Once upon a time, or 20 years ago, or so... it was ‘virtually impossible’ to find and book work in the voiceover industry without having agent representation, as agents and advertising agencies held the keys to voice rosters and casting calls with major corporates and they also had the ‘last word’ on whether you’d work or not… Let’s take a look at the role of the current day agent and whether you need one to be a voiceover artist...

What are agents and what do they do?

Q: How do I find contacts?

1. Start by Using Google to locate video production, audio production, and other production studios across the country…  and once...

• There’s lots of work available at any given time which is great practice for the new and upcoming VO talent.
• It’s a great way to get some income rolling in right off the bat…
• Unlike the average voiceover project which tends to be a ‘one-off’ job, you have the added bonus of being able to pick up royalty payments on a book that sells well! Imagine if you were to score, say, the next Harry Potter series?

Note: Ensure you read the book you’re narrating before you start to record… or at least skim through to the end, as...

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 Have I been replaced by an AI voice that is indiscernible as completely synthesized?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...