35. Find your voice and follow it

Eammon Ashton-Atkinson is a fantastic example of how life can be when you find your voice and follow it. He's living in New York reporting for a major Australian TV network, has produced an award winning documentary and currently has footage on an ad in Times Square! This episode is full of motivation, inspiration and oodles of practical tips for young journalists.

Transcript

Sally: Can you hear the voice of your true self? Beneath all those negative inner voices of doubt that get in the way? Can you hear the voice telling you what you really want? I'm chatting with my amazing friend Eammon Ashton-Atkinson today. You'll hear about life as a TV journalist in New York, how Coronavirus affected his debut documentary. And for the young journalists out there, you'll hear heaps of practical tips for how to improve your broadcast voice. But what really shone through is how Eammon has made things happen for himself in his life. He hasn't waited for anyone to give him permission to do anything. He's just gone and done it. And that's why Episode 35 is called find your voice and follow it.

I'm Sally Prosser. You're listening to That Voice Podcast. No matter who you are or what you do, your voice matters. So unless you've sworn a lifetime vow of silence, this is the podcast for you.

 It is my absolute pleasure to welcome a dear friend to the podcast this week. He's a TV news reporter currently, the 10 News First correspondent for the US based over in New York. He's also an acclaimed debut documentary maker and an all around excellent human I'm talking about. Eammon Ashton-Atkinson. Eammon, welcome to That Voice Podcast.

Eammon: Thanks Sally. Thanks for having me on. And I think you should disclose that you were a bridesmaid at my wedding. So you know each other very well.

Sally: Yes, that was two years ago in London. I can't believe how much has changed in that time. And here we are on my podcast with my first question, could you do your job if you lost your voice?

Eammon: Well, as you would know, absolutely not. And yeah, not only just from presenting my story but also I was thinking about this. Most of the job is communicating with people. So whether it's talking to my producer, pitching a story or even more importantly trying to convince someone to do an interview on one of my stories, if I'm calling them by the phone, the voice is the only thing they have to judge me off. So I have to sound trustworthy, confident, someone that they want to invite into their home and let me film them and tell their story.

Sally: Yeah, absolutely. And well, what a time to be a news reporter in New York. Can you just take us through a bit about how your day to day work is at the moment?

Eammon: Yeah, it's been really full on. I moved here in August last year and I just left the UK after Brexit, so my dad laughs saying I wherever I move a major news story happens. It's gone from Brexit to coronavirus here in New York. And just, it's sort of started off slowly and I was doing the occasional report, but then it got to the point where they were shutting down airports that were banning people from coming into the country, locking down States, closing Broadway. And it just started blowing up. So I think I've counted, I've done about 60 to 70 coronavirus stories in the past couple of months. It's been insane. And I guess just mentally I'm having to report from a small apartment in Midtown Manhattan. I certainly am not complaining, but it has been tough being stuck in such a small space.

And for people who've seen my reports I've been doing live crosses and piece-to-cameras from my balcony which I've been very lucky to have, but I'm a bit worried about people getting sick of that view. So I have been venturing out into the street, but I have been worried about contracting coronavirus. So there's always that challenge. I want to be where things are happening, like the field hospital at Central Park or when the US Navy hospital ship berthed here. But there's always huge crowds around those places. So trying to balance that, getting the story versus staying safe.

Sally: Yeah, of course. And a lot of people wouldn't realize that you don't have a camera guy and a sound guy and a lighting guy. How do you manage all of it? I know that John helped us from time to time.

Eammon: Yeah. My husband John, he shakes his head every time I buy new equipment and shove it into our tiny cupboard. Yeah. Look, I, I'm a tech geek. I love cameras. I love editing. I love the challenge of it all. So I bought my own camera when I moved to the UK four years ago. I was a reporter at Channel Seven in Brisbane and I just decided, you know what, I'm gonna see if I can go out there and do this by myself. So I actually work as a freelancer and yeah, started pitching stories and now I'm on a retainer with Channel 10. But yeah, I basically have worked out a system where I have my camera set up and I've got a little screen on top so I can see myself and I have a little light stand so I can put where I'm going to stand and get focused. And I've worked out all of these little tricks I use to make sure that no one at home can notice any difference.

Sally: Amazing. And how do you do your voicing?

Eammon: So it's quite funny actually. I sit on my couch, I get my doona from my bedroom. I put it half over my head because I find if I put it completely over it sounds too muffled and then I literally voice my story and then my husband John sits there while he's trying to watch TV on mute, rolling his eyes when I have to re- voice the line.

Sally: So Eammon and I met when we were both journalists at Channel Seven in Rockhampton. Wow. Would have been eight years ago. What have you learned in that time about how to voice a news story?

Eammon: So you will probably remember I really struggled with my voice, especially at the start. I just couldn't work out how to do it. Do I put on a voice? Do I talk slower? Do I talk deeper? Do I emphasize certain words? I just couldn't work it out and you know how it's so hard to hear yourself, how you sound objectively. And I remember one day I thought I'd worked it out. I was talking low and soft like this, and then I got a message from a producer in Maroochydore saying "that was terrible. If I'd known you sounded like that. I wouldn't have put that story on the air" and I honestly, I think I might've cried. And in the end I just threw out what everyone was telling me and I just started talking and I obviously put a bit of oomph when I'm talking and there's a bit of melody there. I think you might've even told me, just like imagine it's like a musical melody where it's just sort of flowing and you're not like staccato stopping and starting. And so I even think about that today because I find voicing the hardest part of my job actually. And even today I'll voice something and I'll be like, Ugh, I'm not a hundred percent happy with that, but it's 10 o'clock at night and I want to go to bed. So there you go.

Sally: I say to everyone I work with, it's never the best voice you can do. It's always the best voice you can do by deadline. Right?

Eammon: Definitely. And look, I found another little trick for those who are voicing at home. If your edit software has compression, just put a bit of compression and then a limiter on the top. And you'll find it sounds more like that voice booth when you are at the TV station recording. And I also learnt a trick that you can go in and sort of go to the equalizer and you can pull it up to try and find where the echo is and just drop that little bit down and then it will sound a hundred times better.

Sally: What a fantastic tip. That's one that I need to use. And how is it different voicing in a proper booth, to on the couch with the doona half over your head?

Eammon: It's just getting into that mindset that Hey, this is a serious story that's going to be on the evening news back home. I need to sound like I'm on. Not like, I'm sitting here probably in casual clothing with no shoes on, having just eaten dinner with a glass of wine sitting on the table. Like you have to sound like, you know, it's serious business. So yeah.

Sally: Yeah. And are there any pieces of advice that you've been given over the years from presenters or reporters or anyone really about how to better use your voice?

Eammon: I think what stuck with me the most was Channel 10 legend, Hugh Riminton and he said, you need to cut through the camera. You need to cut through the lounge room. So imagine that you're talking to your grandma, you're telling this story to your grandma when you deliver it. And that is a technique that I still live use to this day. And I often think about my mum when I'm telling this story. She's someone who is across the news, knows what's going on and, but someone I really care about. So just having that gentleness to your voice I think goes a long way.

Sally: Yeah, that's a great tip. It puts the focus on the audience. I think it's really easy in any kind of public speaking or recording situation, you're worried about yourself. You're like, how I sound and is the audio right? And Oh my gosh, me, me, me. Whereas putting the focus on the person that's receiving the information can definitely help. I think. Take the pressure off.

Eammon: Totally. And there's another little tip I picked up. It's not to do with voicing so much as it is as it is to do with live crosses. And I know you have a lot of up and coming journalists. So I was terrified my first life cross and I spoke a million miles an hour. A technique I do now, and I think you'd talk about this is I always make sure I'm breathing. I take deep breaths in the minute before they're coming to me cause I still get nervous now. And I also the tip for helping you remember for me, I'm a visual person, so I like to picture what I'm saying as a story. So if I'm doing a cross about Donald Trump at the White House, I visualize him in the white house, what he was doing and I can sort of see it play out in a movie in my mind. So what I'm talking, if I forget what I'm saying, I just look to the movie that's playing in my mind that I can describe what is happening there. And so I'm never going to be completely lost for words. I'm always going to be able to say something and I find that gives me a lot of confidence that I'm not going to forget or go blank.

Sally: Eammon what a fantastic tip. Yeah. And that makes so much sense because they say that the mind is visual, you know, we think in pictures not in words. And so if we are there describing a picture in our mind, it's kind of a way of having notes without having notes.

Eammon: Exactly. And I find it works 99% of the time, if I had a mind blank.

Sally: This is so interesting. Do you have any other tips that come to mind?

Eammon: I think when it comes to writing scripts - less is always more. And you were always really good at this. You taught me that. Make sure that the focus of your story is about people not issues. And I still do that to this day. People at home care about people. And so if you can frame an issue, I remember when I was doing a Rockhampton Regional Council budget story rather than just spewing out all the facts and figures and percentages. You were like, "no, go out and find Betty who is a pensioner who's going to have to pay a little bit more and see how it affects her and tell the story through people." So I still use that technique. So with the coronavirus stories, I'm trying to find patients or doctors who are in hospitals and trying to find protesters on the street. People going to food banks rather than saying, you know, an extra 3 million Americans have lost their jobs. Show someone who's lost their job.

Sally: And that's always the hardest part, I think. Well not the hardest part, but one of the challenges of being a journalist, it's very easy to interview people who want to be interviewed. It's very easy to get the Councillors and the politicians and the company spokespeople they want to be in the media. I say it's good to have somebody in your story who's not in your contact book.

Eammon: Yeah, totally. Absolutely. And you really taught me that and that's such good advice that I lived by. And I think that's what made the job really enjoyable because you get to meet these incredible people who have these amazing stories and you can really bring your story to life and make an impact.

Sally: Yeah, I think I still remember that day and you were like, well, how do I find Betty? I'm like, I don't know, I'm busy.

Eammon: And you know, some of the best tips I have, like if you're looking for someone, someone like that, just go down to the local supermarket and start chatting with people in the car park. You have to be a yes person and have to be a problem solver. And someone that just gets things done. So the other day I had to go out, not for news, but for a corporate client. They wanted footage of people wearing masks and frontline workers and I to get them to sign a permission form. And I filmed them doing their work. But I literally just went down to my local grocery store, my local bagel shop, and just spoke to people. And found these amazing people. And now I'm pretty excited to say that some of that footage is in a Facebook ad that's playing in Times Square right now.

Sally: That is amazing. I'd love to talk a bit about that now because you are not just a reporter. Your work with Channel 10 is just part of your business. You do lots of other things and recently you put together an amazing documentary.

Eammon: Yeah. So for people listening in Australia I made a documentary called Steelers. It's on the world's first gay rugby club in London which I joined when I moved there four years ago, mainly as a way to make friends. But it completely changed my life. I met my husband John through there. I made so many friends and it really transformed my life. I go into the story in the documentary, but I really struggled with my sexuality growing up and I had a lot of scars left over from that and the rugby club really helped me deal with that. So I made this documentary about the club and how it helps people. And it was selected to debut at the British Film Institute in London at 450 seat cinema and they sold out three screenings and it was named Best of Fest. And we were just about to get on a plane to go when they cancelled the festival because of coronavirus. So if it were a week earlier, we would've made it, but they're going to do another screening once it all clears up.

Sally: Oh, so disappointing. It is such an amazing film and you share so much about your own life. Tell us about how it was or IF it was different voicing that documentary as opposed to your nightly news story.

Eammon: Oh, massively. I found it really tough because I would stand there again with the doona over my head in my lounge room with the script that I'd written and some of the stories I was telling were quite personal about how I was outed at school by this guy who filmed him and myself having sex. One of my first sexual experiences. And that was like a devastating story to tell. And then I obviously can't say that with my news voice. So I just tried to to find that balance because if you just talk like we would talk down at the pub, it's going to sound a bit flat on TV or in a cinema, you still need to give it that punch to grab people's attention. So I had to do that, but then I had to do it in a way that still felt genuine and raw.

And so I practiced it a few times and listened back. And in the end I just sort of put the script down and I just told the story and there are pauses and ums and ahs and I, it's not a hundred percent perfect in terms of scripting, but it sounds genuine. And I was lucky that my wonderful husband John would come back each day and watch the cuts as I was editing it. And he would give me really honest feedback about whether that sounded genuine or sounded a bit forced or sounded too newsy. Because like I said, it's just so hard to hear yourself hear how you sound and how you come across.

Sally: I actually talked about this in one of my podcast episodes a couple of weeks ago. How to stop emotions hijacking your voice because we want emotions in our voice, but we don't want our emotions to control the voice. So as you say, it's always that fine balance. Well I think you did an amazing, amazing job and I know that once this is finished, the documentary will have its deserved debut and one advantage is, is maybe I can be there.

Eammon: Oh, that would be wonderful. My gosh. And there's a trailer people can go check out Steelers, the movie S, T, E, E, L, E, R, S, the movie.com and it's all there. But I think you touched upon it before. Like I do the camera work, I edited that. In this line of work. I don't think these days you can just get by being a one trick horse or pony, whatever the saying is, you have to be able to do multiple things. And I would say to young journalists out there, don't be afraid if you have a knack for cameras, pick up a camera or go buy a cheap one and teach yourself if you have a knack for editing or you want to get into longer storytelling or podcasting, just pick up and do it and you will learn so much from that. And don't wait for someone to give you permission because I remember at Channel Seven people told me I couldn't touch a camera and now I have an ad running in Times Square for footage I shot.

If I'd listened to them, I wouldn't be sitting here talking to you and have this amazing job. I remember I was very much like the workhorse when I was at Channel Seven and I just didn't see that there was a path for me. Like if I wanted to become a correspondent, I don't think that would have ever happened if I stayed at Channel Seven. But I moved to London with no job, with no promise of anything. I taught myself how to use a camera and I started pitching stories and here I am now working, you know, covering coronavirus about to cover US Elections. So if you want something, go out there and get it.

Sally: Eammon. Honestly, one of the many, many things that I love about you, you don't wait for permission. You go and do things and I think that is just such a great lesson to everybody no matter what area or what stage in your career you're at. Back yourself, believe in yourself and you're a living, breathing example of how your life can be when you make those decisions and go for it.

Eammon: Definitely. Yeah. Don't wait for something to be handed to you. Just go out there and grab it.

Sally: Another question I should ask is, have you ever had any voice coaching?

Eammon: Yes. I have. At the end of the day though, the best coaching you can do is the work - the practice yourself. So I would when I was first starting out, I would get the newspaper, I bought a medium priced microphone for a hundred dollars or so. So that sounded good, plugged it into my computer and I would read the newspaper in a news voice and listen back to it.

Sally: Yeah. Amazing. And I think goes to show that anybody out there, whether you're a working journalist or not, there are definitely things you can be doing every day to practice your voice.

Eammon: Definitely.

Sally: Amazing. Is there anything else you wanted to add?

Eammon: Especially here in America, there's so much divisiveness out there. There's so, so many people lying in the media and in politics. I think what I really love hearing is like genuine, authentic stories and voices so that people can sound authentic in the work they do. I think they'll go a long way.

Sally: What a beautiful way to end the interview. Eammon, it's so great to chat with you and thanks for joining That Voice Podcast.

Eammon: Thanks Sal, and congratulations to you. I think what you have done has been amazing. Going from being a journalist to working in PR and then just creating this amazing business, which I think there's such a thirst for you should be really proud.

Sally: Oh, thank you. Well, you know, I certainly love what I do. It was so lovely to have one of my best friends on the podcast. Eammon, if you're listening, hopefully you're tuning into your own episode, you are such a big inspiration to me. I find myself always talking to people about how amazing I think you are and I love you so much. Before I get teary, I'm going to play your voice warmup because it is just too funny. This was a little extra bit I had to hit record on at the end of our chat.

Eammon: So I literally sit there with the doona over my head and go, MAYO MAYO MAYO MAYONNAISE. MAYO MAYO MAYO MAYONNAISE. MAYO MAYO MAYO MAYONNAISE. We're ready to go. The Channel 10 news.

Sally: So funny!

Next week I'm going to share some ideas about how to stop stuttering. A lot of have asked me about this on TikTok, so tune in next Monday. Also My Six Week Voice Makeover kicks off again on May 25 all the info is on my home page, www.sallyprosser.com.au and if you use the code TIKTOK, you get $100 off. Lots of people have already signed up and I would love to have you join us.

Thanks for listening to That Voice Podcast. All my episodes with full transcripts are at www.thatvoicepodcast.com.