How to 'Break' Into Voice Over (Part I of Many)

I receive countless messages and emails asking to "pick my brain about how to break into VO."

What's not to love about the idea of being a voice actor?

It seems both flexible and glamorous:

• "Work from anywhere in the world!"
• "Easily earn $100k/year in your pajamas!"
• "Get famous for making voices and talking for a living!"
• "It's so easy! You just have to read scripts and books!"
• "No annoying coworkers, cooler gossip, or cubicles!"

It seems like some people see this industry and craft as a mystical Utopia that lies beyond a locked gate, and if they can simply find someone with a key (or great ninja skills) willing to share their knowledge, that they too can break in.

But, it isn't a gate.

It's a mountain.

It's a mountain that must be climbed; and before you can climb it you have to learn how to climb, get your gear together, and have an excellent reason to keep going, because there will be times when it is painful, is humiliating, and seems impossible. It is going to take diligent daily effort, and a whole lotta time.

The truth is, there are many paths up this mountain, but they all have some themes in common.

1. You have to develop and hone your skills: It's called 'voice acting' and not 'script reading' for a reason. If you cannot connect 3D human emotion, reactions, and behavior to the 2D copy, the audio will not resonate with the audience, and the story will fall apart. People who do that well make it look easy, but that is not often the case, they've had tons of training and experience.
2. You have to have quality gear: For the most part, the voice actors who are making 6 figures a year, have also spent a great deal of money investing in their sound treatment/isolation, tech, and assets (like membership subscriptions, software, demos, marketing, etc.)
3. There's so much more to it than meets the eye at the surface level: File organization, invoicing, communicating with clients in different, global time zones (#allthemath), software updates, project management skills, marketing, networking, taxes, legal & accounting considerations, etc. You are a one-person orchestra that encompasses every department of your business.
4. You need skilled and experienced guides and teachers: And I am using the plural there for good reason. It is very rare, unless you want to be a super niche voice actor who only delivers one specific type of read to one specific source, to find a mentor, coach, teacher, or guide who can help you with it all. You also will want some help with the business side in addition to the art.
5. You will never "arrive" at a summit: There will be growth, learning, challenges, peaks, valleys, and slower and faster days. But there is no finish line, no arrival, and no "making it." A new script comes in, a new day begins, and the process starts all over again.
6. You need a solid and diverse plan: Just as a wheel has more than one spoke, if you are going to have any endurance in making VO a career, over a hobby, you will need to have multiple sources of auditions and casting. From word of mouth connections, social media outreach, having an agent, being a trusted actor on a roster, and/or online casting and freelancing sites. That means you need to be willing to go out there and continue building relationships and hunting down/gathering lead sources.

It is not quick, it is not easy, it is not "cheap" or free, but it is very worth it.

So allow me to walk you through what I generally say when people ask me how to "break in."

Why do you want to do it?

Inevitably, I hear tales about how someone has been laid off, or hates their current job, and they are looking for a way out of the rat race, or to earn more for their household while doing some soul searching about what their next real job will be.

Others will say something about how they've always been told they have an amazing voice, or love to read their child bedtime stories in "funny" voices, or grew up watching and loving cartoons, and always wanted to do that someday.

There are a few folks who are reaching the retirement milestone, and find they want something to do with the extra time that could also supplement their retirement income.

There is a small percentage of folks who either used to be DJs or radio announcers who are looking to transfer their skills to a new branch of audio.

Another (even smaller) percentage consists of actors who predominantly perform on stage or camera, and have been asked (or forced) by their agent to start auditioning for voice over, and they simply want to know how to modify the acting to fit the new medium.

In my experience, the less ego-driven the reason for the change, the better chance a person has at making the transition. The better their journey will be.

The ego clings pretty tightly, and tension is the first thing that kills our relationship to the mic. The ego wants above all else to keep us safe, and a lack of vulnerability or playing it small and safely "comfortable" is also a massive barrier to authentic performance.

If you love it, truly LOVE IT, then you are attracted to it, as it will be attracted TO YOU.

Love is a forward-moving, non-attached, progressive motivation, but ego will turn love into a possessive, attached, aggressive, territorial stance that is a motivation-killer. I wouldn't wish it on anyone.

So my advice here, is to want but not need it, love it, but not force it, and to be really honest about what your driving motivation is.

When I see folks who need it to happen (like, really, really, neeeeeeeed) because they need the money, or the validation, or because they equate casting success with self-worth, they often implode or explode, or get caught up in a desperate and intense emotional storm. It's not a place any person wants to live from, though many people do.

I had my own personal experience with this 7 years ago. At that point, I was solely auditioning for voice over work with my agent, and I was not booking much of it. Maybe one or two jobs a year.

At first, I didn't mind. It was still fun to learn about all the products, brands, and industries that the scripts were selling and explaining, and I was learning each and every time something new about script analysis, editing, mic technique, and performance... but then several of my college classmates started having huge success.

Brian Smith was booking Broadway plays, a Star Gate Universe redo (and eventually landing on the amazing series Sense8). Stephanie Beatriz had landed on Modern Family (before moving onto Brooklyn 99 and Encanto fame.)

I started getting texts from well meaning people asking when it was going to be "my turn?"

Then, all of a sudden, these auditions for sporting goods stores, and restaurants, and tutorials about how to install HEPA filters into fans, which had been getting no traction, went from being fun little "fly on the wall" adventures, to being signs that I didn't have what it took—what ever it was—talent, it-factor, skill, marketability, etc.

Instead of being excited, delighted, and curious ("Oooh, what's this one going to be about??") Every time one of these scripts would pop into my inbox, I'd dread them... with a huge sigh of disappointment and frustration.

"What's the use?" I'd tell myself in a dejected tone, "I suck... why bother."

It became such a miserable experience, that the world started to lose color and vibrancy, and my days just seemed kind of bleak. Like a gray montage of futility.

What was the point of me moving to Chicago? Of working all these day jobs? Of going to college and studying performance? To be a full-time actor, of course!

But here I was, about to turn 35, and I had nothing to show for it.

Maybe I had just had some dumb beginner's luck to get me in the door in my twenties... but clearly there was a timeline for this kind of career, and I was not on it. #TheComparisonTrap

So I quit.

I stopped auditioning for a full year. During that year:

a) I was very fortunate my agent didn't give me the boot. (I am so grateful, I have now been with her for 18 years!!)

b) I did some real soul searching as to if I actually wanted what I wanted, why I wanted it, and why these texts had gotten so deeply under my skin.

c) I discovered that I was holding onto some very limiting beliefs— conditioning I had picked up along the way. For example, that by choosing to go into acting instead of law, that I was committing fraud, that I was seeking approval from being successful, and that I didn't think I was enough... not only for success, but just to be loved, valued, or appreciated.

How's that for an implosion?

I thank the heavens every day for this chapter of my career and life.

It taught me so much, and brought with it the launching point for some great things that were yet to come.

It brought me to a new coach and mentor, who taught me that to be real in front of the mic, is also to be real in life. If being human means embracing our flaws, then being overly polished in front of the mic makes us sound robotic, unnatural, and thin.

That to dig in and be 'real & raw' might mean dropping some 'F-bombs' in the lead in lines in order to outwit the internal critic. It might mean needing to stumble, and slur through some words just like we do in real life (but never the client name!) She helped me to fall back in love with what the creative process holds, and not the end result. To make it fun, timely, and rewarding, even if the script is dry or dull, by reigniting curiosity and a sense of play. (And also to be really, really, grateful when the scripts are well-written, fun, funny, touching, and/or completely align with your own missions, values, and feelings.)

(Thank you Deb Doetzer!)

I share this story with you, and with anyone who sends that "how do I break in" message, because if YOU can do that work up front, you will have a strong and stable foundation (the tallest trees have the deepest roots!) You will begin this whackadoodle journey eyes and heart wide open, and it will save you a lot of time, energy, pain, and money.

Master your mindset first... and next we'll talk about developing and honing your skills in pursuit of authentic performance!

Thanks for reading! Please let me know if you have questions, and/ or if you have a topic you'd like to hear about. I really do love helping actors and business professionals understand our whackadoodle industry as best as can be done! ?

Lauren Goode

www.goodevoice.com