10 Steps I Took to Become a Voice Actor and Change My Life
This is my first post about my journey to become a voice actor, live a more simplified life, become debt free and be location independent.
I will draw parallels between getting ready for world travel and starting my voice acting business.
This and future posts are an honest and candid exploration of what it takes, in my opinion, to downsize, simplify and prepare to use my voice to make money and change my life.
My goal of starting a voice acting business was to make money, have a location independent job and be able to use my creative skills.
My journey through simplifying my life, eliminating expenses, becoming debt free and eventually changing my career, started about five years ago. Changing a career at a midlife age can be very challenging because you have accumulated debt, responsibilities and a lot of crap.
The following steps are what we (my husband and I) took to travel more, have a location independent lifestyle and experience a more engaging quality of life and also working in careers that we love.
Step ONE: Stop spending money on stupid crap
Changing a career or a lifestyle takes money. You may also need to be comfortable with the lack of money.
When I met my husband on match.com his profile said something like, “Don’t bother if you don’t want to sail around the world and travel.” That sounded pretty good to me…a cute guy, ambitious, adventurous and available!
Fast forward about 12 years and there we were. We both had corporate jobs and were stuck in a house with a $7,000 monthly mortgage payment. We were not even close to traveling the world.
After some therapy on my part, we created our plan to travel the world. To be honest, I wasn’t ready to quit my corporate job as a hospital program manager. In fact, it may have been the best job I ever had.
Our plan would take about 5 years.
Here are a few Micro-Steps:
Our first Micro-Step: Stop spending money on stupid crap. Why?
We were so locked-in with credit card debt, mortgage payments, and looming college tuition for our teenagers, that world travel was no where near reality. If we continued this trajectory and didn’t change our lifestyle, we would never travel or change our careers. Being stuck in a job because you spend too much money (I call it fake money because you really don’t have it) will commit you to a life of dread and depression.
What is stupid crap? No judgement here.
Some examples of my stupid crap were acrylic nails: I spent over $7,000 in about 5 years on nails.
An expensive hair routine: $250 every 6 weeks
Convenience stuff: Pre-cut vegetables, dining out, gym memberships, dry cleaning, gifts for everyone for any reason, parties, custom license plates, over watering, not turning off the lights and so much more it would blow your mind.
Family buy in: In order to stop spending money on stupid crap, you need to make sure your family agrees. If family members embrace the idea, it will make it easier to stop spending. We started making an effort to do FREE things and have garage sales to pay for needed items. We started having ‘candle night’ where no electricity was allowed in the house for one night. Only board games and candles.
Monitor your crap: How many times have you spent $400 at Costco and only went in for tortillas? My husband and I agreed to inform the other if we spent over $100. Then we made it $50 then $20. No more hiding from your spouse or family.
Create small milestones throughout the year: A monthly reality check meeting was important. We added financial goals to our calendar and stuck to them. We decided early-on to make it fun and not judge each other. Talking about money is a negative trigger for some families but we made it open, honest and actually fun.
Start fantasizing about the life and career you want: For your new voice over career, you will be entering into the unknown. Let your imagination run wild at this stage. The fantasies about your new life will propel you forward. Use this beginning stage to imagine your new life and career. What DO YOU REALLY WANT?
You may not be able to quit your day job right away. In my case, we had no jobs when we returned from travel, so I had 100% of my time to dedicate to my voice over research and learning.
In addition to keeping your day job at first, you may need to consider other avenues of income when you start your voice over career. It takes time to reach an income that you can live on. By time I mean, six months, a year, even two depending on your family expenses.
As another income, we planned to sell our boat after we were finished sailing and buy an RV so we could travel the United States, Canada and Alaska. After selling our boat, we bought an RV (cash) because we knew we could rent it out after we returned home. We also learned about renting a personal RV on a podcast called the RV Entrepreneur Today, we teach others how to rent out their personal RV.
Because my husband and I minimized ALL OF OUR expenses, we need less money. When you need less money, you can create the world YOU WANT TO LIVE IN and work anywhere.
Step TWO: Calendar your voice over business intentions
Whatever works for you but we bought a cheap calendar with pics from the south pacific and palm trees. NEXT, every two months we set a new goals like, finish our sailing classes, learn to die my own hair or pay off the American Express.
These small goals were critical because a year goes by fast. Life can change and you should be flexible. Don’t beat yourself up if you need to change your goals a bit. Who cares! Just do it.
For your new voice over career, calendaring will get you to your goals if you stick to it. You may not know everything about voice over yet but that doesn’t matter. The important part is to create micro-milestones.
For me, micro-milestones looked something like this: Month 1- research voiceover, listen to VO podcasts, watch YouTube videos, join some online communities to start learning, find a mentor. I found Carrie Olsen.
I heard her on a podcast explaining how she launched her VO career. Month 2- Read other business plans, write my business plan, research sound equipment, research sound proofing, research voiceover editing etc. Month 3 – buy equipment, set it up, start speaking into the mic, research VO styles, start learning how to edit, learn the VO software etc.
Step THREE: Assess your voice over skills
Ok, so if we wanted to sail around the world, I guess we needed to know how to sail a boat. We signed up for sailing lessons, rented sail boats, and practiced. When it came the sailing certifications, I passed the test and was so proud of our efforts. Although, I knew nothing about sailing, learned to be an amazing sailor.
For your new VO venture, I will be completely honest here. Just because people told me that I had a great voice, did not immediately translate into a money earning, voice over career. I learned pretty fast (within a few months) that I was doing things wrong. I was a public speaker for many years. My ability to speak to the back of the room without a microphone, was actually killing me on the VO microphone.
If you have your recording area together after all your research, don’t be embarrassed to practice and send it to friends or family. Ask them for an honest assessment. WOW, you will get some good feedback! Although my first attempts sounded ok, every person said that I had semblance, which is creating a high pitched ’S’ sound into the microphone. UGHHHH. What was this? Why was it happening? How could I stop doing it? Are there plug- ins or programs that will make this go away? Well…there is something else you can research.
Be willing to feel like you want to quit and throw everything into the garbage…including your pride. Be willing to admit that you are probably not that good…yet. Be tenacious in your quest to figure out why you may suck. I can say this because every voice actor, including me, had to go through this hideous stage. Promise.
Step FOUR: Try before you buy any voice over equipment
There were so many items we brought on our sailing trip that were a total waste of money. Kitchen items, clothes, equipment etc.. I believe we over-thought many things and paid the price. We should have just went minimal and purchased what we needed along the way. We wanted to have everything we needed but there was always a Walmart, Costco or even better Mexican market nearby.
I purchased my microphone online and based on the microphone my coach started with. I thought our voices were similar. It turns out, my microphone was terrible for the pitch of my voice. Also, I was using noise canceling headphones and should not have been.
I would NOT purchase any equipment online unless you do not have access to a music store like Guitar Center. I didn’t trust the microphone I bought online.
Go to Guitar Center and actually speak into the mics and listen to your voice. Does it sound true? Is it picking up all your not so good frequencies? How about the tone of your voice? How different does one mic sound from the other? Don’t buy any equipment just based on someone’s advice. Go and try the mics and hear it for yourself.
I ended up choosing a stage microphone because of my studio sound and my voice. A TOTAL GAME CHANGER microphone for about $100.
Try your equipment first and ask the advice of the music experts at somewhere like Guitar Center. There was actually a voice actor employee at the Guitar Center in my city.
Step FIVE: Start getting real voice over feedback.
When my husband and I pulled into our first marina in Mexico, we felt so green, literally. But what we soon found that every cruiser is at their own stage. We met a young couple in the marina office in Mexico. They were experienced cruisers and musicians. They were getting ready to write a new album in the solitude of Mexico.
Pat and Alaina from Tennis would end up becoming lifelong friends. The truth is that we learned something from each other. They loved our guts and couldn’t believe we were going to cross the Pacific Ocean in our sailboat. We admired their partnership and willingness to just be real. The true and honest feedback from this couple was invaluable.
I remember one horrible night about midnight. The waves were rough, it was dark and we felt lost, literally. Alaina got on the radio and talked me though it. I will never forget what she said to me, “This will pass, tomorrow will come and you will have made it through the night. It always passes.”
Voice over real feedback to me comes through the process of coaching and eventually sending out auditions. Sending and waiting. Sending and waiting. You get it. In the meantime you are still researching, polishing your skills and not spending money on stupid crap.
Feedback can come in many forms so you have to be open to it. Sometimes, feedback is nothing, no news and no job. You may also get feedback from a kind soul who is honest and says, “it’s just not the quality we were looking for.”
Let’s say you felt ready to start auditioning and sent an audition to voiceovers.com You then you got an email saying you ‘won the audition and they loved your voice.’ The contact person sends you a script and they need it recorded by the following day. It’s your first job! It’s a good thing the family went camping with the dog and the house is quiet. You dive in and record your job and send it to your contact. At this point you may be feeling pretty confident. Then you get a message from your contact that says, ‘the team would like to hear a more “energetic read” and you sound monotone. Again, this has happened to all of us voice actors. This is REAL FEEDBACK.
You have an industry professional telling you that you sound monotone. This feedback separates you from the beginner. Your job NOW is to go from the un-paid intern to a professional, because you are accepting money for your voice. If you look at it positively, the real feedback provides you with free feedback! Actually, they are paying you, to give you feedback…even better.
The feedback is part of building your voice over backbone. It’s a big part of what will makes or breaks your NEW voice over CAREER. Are you able to take direction and learn from professionals. Are you willing to admit if your voice over is wrong or isn’t what the director needed?
The real feedback will give you another chance to record it over, listen and record again. And you better do it with integrity. Frustration is part of the process. Sometimes I can’t hear my mistakes or tone that is not right. Let your spouse or children listen…they will give you great feedback but DON’T FIGHT IT! Just let it soak in and learn from it.
Getting feedback from a professional voice over coach is a MUST. I will talk about coaching a little further in the blog post.
Step SIX: Figure out ‘who you are’ as a voice actor.
My wonderful coach encouraged me to… just be me. So I thought to myself, ‘what is something that very few voice actors have done that would make me different. THE ANSWER: I sailed across the pacific ocean in a damn sailboat with just my husband.’
The reason this soul- searching was critical to this process, was because that sailing experience gave me a new confidence. I encountered life-changing fear, people and attitudes while traveling. In the middle of the ocean, with 20,000 feet of water under our boat, I discovered what I was made of. The grit and fear it took to make that journey, profoundly changed me.
After my first real voice over feedback, I started to figure out what I was doing as a voice actor. I had so many questions after all the feedback. How could I compete with all these thousands of professionals? Why couldn’t I sound professional? What was wrong with my equipment? I sound to drab, monotone or too much like a cheerleader. UGHHH! I remember thinking, “I’m loosing it!”
Then, the answers came to me. My brand and voice is who I am in the real world. What makes ‘Melissa’ special? It’s all of my experiences. I am strong, tenacious, fearless, calm and natural. I live without debt, I have the ability to travel and a zest for anything in nature. All those experiences helped to define me.
Finally, it felt real.
Once I understood who I was, the rest was just staying on track and having a firm belief that my brand is true, transparent and believable. Hey…that’s the kind of voice that everyone wants… right! YAY! I figured it out.
Step SEVEN: Create your own voice over brand
Before we startedsailing down the coast of Mexico, I told my husband I felt guilty for leaving my job and traveling. My career was in healthcare and I felt a little empty by not giving back.
I created a campaign through Waves for Water and raised funds to buy safe drinking water filters. I wanted to give them to anyone who I met during our travels in Mexico. Our brand was set- The Adventure Travelers– We created a short branding video that was spot on.
Creating a brand for YOURSELF can be near impossible. With all the instagram influencers and online perfection, it’s hard to figure out what is real!
Think of your BRAND in a simple way. Don’t get too complicated and overthink it. Please DO NOT COPY someones branding. DO NOT do a Google search for an image of a microphone! Everyone does it. Don’t use the common business card for voice over from VistaPrint, you can create your own unique card there too! Your BRAND must be original. Be you.
When I was trying to figure out my branding, the same feeling kept coming over me…I can’t fake this! I am not perfect and I approach life the same way. It doesn’t matter who I am working with and what career I am undertaking, I treat everyone with respect. But how can I make that a brand? Ughhh more questions!
The easiest way that I found my brand, was to look through recent pictures of me during our two years of travel. Was there ONE photo that felt like…me?
YES! Thats it! That’s Melissa. And yes…here is that photo:
This photo was a selfie taken in the sand dunes of Oregon. The sun was low in the sky, I was having a great hair day and wearing a hat to protect my eyes and face from the sun. It was in nature but somehow I wasn’t all sweaty and gross. The truth is…it’s the truth. No fake stuff to make it look better or planned out perfection. This was my brand: To be natural and real in all settings whether I am working with a director, another colleague or in my studio with just my microphone. Anyone can depend on my transparency, honesty, hard work, quality, openness to direction. It was also important for me to always feel relevant in today’s market.
I am skilled at graphics and website building, so I didn’t have to pay anyone to help me create a website or graphics. Of course, I am STILL developing my SEO. If you don’t have money, you will need to be self taught. Years ago, I taught myself Adobe Photoshop because I worked in non-profit and they never had much of a budget for marketing.
Even if you have to scratch out an idea with stick figures, create your idea based on your talents, life experiences and genuine charm. If you can’t afford fancy graphics and logos, then you don’t need them yet. Just use your name or make up a name! A logo and all the cool stuff can come much later! A brand does not mean a logo!
A brand is who you are, what makes you tick, what motivates you, how you deal with problems and life challenges, how fast you get back to people and your genuine understanding of how you can help others. Thats a brand.
Step EIGHT: Practice your voice over skills until you don’t suck
My husband and I continued to sail, research, create to-do lists and stopped spending money on stupid crap. Eventually, we started to feel like we would not die if we tried to sail around the world. In fact, as we finally set sail on our journey, we were still practicing and learning even on our way down the coast of Mexico.
For you, practice becomes like an un-paid voice over internship. Thats the way I had to look at it. Trying to learn a new skill is so humbling. More than a few times, the thought of failing another attempt at entrepreneurship would send me into a little panic mode. If I started to feel overwhelmed, I would reach for a Xanax or just close the computer and come back when my head was in a better space.
I have met many “want to be” world-traveling cruisers, voice actors and entrepreneurs. Maybe this is you? The research and to-do lists seem like they will never end. Just when you think you know the best water maker or microphone, another one shows up in your Google search.
Remember the milestones? So here is why you have your milestones. Milestones force you to just get the job done of practice, research or whatever. Once you have met those milestones, its time to move onto new ones. Practice gets you there so always make them part of your milestones.
There are many ways to practice and learn about the voice over industry. I started by researching practice scripts on websites like Edge Studio. You can also enroll in their monthly audition contests. The feedback from the Edge staff is tremendous and I learned helpful, inside tips about auditioning.
The voice over industry professionals suggest waiting until you are trained and coached before you try sites like voiceovers.com voices.com fiverr.com upwork.com and others. I will write a more intensive post on these services. It’s good to jump on them and check around.
If you don’t want to spend money, Fiverr or Upwork is a good place to start…uh oh sounds like more research. There are written and unwritten rules about these services so if you want my honest opinion, just contact me and I will do my best to help you through it.
Voice over practice means microphone time. You are NOT practicing if you are doing research. You can do research and organize all day long but it will NEVER help you improve your skills.
Practice will also mean practicing your editing. Today, voice acting requires you to know how to use software like Audacity or Adobe Audition. Learning new software is challenging and especially if you do not understand audio engineering. There are so many coaching and website resources to help you learn these programs.
I knew nothing about sailing or audio engineering…NOTHING.
Did I mention practice.
Step NINE: Get your best voice over samples together and call it a DEMO?
When The Adventure Travelers were creating content for YouTube we just WENT FOR IT! We created everything ourselves. Again, we both have the self taught skills to do this. Also, we weren’t trying to look perfect, just real. If you go to our YouTube channel and look at our intro video, you can see that it is not perfect but definitely true to who we are.
There is SOOO much voice over industry chatter on the DEMO thing. It totally depends on who you talk too. Some say, ‘don’t create your own demo’ (sample of your work) some say, ‘sure, create your own Demo but research it and wait until you have at least some skill, while others say, ‘wait six months to a year, after coaching and pay for a professional DEMO.
All I can tell you is what I did. This may be against all the rules but I had no money or time to wait until I was better.
I created a few audio samples from scripts that I found on Edge Studio. Looking back, this was embarrassing! BUT…it forced me to learn new skills, find more more information about voice over demos and to take a deeper dive in. I had 5 samples on my first, beginner one minute demo. A professional voice over coach will help you understand how a DEMO can make or break you. Every step forced me to learn something. I don’t think you should wait until you know everything because that never happens. I just did it and it forced me to learn. After several months, I became more skilled and wanted to create a new demo with the skills I developed.
This time, I took a stab at writing my own scripts, creating the audio and video. Some online voice over or freelance platforms, want you to upload a video. I am still using this DEMO today. I need to create a new demo because after 1.5 years I am better than I was a year ago.
Some day, I will probably pay to have a professional demo created. I am not ruling it out but feel happy with my progress because I am making money and creating great contacts. In addition, I am collecting lots of great projects to ad to my website along the way.
Listen to My New Political Messaging Demo
All advanced and veteran voice actors have paid professional Demos created and I look forward to this stage in my development. But for now, my next step will happen when I am ready and not sooner.
Step TEN: Choose your voice over mentors wisely
My husband was in the United States Coast Guard, is a surfer and can rescue anyone from the water. So I’m thinking he is a good mentor when it comes to learning how to sail and cross the Pacific Ocean. Although the thought of leaving at night and going into the black abyss nearly killed me, I genuinely respected his knowledge, love of the water and overall passion for travel. He is an amazing mentor in so many ways.
Now, when it came to voice over mentors, where could I possibly start? Remember the “don’t spend money on stupid crap” well, if you do a quick search on the internet, you will see all the sharks out there trying to get your money. I was once on a conference call and a new VOA (voice over actor) said she had just purchased a contact organizing tool. Can I just say that it will take you months, if not years, before you may need an expensive contact management tool. That is why you have EXCEL! Again, a good mentor can help you understand what is best for you.
If you talk to enough people about your plans, eventually someone will give you honest, clear and genuine feedback. You may need different types of mentors depending on your knowledge and stage of your business. The important part of picking the right mentor, is it helps build your circle of trust. Find and surround yourself with likeminded people who give feedback and advice for free. Once you gain trust and respect for someone or a few people AND MORE IMPORTANTLY they respect YOU, thats a mentor, paid or not.
Training and education are critical in voice over. Even veterans are constantly learning. The industry is changing every day and you need to be in the loop. If you are looking for a coach, I would suggest Carrie Olsen!
Other mentors could be digital mentors like podcast hosts or YouTube channels that offer solid advice like The Everyday VOPreneur, Bill Dewees, VOBoss, The Gift of Gab , VO Buzz Weekly
Let me give you a concrete example of what I mean by being a great mentor/coach. There is a type of voice over recording called a directed session and of course you will learn that through your research.
I was awarded a job from an audition (YAY!) and the director requested a phone patch directed session. I did not completely understand what the director needed, but I agreed. Even though my dear mentor and coach, Carrie Olsen, lives in a different timezone and has two children, she answered my crazy cry for help! I explained that I needed to jump on a phone session and I had no idea what to do. She giggled with me and explained she went through the same thing and calmly walked me through the steps.
WHAT MAKES CARRIE A GREAT MENTOR is that I am not afraid to look stupid in front of her! That says it right there. If you aren’t comfortable with someone, then it won’t work.
You can have many coaches and mentors along your journey. Build your own ‘Circle of Trust’ by allowing yourself to be humble and participate in many types of voice over relationships.
Summary: The 10 Steps I took to become a voice actor and change my life are not easy. It took over 5 years to reach a place where life is simple, debt free and location independent. Please know that I am new to the voice over world. I can only give you the information that was helpful to me but tomorrow I may have new experiences to share.
Let’s stay connected and help each other. I don’t want anything from you, and feel free to reach out to me for any reason at melissa@melissaharlowvo.com or text/call me at c760.672.8641.
Please share and comment if you find my story and information helpful.
Relax. Enjoy. Discover.
Enjoy your journey.
Melissa