Realism and Getting Started in Voice Overs

So you want to start a career in voice overs, or you know a friend or family member that does. My advice is to act like an athlete. No, seriously! When a kid says "I'm going to pitch for the New York Yankees" he doesn't work directly towards that goal. It's simply not attainable. They've got their pitchers lined up on the roster and on the farm team. Similarly, you can't say "I'm going to do movie trailers in LA". There are already only a handful of people (and sadly not enough women) who have earned the right to be trusted with the work from the major studios, and then a few people that are close to being the next generation of voices.

So what does the kid do to become a Yankees pitcher; and what, by analogy, would he be doing if he wanted to be a voice over talent?

First, he/she goes out and gets an nice starter glove and shoes. Something reliable and cheap, and well recommended by others. As a voice over talent, he goes out and buys a nice $100-ish microphone like an AKG Perception, Studio Projects B1, MXL 2003a, or an AT2035. Then he finds a nice field to practice, and the budding voice over talent needs to create a recording space with quality acoustics (google is your friend at this point).

Second, he studies the game and learns what works and doesn't. As a voice over talent, he would go to voicebank.net and listen for hours all the demos of established talent; and watch and listen to voice overs all the time on tv, radio, and the internet.

Third, he would train with a coach both for exercises and for in-game playing technique. The same would go for the voice over talent. No matter how lovely your voice is, it needs to be trained with vocal exercises and acting technique to be competetive on the voice-over playing field.

Fourth, he would find a local team to play for, and then work his way up the leagues. As a voice over talent, he would market himself to local businesses, media professionals, production houses, editors, television and radio, etc. Then he could work toward a higher regional league, and then the major leagues.

Finally, he would be open to trying different positions to help his career. He wants to be a Yankees pitcher, but maybe he'd be a better outfielder. Similarly, as a voice over talent you may think you're A Big Movie Trailer Voice or a Whimsical Impersonator, but what clients are most likely to pay you for is your conversational narration for reality programming. Be willing to try on different roles to find your "money voice". Let the voice find you, don't try to force the voice to come out.

Don't force anything. Pay your dues, work your way up, and focus on doing the best you can do for any job at hand, and don't worry about becoming "a voice over talent". It may all come to you if you're honest about the process and have your head in the right space. If not, you may well end up being the over 90% of union actors and voice over talents that cannot make a living at doing what they would love to do. No one ever said life was fair.