

Alright, I was going to ask the color of your aura, but I think I already know. (Purple!) So I’ll ask this instead…You’re hired to narrate the life story of an inanimate object. Which object would you pick? Why? How would that go?

Hues of purple for sure!  I think it would be a plum trying to make a snow angel.  Picture a plum lying in the snow with no arms and no legs and it’s job is to make a snow angel and all it can do is just PLUMP it self down and make a crater in the snow that looks kind of like a butt and then then it has to rationalize how it’s really an angel, but it’s not an even plums have their imperfect limitations just like the rest of us and finally a winter fox comes a long and finds one of the plum butt divots in the snow and uses it to make a beautiful wintery fox den for her family.  The fox family is snug for the winter, and the plum feels worthy and they all live happily ever after! 

Thank you for letting me play Barb!  This was so fun!  I’ll never forget how freaked out my daughter was when we took her to Ed Debevecs and the waitress was so rude.  She was horrified.  And also, thank you so much for choosing me for the Wells Fargo job A HUNDRED years ago.  The sessions are slowing down, probably because of AI I imagine but I’ve had that gig for over 20 years!  Thanks to you!  You are amazing and a wonderful voice actor and businesswoman and This was really fun so THANK YOU! Want to hear Jen's amazing voicework? Check out the master of reinvention at: https://jensweeney.com/