VO Tips

The best way to find success in the world of voiceover is to get by with a little help from our friends. That is the entire reason I started this blog. I want to take the information that I have and share it with the world. I don’t claim to be the world’s greatest voice, I am definitely not, but I feel that I have a way with relating information to people (especially the driven dreamers like myself) that can really help them out a lot.

Getting by with a little (or maybe a whole lot of help) from our friends involves reading blogs like this one and talking to other VO people about what they do and how they do it. The best way to do that is by posting to VO bulletin boards like these:

If you want to call yourself a true voice over artist, you’ll need to have a home studio. It’s as simple as that.

Unfortunately, it’s also as complicated as that.

The nice thing about being a VO person is that we do not have to record many, many tracks with really fancy equipment and software. All you need to get started is a good microphone, some moderate sound proofing, and a computer with audio editing software. That’s all!

Before I begin, let me say that I am going for value in this setup, I want to make having a home studio affordable for everyone. You have to start small, get small gigs, make some money to put back into nicer equipment. It’s a vicious cycle, but it is well worth it. There is nothing like having a home studio.

Let’s get started:

This afternoon I had the pleasure of e-meeting Bettye Zoller, one of the great female voices in the world of voiceover. She has granted me permission to use her article “What Is A Voiceover” on my blog. Without further ado: Bettye Zoller’s “What Is A Voiceover?”:

What Is A Voiceover and How Do You Do It?

By Bettye Zoller

www.voicesvoices.com

btzol@aol.com

What Is A Voiceover?

If your answer to this question is no, you are in deeeeeep trouble.

15 years ago, no one knew what the internet was. Now, if you don’t have a website and you want to do VO, you’d better get one. Your best investment for your VO career is practice/preparation. Your second best investment is good equipment. Your third best investment is a killer website.

Like we talked about last post, don’t ASPIRE to be a pro, BE a pro. To be a pro these days you MUST have a website and it must be excellent. It has to look clean, easy to navigate, content rich, and has to leave its mark on the viewer.

So how does one go about obtaining an awesome sight? I am blessed enough to be able to run 3 of my own websites (not including blogs or social stuff). What if you don’t know HTML, CSS, Flash, or Java or any of that fancy stuff? You have two options: do it yourself or have someone do it for you. I have suggestions for both.

The most important think you have as a Voice Over artist is your voice, but the second most important thing you have is people’s perception of you, especially if you’re a freelancer like me. When I’m working at my part time job or telling people what I do, I don’t tell them I want to do voice-overs, I tell them I do voice-overs. This has actually produced a lot of work for me.

I know it’s been said a billion times, but it really is true: you only get one shot at a first impression. I had to learn this earlier in my career, and it’s a hard lesson to learn the hard way. Take it from me: don’t send in your stuff to agencies, stations, any prospective client if it doesn’t sound amazing. Dream of LA or NY, but don’t send stuff anywhere near those places unless people ask you for it. There are seasoned voice pros in all markets who have the corner on those places. I’m not saying you should never try for it, but wait until you have enough ammo before you go charging into battle, if you get my drift. If a prospective client associates your name with ‘wannabe’ or ‘mediocrity’, you’re labeled for life; unfortunately that’s how it goes in this business.

How do you get work in VO? We went over this in my last post, tell EVERYONE you know, literally everyone. With the internet there are literally millions of ways to do it. You should not only tell everyone you know, but you should tell most people you meet. You never know who you’re talking to. Don’t be weird about it though. Working at an electronics store, I have lots of opportunities (especially selling speakers, writable CD’s and DVD’s, video cameras, and microphones) to tell people about what I do. People usually respond with “How did you get into that?” I’m glad I can write this blog to tell them all how.

One last thing: carry business cards. If people don’t have a way to get in touch with you they will not contact you. Don’t make the business cards yourself, please, they don’t look as good as you think they do. Go to a site like VistaPrint that makes free business cards or go to Staples or Office Max and have someone there help you. People are just plain impressed when you reach into your pocket or purse, pull out a business card wallet and hand them a card. Trust me, I see it happen every day.

In my next post I am going to talk about the best investment you can make in your pursuit of VO success: a good website.

Stay tuned!

It’s a pretty simple question, I know, but think about it. If you walked up to a relative and asked “What do I dream of becoming?” what would be their answer? I know definitively that all of my friends, relatives, associates, clients, almost anyone that has ever met me knows that I am a voice-over artist. I usually get around to telling everyone that I meet what I do.

You might think that sounds a little crazy, but I don’t think so. If you like something so much that you think about it all the time… wait… you are that way about voice over, aren’t you? Ah… there’s the problem! You have to be NUTS about VO to be able to do it. I know that I am OBSESSED with being a VO guy and I have been since I was little. Now, you don’t have to go THAT far, but you DO have to love it. That is one of my keys to my success. I love VO so much that I spend almost half my waking moments (and some of my sleeping moments) thinking about it.

“That sounds like obsession!” Well… here’s how obsession is defined: “An influence, notion or fixed idea, which persistently assails or vexes so as to discompose the mind…”. My thought about VO do not discompose my mind, they compose it regularly. They do not hinder my every day activities, they give them purpose and meaning (something I strive to find in every single aspect of my life). Obsessed is one of those words that is overused and thereby loses its true meaning.

In short, IT’S OK to think about your goals all the time!! That’s one of the defining characteristics of very succesful people all throughout history. Begin to cultivate this good habit and you will begin seeing success!!