Liz Drury: science to sound

Initially hesitant about public speaking, Liz Drury's journey unfolds with unexpected twists, from her scientific studies to her current role as a voiceover artist. 

As an archeological scientist Liz found unexpected fame from her research on 'prehistoric chewing gum', which catapulted her into the media spotlight. 

That sparked her interest in the media world, and Liz volunteered and later worked at a local television channel, but when the funding ran out she moved to working on various projects in a sixth-form college.

During her time as a 'trailing spouse' – we explain what that means in the episode – Liz took acting classes and explored the training involved in voiceover work.

As with most of our guests' stories, this training did not instantly lead to a full-time career in voice work, but eventually – thanks to a redundancy – that was to be the case.  

Now Liz is also able to enjoy musical escapes by singing in a choir and learning to play the baritone horn – not sure what that is, neither was I!

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Researched, edited and produced by Claire Waite Brown
Music: Day Trips by Ketsa Undercover / Ketsa Creative Commons License Free Music Archive - Ketsa - Day Trips
Artworks: Emily Portnoi emilyportnoi.co.uk
Photo: Ella Pallet

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Chapters

• 11:03 Fame with prehistoric chewing gum
• 18:32 Academia to media
• 22:39 Introduction to voiceover
• 29:04 Making voiceover full-time
• 34:09 Impact of creativity on wider life
• 38:04 Connect with Liz
• 38:25 Support Creativity Found

Transcript

0:33

When I was at university, I absolutely hated doing any kind of public speaking. Amongst these things that I was analyzing, these glues that had stuck arrowheads onto shards were also these finds that were in the form of lumps of tar that had human tooth impressions in them. And people had sort of half jokingly referred to this stuff as being prehistoric chewing gum. And I wrote an article about prehistoric chewing gum for a magazine called British Archaeology. The week that this magazine came out must have been a really slow news week, because the press got hold of this story and my work was reported on the front page of the Times, the Telegraph, the observer, the Mail, the Mirror. I was interviewed on Radio 1, Radio 5 live, Radio 4, lots of local radio stations. People will say, well, what is there to learn just talking to a microphone? But there is so much more to it than that. Hi, I'm Claire, founder of Creativity Found a community for creative learners and educators connecting adults who want to find a creative outlet with the artists and crafters who can help them do so with workshops, courses, online events and kits. For this podcast, I chat with people who have found or refound their creativity as adults. We'll explore their childhood experiences of the arts, discuss how they came to the artistic practices they now love, and consider the barriers they may have experienced between the two. We'll also explore what it is that people value and gain from their newfound artistic pursuits and how their creative lives enrich their practical, necessary, everyday lives. This time, I'm chatting with Liz Drury. Hi, Liz, how are you? I'm very good, thanks for having me. You're very welcome. Start by telling us what your creative practice is, please. I am a voiceover artist, which I've been doing for the last 11 years now, but I do some other creative stuff as well. So I do some acting, I do some singing, I play the violin, and I've quite recently started playing the baritone horn as well. What's the baritone horn? It's kind of like a mini tuber, if you like. So, yeah, my son plays the tuber and that's enormous and really heavy to carry on like. And I don't want that. But, yeah, so a smaller version that I can carry about. Oh, brilliant. How fun. Tell me, did you have positive creative experiences as a child and as a young adult at home or in education? Yeah, I did. So I started learning the violin at the age of eight when I was at primary school. And actually prior to that, I learned the recorder, which I think was a thing back then. Everybody learned to play the recorder. Yes. You're nodding your head. Everybody had the red recorder book and. Yeah, so that's kind of where my love of making music started, really, was in primary school. And we had a choir as well at primary school. And then going on into secondary school, I carried on playing the violin, I played with the school orchestra, I sang with the school choir, I got involved with, you know, dramatic productions that the school were putting on and I even wrote my own musical, actually, at the age of sort of 16, 17, which was very much encouraged by the staff at school. So we'd done the musical My Fair Lady, which I'd been in and I'd loved, and I was like, I want to do more of this. And the staff said, yeah, but we've spent so much money on this, we don't have a budget for next year. And one of the other students said, well, what if we write our own? And they said, well, yeah, absolutely. And I thought, you know, I'm going to do that. And I did. And I started working on a script and I was. I was studying for my A levels at the time, so I was kind of a bit busy and my English teacher helped me out with it, so she helped me finish the script. I wrote some of the music. She had a friend who's a musician, he wrote some of the music. And between us, we. We created our own musical that then didn't cost us anything to put on. And, yeah, it was. It was amazing. Brilliant. Yeah. The cost of buying the scripts for established musicals is shocking and, yeah, very difficult for schools. Well, well done, you. You. So you went to university. What did you study and did you know what you wanted to do next? No, I can't say I knew what I wanted to do next. I went to university initially to study physics at GCSE level. I was. I was one of those kids that was good at everything and I could have done any of those subjects at A level. And I decided to go down the science route because not so many people were good at science, but. And not many females went into science. And I thought, well, there's bound to be opportunities for a woman in science. So I did maths, physics, chemistry, and I also did as level German alongside that. And once I sort of started my A levels, I looked at what my friends were doing. So, you know, actually things like history and English are far more interesting. Why am I doing this? Anyway, I did my A levels and I went on to university to study physics and the maths that we had to do as physicists was really difficult, even though I'd done A level maths, I hadn't done further maths, and it was kind of assumed that you would have done. And so the maths was just going over my head. And at the end of my first year, I did my exams, passed the physics part, failed the maths part, and they said, well, look, your physics is okay, so if you want to carry on, that's absolutely fine, but if you want to change course, now is the time to do it. And I thought, yeah, I'm going to change course. And my roommate was studying archaeology and what she was doing, oh, always look far more interesting than what I was doing. So what I could do, I was a student at Durham, and Durham offered a course that was called Natural Sciences, which meant that you could kind of pick and choose different sciences to put together to create your degree package. So I carried on with the physics because I kind of had to, otherwise I would have had to start again, and I really didn't want to start again. So I continued to do physics, but I did archaeological science alongside it. And then I really enjoyed doing that. And after that I then went on to Bradford University, where I did a master's and then a PhD in archaeological science. Still wasn't really sure what I wanted to do at the start of my PhD, I thought I wanted to be an academic, and by the end I knew that I didn't. I looked at what my supervisor was doing and thought, no, don't want your job. He was constantly sort of having to justify his existence by applying for grants to keep his research going on top of all his teaching and, you know, preparation work. And I thought, yeah, that looks like a lot of work. I don't want to do that. So what is archaeological science? So archaeology, but from a scientific point of view. So my PhD, I was looking at things like tars and resins that were used as glues and waterproofing agents in the middle Stone Age, the Mesolithic period. And I was using chemical techniques to analyze what these things were made of. And it turned out that they pretty much all made of the same thing, which was a tar that had been made by heating the bark of birch trees in the absence of air to get this black, sticky tar. And they were using it to stick arrowheads onto shafts and so on. Wow. Wow, that's amazing. I'm going to step back a little bit and then back into the PhD, but I know that at Durham and at a lot of universities in the uk, you get to do your arty farty theateriness with the societies. So when you were heavily into the science, with the actual degree, Durham, and then, I don't know, maybe at Bradford as well, but maybe you had too much work to do then. Were there, like drama societies, things that you were able to keep your. Yes, there were. And I, you know, I don't mind. I did audition for a couple of things with one of the, you know, the drama society, and I got nowhere with it because I was kind of in the minority back then. Durham was still very much public school and, you know, all the kids from public school had had theater lessons and speech lessons and all this kind of thing, which I hadn't had any of that in my state school. And so I was up against these people who knew exactly what they were doing and I didn't stand a hope, really. So I didn't do any sort of drama kind of things. I did join the college choir, so I did do some singing while I was there and I'd take my violin with me, but I actually never picked it up. So I didn't join any sort of musical societies while I was there. I got involved very much with the scout and guide group, which is where I met my husband, and I'm still friends with loads of people in that group. So kind of my life sort of different, a slightly different direction while I was at university. Away from the arts and crafts a bit. Yeah. Oh, that's really interesting, though. There are still the other things you can do around your studies. That's lovely. Now, you had a period in the limelight and I know this story. And the tars are going to get even more exciting, people believe me. And it's always like a precursor to what you do. Now while you were studying your PhD, you did this other thing. Tell me about that and how that affected you. Yes. So amongst these things that I was analysing, these glues that had stuck arrowheads onto shards were also these finds that were in the form of lumps of tar that had human tooth impressions in them. And people had sort of half jokingly referred to this stuff as being prehistoric chewing gum. And I analyzed some of these gums and found that they were also made for this. This birch bark tar. And I wrote an article about prehistoric chewing gum for a magazine called British Archaeology, and I sort of explored why people might have been chewing this tar. So maybe they were chewing it to soften it up before they use it as a glue. Maybe they were chewing it to clean their teeth. And there are some compounds in it that are actually now put into modern day chewing gum to help clean your teeth. So that was a possibility. Maybe they were chewing it because they got a slight buzz from it. And again, there's some very, very low levels of compounds in it that might have given you a little bit of a high, probably not enough. But I explored all these options and the nice thing about writing about something from prehistory is you can't really be wrong because nobody actually knows. And I can only imagine that the week that this magazine came out must have been a really slow news week because the press got hold of this story and it ran for about a fortnight. And my work was reported on the front page of the Times, the Telegraph, the observer, the Mail, the Mirror. I was interviewed on Radio 1, Radio 5 live, Radio 4, lots of local radio stations. A radio station in South Africa, Africa, where I had to get up at silly o'clock in the morning and do it over the phone. And during this time, I got to know the people in the university PR department quite well because they had a little recording studio and they had what's known as an ISDN line that would link them to the radio stations. So even though I was in the studio at the university, it sounded like I was in the room with the presenter at Radio 1, Radio 5, whatever. And I remember quite clearly sitting in front of the microphone waiting for one of these conversations to start thinking, I'm really, really enjoying this. This is really fun. So I think that's kind of where the seeds were sown for making my life behind a microphone. Yeah, yeah. But it didn't. Well, it didn't happen straight away when you decided you didn't want to be an academic and you'd already rent your husband to be, I believe, at this point. So what then happens in your life? Because oftentimes it's not necessarily choices that you make. Sometimes it's a matter of this happened. So I did this. Is that kind of what seems to. Yeah, yeah. So towards the end of doing my PhD, my husband, to be, as he was back then, had been working in the Netherlands for a couple of years. So he was coming to the end of his contract, I was coming to the end of what I was doing. And that summer I actually spent working at Eureka, which is the science museum for children in Halifax. So I was writing up my PhD, I was working there, organizing their summer program, and I got quite interested in museum education. And so we got married in the September. In the October, my husband got a job at the place where he still is, a chemical company. Which is on the Humberbank in North Lincolnshire. So we moved to this part of the world. And because, you know, the museum thing was what I was interested in, I wrote to all the museums in the area and there's really not that many in this part of the world, I have to say, saying, you know, I'm interested in museum education. Are there any opportunities? And there was nothing, absolutely nothing going going on around here. So my husband's HR manager knew that we were new to the area and he said to my husband, oh, tell your wife to come in and have a chat with me. Because he says, I know lots of people in the area, maybe I can help her find something to do. So I went in, I had a chat with this, this guy and he said, well, what are you interested in? I said, well, I was interested in museum education, but I've explored that and I know there's nothing happening. And he said, well, what else are you interested in? And I said, well, maybe something along the sort of media or PR lines. And I told him the story about the prehistoric chewing gum. Oh, right. He said, I can introduce you to a friend of mine who runs Channel 7, which is the local cable TV station for north and Northeast Lincolnshire based in Immingham. And I thought, wow, who knew there was a TV station in Immingham? Like all places, it's like the back end of nowhere. And anyway, he introduced me to this guy, John Trevitt is his name. And John showed me around the studio and I was blown away by this place. It was amazing. They were using top of the range equipment, the same things that the BBC were using at the time. So they'd had all this money put into it, but there was very little money to actually pay people to run the place. It was run on a shoestring. And so John said, what do you think? Well, it's, it's amazing. I'd love to work here. And he said, he says, yeah, he says, unfortunately, he. I haven't got any, I haven't got a job that I can offer you, but if you want to come as a volunteer, you'd be more than welcome. And I thought, well, what a great way to get to know what's going on in the local area by working at the local TV station. So I started off volunteering three days a week and after I'd been there a few weeks, the job of receptionist became available. And John said, do you want it? And I thought, well, I feel a little overqualified with a PhD to be a receptionist, but I'M doing this now and I'm not getting paid, so I might as well say yes and actually get some money for what I'm doing. So I accepted the job and after a couple of months, they announced they were going to have auditions for new volunteer presenters. Volunteers, because the place was one on a shoestring. And I remember that morning getting up and mentioning to my husband, oh, this is happening at work today. And he said, so, are you gonna have a go at that? I said, well, I haven't put my name down and I know the schedule is full, loads of people want to be a volunteer presenter on tv. And he said, oh, that's a bit of a shame. He said, I think you would have been good at that. Anyway, I got to work and it started to snow and it snowed really heavily. And so all these people that have made appointments to come and do their screen tests couldn't come, they couldn't get there. So I went down to where they were holding the auditions and I said, can I have a go at this? And they went, yeah, we were sitting here doing nothing. Yeah, come and do a screen test. So I did, and they liked what I did and said, yeah, we'll use you when we can. But because I was a receptionist and I was tied to the reception desk, the opportunities were quite few and far between. So it's only if one of the regular presenters was sick or on holiday that I got the chance to do it. And after I'd been the receptionist for about a year, I was pretty sick of doing that job and having people be rude to me all day. And I thought, I don't need this, I'm going to go and find something else. I applied for a job as a journalist with a magazine based in Grimsby called Business Link, and they had a few different titles, so business related magazines. And they did one about food or drink, and I think there might be one about farming and that kind of thing. And I was offered the job. So I went to see my boss to hand my notice in and I said, you know, I've got a job with, with this company. And he said, don't go. He says, I know people that have worked there and they hated it and you'll hate it as well. Don't go, he says. He says, I've just applied for this big European grant and I'm sure I'm going to get it and if I do, there'll be a much better job for you. So I said, okay. And I turned down the journalist job and I stayed and he did get this grant and I did get a much better job and I was then working as a presenter. I had my own show that went out live twice a week called Community Express. So very much for and about the local community. I had people who would come into the studio and I would interview them live on the air and they would also go out in between times and film things that were going on in the local community. So I would interview people from the council, from schools and education, from local community groups and charities. I got to do grass track racing at Blyton airfield where I drove this Mini around this muddy track whilst commentating on the race. So I came last because I was trying to do two things at once. I basically had a great time and so I did that for. It was about two years and at that point the funding had finished, it was a two year contract and at the same time I was pregnant with my daughter. So off I went to have my baby and then while I was off, the business actually got sold. So I had intended to go back on a part time basis once I'd had my baby, but the business got sold to a local FE college and they then use it as a training ground for their broadcast journalism students. So there was no job for me to go back to. So I thought that would be the end of my career in the media. Yeah, very Blue Peter doing all that adventuring. Usually the Blue Peter references on this show are when people are doing the crafting because they love all the crafting on Blue Peter. You sound like Helen Skelton going off and doing the adventure and stuff. Okay, so well that's a shame, isn't it? So then you've had a baby and you haven't got that job to go back to. You went to work in a sixth form college. Yes, I did. There was a weird story about that, how you get getting that job. I like your stories, Liz. Do you know, I've. I've never had a job yet by any kind of normal means, you know, through application and you know, interview and being offered a job just doesn't happen to me. I. Things kind of fall in my lap and I go, okay, I can do that. So back before I'd started work at the TV studio, I had been signing on at the job centre and there was never anything that I fancied applying for. It was all just rubbish. And this job was advertised which was at a sixth form college, working in school's liaison and I thought, well, I don't really want to do that. But It's a job that's a bit more my level, so I better show willing and apply for something. So I applied for this job and I got an interview and I went along to the sixth form college and had this interview thinking, you really don't want this job. Got down to the short list and phew. Fortunately, someone else was offered the job, so I didn't have to do it because if they'd offered me it, I would have taken it, but I didn't really want to do it. So anyway, I then ended up, as you now know, working at the TV station and after that had finished, I went to a concert locally and ended up sitting next to the guy that had interviewed me a few years before at the sixth form college and he'd remembered me and we, you know, got into conversation and he said, all right, you're working at Channel 7 now, aren't you? And I said, well, I was, and I told him the story of what happened and now that I had no job, right, he says, can you send me your cv? Because I've got a project coming up that you might be able to help me with. So I did send him my CV and ended up working for them. And the reason he was interested in me was because they were creating some staff training materials that included quite a lot of video, videos of staff talking about this particular topic. So we needed someone who knew how to interview the staff to get the right responses from them. So I worked with them for about a year. So the project finished, I was pregnant with my son, so my contract had finished, no maternity, pay off I go and have another baby. And so another couple of years go by and I've just been staying at home looking after the kids during those couple of years. And he got back in touch with me and said, oh, remember that project you did for me? There's a bit more, because things have changed and we need to, you know, add some modules to this course. So I went in to have a chat to him and while I was there. So he was one of the deputy vice principals. While I was there, one of the other deputy vice principals walked in and went, oh, you're here. I've got something that you could do for me. And so I ended up going back there and I was there for the next 11 years. Oh, brilliant. But you obviously enjoyed it, whatever it was. I do, you know, I. I gave myself a title because they didn't know what to call me. And I said, well, why don't you call me the Projects Officer? Because what Used to happen was a project would come in that was meant for the senior staff to do and nobody had time to deal with it, so they'd give it to me and I'd do it. And so I did all sorts of things, you know, making links with local schools and getting local school teachers to come in and do training in the college. I organized conferences. Yeah, I did all sorts of things over the years and nobody ever knew what it was that I did so I could do what I liked. But the really nice thing was that I got the opportunity to do things with the drama department and the music department, so, you know, anybody could get involved with them. Actually, I was actually the only. The only member of staff that ever did during the period that I was there. So it was me and the students. But I had a great time. Tell me about your time in the us, because you got to do a bit more playing with that when. Yeah, didn't you? I did, yes. So my husband was asked if he'd go and work in the States for a couple of years, and then, of course, it took several months to actually get things together and we moved out just after Christmas at the end of 2011. And I didn't have a work permit, so I was. My visa was what's known really nicely as a trailing spouse visa. Isn't that a lovely term? So I wasn't allowed to work, at least initially. I had to have lived there for three months. I had to apply for work permit, jump through a load of hoops if I wanted to. Wanted to go to work. And I didn't do that to start with because I thought, well, who's going to employ me? I've got no support network here, so I've got no help with child care. I need to go back to our house because we kept our house in North Lincolnshire for a good three weeks in the summer to just kind of keep on top of the paperwork and all that kind of thing and see people, see family. And the Americans don't get that much, much holiday. I thought, I'm not a good bet. No one's going to take me on. And I went along to a coffee morning for expats, all ladies, many of whom had husbands, who also worked at the same company that my husband worked at. And I got chatting to one of these ladies and she gave me a brochure for a local community college and she said she's. I've done several courses through this college and I've really enjoyed it and maybe that there might be something in here that you might be interested in. So I took this prospectus home and had a look at it and they were offering courses in acting and I thought, well, that'll be fun. So. So I went along and I did two courses. For any American listeners, this will make sense to them. I acting 111 and acting 112. At local community college. I also joined the community chorus and, you know, sang. And I got involved with a production of a play called Our Town by Thornton Wilder. And they said, can you do an American accent at the audition? I said, well, I can, but don't laugh at me. And they went, yeah, okay, we're going to give you a part where you can use your British accent. That was great. You know, I had a great time there, made some great friends and obviously I was the oldest one there. But community college actually attracts all sorts of different people. People. And it isn't just sort of 16 to 18 year olds. There are people that were sort of in their 20s and 30s. I turned 40 while I was out there, so I was definitely the oldest. But you know, I had a, I had a wonderful time. It's a really great opportunity and I definitely made the most of it. And then I saw this course advertised that was called Acting for the Camera. It wasn't through the college, it was, it was an evening class and I thought, oh, it'll be fun to get back in front of the camera again. So I signed up, went along to this course and only four people turned up. So the tutor said, she says, well, I've got things organized but because there's only a few of you, tell me what you're interested in and we'll do whatever you guys want to do. So I said to her, I've got a bit of experience of voiceover and I'm interested in finding out more about it, but I've got no idea how to pursue it any further. And she said, oh, she says, I can help you with that. Because she said, I do some voiceover work. She put me in touch with a friend of hers who is an audio producer and has a home studio. And he does a lot of things like corporate videos, E learning, and sometimes needs British accents for his work. So I went along to his studio, I did a couple of jobs with him and she also told me about the sort of freelancer websites where you can have a profile and clients will post a job online and you can audition for it. And I signed up to a couple of those that were specific for voiceover artists. And I Started to get a bit of work, and I realised quite quickly I was only going to get more work and better quality work if I had a professionally produced demo, which wasn't something I was capable of doing for myself at that point in time. So I did some research as to who could help me with that and came across a company called Edge Studio, who are based in New York, but had a satellite studio in Washington, D.C. which is about 40 minutes from where we were living. We were near Baltimore. What I really liked about them was that they won't just train anybody. They make you go through, like a selection process, really. You have to go and do a test with them. They'll decide whether it's worth their time and your time and your money, ultimately going through their training program. So I went along to one of these sort of assessment mornings with about 10 other people, and we were there all morning, and we had to record various pieces, we had to listen back to them, we had to critique each other. The guy that was leading the program then mixed some of it with music so we could hear how it would sound for real. And then the following day, he then got in touch with everybody to tell them what he thought. And his email to me went something along the lines of, he says, I have a Checklist of about 50 different common mistakes people make when they start out in voiceover. He said, I haven't ticked any of them for you. So we said, yes, this is something you could do, and yes, we'll be happy to train you. So I handed over some money for my training. I trained with them for about six months actually, and they helped me to make my first demos. So I did my corporate narration demo, my commercial dem, and I also did one in audiobook. So I did that training and I did that demo. Actually, I don't really work in audiobook these days, certainly not novels. And, you know, people will say, well, what is there to learn? You're just talking to a microphone. But there is so much more to it than that. Every genre voiceover has a different approach. So commercials are very different to doing E. Learning is very different to doing corporate videos, very different to doing video games. So there's quite a lot to learn. And the other thing that that is necessary to learn these days is the audio editing. Because in the past, what would happen 20, 30 years ago, voiceover artists would just go into a studio, they'd do their thing in front of the microphone, they'd go away again and they get paid and an audio engineer would do all the editing. Whereas now most of us work from home studios and our clients are expecting clean audio that they can just drop into their project. They want it to be finished and ready. So that was a steep learning curve to start with because audio editing wasn't something I'd ever done in the past. But, yes, there was a lot to learn to begin with. Yeah. So you mentioned earlier about the British accent and that being a bit of a draw when you were in the us. When you came back to the uk, having had that training as well, did you think, I'm going to pursue this now I'm back in the uk or that was just some jolly that I was having while I was in the us. Yeah. I think once I'd found voiceover, I knew that I wanted to do more of it. Now. My college had been really kind to me and kept my job open for me while I was in the States. So I did have a job to go back to, although it had changed because somebody had come in to do my job. So when I went back, I had to sort of pivot slightly and do different things for the college and I was working for them 15 hours a week over three days. So I had two full days a week when I could concentrate on my own business. Well, when I first went back, I thought, right, I'm going to go out to the college for a year. I've got to, because I kept my job open. But then I will have my notice in and I will do the voiceover full time. And I didn't do that because I really like working at the sixth form college. And of course that was a guaranteed income, which the voiceover never is. So I stayed there for about three years in the end and they actually made my role redundant in middle of 2017. And that was the kick up the backside that I needed to go full time and do it properly. And I had got to the point where I was starting to struggle to fit everything in and ending up, you know, getting back from work and then having to go into the. Into my studio and work late into the night to get things done. So it was kind of a relief really, to get made redundant. I thought, right, okay, now I'm doing this full time and this is my career going forward. Yeah. Oh, that's really lovely. It's lovely in a way because you were enjoying the other job and to keep doing that. But then, and we hear this a lot, it was really good that you got made redundant. It was so often the case. So to help do explain a little bit more you mentioned this about in the training. Well, like, I'm gonna sound like an idiot here. What do you do? What's your job, Miss? What, what does a voiceover artist do? I'm sure they all do different things and have different specialisms, but, you know, what does that actually involve? Yeah, so, yeah, there are lots of different genres of voiceover. And, you know, often when I meet people at networking events and I tell them what I do, they'll. They'll say one of two things. One is, oh, that's interesting, so what do you actually do? Or the other is they'll think they know what I do and they'll say, oh, right, so you do advert or you do funny voices for cartoons. I'll say, no, actually, I don't. I've never done any funny voices for cartoons. That's really not me. Some voiceover artists do. Yeah, it is actually really quite vast. So I tend to work more on the kind of corporate end of the scale. So I narrate a lot of video content that's going to be on people's websites or social media to explain or promote their products and services. I narrate a lot of E learning courses for online training for all sorts of different industries. I'm the voice of lots of company phone systems. I record announcements for events, audio tours for museums. I work a lot with a company in Singapore who produce listening comprehensions for people who are learning English. So those scripts can be about absolutely anything. I do the odd audiobook, but it tends to be more on the sort of the business side of things rather than, you know, long novels with lots of characters. That's really not my thing. But when you start to think about it, we hear recorded voices all over the place. You know, even something like the automatic checkout at the supermarket that's been recorded by a real person. It's very varied, very varied. And how do you get your jobs? Do you go find people? Do people find you? Are there agencies? All of the above. But mostly it's me finding my own work. I do have some agents. What I tend to find is I will get the same audition from several agents. So I don't. I don't book too much through them. Most of my work I find by myself. And the networking has definitely been good for my business. And it often isn't the people in the room, it will be people that they know or people that I've connected with through network networking. And now we're linked on LinkedIn and someone will post on LinkedIn, oh, I'm looking for a voiceover artist and somebody will tag me in that post. I mean, it's difficult to know exactly, but probably about a third of my work I can trace back to networking one way or another. I'm now in the fortunate position where I've got a lot of clients who come back to me. So I get a lot of repeat work. And the other thing that I do is cold outreach to people that I want to work with. So I'll find a company, think, oh, they sound interesting. I'll find out who it is within that company that might hire the voiceover artists. I'll send them an email and if I don't get a response after a month, I'll send another one and I'll follow up a few times because people are busy. Anyway, this happens with me. I'll get an email, think, oh, must do something with that. And then 10 million other emails come in and I forget. And if that person then comes back into my inbox and say, oh, did you see my email? Yeah, I did. I meant to do something with that. Whereas, you know, when you're, when it's on the other end and you're sending them, you think, oh no, do they want to hear from me again? Or feel really cringey about sending another email, but they probably just haven't had time to deal with your first one. So it's always worth a follow up. Up. Yeah, absolutely. Now I do that and sometimes if somebody's doing an event that I want to go to, I tend to think, oh, they'll remind me near the time. So really do remind me near the time. I'll leave it to the last minute before I, you know, register for that zoom link or whatever it is. Yeah, definitely. You've talked a bit about doing the other things around this. You've picked the violin up again. You've started playing, oh, what was it called? The baritone horn. Yeah, I did retain it. I can visualize it. Baritone horn. How do you feel your creative endeavors in whatever, whichever one you're kind of thinking of, benefit the rest of your life or you know, your everyday life and the work and the well being and everything else we have to deal with. Yeah, I think it all kind of links together. So this afternoon I'm going to a choir practice and I know my voice will feel really good after I've been there because, you know, I've been. Been singing then makes you speak better. There's a link there and I, I do other things where I'm using my voice. So yesterday I was at our local primary school doing an assem. I belong to our local church and I'm often leading services and I'll stand up at the front because I'm not afraid to use my voice. And, you know, I never used to be like that. When I was at university, I absolutely hated doing any kind of public speaking. And yeah, when you had to stand up in a tutorial and speak to about five other people, I would like, be as read a speech thinking, oh, my God, this is just awful and I'm not making any sense. And then doing all the training as a voiceover artist, you could become more confident with your voice and also used to listening to yourself as well. So many people say, oh, I hate the sound of my own voice and, like, I don't really notice anymore because I'm just so used to listening to myself speak and what I love about the choir and the band and so on. This is such a lonely profession. I'm sitting here on my own talking to myself in a padded cell and the words aren't even my own. Normally I'm saying someone else's words. So it's lovely to be able to go out and do something else as like part of a team, really, as a part of a choir, as part of a band, you know, and have that interaction with other people that's nothing to do with work, but it is creative. And, you know, I think we all need a bit of creativity in our lives, don't we? Absolutely. You also do a bit of creative podcast creative as well, like myself. Tell me about your show. Yes. So my podcast is called Small Business Big Network. So here we are back at the networking again and it's very much for and about small business owners who want to get more out of their networking. So every week I will have a guest and I will chat to them about their background and how they came to be doing the thing they're currently doing. We talk about their career path, we talk about about their business, we talk about what it is they do, who it is they help and how they do that. And then we talk about networking and how they like to network and what they've got from networking and what kind of events they like to go to. And yeah, so it's very simple format, but that's been going for over three years now. Wow, good work. What about thoughts, aspirations for the future? Is there anything particular you would like to do? There certainly is something I would like to do. More of the things that I really enjoy are the things that are to do with heritage or history, because of my background probably in archaeology. So I love doing things like the museum audio tours or guided walks around historic cities. And I've recently just recorded an audio tour for a big church near Bristol called St. Mary Redcliffe and they found me through my website and they typed in voiceover artist and heritage and my website came up. And so what they were looking for was that they already had have a tour that they do with, with a physical guide, somebody takes you around the church. So they wanted something where people could do it on their own through an, through an audio tour. And so they sent me the script and I've recorded it and it was just lovely because I was talking all about the stained glass windows and the stonework and so on, and I really love that kind of thing. So I'd love more in, you know, sort of that vein, whether it's other churches or whether it's castles or other tourist attractions. So that's what I'm going to try and get more of and maybe tweak my website so that more people find me if they're looking for a heritage voiceover artist. Well, yeah, I mean, that's your SEO in action there, isn't it? Brilliant. They searched and they found you. That's really good. It does work sometimes. Sometimes all this hard work we put in in the background. That's been really lovely to chat. Liz, how can people connect with you? So I'm quite easy to find on social media, particularly LinkedIn. If you look for Liz Drury or Liz Drury voiceover, then I'll come up and my website's very simple. It's LizDrewry.co.uk. Lovely. Thank you so much. Thank you. I hope you enjoyed this episode. If you did, perhaps you'd like to financially contribute to Future episodes at buymeacoffee.com/CreativityFound There's a link in the show Notes. 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