Hang in There and Work On Your Skills

I always get a lot of questions about success; What's the best way to network? Whats the best way to get an agents? How to make more money and get more jobs?  There are many correct answers to these important questions. I would like to point out what, in my opinion,  is one of the most important factors in achieving "success". Improve your voiceover skills.
I know a lot of people who do good work and at the same time complain  that they'd like to achieve "more". Very often the limiting factor is they don't work on improving their skills as a VO artist. They do the same thing year after year and get the same results year after year. It's important to be on a lifelong quest to improve ones speaking skills and voice development which includes breathing skills. The are thousands of really talented voiceover artists. You are competing in an olympic size market and have to prepare with the same in intensity as those athletes do, If you want to make A-List money, you have to have A-List skills:)

- Developing Your Voiceover Abilities

I had some one email me and the person said that they had taken two voiceover coaching's  and understood what was going and wanted to make a voiceover demo. I declined and mentioned they're are lots of recording studios that a person can hire where they can go in and record what they want.
Sometimes there are natural geniuses that can do that and succeed.
More often than not it doesn't work that way. It's important to develop and A-list set of reading skills in order to be able to compete with that large group of very talented voiceover professionals that are out there.
In any profession, successful people are always working on improving their skill level and it should be the same for us. Client loyalty depends on providing the highest level of skill and service possible.

The Life Changing Importance of Voice Development

Voiceover artists, actors and all professionals have many skills to learn. Perhaps one area that is overlooked or doesn’t get enough focus is voice development.

Our Voice is the Engine that carries all of our ideas, thoughts, and  plans to everyone we come in contact with. Voice development benefits not just voiceover artists and actors, but everyone. People with superior speaking skills have an enormous advantage over others who are less polished. All great athletes have workouts and its not because they don’t know what they are doing. It is because in this competitive world communication skills need to be honed to the highest levels. A trained voice is more responsive to a persons intent in a conversation. Having control over ones tone of voice and breathing is not only an asset in voiceover work, but also critical in communications both professional and personal.

These are Great - The 50 Most Essential Pro Tools Key Commands

Shortcut Bible: The 50 Most Essential Pro Tools Key Commands http://www.sonicscoop.com/2016/05/26/big-list-pro-tools-key-commands-shortcut-bible/ … via @SonicScoop

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- How to break into the Voiceover Business - Short List

The main question I get all the time is how does one break into voiceovers.

It’s not surprising because every year it’s a multi billion dollar industry.

Think about it. All of those off camera voices that sell you cars, insurance, laundry detergent, TV shows, cartoons, and tell you in movie trailers when the next film is coming out. Science channel, history channel, Corporate narratives and audio books. An endless stream of projects that need an off camera voice.

There are so many ways to give advice about how to start. There are many ways to look at how one begins. A lot of it depends on your personality and how one deals with the unknown. Having said that, here are some thoughts to encourage and support you in this wonderful world of voiceovers.

Do not over estimate everyone else's intelligence. I tweeted last week that an old time voiceover guy told me when I was 22 years old and nervous about trying to get into voiceovers, " People dumber than you are making a fortune, just get out there and do it."

Never worry about what everyone else is doing or what "the odds are" it's completely besides the point. The question is do you love it enough to develop a great set of reading skills and start doing it.

Training and great reading skills are how professional voiceover artists make all that money.

Training is the first and most important place to start. No one in a recording studio is there to run a trade school. You have to know what you're doing.

 It's been my experience that a lot of people seem more interested in how to network than they are in developing the skills necessary to be hired and then re hired because they've done a good job. Learn the trade and what’s required. That is the first thing you’ll need to have a voiceover career.

So, you’ll need training. You’ll need a great voiceover demo. You’ll need a good computer and internet connection. You’ll need basic recording and editing equipment

These are some things you should know in order to break in and have a voiceover career. I’ll also tell you where work comes from and where to look for work when you’re starting out.

It’s true its just talking, but there is way more to it than that. You have to know the different styles for different products. For example cheaper cars are sold in more of an excited voice  Hurry on down zero percent financing!! Luxury cars are sold in a more relaxation audio book voice..the new infinity QX 4…its all the best thinking”

You have to develop your breathing and phrasing, because a lot of voiceover copy is pretty awkward.

On longer narrations like corporate or audio books, you’ll have to train your eyes to read about 3 words ahead of where your speaking so everything will sound idea driven. That means it should sound like you’re talking to a best friend and not just plodding through  like you’re just reading copy. When you take a catch breath you should dart your eyes to the right so you know whats coming up next. Voice and breath development is essential so your voice always sounds fresh and never tired.

You must a have a great voiceover demo. Casting directors only want a 60 second demo, Corporate video and other media producers often want 2 minutes because they sometimes feel tricked by people that only have 60 second demos.

Peoplesometomes send me terrible demo pieces auditioning saying “I know the audio is bad but hope you’ll like my voice” That is truly insane!!!  Don’t teach people that you have no idea what to do.

You have to have a computer that is new enough to handle media. If it’s no older than 5 years it should be ok. Mac or PC is fine. Everything is cross platform nowdays.

Recording equipment is very cheap now days. You can get completely set up for roughly $500 to $1200 depending on how you configure it all Check out ProTools

We use ProTools with United Audios Apollo for the hardware connection.

Also check out Audacity software its free and is ok to start with.

How to find those first jobs??? Once you have your voiceover demo you can call video production companies and ask if you can send them your vo demo to be on file for their corporate narratives. Do no, I repeat do not send your voiceover demo to anyone without asking permission. Most demos are sent by email as an MP3. Some companies will still ask for a CD but there are fewer of these every year. Media production companies do an endless series of Power point Presentation that all need to have voiceovers.

If you’re interested in audio books, sign up at audible.com ACX and look for books you’d like to voice. Pick books that have topics you’re interested in and your reads will be more naturally convincing

You can post your voiceover demo on internet casting sites like Voice Registry. It’s under the umbrella of voicebank.net which is one of the largest voiceover talent sites.

This is a great place to start and has a lot of support services as well. I like these guys a lot.

Alright, that’s the quick tour of how to break in. Get training, get your voiceover demo ready and don’t rush to put it together. It has to be authentic and not go outside the compass of your voice or personality. If it’s not great it’ll just convince people they don’t want you.

And finally do lots of searches on the internet on all aspects of voiceover. You have to become familiar with whats out their so you can form your own opinions based on your personal experiences. Other peoples advice is just a starting point so be curious, find out all that you possible can. And practice endlessly. Pick up a magazine and read out loud to practice your cold reading skills. Take the time you need to read it perfectly.

Look at it as an adventure a career puzzle that you can and will solve

And remember, people dumber that you are making a fortune.
Click here to get started
Click The Link Below For The Ultimate Voice Over Training Course - YouTube

- Voiceover Marketing and Industry Updates

The voiceover market is changing very rapidly. There are many new ways to get jobs and many new ways to market yourself to try and get those jobs. You have a number of choices and we are going to cover just a few of them.

You can set up your own web site or put your own voiceover demo on one of the many voiceover talent sites. Or you can do both. One of the main newer strategies is to have your own web site, which can be very simple and then pick three or four of the voiceover talent web sites to also put your demo and contact information on. This way you have postings on a number of talent sites and they all have links to your website. Each of these talents web sites spend a small fortune on advertising, so you don’t have too. There are literally thousands of potential clients visiting those sites so it’s very rapid exposure for the new person. You just have to make sure you’ve got a great demo so you can compete with all the other voices out there.

There was a time not so long ago that you either had to be represented by a voiceover talent agency or had to have a friend get you into corporate voiceover work. The internet has changed all of that. Everyone knows that money is much tighter now and many organizations are making use of on line casting rather than going to the more expensive voiceover talent agencies for talent. This means that you want to do as many marketing crossover plans as possible so all the organizations that need voiceover talent can become aware of you.

Many of the companies who do educational CD Roms post casting notices online and no longer go through voiceover talent agencies any more. They have discovered that they can get great talent at more competitive prices.

When you start thinking outside the box, you will come up with your own bright ideas about where to look for work and turn a lack of representation into an advantage because you can work cheaper and directly with clients. People ask me if they have to be online with a web site or have their demo on a voiceover talent site and the answer is absolutely yes. People have to be able to find you online.

Here’s a story to inspire you. A little while back a man called me and said he was doing a 30 second commercials for a company’s web site and needed a female voiceover artist. He said it was not for broadcast but for web use only and that it payed $1000. On a flat buyout. He asked if I could send him MP3s of 3 women that he could choose from. I said yes, I’d be happy to do that. He said, “Well, you’re the only one!!!!!” I was a little shocked and said what do you mean. He then started to explain that he had called three different talent agencies in town and they wouldn’t submit any demos of talent until he took the time to aswer a number of questions about his project and that all three of them said they would assign him an agent in the next two or three days to handle his project.

He laughed and said ya know, I‘m just trying to meet my production deadline and don’t have time for all of this red tape...

Well there you have another clear illustration of why more and more people are casting outside of voiceover talent agencies. These are just a few samples of how the industry is changing. Time is money and casting from online is very fast indeed.

Now lets move on to another issue. World wide buyouts. Many one or two line ads have involved an international buyout for 60k to 100k.

I know of two companies who decided that they would only pay 10k and the other company 20k for two short sentences in each case. Well everyone screamed and yelled, but in the end the voiceover talent who was getting 80k absolutely refused to go from 80k to 10k. How could she accept so little when she had been making 80k... On the other hand, the new person was of course thrilled to get 10k for two sentences... It’s still a lot of money.

It’s important to remember that work can come from the most unpredictable places. Sometimes people think they can only get work if a voiceover talent agency chooses to represent them, that is simply not true. Use your imagination and think where you might network to discover new opportunities.

In marketing and advertising, presentation is as important as networking. You are going to the trouble of finding networking opportunities and when you find them you don’t want to teach them that you are unprepared or amateurish. I recently watched a voiceover artist talk to the owner of a foundation that wants to hire some voiceover talent. He wanted to read for him on the spot, did so very poorly, and then wrote his name and number on a scrap of paper saying to the man, “I don’t have business cards or anything but I’m really glad I met you and I’d love to work for you”.

I mean, good grief, who in the world would ever be interested in someone who is that unprepared and sloppy. If you want to be hired by professionals who will pay good money, you must act like a professional who is worth good money. What do your materials look like? Are they clean with a nice design, or have you just printed your name on your demo. Graphic design services can be very affordable and they are a must so your business cards and your demo look like they belong to a pro. Make sure your email address has your name in it! Nothing bugs people more that not being able to type in your name and have you appear in an email address window because you use some “cool” name or phrase that isn’t your actual name. Save the funky email names like talldude@... for your friends. In business, it’s about making it simple for people to contact you.

You can be excited about your voiceover future, because there has never been a time when there are so many opportunities to do voiceover work, and so many new ways to find them.

- You Could Make Big Money With Your Voice

Advertisers and casting directors need a wide range of voice types in order to sell to all kinds of people. Sometimes there is a misconception that only dramatic or impressive voices can do voiceovers. That simply is not true. There was a time in the '50s and the '60s when the sound of the “announcer”, big, deep voice, was completely dominant, but not any longer. So, if you love speaking and playing with words, if you like language and expressing yourself, you could be part of this very lucrative industry.

Your own uniqueness could be the reason you make a lot of money. Often, people try to be like everyone else. In voiceovers, being different can make you rich. Of course you have to fit in to the various styles, but your individual sound can bring a richness to someone’s project that will be perfect for them. One type of voice might not be able to convey the ideas to a listener, that another person saying the exact same words can explain with perfect clarity. 

Many times a less dramatic voice is perceived as more accessible. Obviously this depends on the person who is listening, what is being talked about, and what they like. Having said that, if we are seeking assurance or affirmation, then we tend to prefer a more authoritative voice. On the other hand, if we are trying to learn new concepts, or instructions in a new field, a more gentle voice can often help us understand better. Why? Well we sometimes feel slow or foolish if we don’t understand something new right away. It’s a basic human tendency to want to understand right away and to be impatient about the learning process. Consequently a more gentle, less dramatic voice allows us to relax more and not feel as impatient or embarrassed if we are having trouble grasping a concept.

So, there is a need for all voice types. Making money with your voice is a great way to make a living.

- Why I Still Practice Every Day

The older I get the more I'm aware that there is a lot more to learn. I know some people who are very talented that rely on their skill and built up talent to do the voiceover jobs they get who do great work and don't "practice" much.
 I just have this endless curiosity about how it all works, how it might be better, how I might be better. For me it's not just about the gigs I have, its and endless kind of compulsion to figure out how my own speech and mind works. It certainly isn't the only approach, but it is how I try and improve my speaking and my reading skills...I practice a lot. Whatever approach you use make sure it's a deliberate choice and not just something you haven't thought about. It's very competitive in the voiceover world and it pays well to be at your best:)

- Learning How to be Yourself

Well, here’s the task for all mankind let alone a voiceover artist. Whether in a person’s business life or personal life, we spend a lifetime asking our selves who we are. Learning how to be yourself requires that we know who that person is, to some degree at least. The advice I give people all the time is to simply say: “Your best chance of getting work is to be yourself.” It does'n’t matter whether it’s a voiceover job you’re trying to get, or going to the next job interview, be yourself”.

It’s a useful “bumper sticker” slogan, but I’d like to talk a bit about the process of the discovery and how to relax into that, and how to trust it... and what it means and what it doesn’t mean. 

When we get to a place in our heads where we can “be ourselves” the advantages are huge. Life isn’t nearly as stressful. We stop being angry. We stop taking things personally and start viewing things as feedback that allows us to make corrections and move on. When we learn how to be ourselves and accept ourselves, we stop criticizing everyone else. The stress of NOT being ourselves or knowing ourselves is exhausting and frustrating. It can create a lot of stress and we can find ourselves acting out on people because of it. So in learning to be ourselves we are UN-cluttering our minds and freeing the hard drive space between our ears to engage in the process of success.

When we are comfortable in our own skins people will enjoy being around us. And of course that is very helpful in getting jobs, voiceover jobs, or any job. In these times that is becoming more and more important. This is important to remember. It is not merely about being the most talented voiceover artist, plumber, teacher, sales person, lawyer or dentist. A lot of people could do the actual work, but people hire people that they like the best. The best plan in the world is to like yourself and be yourself.

- VoiceOvers • You Don't Have To Be Like Everyone Else:)

I have been asked a number of questions this month about being like other "great announcers" or famous voiceover artists. Those people are successful and have great skills and much can be learned from them.
However you do not have to be "like them" but you do have be be as skilled as they are. There are many examples of VO artists who were very different and whose "styles"were joked about and thought incorrect. Lots of those peoples styles then became very popular, HAH!

You must always believe there is a place for you. You must always prepare like there is a place for you. You must always know that your best chance of getting work, is to be yourself.

- How To Start Your Voiceover Career

There are so many ways to give advice about how to start. There are many ways to look at how one begins. A lot of it depends on your personality and how one deals with the unknown. Having said that, here are some thoughts to encourage and support you in this wonderful world of voiceovers. Do not over estimate everyone else's intelligence. I tweeted last week that an old time voiceover guy told me when I was 22 years old and nervous about trying to get into voiceovers, " People dumber than you are making a fortune, just get out there and do it."
Never worry about what everyone else is doing or what "the odds are" it's completely besides the point. The question is do you love it enough to develop a great set of reading skills and start doing it. Training is the first and most important place to start. No one on a job is there to run a trade school. You have to know what you're doing. It's been my experience that a lot of people seem more interested in how to network than they are in developing the skills necessary to be hired and then re hired because they've done a good job. Learn the trade and whats required. Develop your skills so you know what you're doing. Be good company on the job and always, always be on time/ deliver on time and a voiceover career will treat you very well.

- Working the Mic

Generally  you'll want to be 8 to 10 inches from the mic. But if you're yelling you need to be farther back. If it's a very personal or intimate read, you need to be very close. It's very important that you learn to work the mic so you know what  the right distance is for you when you're doing different kinds of reads. Don't wait until you have a job that reveals you haven't experimented with distance and tones of voice. Knowing how your voice works under different conditions with your mic will put money in your pocket:)

- Getting The Most out of Your Voice and Career

There are several related questions that people ask me: How do I make my voice authentic? How do I get everything out of my voice? How can I read any style of copy better than anyone. How can I get to a higher level in my career? How can I make more money? How can I have a successful voiceover career?
There are many more questions than these that come in all the time. Some of the questions are good ones and some maybe not as well thought out. Nevertheless, here are some related answers.
Even the questions that seem more superficial are inspired by legitimate worries and or concerns.
How does voiceover success work and whats  the relationship of YOUR voice to it?
First of all, you have to be easy company to be around. Learn to be casual and social in the studio. Don't talk too much!
Practice ALL the time. There are really a lot of great VoiceOver Artists, make sure your practice schedule will make you one of them. A part time or random effort will produce an incomplete set of skills. Remember that NO ONE person can read all the different kinds of copy. The compass of your voice and personality has range and flexibility but it has natural limits that must be obeyed in order to maintain authenticity.
You can take your career to a higher level by developing a higher standard for the work you send out. I'm not talking about perfectionism, that has nothing to do with great work. It has everything to do with endless self criticism, which is different. Make sure you deliver pristine clear natural vocal renderings of the copy.
You can have a successful voiceover career by doing what we all have done; work hard on your skills because you love it so much, network with many people, use good business practices in all your dealings, and do what you say your going to do. Always remember, you can do do it. We have and so can you!

- Success = Record and Play Back, Record and Play Back - A lot:)

One of the most important things you can do to improve your ability to read copy and create variations, is to be a maniac about recording yourself and listening to those takes. Try and listen to your takes as a director would. Is it authentic? ... or does it smack of "Hard Sell"?  Does your delivery have "The Most Reasonable Conclusion Sound"? There are many, many ways to do successful voiceovers. You will discover what's best for your voice and personality by recording and playing back your voice endlessly. The built up familiarity will bring you revelations about how to create more effective deliveries.

- If You Want To Make More than Most people You Need better Skills than Most People

Everything is relative to the context you're in, but generally if you can read better than most people you have a good chance of making more than most people. What does that mean actually? Here are some generalizations that have lots of exceptions, but are  useful to make a point. You have to work on all of your skills from reading to cold reading to marketing and networking. No one is simply going to "discover you". It rarely works like that. People are often "over night" successes after many years of training and personal development until they "break through". One example is that the people directing a voice over session may just ask you to give them a half dozen different reads with some direction, but not much. You have to be able to do subtle variations of cadence and melody to give them true variations of the copy that still sounds natural and still remain within the general directions they have given. This is harder than it sounds. I do know a number of working pros who don't work on that and wonder why they can't climb higher on the food chain. We are never done trying to improve our skills so we can have "fewer gigs and bigger checks" :)

- Sometimes the Copy Isn't Very Good or The Reads - Just Have Some Fun

Boy, Some days, some projects really are better than others.

▶ Some days are better than others - YouTube

- The Best Way to Get Voiceover Work

There are a million people doing voiceover work and a lot of them are really great. What can you do to get work in this sea of voice actors? It's easy to talk about knowing the various styles and having good cold reading skills for bigger projects, but there is one quality that seems to me to be the most important. It is my opinion that the ability to personalize voiceover copy is the most important skill. It's obvious that the copy has to be idea driven, not merely "read". Sounding like you are "Present" when reading the copy makes it sound intimate...as if you are speaking to only one person who has your undivided attention. Many people do good "Reads" but the ones who seem to get the most work are the ones who personalize copy the best. The ones who sound like they're speaking to a close friend. The ones who sound the most "Present".

- KrappTV our New Show Starring Our Goats Reviewing Bad TV

Ok, so we have complained enough about all the Krapp on television, and now we are going to do a YouTube channel with guest VO artists reviewing shows or movies that our "Goats Don't Like"
Just clips and some fun. Here's our opener. Song by Geo Marshall.
krapptv.mov - YouTube

- There's Room For All Types in the Voiceover Biz

Yes the limo will be here soon.