This episode is based on a listener question from Denae, and she writes:

Thousands of people love singing and have flocked to audition for American Idol over the years. For some of these very well-intentioned folks, all the work, effort, and dedication in the world will not make them professional, paid singers. I love love love using my voice. I always have, but it doesn’t mean I have a voice people want to hear or would pay to use for a project. How do we know we should even pursue voice over work? AKA Am I deluding myself? Is it necessary to have a voice for voiceovers?

Thanks for the question, Denae, let’s dive in.

First and foremost, remember that…

It’s all subjective.

What people want to hear and having a good VO voice is relative to any one person across the board. What I like to hear and what you like to hear whether it’s a song, a sound, etc. is based on any one individual’s thoughts, experiences, memories, etc. 

I immediately think of my friends in school who listened to screamo music by choice, for instance. While I can confidently say, that has never been my cup of musical tea, those friends flocked to these kinds of concerts! How can that be? If I dislike it so much, how can other seemingly normal people like it? 

Let’s talk about another example more relevant to what we do. Take a professional VO spot I heard recently. There is an ad running on Pandora right now having to do with something about the number one – I really don’t know. I just know that ‘one’ ‘once’ whatever is repeated so many times in the short spot. I can’t get over the misguided delivery and really bad copy. But I have to understand, this guy was hired and most likely paid professional rates to voice a broadcast commercial on a streaming platform, which is no small thing in this industry. What if I deem him not a voice anyone really wants to hear? Does my opinion matter at all?  No, the client is the only one who gets to decide what voice makes the cut based on the idea they have in their head about how the spot should be. 

Takeaway – everyone will have their own opinion on any one voice. And since each opinion is valid, the idea of a voice for voiceover is super subjective.

With all of this in mind, how then do we understand this and approach our own individual voice in our business? After all, it’s our calling card, right?

Firstly, it’s important to offer variety in our demos and our auditions. I know a lot of you are curious about the ins and outs of a demo and we’ll cover that in broad detail on the podcast and in some workshops later this summer, but for now, just know that offering variety – i.e. showing off your vocal range in your demos and auditions will be your best chance at figuring out “Do clients think my voice is hireable?”

Demos we’ll cover later, but for your auditions, I always suggest giving the client a take exactly how they ask for one and then offering a 2nd take offering how you would read the script, if different from their direction (unless they say they just want one take which they rarely do so go ahead and try your hand at the copy for yourself).

They hear soooo many of the same types of auditions for any one job, leave them with something to think about.

You don’t know until you know – metrics for figuring out if this is right for you.

Based on what we just discussed, reality is, we don’t know what anyone i.e. clients think of our voice until we put ourselves out there. We can speculate all day about what we sound like, how we come across to others, etc. And it’s a wonderful thing to like your own voice, because you’ll be hearing it A LOT in your VO journey, but as far as thinking how others will hear it, again, is subjective. And our only role is to 1. Read the copy to the best of our ability and the direction we’re given, which isn’t always super helpful which is why it’s important to 2. give any audition our utmost attention as well as our own individual flare. Otherwise, we get lumped in with every other voice that didn’t make it for that one spot. And this will happen with most jobs anyway, so why not give just try and see what happens. 

Audition for free and low paid jobs on Behind the Voice Actors, Casting Call Club, and Twitter. And when you’ve got some sort of experience i.e. auditioning doesn’t terrify you as much, choose a Pay to Play site and get to auditioning! 

Check out the article I wrote about mastering any audition in the show notes. You can utilize these tips for both free and paid work.

Now, if you do all of this, really give it your all, and you don’t get chosen for any projects, you can do two things initially 1. Outright quit or 2. Find a trusted and vetted voiceover coach. Voiceover groups on Facebook like Carrie Olsen’s VO group and Marc Scott’s VOPreneur group are super helpful for those kinds of recommendations.

And finally,

Let the client decide if you have a voice for voiceover. 

At the end of the day (at the end of the audition, really) the client will be the only one whose opinion matters when it comes to your voice. And I’d go even further to say ‘your voice for THAT project”. Your voice, my voice, isn’t going to be THE voice for any and all projects. That’s actually a good thing! This reality, with experience, gives us helpful direction when we’re deciding which genres to pursue. 

For example, I, like a lot of Voice Actors, started out interested in voicing video game characters. After many auditions for games, both unpaid and paid, I was hired for one. A character in an indie RPG I auditioned for via Twitter. In four years, that’s the only game I’ve ever worked on. But you know what? I got hired for commercial work, good paying commercial work, right out of the gate when I went full-time. So I could have let this tell me one of two things: 1. I’m bad at voicing video games or 2. I’m good at voicing commercials. 

With each audition or project result, we get to choose how we think about ourselves and our performance. I decided to go with the latter and I’m convinced that having a better understanding of my voice has led me to being a successful full-time Voice Actor. And you know what? Two years of doing this full-time, I realize, it’s not up to me to decide if my voice is good enough anyway. It’s the clients. But good enough is relative to each client and each project. And just because we get hired for one project doesn’t mean we’ll get hired for another. But just because we don’t get hired for one project doesn’t mean we won’t get hired for another later on! There are two sides to the VO coin. And no, not every well-intentioned, even talented aspiring Voice Actor will become a successful professional. But like with American Idol or the Voice or any other talent show, it never stops the truly inspired and motivated to get up on that stage to give it what they can. And that is my hope for each of you as well. If you’re really interested and willing to put in the work while understanding the level of effort it takes to get the ball rolling and build momentum, I want to see you get up on that stage. And even though I’m one person, I want to guide you wherever I can. Because, to be open with you, this journey is not an easy one. There are conflicting opinions on how to do pretty much anything when it comes to VO, so your first job is to believe in yourself. Really, the first step is that simple. If you believe you can, clients will to because it comes out in your auditions, your emails, and how you show up for yourself and your communities – in person and online. 

To Wrap Up

Thank you so much for the question, Denae! I hope this episode has helped each of you think a little more about your journey and how you might think a little differently about what you have to offer. Our voices are diverse, powerful, and so needed. 

Why shouldn’t you have a voice suited for voiceover?