You might be relieved to discover the best advertising… isn’t advertising at all. By that I mean the adage, “less is more” applies when it comes to art directing your graphics that will allow you to make your name known and associated with being a professional voice talent with taste and an elevated aesthetic. 

Here are five key elements to consider when offering insight to your graphic artist as to what you’re after when creating your brand logo and identity.

Listen to SOUND ADVICE founder & author of The SOUND ADVICE Encyclopedia of Voiceover, Kate McClanaghan, defines:

• The Two Distinctly Different Business Approaches to Voiceover
• The Standards That Define Professional Voiceover Demos
• Who We Create VO demos For In The First Place
• How Many Demos Do You Honestly Need As a Voiceover
• And a whole lot more!

For decades now, legions of actors have emerged from assorted acting schools across the country harboring a deep aversion to pursuing and accepting commercial work. Yet, if you scratch the surface a bit, you’ll probably find this unfounded antagonism typically stems from the misguided notion you’d become “a sellout” if you perused commercial opportunities. It’s especially unfortunate and shortsighted when you consider mastering commercial voiceover and on-camera work offers you the greatest opportunities to effectively subsidize your acting career.

If you’ve been pursuing voiceover work on your own in America for the past decade or more, chances are you’ve been following a business model that concentrates almost strictly on securing work all by yourself, or DIY, by procuring jobs primarily through excessively low-paying sites like Fiverr, Upwork and a few Pay-to-Play (P2P) platforms. Nevertheless, voiceover as a career has chiefly been in the hands of actors since the onset of recorded audio, and anyone who hires you as a voiceover assumes you’re an actor, even if you don’t. Traditionally, professional actors enlist the services and expertise of seasoned, accomplished talent agents to secure work.

The question is: Is there a better way to land work as a voiceover?

Avoid one of the greatest mistakes budding voice talent make and why to give your voiceover career the best opportunity to achieve the greatest results. Here are a few key industry insights to improve your bottom line, elevate your brand, instill confidence, and expand your small business as a voice actor.

Listen to Actors’ SOUND ADVICE seasoned voiceover demo producer/ career coach, Kate McClanaghan offers expert guidance and insight into how to navigating your career as a voiceover. Regardless of your experience level, those auditioning, or most likely to hire you, will assume you’re a professional actor and expect you to know your job both in and out of the booth.

There was atimenot too long ago when it was commonplace to audition for voiceoversin frontof producers at ad agencies, in various recording studios, in front of castingdirectors, or at your local talent agencies where you’d be offered direction in real time.Obviously times have changed.Since the pandemic it’s safe to say pretty mucheveryaudition, on or off-camera, is nowdone remotely from your home studio, however humble

The quality of your auditions when recording from home is as important as your performance. In fact, it’s never mattered more than it does today.

Since COVID, production demands now require every voice talent to not only be well-trained and prepared to deliver their best at a moment’s notice, but we’re also assuming the quality of your auditions (recorded from home) will inevitably be the quality of the audio of the final recording, should we hire you.

Other than that there are a few common mistakes to avoid to improve and increase your booking potential.

You may have asked for feedback in the past simply for a lack of anything else to say, and you hadn’t thought it through beyond this point. Or maybe you wanted praise for your remarkable vocal prowess. (It’s only human to require some form of acknowledgement that you’re on the right track.)

Yet, if you’re a pro, and you are if you’re presenting yourself as such with your demos to talent agents and producers, then you’re expected to stand behind your promotional materials and proceed with confidence. This is the case regardless of your experience or skill level.

Let’s say, hypothetically, you come from a business background and always wanted to transition to voiceover. Let’s say you’ve been doing a bit of “fact finding” and finding a lot of contradictory information about this business. Not the least of which, will any one tell you honestly if you can cut it as a voiceover?

Careful what you wish for. There are plenty of people of varying degrees of expertise who are more than happy to quickly tell you “you can’t”—sight unseen, without ever testing your mettle.

Acting is empathy.The best performances are achieved by having a deepacceptance and understanding of the unique realities of the individual role,character, story, personae, or voice.This is precisely why the individual artist is so critical to the success ofevery production.