So You Want to Be a Voice Over Artist?

So you’ve heard of Voice Acting and think it might be something you’d be interested in. Where do you start?

When I got started in VO (Voice Over) it came from a desire to have more of my time back. In the sales job I had been in previously, the only incentive they had for working was getting more money. The problem? I didn’t need more money. What I wanted was more of my time to spend with my family and use as I saw fit. After hearing about Voice Over from a new friend, I started asking questions and doing lots of research and decided it was something that I wanted to pursue.

I think the way I started was the best way to do it and I think it saved me a TON of time and money. Honestly, I learned a lot of this from a VO guru named Bill Dewees who has TONS of free videos on Youtube. I discovered his content early on and am so glad that I did.

First things first, you’re going to need some equipment. Don’t get pulled down the rabbit hole of all the equipment other people think you need. The truth of the matter is you need a decent USB microphone (one that will plug straight into your computer), a computer, and a recording/editing software. There are lots of options for all of these things. For the mic, I have heard that fifine makes a decent sounding one for CHEAP. Hopefully you’ve already got a computer you can use and then Audacity is a free open-source editing software that you can get started with.

Next, I would try to find an avenue that sounds interesting to you. Maybe you think you would like to narrate audiobooks. Or you might prefer to do short commercials (this is more what I do), or you might even find that you would like to do more acting and would like something like narrating video games or something like that. Decide something that you would like to try and start to record some things. The reason for this is because it will give you a baseline to improve upon and then you will also be able to find out if you like it.

Some advice I heard for narrating audiobooks is to get one book you love and one book you hate and sit in a closet by yourself and read them. Don’t even record. If you enjoy that process, you might like audiobooks. To me, that sounded awful! Particularly the part about reading a book I hate! So I prefer more short-form recording.

After you’ve started to dabble in recording yourself and editing a little bit, what I would encourage you to do is to record a DIY demo. This is something where you find 5-10 commercials you like and record about 10-15 seconds of each and put them all together into a 1 minute long Demo. These commercials are meant to represent your range of talent with your voice. So you might have a tender hospital commercial, an upbeat cell phone commercial, a chocolate commercial, etc.

You should create a DIY Commercial demo even if you don’t want to do commercials. The reason for that is because many of the customers you will get (especially starting out) will want to hear a commercial demo. That’s because it does a much better (and shorter) job of capturing your range so that your client can hear it quickly.

Lastly, as you’re getting started, you should get signed up on a few freelance websites. Some of those include Fiverr and Upwork (where you can find lots of different kinds of work) and ACX which is Audible’s website for finding narrators for their audiobooks. Upload your DIY demo and just start applying for different jobs!

Finally, be patient. It won’t come right away. It takes a long time to get that first job. But it feels so good to make that first dollar when you have created your own company! Then, as you start to get more jobs, you can upgrade your equipment to professional gear.

Starting my own VO career has been one of the best decisions I have ever made and I’m so grateful for it. If you’re serious about starting yours, or you need someone who loves their career as a VO artist to voice something for you, please reach out to me. I would love to answer any questions you might have.