So….In 2024, You Want to be a Voice Actor, eh?

Voice Acting is an art and requires lots of training/coaching, education, money, dedication, determination and not be thin-skinned. As an example, out of all the auditions I do, perhaps in 100 auditions, I may get 1 job. Just think, I can dribble and shoot a basketball, but I’m not in the NBA. Catching my drift? Here’s a VO friend of mine who wrote a great article you should read. After you do, Google “VOICE ACTING”, “VOICE TALENT”, etc and read, read, read. You have a long road ahead of you if you are set in going forward with Voice Acting.

https://www.audioconnell.com/clientuploads/pdf/The_Voice_Over_Entrance_Exam_by_Peter_K_OConnell_Copyright_2009.pdf

Think it through thoroughly before you jump into our pool. You need to be ready to invest a lot of time and money into yourself. And have thick skin to take the rejection that we receive when we audition job after job – give it our all and still not get a call-back. It’s tough, but you need to use auditions as a tool to learn and strengthen yourself.

Wanted to toss a few things out there before we speak together so you can be thinking about what you are asking for. Honestly, I try my best to discourage people in trying to get into our biz right now. It’s a vicious circle. You must have a dynamite voice demo in order to get decent work. In order to have a demo, you should take training from a qualified coach. In order to get those ongoing auditions, you will need a quality studio. So if you do get a job, you can deliver a high quality audio file and the client may wish to direct you, so you need a phone patch too just to start. Obviously, this takes a lot of time, money, perseverance and a thick skin to endure the countless auditions it will take to get the job and the many, many rejections you’ll get every day. You must be ready to be available at a moments notice to be able to cut audio. I know many voice actors that are doing this full time and are still struggling. I am full time as a voice actor since 2006 after 35 years in radio where I started by biz on the side. It only took me 40+ years to be an overnight success.

Do you have what it takes to compete with these other hungry voice talents? There are over 300-400,000 out there now. That’s a small piece of pie to split even though there is a lot of work out there. Ask yourself these questions: • Are you planning on investing in yourself to be a full time voice actor or is this to be a side job? • Do you have access to a studio to work out of at a moments notice? • Do you currently have a Commercial demo? E-learning demo? Narrative Demo? • What are your strengths? Are you planning on specializing in any particular area of voiceovers? • What are your long range goals?

Let me know where you’re headed, I’d be happy to answer any of the questions above. Please respond via email. JG@johnnygeorge.com

I Thank you…. 

A New Decade – Time to Evolve?

Looking Ahead In 2020

We know it’s a new year and a new decade. So, is it time to re-evaluate and plot a new course as our industry evolves? In a word, YES, if you don’t want to get passed by.

Our VO industry is changing. Clients are finding voice “talents” that are willing to work with Fiverr standards. Well, ya get what you pay for. Right? I’ve heard from a variety of clients who say, out of the 100 auditions for a job, from one of the Pay-2-Play sites, 80% of the quality of the audio was frightfully bad. Out of the remaining 20%….10% had quality sound, but talent was below par and the last 10% were decent. However, when you’re going through 100 auditions and the quality is so shaky, you begin to lose the will to live. Aaaaggghh!

Over my adult career, commercial broadcast work was my bread and butter up until the late 90’s. Along came narrative projects, eLearning, movie trailers, video games, voices for toys, telephony, (IVR), etc. So many more items have needed our voiceover skills as each day passes. Many voice actors are now adding Audiobook work as part of their repertoire. Add in Messages-On-Hold, In-Store TV Networks, Training videos, cable TV programs, retail check-out scanning prompts, corporate training… the list goes on and on.

Seems like every day there is a new voice item being added to our ever-growing list of potential voice work. I am still supporting my regular clients that send me commercial broadcast and MOH projects, but I’m finding eLearning and Explainer videos have become my favorite forms of voice expression.

Our jobs, as the mouthpiece representing various clients with their variety of products, is an exciting and creative avenue to our ever-changing world, where a human voice is needed to communicate. True, artificial intelligence (AI) has raised its ugly head as an alternative to a live human voice, but a real human voice is still the de-facto majority.

What form of voiceover do you do best? What category excites you? Do your homework and find out who these clients are. LinkedIn is a great place to run category searches. (Thank you Tracy Lindley) Find out all you can about them. Their website, their latest news, their latest products that have gotten press. So many things you can learn about a potential client. Appeal to their love of their company and show genuine interest. That goes a long way if you are as excited about their news as they are.

As one of my favorite motivational people says, “GO GET IT!” (Thank you Corey Dissin)