6.4 How to get the most out of Workouts

NOTE: This lesson contains content that may only be applicable to active VOHeroes Pro members.

How to prepare for a workout

PROS ONLY Just to review, when attending an online workout, be sure to have your recording space set up so that you can record the way you would normally record in Audacity, and that you have your mic and earbuds set as the input and output of both Audacity and Zoom. This is what it looks like to do that in Zoom:

NOTE: Zoom has a setting in the Audio Preferences that allows it to automatically adjust the microphone level. TURN THIS OFF by deselecting it. If it’s on, it will also mess with the recording levels in Audacity.

Be sure your class materials are available to you on your screen, or via printouts, including your clips and any notes you may have taken when watching courses that month.

How to participate in a workout

PROS ONLY All workouts, no matter which of your coaches leads them, follow the same format:

• Introduction
• Questions/Discussion
• Individual on-mic workouts
• Followup questions/discussion
• #1 Takeaways
• Administrative content/wrap up

Bring your questions

After a brief introduction that allows the coach to make sure everyone is set up to work and be heard, we start with a Q&A discussion to answer any questions you might have brought with you to the workout.

So bring questions! Have things to discuss. Bring the notes you may have made when you watched courses, and so on. This is your chance to dive deeper and explore the content of the classes.

Be ready with your scripts

Then, we do individual work on-mic. Raise your hand when you’re ready, and we’ll take people in order.

For this, have 3 clips ready to go that you’d like to voice, from any course in the curriculum. That means picking them ahead of time to be respectful to your fellow student’s time.

You’ll be voicing each of those clips, and you’ll be given adjustments, if necessary, by the coach leading the workout.

Have Audacity up and ready to roll

You’ll also be recording the clips you’ve chosen yourself, with your copy of Audacity, on your computer, in your space. Just let Audacity roll through your whole session with your coach, then edit any pickups you’ll need to make after your workout.

Be ready with even more questions…if you have any

After the individual work on-mic, we hold a follow-up Q&A/discussion for any question that might have been prompted by the on-mic work you and your fellow students did, or anything you might have forgotten to ask in the opening Q&A.

We’ll also ask what resonated with you, if anything, as your #1 takeaway.

We finish with any administrative information your coach needs to pass along regarding VOHeroes.

What if you want more than one workout in a month?

If you want to go deeper faster with your VO practice, you can add additional workouts to your schedule. That’s up next.