Voice Over Stories:
The Rocky Road to V/O Success
I haven’t spent much time on social media of late. Whether it’s a consequence of being old enough to remember using dial phones, a personality roughly equivalent to a broken beer bottle, or a combination thereof, I lack the social media “gene,” and struggle to interact with people on these platforms in a meaningful manner. However, last week, a colleague who has been trying for about 2 years to get their v/o career off the ground told me they were giving up. To paraphrase their frustrations: There’s too much competition, and potential clients were either not interested, or demanding far more for far less than was worth the effort. To paraphrase my response: There IS a path to success, albeit one strewn with some pretty significant obstacles. Their experience led me to reflect on my own voiceacting career, such as it is, and I have some thoughts I’d like to share. Not everything in this screed will apply to you, but if I didn’t think it was worth reading, I wouldn’t have written it. If you didn’t think it was worth reading, you’re already long gone anyway.
In the interest of full disclosure, I’m not an enormously successful voiceactor. You’ve never heard my gravelly tones during the Super Bowl, nor anything to that effect. But I HAVE worked, and have done so on a global scale. My voice has wormed its way into ears from South Africa to Sydney, and Savannah to San Diego. I managed to make the transition from “struggling freelancer” to “agency representation” some time ago, and I do have a sense of what works, and what doesn’t. Think of me like a golf swing coach. Hank Haney never won a PGA Tour event, but some of the greatest golfers in history have sought his advice. To overstretch the sports simile: Bill Belichick never played in a Super Bowl, but Tom Brady’s jewelry collection would be a great deal less shiny without his tutelage.
GETTING STARTED
Lao Tzu (may have) said the hardest part of the journey is the first step. What he didn’t say is that that step can be a real mother. Going from “I’m doing voice overs” to “I’m a professional voice actor” is one hell of a leap. But if you’re already over the cliff, you might as well enjoy the flight. Barring an incredible stroke of luck, your first paying gig is going to be small, and it will pay peanuts. Focusing on the size of the gig and attendant paycheck is stepping off in the wrong direction. GET THE GIG. And get it wherever you can find it. Fiverr. Upwork. Your mom’s friend’s dog grooming business’s voice mail. Whatever. And here’s how you can do it:
KIT
You don’t need to drop 10s of 1000s on a whisper room, state-of-the-art condenser mic, DAW and preamp. If you can, absolutely go for it; the Sennheiser MKH 416 is an industry standard for a reason. But if you can’t, you can still make it in this business. There are artists out there making a real living using usb mics while squeezing into the corners of their bedroom closets. I personally know one artist knocking down north of 6 figures annually whose go-to mic is a Mackie EM-91c. Never forget that the most important part of your signal chain is YOU. If I put Laura Anderson in front of an AT 2100 in my basement, I’m going to end up with a professional-grade vo. If I put some babbling crackhead in front of a Neumann U87 in a professionally-treated recording space, I’m going to end up with..well..you get the idea.
DEMO
Much like your kit, if you can afford to have a professional-grade demo produced by professionals, then do that. If not, then listen to the demos of the best artists working, and use them as a template. There are sites out there which offer practice scripts. Use them. Do your best to learn how to get the best sound possible. You need to know how to do that anyway. More practice = more skill. More skill = more success. If you want to win The Masters, you’re gonna have to put a lot of golf balls in the woods. Keep swinging. Always.
WEBSITE
Have one. Seriously. Companies like Squarespace, Wix, etc have made creating your site relatively easy and inexpensive. Give people a dedicated place to check out your wares without competition. It doesn’t have to be fancy; an overly busy site can be kind of a turnoff. Check out BenCanRead.com. It has my demos, a brief bio, contact info, and an easy-to-use contact form. It also provides me with analytics, so I have a sense of how well my marketing efforts are working. Most importantly, it gives me a dedicated email address: Ben@BenCanRead.com. It might not seem like a big deal, but <Name>@<free email address> practically screams “hobbyist.” Nearly every professional operation on the planet has a website. So should you.
FINDING WORK
I know, I know. Cold emailing sucks. It’s a grind, it doesn’t offer much of a conversion rate, and ultimately, it’s bloody boring. Using email to troll for clients is like auditioning. Most, and by “most” I mean “nearly all” of your cold emails will be ignored, if they’re not stuffed into a spam filter outright. ALL of the ones you DON’T send will fail to produce. 99 failures out of 100 is daunting. But that one “YES” is worth it. Strap on the headphones, put on some music, and get to typing.
PHONE
My brother is a literal cold calling God. Homeboy could sell ice to eskimos over the phone. I, on the other hand, lump cold calling in with visits to the proctologist. If you’re like him, rock on. If you’re like me, try to remember: You’re a voice over artist. The single best way to prove it is to use it. Identify potential clients, and then CALL THEM. Sure, your conversion rate will still suck, but people are far more likely to listen to a voicemail from some rando than to read an email from the same guy. If you’re THAT good, the opening “Hi, I’m Ben, and I’m a voice over artist” might be enough to keep them listening. And if they actually answer the phone, then you are much farther along than their spam filter.
SOCIAL MEDIA
As I admitted a few hundred words ago, I suck at social media. But it’s an absolute fact that the days of watercooler word-of-mouth are long gone. If you want to get noticed, get on, and get posting. But - and this is a big one - KEEP YOUR POSTS WORK RELATED. If you’re trying to break into the v/o industry, save the sociological and political postings for other platforms. If someone is using a site like LinkedIn, which was ostensibly created to connect people in business, to yammer about how Donald Trump, or Joe Biden, or whoever, is the devil, then they’re not interested in their own work. How much do you really think they’re gonna care about yours? Links to your site, to your work, and related offerings are it. Don’t forget the hashtags.
**a note about hashtags** Don’t do it gratuitously.
Appropriate: When I was transitioning from the “prove it” stage of my #voiceover career, <@ VOICE ACTING STAR> was kind enough to waste an hour on the phone talking me through a sticky spot.
Inappropriate: #VoiceActing is totes kewl! #voiceovers #voiceartist #voicestuff #hashtag #hashtag #morehashtag <@ VOICE ACTING STAR>.
And if someone drops the hammer on you for trying to *appropriately* hitch your wagon to theirs, then find another wagon train. If they’re on social media, then trust me, they want the attention. If a scrub asking to play on their field irritates them, then attention is ALL they want.
P2P SITES LIKE VOICES(DOT)COM AND GIG SITES LIKE FIVERR AND UPWORK
Yes, the rates are crap. Yes, the competition is akin to trying to win the lottery. And yes, some of their practices - looking at you, VDC - are nearly unforgivable. But they offer work. Someone has to win these gigs. You can’t win if you’re not in. Sure, 5 bucks for 150 words offers a sh*tty ROI. But if you want to race in the Indy 500, you’re gonna have skid around some dirt tracks. In v/o terms, before you can read for McDonald’s, you’re gonna have to flip a few burgers. Some people in this industry do everything from sneering at P2P and gig sites to actively trying to dissuade you from engaging with them at all; I’ve even done that. I WAS WRONG, and so are they. It’s pure gatekeeping, and is worth neither your time nor your attention. Ask yourself why anyone would try to stop you from finding work. “I’M a super successful voice artist, and I say P2P and gig sites are BAAAAD, so YOU shouldn’t be looking for work there.” Why do they care? They don’t. They’re not trying to help you find work; quite the opposite, in fact. At some point, you will be able to leave those avenues for easier streets. The people who tell you not to drive down Upwork Road, Fiverr Boulevard and P2P Place aren’t trying to help you find Success Street, they’re trying to keep you out of their community. Ignore them.
“COACHING”
There ARE legitimate people out there who are legitimately trying to help. However, if you encounter someone whose LinkedIn post, or YouTube video “5 EASY STEPS TO VOICE OVER STARDOM” (or something to that effect) doesn’t actually offer anything but a link to “SIGN UP NOW FOR ONLY $59!” - run. I’m not suggesting that some of those paid courses and instructors don’t offer valuable insight, nor am I saying that you can’t find a pot of gold at their end of the rainbow. And coaches deserve to earn a living, too. I’m just warning you that anyone who’s promising you a shortcut to Easy Street is selling you first, second and third. If getting you to buy their “course” is their primary goal, then helping you find the exit to Easy Street isn’t. One of the top voiceover agents of all time offers a weekly online gathering during which he is joined by industry experts. They not only offer tips to finding victory in the v/o game, they even listen to and evaluate aspirants’ reads. FOR. FREE. I’m not a frequent visitor - my schedule just doesn’t fit most of the time - and not everyone who steps into his ring is destined for success, but hey, it don’t cost nuthin’. Revisiting the now grossly-overused golf analogy: Hank Haney might not be able to turn a hack into Tiger Woods, but if a hack turns down a free weekly lesson from ol’ Hank, he kinda deserves to be a hack.
For the two or three of you who read this entire post: thank you. I should note that this is really just a thumbnail. As is the case with any industry, the road to success is much more complicated, and the directions to find your way are much more detailed. The sad truth is that not everyone who tries will succeed. Some very deserving and talented people veer off - or are forced off - the path. You need work, work, more work, and not a little bit of luck to pass the potholes on by. And hey, if you need help, I charge a LOT less than $59.