You may have been told our

There are a couple of things that can propel you into the vast world of VO that many of our coaches (who are all voice actors and were once in your shoes) have suggested.

• Throw your ego out the door because there’s always room for improvement. Ok, keep your ego intact because you need it for your self-confidence (which is a must in the VO industry) but don’t assume because you’ve taken a few workshops that you have the chops now. You need to train and practice on a regular basis, just like an athlete, just like a musician, just like a professional chef. Beyonce didn’t make it to the top and then just stop and let the fruits of her labor work for her. She still practices, rehearses and continues perfecting it all. Laying down some cash for proper voice-over training with coaches may feel costly at the time, but you have to consider that those sessions will pay for themselves after you’ve had a few job offers, which ideally you will if you keep working on improving your skills. A voice coach will take you out of your comfort zone and help you to grow as a voice actor in ways that you wouldn’t otherwise on your own. The best part of working with a coach is that it’s fun!
• Make it happen, don’t wait for it to happen. Well, there’s some waiting involved after you submit auditions of course, but I’m talking about being proactive and sharing your enthusiasm for your new career endeavors with everyone. The more people who know you’re getting into voice acting, the more likely you are to find work. Networking is huge and although you may cringe at the idea of it, again, it’s a step outside your comfort zone which can potentially bring results. This can also mean getting your business cards made, launching your website, your business Facebook page, and your LinkedIn profile. It means cold calls and emailing prospective clients. Prepare yourself for rejection and take it with a grain of salt when it happens. Remember that a rejection doesn’t mean you don’t have talent, it means you didn’t fit the voice description of what the client had in mind.
• Setting realistic goals helps you with time management. It can feel overwhelming to embark on a voice acting career. If you’re anything like me when you feel overwhelmed you shut down and don’t accomplish anything except accumulating a YouTube history of funny cat videos. Now as entertaining as that is, it’s not going to bring you anything but guilt later on for not getting anything done. So, set goals for yourself and I’m talking realistic goals. Not goals like- Send auditions this week. No, that’s too broad and too vague. Get detailed with your goals and ask someone to hold you accountable. This could be the voice-over coach that you’ve invested in. Setting goals will ideally teach you how to organize your time as well. What helps me is to use my Google calendar as my guiding light. I write my goals into the time and day slots that I want to get them done. When I do that, I usually achieve said goals. If I just think it and assume I’ll get it done, it doesn’t happen. In that case, what gets done is more accumulation of cat videos. With setting goals and practical organization of your time, it can be helpful to create a routine for yourself so that you’re dedicating a set amount of hours each day to starting your voice acting career.
• A professional demo and high-quality equipment are key. I cannot stress enough how important a professional demo is. Imagine you’re interviewing someone for a job and they show up in ripped jeans with their hair askew. Would you hire that person based on your first impression? Unless it’s for a heavy metal music booking company, probably not. Your demo is your prospective client’s first impression of you. If there’s background noise or the sound is muffled or you’re popping your p’s too much, that’s going to reflect poorly on you and what the client assumes your capabilities are. Get into a studio with a producer and director so that you can take advantage of their expertise. Don’t forget that we can help you with that too!

If after reading this article, you’re still feeling apprehensive and not jazzed enough, here are some books that I recommend to get you off your tush and into the world of voice acting!

The War of Art by Steven Pressfield

The Big Leap by Gay Hendricks

You’re a Badass at Making Money by Jen Sincero

We always enjoy hearing your feedback, so join the conversation and see what’s trending about Such A Voice!

We also provide more tips about how to get started with your voice acting career on our YouTube channel. We even have a video for this post, so you can hear the blog author, Bekka Burton, in action. Check it out below: 

                                                                                                   About the Author

Bekka Burton is a copywriter, scriptwriter and copy editor at Such A Voice. She’s also an English Language teacher forcing fun grammar activities onto unsuspecting students in Barcelona, Spain. She’s currently studying an online Diploma course for Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages from Trinity College in London and will be pursuing a Master’s in Linguistics in Fall 2018. When she’s not studying, writing, editing or teaching, she’s sure to be found hiking mountains, reading books, and eating her way through many European cities.

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There’s this old saying: “Only learn something once. After that you’re a total expert and will be lauded as a genius in your field.”

Just kidding, that would be ridiculous. How about this one?

“You don’t understand anything until you learn it more than one way.” -Marvin Minsky

Ah, better.

My Origin Story or That Time I Googled Voice-Over

When I first decided to pursue a voice-over career, I was on a break from work. I was miserable in my job. Life circumstances had left me in a rut with little direction. I needed something I could be proud of. Something that was mine. It was time to pursue voice-over, but there was a big question that I had to ask: How do I become a voice actor? I ended up asking Google this question. Seriously, that’s all I did. That led to a link for Such A Voice and then some amazing conversations with lovely people about voice-over coaching. Finally, I told my husband I was going to invest in a voice-over training program to become a voice actor. I will never forget it because his face was excited for me, while his brain was probably thinking, “What the heck is she doing?” But, I had that tone he knows so well that meant: “Trust me. I know what I’m doing.” Shortly after, I began my voice-over coaching with Bill Sleeper for my commercial and narration demos, followed by an audiobook demo produced by Michael Yurchak.

After that, I never had to learn anything ever again and ended up building a whole career on learning all of the information one time!

I’m kidding… remember the first part of the blog post? We’re doing that again. Look alive.

I received incredible voice-over coaching from the SAV staff. They gave me an amazing foundation and a wealth of knowledge that I still use everyday in my work. I’ve built a successful voice-over business that I’m proud of. If I had relied solely on my voice-over coaching sessions and never sought out any other knowledge, I would be in a very different place.

If you’re serious about taking a passion and making it your career, your life, and your purpose, it requires a lot of you. Here’s the oversimplified version: you are introduced to a skill, you love the skill, you train in the skill, you do the skill for money or accolades. People say “Wow, look at their mad skills!” What you never hear is people saying, “Wow, look at how they keep improving their skills and investing in continued education like a serious professional!” However, that’s kind of the most important part.

Natural Talent is Not Enough

When I was four years old, my grandma signed me up for piano lessons. We discovered I had some natural talent. I had a knack for timing and musicality. By the age of eight, I was competing for a chance to tour with the Utah Symphony Orchestra. There were hundreds of competitors and only seven finalist spots. I played my Mozart Concerto for the judges and totally nailed it. I vividly remember walking up to the finalist list they posted on the bulletin board at the end of the day. If I was a finalist, I had to stay and perform again. If I wasn’t, I got to go to the zoo. I was an alternate, and all of the finalists were present, so I got to go to the zoo. My eight-year-old heart was thrilled because, ya know, penguins.

I competed for several more years before deciding being a pianist wasn’t my ultimate goal, but let’s focus on those four years between my first lesson and my trip to the zoo. I had natural talent, but that alone wasn’t getting me anywhere near that competition. First of all, I had an amazing teacher. She gave me the tools, provided me with honest constructive criticism, and encouraged me to grow, but even that alone couldn’t develop my skills. It was the hours, and I mean HOURS, of practice time and music theory study. It wasn’t always pretty either. Most of those hours were spent playing scales and chords over and over again to build dexterity. It was going through countless flashcards to remember time signatures, note values, symbols, music history, etc. It was playing one line of music with a metronome, increasing the tempo little by little. This usually ended with me laying on the piano bench sobbing while my grandma made me a grilled cheese.  So, let’s drive all of this home.

Devour Voice-Over Knowledge

Soak up all of the knowledge you can about voice-overs and this industry. Take what serves you, let go of what doesn’t. Your needs are going to change. It’s just like reading your favorite book at different times in your life. You will find different lessons as you grow and gain experience.

Where do you find this info? If you’re in a Such A Voice Demo Program or are a VO Pro Member, you have access to a lot of information from VO experts. Watch the videos, listen to the bi-weekly teleconferences, and read the blog. Go back to all three of these resources and do it all over again. Don’t let it go to waste. In my opinion, one of the biggest mistakes you can make in your voice-over training is to ignore these materials. Listen to podcasts by VO professionals, read VO books, budget in additional
voice-over coaching sessions to keep your skills fresh, attend conferences, find voice-over workshops in your area, and take a local improv class. Invest, absorb, repeat.

One of the most motivating things I ever heard was on the ID10T podcast with Chris Hardwick. I’m paraphrasing, but he made the comment that even people like Steve Carell and Tina Fey, while they had natural comedic talent, had to train for years to become who they are.

So, I leave you with this question: Who do you want to become?

Enjoyed reading this content? We’d love to hear more of your feedback about our blog.

We’re also on YouTube! Check out the video for this post:

                                        About the Author

Tia Rider Sorensen is a voice actor and writer in the Salt Lake City area. She got her start with Such A Voice in their VIP program and has since completed over 50 audiobooks, several corporate and explainer videos, as well as some commercial and animation work. You can see more of her work at www.tiasorensen.com.

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As a voice-over artist, your voice-over demo is the most useful tool you have in getting your voice heard and allowing potential clients and agents to have a comprehensive understanding of what you offer as a unique and capable voice talent. When you think about it, your demo is your calling card, business card, and resume all rolled into one! That’s why

Here’s how to create a compelling voice-over demo:

Get up to Speed

It’s important to become familiar with industry standards and understand the reasoning behind them before creating your voice-over demo. Most demos are around 60 seconds long these days. One reason is because people have shorter attention spans than ever before. Another reason is that there is more content being made nowadays and potential clients simply don’t have enough time to listen to longer demos in order to decide who they are interested in working with. Making sure your demo fits into the voice-over landscape shows clients that you’re in tune with what’s going on in the industry.

Focus on Genre

It’s important that your voice-over demo showcases one specific genre, as opposed to being a compilation of different genres on one demo. Voice seekers are busy, and they don’t have time to wade through a long montage to eventually see if you can master the style they’re looking for. That’s why having a genre-specific demo that accurately showcases your current skill set in that particular genre is a must for any voice-over artist.

Commercial and narration demos are common genres to focus on initially, and will remain staples of your demo arsenal. As you grow in your voice work, you may want to create specialty demos in other genres. These include animation, promo, audiobook, narration, and foreign language.

Great Content

When selecting scripts for your demo, make sure the copy is strong and allows you to shine as a performer. Choose marketable content that accurately reflects your capabilities. Ensure the spots you choose are evergreen, meaning that they can be used months and potentially years down the road without the content feeling dated.

Show Your Range

As a voice actor, you’ve honed the ability to create a variety of different reads and interpretations. Your demo should showcase your best performances, showing enough range and versatility to capture the listener’s attention, hold it, and leave them wanting more.

Quality Matters

Your demo should reflect the level of professionalism and quality you aim to offer your future clients. In keeping with a high standard of excellence, it’s optimal for your demo to be professionally recorded in a studio. The most marketable passages with the strongest performances should then be selected, ideally by a post producer with experience in the industry. Finally, an audio engineer should bring their expertise to the table, adding music and sound effects, and ultimately editing, sequencing, mixing, and mastering the demo.

It’s easy to feel nervous about creating your voice-over demo, especially for the first time, but if you start out having these key points covered, you can feel confident that you’re ready to create a compelling voice-over demo.

Check out our VO Pro Membership and the Such A Voice blog for more content like this!

About the Author

Claudine Ohayon is an Emmy Award-winning director/producer, commercial and promotional voice talent for brands like Verizon, Listerine, and MasterCard, native Brooklynite, published photographer. She was also the live announcer for the first ever televised Hollywood Film Awards on CBS.

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