We recently connected with Susan Hohman and have shared our conversation below.

Susan, appreciate you joining us today. What did your parents do right and how has that impacted you in your life and career?

My Father was a fantastic artist. He enjoyed drawing, painting and loved building things even as a child. Back then, he was not permitted to even think about pursuing anything creative for an education or career choice. When he had 3 children blessed with creative juices he couldn’t help but encourage them. Our accomplishments were just as much joys for him. My Dad would mentor me with my projects, expecting me to do my very best. The pressure was pretty much Goldilocks style- not too soft, not too harsh – just right. I appreciate the work ethic now that started when I was just a child. I vividly remember running into a local pizza joint to pick up some hoagies for dinner when I was about 14 or 15 and coming out red faced and mad. I told my Dad who was waiting in the car for me that the guy had patronizingly asked me “Little girl.. do you want a little bag” probably thinking I was 8 or so because my voice was so high and young sounding. GRRRR… I was livid. That was my sore spot at that point in my life. I was so self conscious that my voice stood out in a crowd so much. But that day, in the car, my Dad stopped me and reminded me that unique and bad are not the same. From then on “Little Bag” became a fun little saying between us of encouragement. I went on to go try out for the school play after that with his encouragement and got a fantastic part that happened to be perfect for a fun voice like my own.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

As a visual artist, I mostly do mixed media work. A collage of painting and paper and drawing, etc. Also, I have been enjoying working with hot wax painting which is called Encaustic and Cold Wax and Oil painting. I just have a love for all art supplies and just get a craving for this or that. I feel like I have been an artist my whole life. There really wasn’t any doubt what I was going to go to school for. I sell my work at a couple local galleries (Art on the Hill in Souderton, Pa and Elaina Fine Art Gallery in Trappe, PA) and do Fine Art Festivals throughout the summer and Fall as well as local exhibitions throughout the year. I think people enjoy the tactile nature of my work. There are always some layers and textures and things to discover. It’s very meaningful to me when I hear people discussing my work and how it’s touching them. That makes it all worthwhile. It doesn’t matter if it even sells- if it moves people- ah, so very rewarding.

As a Voiceover Artist, I try to bring something different to the mix. At the art shows I mention above, my returning clients always tell me they find my booth by hearing my voice. It’s a very youthful and bright sound and tends to be memorable and stand out in a crowd. That will set me apart somewhat but also I am a bit obsessed with my craft so my work ethic in VO is going to be top notch. I am blessed with a vetted booth and a great microphone set up. Most of all, I hope I am remembered by my clients as someone they just really love to work with. I actually really like directed sessions when I am working with a client/producer/director. We have a great time. I am a problem solver at heart so let me know the need and we’ll get that taken care of pronto!

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

Social Media is such an integral part of any small business these days and if you don’t know how to navigate it you could get left behind. Thankfully there are many helpful gurus out there willing to help. I took a number of great classes with Jonathan Tilley to get my Instagram off the ground. Learned about adding videos, not just photos and things you don’t think about like how does your grid look as a whole. I have a simple pattern going but you could get much more complex. What to post is the elephant in the room. How much personal – how much business? Varies on who you ask but I think it’s OK to share a little bit about who you are as a person on your social media pages, it doesn’t have to be all business. I would like my clients who might see my social media to feel like they already know a little bit about me and that if we work together, there will probably be a lot of laughter. I am just starting to venture into the world of X and TikTok.

LinkedIn is another social media spot that is important to me. I struggle with this but really you should get on there every day for at least 15 minutes twice a day. Engaging with other posts is really crucial to the algorithm. It’s important to get your profile as complete as you can. I am always tweaking mine. LinkedIn is not the place for personal things. I believe at least, you should keep LinkedIn to business posts. I’ve taken some fantastic classes on navigating all things LinkedIn from Tracey Lindley and Jen Greenfield and highly recommend both of them.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

I think resilience is a word that resonates with both my passions. While on the face they seem so fun and simple, I’m not sure it’s really known what goes into it. There is of course the training, which is never ending, the equipment, which carries a heavy price tag, and the time behind the scenes, which we all know how valuable time is. The biggest thing that no one can physically see but is probably most important is that we put ourselves out there. We take risks by baring our souls and that is scary stuff sometimes. In Art school, you actually pay to get critiqued on your work in front of all your peers. In the real world, if you want to exhibit at a gallery or show you have to apply and accept that you will get rejections. During a show that you are incredibly proud of you might sell thousands of dollars’ worth of Art – or sell absolutely nothing at all. You will hear people say amazing things when they are standing in awe of a certain piece, how it evokes such a strong feeling and how blessed they are by it. I can’t tell you how amazing this feeling is. To impact another person that way is just so gratifying for me. Then you will overhear harsh words by those who don’t care for your style and criticize it to death. This is where that thick skin comes in. It’s all just part of the business and not a personal attack on my person. I didn’t always get this but I’m pretty good at not letting it get to me now.
In the VO world, that was a journey for me because the reason I embarked on it to begin with was that I wanted to turn what was a negative in my life into a positive. My voice was so youthful that on my college spring break trip to Florida I was handed a kids menu (12 and under) at a diner. Worse perhaps, even after I was married, when I tried to order a pizza, they actually asked to speak to an adult. I would hear giggles in the background when I would order drive thru because I just sounded like a kid. It was frustrating to me. I learned to adapt my voice because I had to. I worked at an Art Gallery and thus I had to evolve my professional voice to be taken seriously. Little did I know how beneficial that would be to me now.

Voiceover was a way for me to turn this feature of myself into a positive. I made the right decision. Oh my gosh I love doing it so much. I found that what helped me succeed in the Visual Art world was immensely helpful in this new venture as well. Talk about putting yourself out there for critique, that’s what voiceover is! Training was mostly feedback, meaning very honest critiques on a read. There were some coaches who sugar coated everything and said “OH that was lovely”, etc but I never grew or improved. I had to find some honest pros who weren’t afraid to hurt my feelings and tell me where I needed to improve. From there I flourished. My job isn’t really doing voiceover jobs, my daily job is to audition. That’s putting myself out there over and over and over again every single day. In order to succeed you have to take the mindset of ” Send it and Forget it” because most of them will not be selected. At first your brain will say that you got rejected 10 x today but you learn that you actually didn’t get rejected, you just didn’t get selected. There are tips for keeping that tough skin. But really, for any business, the most important thing is confidence. If you want to continue to have resilience in your career, work on that confidence! If you are assured in your work, it will show. A great coach and friend of mine, Katie Leigh actually nailed me with that early on in our training. She told me that I wasn’t missing a technique or a certain character voice, etc, what I was missing was confidence. That was actually a life changing moment. I’m not saying I don’t get nervous before a big session or the like, I don’t know if that will ever change, but I changed. You need the courage to pull yourself back up out of a negative period and do the things that need to be done because you know you are where you are meant to be and you are ready for that next level.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.susanhohmanvoiceart.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/susanhohmanvoiceart/
• Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/susanhohmanvoiceover
• X: @hohman_art
• Youtube: Susan Hohman Voice Art
• Other: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-dadbod-of-destiny/id1623086046 www.susanhohmanfineart.com

Image Credits
Uncle Roy Yokelson of Antland Productions Phil Nicolo of Studio 4 Recording Keiko of MLA Productions