I was ‘slapped in the face’ by an advertisement on social media this week that went something like this:

Never buy another voiceover again! 

Download and subscribe to (insert product name here) For the low, low introductory price of 67 dollars for a lifetime subscription and you’re set for any type of voiceover you require…

Initially, I was a little concerned…

Is it possible? Is it time to sell my Microphone? Have they finally done it? Have I been replaced by an AI voice that is indiscernible as completely synthesized? 

Have they finally caught up with Humanity and made AI sound natural?

In my humble opinion, what we’re dealing with is just another form of competition entering the voiceover market and by my limited research I’d say at this stage there are lots of ‘big hats’ at the rodeo, but not a lot of cattle.

Read on young Jedi, to get ‘the scoop’ on what I’ve discovered...

What is AI for...

Voiceover: Can I REALLY leave my job and go full time?

(Can I really work from home and make money?)

It’s a thought that goes through the minds of all voice talents especially in the early days of our careers, and it can also be seen to ‘revisit’ our thoughts if a voice talent hasn’t established a robust business plan or if you lose momentum in your consistency or business generation habits and strategies...

A trip back in Voiceover History:

If we were to step back a little, we wouldn’t have to go too far back in time to where voice talents relied entirely upon their relationships with sound engineers, production studios, and their talent agents to provide auditions for voice over jobs and projects.

Agents and production studios were the ‘starmakers’, and without them and their support, you couldn’t possibly have a successful voiceover career.

In those days, the ‘select few’ were on the roster of advertising...

New to SEO? 

Wanting to know why it has any bearing on your Voiceover business?

Given SEO is a huge subject, I won’t pretend to know it all or give you all the ‘super tips’ in this one article, but what I will attempt, is to try to ‘lift the veil’ on the mysteries of SEO for voiceover and why it’s an ever-growing important consideration for yours, and any service-related business.

Let’s start at the very beginning with the most obvious question of all:

What is SEO?

SEO or Search Engine Optimization is a process by which any digital content you’ve created can be ‘optimized’ or made more visible for particular and specific searches on the web… 

Simply, to make you and your business easier to find and more exposed to website algorithms or formulas, try to place the most popular searches first and directly in the hands of anyone searching for them!  

Here’s a simple but human example of how SEO...

I remember it well like it was only yesterday…

I was a young and upcoming voice talent with a burning passion in my heart for voice over and a glint in my eye and a blinding flash of teeth when I smiled…

And absolutely no idea what to do next…

(Voice in my young head:) Like where do I get clients?

Will an agent just knock on my door or will they call me first? 

How do they know where I live?? Will they want coffee?? Etc etc…

Sounds silly now, but Hey, If you don’t know… 

You only know, what you know…Y’know?

Don’t worry ace, I got your back… what you need more than anything is a consistent daily routine… If you remember anything from this article it’s this…

Consistency brings Success!

Think about it this way: If you’re not leaving landmines for your potential customers to trip over… how will they 

1. Find you? 

2. Remember you?

It’s a daily thing...

It’s a fair question, 

“I’m new to my voiceover journey, so how do I come up with the content required to present myself in a professional light, like someone who knows what they’re doing?”

Before you climb under the covers, here are some handy tips to help you as we consider what you do have to promote…

Here’s No:1

Focus on YOUR personal background 

The first thing to consider in figuring this out is: 

Your client's problem…

Yup! 

Your client's problem… and that is, they need a solution to their problem, whatever that is… Why you? 

You need to show them that with all your life experience, you are a unique solution to their problem!

So, let’s play this idea out…

Tell me, aside from having some understanding of voiceover, what experience do you have in life that you can draw upon, as a solution to your client's issue?

You’ve read,

You’ve experienced relationships, been in...

I wanted to start today’s blog by sharing a story from the very famous Stephen Fry,

UK’s celebrated narrator of JK Rowling’s Harry Potter series…

So, the story goes that Stephen was discussing the narration of the then-new author’s first Potter book and she mentioned proudly that she had another on the way… 

(who would’ve guessed, right?) Apparently Stephen Fry said something terribly condescending to ‘JK’ about her next book along the lines of: Oh how splendid! Good for you! 

According to Stephen Fry, he was a marked man from that day…

In a chapter of the first book, a line that Stephen had to read was ‘Harry pocketed it’... he had no end of trouble trying to pronounce the phrase so, he suggested a revision to JK Rowling, saying that it would be so much easier to say ‘Harry put it in his pocket’... JK Rowling vehemently disagreed with any change in the copy and to add insult to injury...

Something we all have in common as talents on our own voiceover journey… and that’s the endless desire to stand out and be seen... 

We seek to rise above the noise of a busy market and be counted as working hard on our craft and bringing something unique… ours is an interesting landscape and it’s also an expanding one as more and more remote countries and continents come online and connect with the global village via the web… there’s nothing standing in our way of working with all 195 countries across the world except maybe foreign languages and a lack of ability to communicate. 

Of course, if you’re lucky enough to speak a second or third language, then more power to you, but for those of us who aren’t so talented, there’s something else you may or may not have considered to add to your voiceover portfolio and that’s learning to use a different accent or two…

Now, I think all of us probably have a...

- To be smooth, creamy, and noise-free!

It sounds like an advert for a new thick shake, I know… however, it’s also an important subject when it comes to the craft of voiceover and a working knowledge of these plug-ins will help you immensely on your VO Journey…

Today, we are going through the plug-ins that are hard to live without, are well worth their investment many times over and their powerful effects will save your hair, your stress levels, and most importantly, your growing band of clients…

You’ll find most voiceover artists are familiar with and recommend Waves or Izotope plugins and it’s a good idea to check out both as deals and packages come up across the year… both brands are great and completely adequate for the type of editing and production you’ll require.

Most are pretty much ‘set and forget’ and it’s also possible and highly advisable to organize a ‘preset’ in your post-production...

3 Things you need to do daily in order to find success in your Voice Over Journey…

I’d think unless you are absolutely brand new to your VO Journey, then we’ve all been there, working away, honing our craft, thinking everything is ticking along well, only to hit a dry spell of no requests or custom orders and then there’s that sudden earth-shattering realization…  Oh Boy! I haven’t done a Facebook post all week! Or ‘Oops! I’ve forgotten to send out my buyer requests on Fiverr all week’ etc…

Whatever your marketing process, it’s not hard to forget a ‘major cog’ in the VO marketing machine and realize it all a little too late, and you have to start building your process again…

So, in order for this not to happen...

1. A transition is required and It’s one change I also certainly had to make and must admit, I need constant reminding to go back to basics and check my plans and goals and...

So, today we’ve decided to enter the murky, oily, vacuous world of Microphones, and which one is the right one for you?? Oh, Brother!!

Let me quietly and carefully start by saying, there are many different types of Microphones and all of them have their place in the world and some of them shine in certain applications and aren’t so great in others, some are iconic, some are old school… but in order to try and pull back the curtains to ‘demystify’ the whole process of choosing the right microphone from a Voiceover Journey point of view… we’d better start with what each Microphone does…

But first, What does a Microphone do?

Put simply, a microphone captures sound waves and converts these waves into electrical impulses that can then be read and ‘understood’ by analog or digital recording equipment, or in our case, a digital interface or DAW, connected to your computer.

We could get into how microphones produce AC...