A Shockingly Simple Idea to
Voice Over Career Success

By Such A Voice

Here is a very powerful piece of intelligence we’ve dispensed to aspiring voice-over talent all over the country: Position yourself as a voice-over talent from a larger market and target companies that exist in smaller markets. This will enable you to find more voice-over work much sooner than you thought!

Before we dig in and really show you how to take advantage of this idea to get more traction in launching your voice-over career, we’ll give you a typical example of how most people try to get started in voice-overs. If this sounds like you, you are not alone! Many people try to get started as voice-over artists by following these ineffective steps:

Week 1: Post a newly produced demo on Voices.com or Voice123.com

Week 2: Submit an audition (along with 200 other people who have more experience and name recognition.)

Week 3: Continue auditioning and sending demos to top voice-over talent agencies in New York City or LA.

Week 4: No callbacks from New York or LA agents and very little response to the time and effort put into auditions on the Internet.

Skip to Week 10: Frustration sets in, and still no voice-over jobs booked.

Skip to Week 30: Booked one job that paid $100 and you’ve decided to throw in the towel, fed up with your lack of success.

This is the most common mistake made when seeking voice-over work. Don’t let this be you!

If you market yourself the right way, you can skip the pain of failure and start doing actual voice-over work that you love sooner rather than later! Of course along with booking those jobs comes that impressive Voice-Over Artist salary as well.

Let’s go back to the idea of utilizing the larger market where you live. When we say “larger market,” we aren’t just talking about places like New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. All you need to do is find that city within one or two hours of where you live, the place that people in and around your town refer to when they say they’re “going into the city.” For example, if you live in Boulder, CO, then your larger market is Denver, CO. If you live in Elk Grove, CA, then your larger market is Sacramento, CA. If you already live directly in that city, your first step is taken care of for you!

Imagine you grew up an hour outside of Chicago, IL and one summer you’re on a trip to Orlando, FL. While meeting new people on this trip you would often be asked, “Where are you from?” It’s very likely you would respond with, “Chicago.” As you can see, you’ve probably already used this technique in your everyday life without even realizing it.

Let’s assume you’re from the New York City area. Remember: This could mean that you live in New Egypt, NJ or even Waterbury, CT. First of all, you need to leverage the fact that you are from the greater New York area. When you contact a potential client from outside the New York market and you tell them that you’re from the New York market, something amazing will happen…

They’ll automatically think that you’re at the top of your game.

Even if you’re just starting out, you will still be seen in a glowing light of success. If you contact a potential client in Topeka, KS and say “I’m a voice-over talent from New York City,” they’ll go crazy.

In this example, really taking advantage of the fact that you are in the New York area works. In reality, it doesn’t matter where you are from. Even if you live in a small town, if there is a larger, urban area nearby, this idea will work for you. People who live in smaller towns always see city people as being pros at whatever they say that they do.

Remember: You can replace New York with any city that has smaller outlying suburbs or rural areas.

At this point you’re probably thinking, “This is great, but who do I contact in these smaller markets? Isn’t all the voice-over work in the larger markets?”

These are good questions. Here’s the answer:

There are companies in small towns all over the world. These companies will still be doing radio advertisements, producing employee training videos, setting up voice-mail systems, and more.

Contact production companies, on-hold messaging companies, local car dealerships or any business you think would have a need for a voice-over talent on a regular basis.

Most car dealerships do radio and TV advertising; that’s just part of how they do business. No matter how small the town, chances are the local car dealership is advertising on the radio or on television in some capacity. They often bring in talents from outside their local broadcasting area.

What other types of businesses can you think of that might also do this?

The next step after pinpointing the business that you want to contact is actually reaching out to them. When contacting these companies, do not blindly send them a demo CD or MP3 attached to an email.

People do not like to get bulky email attachments or junk mail from people they don’t know. You can ruin your chances if you don’t approach potential clients in the right way.

Here’s what to do:

1.     Call your potential clients and make sure that they have an interest in voice-over talent before sending your demo or MP3 files.

2.     Send a quick, professional email outlining your talents and the benefits of working with you along with your MP3 file or Web site URL.

3.     FOLLOW UP! You must call or email them again in a few days to nurture the relationship you started with them at step 1.

4.     Continue to follow up with interested prospective clients every few months.

At this point you may be asking yourself, “but I thought I needed to contact an agent or manager to get voice-over work?” Yet another common misconception! It is true that you can (and one day will!) find a great deal of work through an agent, however, most agents will not look to represent you if you do not have experience. The solution to this problem is to seek out work on your own at first, through the methods already outlined in this article. Clients only care about that beautiful, newly produced demo you now have whereas agents are scrutinizing your resume. Once you build up your resume by using our methods, you will find an agent more easily to represent you and maximize your earning potential to the fullest!

Let’s recap what we’ve learned with this simple idea to voice-over success and how to really make it in voice-overs.

1.     Position yourself from a larger market and contact potential clients in smaller rural markets.

2.     Contact companies that will actively be using voice-over talent in their businesses, either for training, service or promotion.

3.     Continue to follow-up after you’ve made contact.

4.     Find an agent to represent you once you have built up your resume with all of the work you will find!

This is not rocket science, but many people approach starting out as a voice-over artist ineffectively and end up missing out on the voice-over work they deserve. We know you will find these voice-over jobs by following our methods.

Have you taken that very first step of finding a voice-over coach and having your demo produced? We hope you will keep us in mind! Such A Voice has 35 years under the belt of coaching and demo production, launching hundreds of successful careers each year. Find out what our former students are saying about working with us here. In order to work with one of our talented coaches on launching your exciting new career you must be invited to join our program. Click here to start the process with a free voice-evaluation today.