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Audio Branding
Jodi Krangle
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“Sound is probably one of the most prevalent things that we focus on with our children at Operation Smile. And you know, they’re so thankful that they have, they work as hard on their homework for speech therapy as they do in school, right? And, you know, as both of us sort of being maybe teased and bullied in school, maybe we were actually, excited about doing our homework. And maybe we did study a little bit harder, and we did our homework. These kids are amazing pupils when they know that they’re getting this free therapy to help optimize their speaking, and then you go back a year later and then you hear the kids again, and you understand every word that they say. It just puts a smile on your face.” – Mark Climie-Elliott
This episode is the second half of my discussion with CEO and Chief Smile Officer of Operation Smile Canada Foundation Mark Climie-Elliott as we talk about Mark’s work with Laura, a particularly memorable patient who’s gone on to make a positive influence of her own, the time and effort that building language skills can take even after a successful cleft-palate surgery, and more about Operation Smile’s plans to open a hundred new hospitals around the world over the next five years.
This conversation is being released during Podcasthon, so thank you to Jeremie and all the wonderful staff there putting this initiative together. And if you’d like to learn more about Podcasthon, and maybe participate in it next year, be sure to check out podcasthon.org.
As always, if you have questions for my guest, you’re welcome to reach out through the links in the show notes. If you have questions for me, visit audiobrandingpodcast.com where you’ll find a lot of ways to get in touch. Plus, subscribing to the newsletter will let you know when the new podcasts are available and what the newest audio chats will be about. If you’re getting some value from listening, the best ways to show your support are to share this podcast with a friend and leave an honest review. Both those things really help – and I’d love to feature your review on future podcasts.
(0:00:00) - Operation Smile Volunteer Opportunities and Impact
The second half of our conversation starts as Mark tells us about how people can reach out to Operation Smile and the need for volunteers on every level. “We are always looking for trained and skilled pediatric specialists,” he says, “in anesthesiology, in plastic surgery, specifically if you have cleft specialty, we’re looking for educators.” We also talk about Laura, an Operation Smile patient who’s continuing to make a positive impact. “There’s Laura,” he recalls, “seventeen years old, telling them that they don’t have to worry, ‘Look at me.’ And so she shared the story of her journey and the parents, all of a sudden, like those tears that were running down their faces became tears of joy.”
(0:08:20) - Stories of Resilient Cleft Lip Patients
Mark and I talk about our own experiences with bullying, and how it impacts the children Operation Smile works with. He tells us more about the organization’s anti-bullying efforts and the hope that working with young people has given him. “When I look at these next generations that are now coming together with better acceptance,” he says, “with better acceptance, with what I call different lenses, you know, and while bullying and teasing still exists and it still needs to be addressed, there are ways in which students can get involved.” We discuss how sound plays a pivotal role in recovery and developing underdeveloped language skills, and the reward of seeing children finding their voices as they recover. “And then you go back a year later,” he says, “and then you hear, hear the kids again and you understand every word that they say. You know it just puts a smile on your face.”
(0:24:10) - Supporting Operation Smile Through Collaboration
Our conversation concludes as Mark tells listeners how they can get in touch. “Anyone can reach out.” he says, “and you can just say, ‘Hey, Mark, heard you on the podcast and I want to learn something.’ I’d be more than happy to get the answers or questions that weren’t asked or answered to them.” He shares more about the progress Operation Smile has made so far as well as their plan to open a hundred new hospitals by the end of the decade. “I want to thank everyone listening,” he adds. “Even if you haven’t made a gift. I want to thank you for listening, to learn a little bit about Operation Smile.”
Episode Summary
- The life-changing impact of Operation Smile’s work with patients and their families.
- How bullying affects patients and the steps being taken to change things for the better.
- Operation Smile’s ongoing work to expand and help children around the world.
Connect with the Audio Branding Podcast:
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Connect with me on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/jodikrangle/
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Editing/Production by Humberto Franco - https://humbertofranco.com/
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
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“Anyone who needs surgery around the world will be able to do it and get it and survive from it. And we’re making significant impacts by delivering cleft surgery care and by educating and training more and more people each week. The numbers just increase and we’re about to... launch something very special as this podcast is being aired, where we’re going to really build and strengthen one hundred district hospitals around the world.” – Mark Climie-Elliott
This episode’s guest is the CEO and Chief Smile Officer of Operation Smile Canada Foundation. Operation Smile is one of the world’s largest volunteer-delivered global medical charities, serving children born with cleft conditions in low and middle-income countries. Prior to joining Operation Smile, he spent more than forty years serving in a variety of leadership roles in the non-profit sector, children’s rehabilitation, and international hospital start-ups in the Middle East.
His name is Mark Climie-Elliott, and you’ll want to hear where this discussion will take us. From helping children make sound to his philosophy on the importance of sound and why it matters so much to the kids his Foundation helps, there’s a lot to cover. But I was extremely honored to help get the word out about this very worthy charity, and I hope, after you’ve listened to how passionate Mark is about this cause, that you’ll check them out too.
This conversation is being released during Podcasthon, so thank you to Jeremie and all the wonderful staff there putting this initiative together. And if you’d like to learn more about Podcasthon, and maybe participate in it next year, be sure to check out podcasthon.org.
As always, if you have questions for my guest, you’re welcome to reach out through the links in the show notes. If you have questions for me, visit audiobrandingpodcast.com where you’ll find a lot of ways to get in touch. Plus, subscribing to the newsletter will let you know when the new podcasts are available and what the newest audio chats will be about. If you’re getting some value from listening, the best ways to show your support are to share this podcast with a friend and leave an honest review. Both those things really help – and I’d love to feature your review on future podcasts.
(0:00:00) - Sound, Surgery, and Changing Lives
Our conversation begins with Mark’s early memories of sound, an experience that may have been as memorable for his neighbors. “The first time sound really got into me,” he recalls, “was when I found the pots and pans underneath the counter and I found the wooden spoons. Oh and let me say, sound resonated not just from our home but right through the neighborhood.” We discuss how Operation Smile began back in 1982, and just how serious, and even life-threatening, the need for cleft-palate treatment options in the developing world has become. “It was then that both Dr. Magee and Kathy realized that there are so many people around the world,” he explains, “that don’t have the benefit when they get sick and need surgery to actually be able to access it. It’s just not there.”
(0:11:24) - Surgical Program and Patient Criteria
We talk more about what causes a cleft lip and the enormous impact it can have on children’s speech, health, and nutrition. “Cleft lip and palate are some of the world’s highest birth anomalies,” he tells us, “they can happen, we say one in every three minutes. A child is born with either a cleft lip, a cleft palate, or both, or one in every 700 to 1,000 live births.” He shares some of the challenges of treatment through multiple surgeries and therapy that can last for years, and Operation Smile’s plans to open a hundred new hospitals and treat a million new patients by 2030. “In many parts of the world you can get cleft surgeries completed,” he says, “and it could cost as low as $100 in a local clinic. But if you’re a family that’s living off of $10 a week and you don’t have any savings, then that’s impossible.”
(0:23:08) - Nutritional Support for Surgery Success
As the first half of our discussion comes to a close, Mark talks about how AI has helped streamline the diagnostic process, and how the organization works to not only provide surgery but also make sure kids are healthy enough to make a full recovery. “It can cause choking, it can cause eating problems,” he explains, “it takes time for that nutrition and that health to get restored.” He tells us about Operation Smile’s work with Daniela, a young patient who, after weeks of preparation, just recently had surgery to repair her cleft palate. “She was able to get her surgery this past fall,” he says, “and it was really thanks to our nutritional team down in the Dominican Republic that helped her.”
Episode Summary
- Operation Smile’s mission to provide accessible surgery for children with cleft conditions.
- Mark talks more about the long-term process, including surgery and speech therapy.
- The impact of AI on the diagnostic process and their recent success with a young patient.
Tune in for next week’s episode as we talk more about how Mark’s work with Operation Smile began, the impact of bullying on the children he helps and how Operation Smile’s anti-bullying and awareness programs are working to overcome it, and the pivotal role sound plays in their recovery.
Connect with the Audio Branding Podcast:
Book your project with Voice Overs and Vocals by visiting https://voiceoversandvocals.com
Connect with me on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/jodikrangle/
Watch the Audio Branding Podcast on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/c/JodiKrangleVO
Connect with me on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jodikrangle/
Leave the Audio Branding Podcast a review at https://lovethepodcast.com/audiobranding (Thank you!)
Share your passion effectively with these Tips for Sounding Your Best as a Podcast Guest!
https://voiceoversandvocals.com/tips-for-sounding-your-best-as-a-podcast-guest/
Get my Top Five Tips for Implementing an Intentional Audio Strategy
https://voiceoversandvocals.com/audio-branding-strategy/
Editing/Production by Humberto Franco - https://humbertofranco.com/
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
OP3 - https://op3.dev/privacy
Artificial intelligence has come a long way over just the past few years. It can hold conversations and manage social media, it can create art and edit videos, and it can even write blogs (though not this one). Every aspect of our lives has been touched by AI in one way or another, and that’s particularly true for sound. While many podcasters, including some of my guests, now use AI tools for research and sound editing, it’s also front and center in sound, from cloning voices to writing its own songs. Royalty-free music is already starting to give way to copyright-free AI music, and a variety of powerful audio content generation tools are scheduled for release later this year.
But can computers replace human composers? Will listeners be able to tell the difference? And how did we get from vinyl records to virtual music? It may seem hard to believe, but the very first song written by a computer is older than cassette tapes. The Illiac Suite, or “String Quartet No. 4,” as it’s officially named, was created in 1955, using pioneering techniques still found in AI today.
The ILLIAC I (ill-ee-ack one) was one of the world’s first computers. It was built in 1952 at the University of Illinois, and it filled an entire room. The ILLIAC I weighed five tons and used over two thousand vacuum tubes, some of which had to be replaced each night. A pair of music professors, Lejaren Hiller and Leonard Isaacson, programmed the ILLIAC to compose a string quartet using what’s called “stochastic music,” music that’s written using probability calculations and mathematical sequences – in this case, Markov chains – instead of human inspiration.
One of the researchers who helped build the ILLIAC I was Saburo Muroga, who also built the MUSASINO-1 later that year in Japan. And, as it happens, another breakthrough in computer-generated music would emerge from Japan exactly fifty years after the Illiac Suite’s release.
Synthetic voices were the next step in creating digital music, and in 1961 the IBM 7094 became the first computer to sing a song, “Daisy Bell.” Another computer voice that could sing was called Perfect Paul, and it was one of the voice settings on 1983‘s text-to-speech DECtalk device. This is the speech synthesizer Professor Stephen Hawking used in his later years, and it was based on the voice of MIT researcher Dennis Klatt. The next decade brought us Auto-Tune, which can digitally modulate singing voices in real-time and has become, for better or worse, a staple of pop music.
These developments all came together in 2004 as “Vocaloids,” synthesized voices that can talk and sing with perfect pitch. The most famous of them by far is Crypton Future Media’s Hatsune Miku, a second-generation Vocaloid who debuted in 2007. While there have been four more generations and many more voices since then, Miku is the one who captured the public’s eyes and ears. Arguably the world’s first virtual celebrity, she’s opened for Lady Gaga, put in a holographic appearance at the 2024 Coachella festival, and just wrapped up her latest ‘Miku Expo’ world tour last December.
In some ways, Miku and the Vocaloids that followed marked a turning point in synthetic voices. Older synthesizers like Perfect Paul and Microsoft Sam couldn’t be mistaken for an ordinary person, but Vocaloids come closer than anything before – so close, in fact, that some music critics have said they fall into a sort of audio uncanny valley. They sound almost, but not quite, human.
Now it’s the year 2025, and AI has taken the stage: it’s talking, singing, composing, and even creating whole new kinds of sound. Both OpenAI’s Jukebox and Google’s AI MusicLM can convert text into music, and Nvidia’s upcoming Fugatto software is described as a sonic “Swiss Army knife” for creating sounds that have never existed, like a screaming saxophone or a trumpet that meows. Another new song-generation service by Musical AI and Beatoven.ai that’s set to release later this year promises to share revenue with its three million musical sources even as it composes custom audio tracks for enterprise clients. And, just like before, some critics worry that all this AI-driven music is bound to fall into the uncanny valley, the gap where it’s more disturbing than impressive.
Patten, an experimental musician from London, released a text-to-audio AI album in 2023 called Mirage FM with twenty-one tracks. Is the resulting sound intriguing, eerie, or maybe even a bit of both?
A series of studies in 2019 by audio companies Veritonic, Amper Music, and Tidio discovered that listeners often don’t trust themselves enough to recognize machine-generated music. The study’s participants would, more often not, just guess that the most complicated track in any given list of songs must be the one written by a computer.
A 2023 study by the University of York, however, found that listeners do prefer human-created music to its AI counterpart and deep learning didn’t make much of a difference in their preferences. Old-fashioned computer compositions, the sort the ILLIAC I might have written, scored about the same as the latest models, and none of them did as well as music written by a person. Even when listeners don’t believe they can tell the difference, there’s a genuine emotional element in human music that’s still lacking in AI sound. We might not be consciously aware of it, but we do sense it.
There’s always the worry that AI could replace human artists, that it might become better than us or just crowd us out in the market. But it also has the power to help unlock our imagination and empower creators, whether it’s a young songwriter who can use a Vocaloid on their album or an artist or writer who can use AI to transform their creative visions into melodies. And human music - isn’t going anywhere just yet. As Patten puts it, “Making music that feels like something—people find that quite difficult to do. There’s no formula for a piece of music that people find touching.” Likewise, our human voice is the sum of our lived experiences – and computers just don’t have that. Not yet, at least.
Connect with the Audio Branding Podcast:
Book your project with Voice Overs and Vocals https://voiceoversandvocals.com
Tweet with me on Twitter - https://twitter.com/JodiKrangle
Watch the Audio Branding Podcast on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/c/JodiKrangleVO
Connect with me on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jodikrangle/
Leave the Audio Branding Podcast a written review at https://lovethepodcast.com/audiobranding
or leave a spoken review at https://voiceoversandvocals.com/talktome/ (Thank you!)
Share your passion effectively with these Tips for Sounding Your Best as a Podcast Guest!
https://voiceoversandvocals.com/tips-for-sounding-your-best-as-a-podcast-guest/
Get my Top Five Tips for Implementing an Intentional Audio Strategy
https://voiceoversandvocals.com/audio-branding-strategy/
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
OP3 - https://op3.dev/privacy
“It’s interesting that you say that because, you know, you’re back to what we were talking about a second ago with why people don’t have their own song brand or why they don’t do that, because all of my clients are early adopters. It takes courage, right? Even back in the days when I was doing it, I called it the theme shop, where we would come in and do it, write a song for the organization as a team building thing. And I can’t tell you the number of times I talked to a CEO and they’re like, ‘Oh, this is such a great idea.’ And they’d phone me back an hour later and say, ‘Oh, the team won’t do it.’ And it’s like, well, who’s in charge and, and what’s the point? The point is for them to feel discomfort, for them to try something they’ve never tried together and see how that will bring them together and find out, you know, what the common ground is. I mean, that’s the whole point.” – Lowry Olafson
This episode is the second half of my conversation with songwriter, keynote speaker, and founder of SongBrand Lowry Olafson as we discuss what sets sound apart from other forms of advertising, why Lowry isn’t worried about audio AI, and what sonic branding can bring to a business team.
As always, if you have questions for my guest, you’re welcome to reach out through the links in the show notes. If you have questions for me, visit audiobrandingpodcast.com where you’ll find a lot of ways to get in touch. Plus, subscribing to the newsletter will let you know when the new podcasts are available and what the newest audio chats will be about. If you’re getting some value from listening, the best ways to show your support are to share this podcast with a friend and leave an honest review. Both those things really help – and I’d love to feature your review on future podcasts.
(0:00:00) - The Impact of Sound in Advertising
The second half of our discussion picks up as we talk about the hurdles in building a strong audio brand, and the power of sound to create an immediate impact. “You know, if the fin came out of the water and there was no soundtrack, that wouldn’t happen,” he says about the movie Jaws. “We haven’t even seen the fin yet and you’re already on the edge of your seat because of the sound.” The topic turns to the uses he’s found for AI in his work, and we discuss some of the most memorable marketing campaigns in recent years and how they rely on sound rather than imagery. “You can create any emotion,” he says about sound, “and you can’t do that with a two-dimensional thing.”
(0:04:51) - The Power of Sound in Marketing
We talk about whether AI can replace human composers, and Lowry explains why he prefers to handle the creative work himself. “There are probably threats,” he jokes, “I should probably be worried. But I’m having way too much fun and you know I’ve got my hands full with doing what I’m doing.” He tells us about some of the difficulties marketing teams can face in trying to build an audio brand, and why he thinks sound matters. “I want it to have a lifespan of twenty years,” he explains about the song brands that he creates for clients. “Or, you know, I want it to be something that they’re going to be so glad, like, ‘This will be the best money I’ve ever spent,’ right? That’s how I see this.”
(0:12:21) - Creating Music and Audio Branding
Our conversation comes to a close as we talk more about his client work and his own musical career, and how each one informs the other. “I write a lot of love songs and heart songs,” he says, “I like writing inspiring songs. There’s a cool video called ‘Born for This.’ We shot the video in Costa Rica in February and I love that song.” He tells us how listeners can get in touch with him, and how his work on his latest album is reconnecting him with some of his oldest musician friends. “People can reach out and I’m happy to do, uh, you know, a free kind of audio branding assessment,” he adds, “if they want to talk about the stuff that they’ve got, or if they have ideas and that kind of thing.”
Episode Summary
- Sound’s impact on emotions and storytelling, and the role of AI in music creation.
- The limits of AI composition and Lowry’s hands-on process for building a personal brand.
- Lowry’s journey as a musician and brand expert, and how listeners can get in touch.
Connect with the Audio Branding Podcast:
Book your project with Voice Overs and Vocals by visiting https://voiceoversandvocals.com
Connect with me on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/jodikrangle/
Watch the Audio Branding Podcast on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/c/JodiKrangleVO
Connect with me on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jodikrangle/
Leave the Audio Branding Podcast a review at https://lovethepodcast.com/audiobranding (Thank you!)
Share your passion effectively with these Tips for Sounding Your Best as a Podcast Guest!
https://voiceoversandvocals.com/tips-for-sounding-your-best-as-a-podcast-guest/
Get my Top Five Tips for Implementing an Intentional Audio Strategy
https://voiceoversandvocals.com/audio-branding-strategy/
Editing/Production by Humberto Franco - https://humbertofranco.com/
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
OP3 - https://op3.dev/privacy
“Yeah, so I started writing songs for speakers to walk on stage to their own song, and then when they had their sizzle reel, people would hear their song again. And then if they went to a training, you know, they would hear the song again. And so there was this audio consistency that also had the effect of lifting the person, the speaker themselves. They would say to me, you know, ‘When I walk on stage to my own song, it’s like, I don’t show up small. This is who I have to be to walk on stage to like, mind switch, I’m ready to fly.’ Right? And they’re, you know, they are making their brand. People are walking out of there with their song stuck in their head, not a Katy Perry song.” – Lowry Olafson
This episode’s guest is a professional songwriter who has toured the globe, released nine albums, and led over six hundred songwriting sessions with more than 15,000 speakers, entrepreneurs, and businesses. He helps his clients make a bigger dent in the universe by creating their own signature song to build trust, authority, and connection – and to make their message literally unforgettable.
His name is Lowry Olafson, and he’s created something called a SongBrand. We’ll be talking about how businesses and individuals can use a SongBrand, and how his background has led to a unique form of songwriting that allows his clients to communicate their truth with the world.
As always, if you have questions for my guest, you’re welcome to reach out through the links in the show notes. If you have questions for me, visit audiobrandingpodcast.com where you’ll find a lot of ways to get in touch. Plus, subscribing to the newsletter will let you know when the new podcasts are available and what the newest audio chats will be about. If you’re getting some value from listening, the best ways to show your support are to share this podcast with a friend and leave an honest review. Both those things really help – and I’d love to feature your review on future podcasts.
(0:00:00) - The Power of Sound Branding
Our conversation starts with a look back at Lowry’s earliest memories of sound and what drew him to a career in music. “My earliest memory of making my own music,” he says, “was, as maybe a three-year-old, on the prairies and uh, listening to the meadowlarks and trying to imitate them, whistling, trying to imitate them.” We talk about some of the musicians who most influenced him, such as Joni Mitchell and Gordon Lightfoot, and how he’s helping bring sonic branding down from commercial jingles to a more personal level. “It used to be that the only people that could afford to do this,” he says, “were the big people that, you know, had big advertising, big advertising budgets, and TV and radio and stuff. But the fact is, your average coach is using music in all kinds of ways.”
(0:12:51) - Creating Personalized Power Songs
Lowry discusses his process for creating a personal audio brand for a client, and how he collaborates with them to come up with just the right sound. “We start to nuance it,” he explains, “and change a word here and there and do things like that, until we really feel like we’ve nailed it and they love it, and I love it too.” He shares an example of a client’s audio theme, “Make Medicare Simple,” and talks about his work with industries as far-ranging as retirement coaches and meditation guides. “We have a strategy meeting,” he tells us, “and talk about how we’re going to implement it because I want to make sure these songs get used, and that they’re always finding new ways to use their song.”
(0:17:49) - Inspiring Branding Through Music
As the first half of our conversation concludes, Lowry shares one particularly compelling song brand that helped a client reconnect with his past. “For him, it was particularly meaningful,” he recalls, “because he used to be a baseball player, and he’d kind of lost sight of that part of his life and forgotten about it… And I’m saying like, well, that’s pretty cool, bring your A-game. And so that was what I ended up writing.” We talk about his music and marketing careers, and how each has helped him excel in the other. “When I play a concert,” Lowry explains, “I’m trying to make people feel things. I want to lift them and inspire them and do that. And I think that we can do that even in branding.”
Episode Summary
- Lowry’s early experiences with music and how he developed the concept of SongBrand.
- Songwriting for personal branding and how it helps clients cultivate their image.
- Music’s power to connect individuals and the emotional impact of sonic branding.
Stay tuned for next week’s episode as we continue to talk about Lowry’s thoughts on the AI revolution, we explore the enduring impact of sound over other forms of marketing, and as Lowry discusses some of his most memorable SongBrand projects and his work on an upcoming album.
Connect with the Audio Branding Podcast:
Book your project with Voice Overs and Vocals by visiting https://voiceoversandvocals.com
Connect with me on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/jodikrangle/
Watch the Audio Branding Podcast on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/c/JodiKrangleVO
Connect with me on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jodikrangle/
Leave the Audio Branding Podcast a review at https://lovethepodcast.com/audiobranding (Thank you!)
Share your passion effectively with these Tips for Sounding Your Best as a Podcast Guest!
https://voiceoversandvocals.com/tips-for-sounding-your-best-as-a-podcast-guest/
Get my Top Five Tips for Implementing an Intentional Audio Strategy
https://voiceoversandvocals.com/audio-branding-strategy/
Editing/Production by Humberto Franco - https://humbertofranco.com/
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
OP3 - https://op3.dev/privacy