We were lucky to catch up with Tina Marie Murray recently and have shared our conversation below.

Tina Marie, appreciate you joining us today. Earning a full time living from one’s creative career can be incredibly difficult. Have you been able to do so and if so, can you share some of the key parts of your journey and any important advice or lessons that might help creatives who haven’t been able to yet?

I made a living full-time from creative work from 2000 to 2015 and then it started to ebb and flow and I’ve come to understand it is always a hustle with every turn of the calendar to a new year and a new economy. I’ve had regular clients for five years at a time. steady and solid clients for 15 years at a stretch, though they changed most years. So, not always having the same clients means I have to actively find leads every year based on new and existing business relationships. I’ve had many years of “winning the voice over lottery”, as they say, with jobs that paid highly and supported making a living from creative work. I have experienced being a brand ambassador, voice of a brand, the voice of a campaign and spokesperson for a campaign. And I’ve worked solely for an organization in the education field.

I started out deciding I wanted to be open to all the opportunities for work I saw coming through my agency and I asked to audition all the scripts not just the scripts coming in for Black moms for regional commercial work. My agent said get me a demo tape so I know you’re serious. A fellow actor at my agency helped me. We recorded tons of scripts I pulled out of magazines and he put music behind them mixed and mastered it. I asked my agent for a list of producers, casing directors and studios they had compiled. OI made that many demos of a commercial minute and a narration minute and mailed them out. I made my $3,151 investment back in three months. And I didn’t look back for awhile. I manifested what I wanted through action.

Mostly I’ve pieced together a career through making relationships through agents or teachers or advertising in the Reel Directory or on data bases recording studios kept for their clients.. I’ve also pursued further education to advance interests that may not be considered to have a creative focus and were perceived by others as a career pivot. But I never stopped working my business while in school. I spent three years getting an MBA focused on sustainability and clean tech energy, because I think we are at a choice point on the planet with how we need to change our behaviors to ensure a better future for the next generation. I was passionate about it to study it from a business framework. And with that school program an executive MBA we were able to travel as a cohort to Uganda and Rwanda and help businesses deal with some issue that was preventing them from growing. My project was an International INGO called Gardens for Health in Rwanda and they created a curriculum to teach mothers and families how to grow vegetables from a color wheel to balance the vitamin and mineral intake children needed to lower the malnutrition rate in the country. It was brilliant to travel with a group off business student and explore a new region of the world and bring assistance.

I am always looking for a way to integrate my interests with my creative life to be able to make a continuous living doing the things I love and the things that represent my values. Voice Over is full of niche markets. There are so many arenas to become an expert in. Commercials, Radio Imaging, Affiliate marketing, Corporate VO, Learning, medical or technical VOs, Educational courses, VO for film back ground work. Video games, Book narration, website localization. And there is always the option to be the content creator. Write a book about your experiences with your field of expertise. Many people are out there who want a change or haven’t given themselves permission to follow a new passion. Your story might just be the catalyst that moves them to follow a dream they have for their life. Giving back is the way you expand what you are capable of doing and who you are capable of reaching. Giving back is how you grow.

All the arenas in the field of VoiceOver require different amounts of time to complete. For example, Commercials and radio are short ads with a quick turnaround, You can have all kind of talent and the strong desire to master different niches in VO. In the end it comes down to the relationships you have built and how prepared you are to be able to work with clients. As well as making sure they get what they need quickly and with excellent sound quality and production, . You can’t know everything, and it is a business where it requires skilled professionals to collaborate with in order to produce a final product.

This year, I am looking to scale my business and learn how to shift and change with the industry as it changes over the years. AI is all everybody is talking about. That it will eliminate the need for the Voice Over artist. I have a plan through this year and for the next 5 years to expand my audience, and share my journey and interests with a larger cross-section of people and work internationally. I have developed solid British and Caribbean accents that I would love to continue working with. I’ve studied in London and British actors are found here frequently playing American roles. You don’t however find Americans working with a British accent in London. I’d like to voice more video games and take a crack at villiains which I found I’m very good at voicing. There are still more arenas to explore. How fun would it be to have a toy made of one your characters. I’d really enjoy seeing more diverse characters represented in video games. Characters that reflect our real lives as well as fantastical characters. I realized at a recent Voice Over conference that featured a panel of a lot of women working in the animation and video game fields that if you can create a show that is relevant to what current kids want to engage with then you’re golden. We still control AI and social media and So we can make decisions about how it will fit into the future and our lives. WE have to keep envisioning a future we want to live in and that way we give ourselves permission and encouragement to create it.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

20+ years as an actress/voice actress and marketing and branding specialist, providing VoiceOver and script writing and doctoring and helping clients with their campaign goals. Making sure the marketing message is designed to hit the target audience and communicate the mission of the company. I have tried to attract work from like minded products brands and businesses that share my values so I can stay consistent with my own brand. I want to highlight my clients commitment to sustainability, people over profits, and their consciousness and critical thinking about doing business in todays climate with so many continuous annual natural disasters challenge our ability to recover communities where we live and work.. My clients want fast quality work. I solve the problem of the client not knowing how to market their brand to specific audiences, Millenials, Baby Boomers, young adults. what tone will resonate with buyers and how to shape and create an inclusive easy to understand message that will speak for the heart of a company , it’s clients and it’s community. . I have a website with an about section I’d love to have you visit and take a look at the works and projects I’ve been involved with over my career. www.tinamariemurrayvoice.rocks. Please feel free to reach out to me if you could benefit from my services.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

I’m a story teller. I love to hear about the people behind a company or business. I love to hear about what their origin stories are and what their goals are with their own business. How are they conscious of how their business fits into the needs of their clients. And I love to examine what their pain points are and their fears about taking their business where they want it to go. I like to highlight emloyess of the company telling their stories about their work and commitement to build a dialogue of trust with the client consumer and answer their questions and address their fears. Raising Awareness of Issues with the brand.
The main goal. is to have fun, Give the client actionable goals and deliverables they can maintain themselves and that make it gratifying for them to be an adopter of your brand product and service.

Have you ever had to pivot?

Like many people durning the pandemic I found myself in the early stage of a government job. We quarantined three months after I started and had not yet going through training. And on top of that there was a death in my family.
It was a difficult time to feel comfortable anywhere. Because I was spending a lot of time at home I dusted off some of my equipment, learned new skills and programs ,and I positioned myself to be able to provide my clients with a new experience online and over zoom. These platforms for interacting are still with us and might very well be for awhile. so they needed to be adopted and worked with and mastered so you can present timely and ready presentations to clients.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.tinamariemurrayvoice.rocks
• Instagram: @2teenqueen
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tinamurray/

Image Credits

List of Companies is from GreenPeace Clicking Green Company Scorecard showing comparison ratings on effort companies are making toward a greener futures. Where their strengths lie in terms of their sustainable commitment and where they are lacking. Information used for marketing campaigns and CEO’s talking points.