Today’s 5 Questions for a Professional Voice Over Talent are answered by Silvia McClure, a professional voice-over talent.

1. The beginning: When did you know you wanted to be a voiceover talent; how did your career begin (please include what year it started) and then when did your passion for voiceover develop into something professional?

My VO career began – subconsciously – when I started DJ’ing. Which was something I fell into and basically forced me to perform and speak into a microphone. Up until that point, I wouldn’t even leave a recorded message on our answering machine. That’s how much I didn’t like hearing my own voice! I began taking classes off and on in 2003, and got serious about a VO career in 2005, when I got my recording equipment, learned how to use ProTools, started auditioning and booking jobs.

2. What is the one thing you know now that you wish someone had told you when you first started out in voiceover?

Don’t record your demo too soon! Take classes, study, be part of a workout group, read blogs/discussion groups/newsletters, and when you think you’re ready, take some more classes, practice some more, etc.

3. What do you see as the biggest professional or personal obstacle you face that impacts your voiceover business and how are youworking to overcome it?

My biggest obstacle is that I speak three languages. I have a slight accent when I speak English, and a so-called “accent-creep” when I speak German or French. If a client asks for a “native”, or a specific regional accent, chances are, I won’t be considered.

I don’t let that stop me. There are many clients who like my voice, and feel that I give their project an interesting and special flair.

Of course, I practice reading out loud every day, watch TV/video’s etc. and read articles or books in each language. And I’ve taken private lessons from coaches to work on those pesky details and tongue-placement required by American English!

4. What personal trait or professional tool has helped you succeed the most in your career so far?

I believe in living life without regret. And I am a hard worker and believe when doing something, do it right and do it well.

5. In your development as a voice over performer, who has been the one particular individual or what has been the one piece of performance advice (maybe a key performance trick, etc.) that you felt has had the most impact on your actual voice over performance and why?

I studied with Cynthia Songe in LA, and I remember an exercise we did during animation class. We sat in a circle and one after another, we got up and stood in the middle. It was an improv exercise, and were given a with gender and age, and had to start talking. Then we were given more and more traits. We had to throw our whole body into the character and it was such a fascinating exercise.

I also enjoy the video-clips that are posted on Youtube of Nancy Wolfson. She has so many useful and insightful tips for commercial reads. And they are free!

For the past year, I’ve been part of a weekly workout group. We meet on Skype and it has been the most valuable experience! It is a such a supportive environment, and I can call on the people in the group anytime outside our workout time as well, be it VO specific or just a pep-talk when I’m feeling down.

Tags: 5 Questions for a Professional Voice Over Talent, 5Q:VO, commentary, voiceover advice by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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Today’s 5 Questions for a Professional Voice Over Talent are answered by Rick Lance, a professional voice-over talent based in Nashville, Tennesee.

1. The beginning: When did you know you wanted to be a voiceover talent; how did your career begin (please include what year it started) and then when did your passion for voiceover develop into something professional?

In 1993 was singing a songwriter demo in a large Nashville studio (one source of income while trying to find my way to country music super stardom) when the engineer ask me if I’d do this TV Commercial for his desperate client. I said, ” Ok, do you have a tape of it?” He said, no, we have a script.” I said, what… you mean you just want me to talk?” That was my first voice over. I’m sure it really sucked but it worked for the client and I made $100.00.

Although, it made me think more about VO work and what it really is, it took many years for me to take it seriously enough to think I could make a living at it. My music and the commercial photography studio business I had were my priorities. But soon I began taking acting workshops, doing some theater and on camera work.

The funniest thing I did was about a half a dozen cheesy Karaoke videos (with beautiful babe, arm-in-arm running through fields of daisies and such) for the Japanese market. And I was in several country music videos and a couple of B films.

All along I was doing VO gigs and I began to get busier with them. About 7 years ago I went full time as I finally had burned out on the music biz and was tired of trying to keep my photo business alive. Technology changes were killing the small photographers and we were dropping like flies.

2. What is the one thing you know now that you wish someone had told you when you first started out in voiceover?

That it would become so easy for every “yahoo” with a microphone and a computer to enter the business and glut the market with substandard work. Which is exactly what happened when digital photography became the norm. Every nut with a new camera called himself a professional forcing me to compete with that. I was a Photographer’s Mate in the US Navy, mostly in a Photo Recon air crew, but I had photo training in Photographic A School, Pensacola, FL and continued on in college with photo and communication studies after discharge. At the same time, however, the accessibility of less expensive, high quality recording equipment allowed me to enter the VO biz! But I also entered with talent, ability and a basic plan.

3. What do you see as the biggest professional or personal obstacle you face that impacts your voiceover business and how are you working to overcome it?

When I entered the field I thought that not having a radio background or broadcast training would become a problem. But I found out that the trend was for a more natural, real-people kind of sound for commercial work and other forms of media communications that were being developed.

Mostly, now the greatest challenge involves always increasing my brand… cutting through the clutter, seeking out those opportunities out there.. and keeping consistently as busy as I want to be, with my yearly income consistently well into the six figures.

4. What personal trait or professional tool has helped you succeed the most in your career so far?

First, my musical background… my ability to hear pitch, texture, dynamics, timing, etc. Second, some acting on camera and theater background and third, my aging voice seems to simply add more appeal to the clients and prospective clients that come my way. Also my basic understanding of audio and recording gear helped keep the learning curve less curvy.

5. In your development as a voice over performer, who has been the one particular individual or what has been the one piece of performance advice (maybe a key performance trick, etc.) that you felt has had the most impact on your actual voice over performance and why?

As voice actors we need to be very visual people and react truly from the heart. My photo business experience and natural photographic ability allows me to isolate a moment in time while I’m reading a script. If I can see it, feel it, smell it, taste it, etc. I can perform more effectively. As I said earlier, my musical ability comes in mighty handy as well.

As far as people and other influences… James Alburger & Penny Abshire, Pat Fraley, Harlan Hogan, Randy Thomas & Peter Rofe, Rodney Saulsberry, Susan Berkely… through their books, CDs, workshops and on line resources…. as well as several music biz folks, Robert Redford, Rex Allen, Walt Disney, my Italian mother, horses, dogs and Native American philosophy.

Tags: 5 Questions for a Professional Voice Over Talent, 5Q:VO, commentary, voiceover advice by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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Today’s 5 Questions for a Professional Voice Over Talent are answered by Peter Bishop, a professional voice-over talent based in Bellport, NY.

1. The beginning: When did you know you wanted to be a voiceover talent; how did your career begin (please include what year it started) and then when did your passion for voiceover develop into something professional?

I was pretty late to the game. I have no long history with voice work, but have always been active on the technical side of audio production. My father was an engineer, so it was almost pre-ordained that I would follow that path with an apprenticeship and college for electronics and telecommunications. I was able to transfer my “professional” skills over to my passion, which was working in and around the local music scene. That part started back in the seventies when I started producing demos, driving mixing desks and generally doing as much as I could to be a part of the local scene without actually playing (I just didn’t have the musical chops), but a guy with a Revox and a four-track could be very useful back then! Apart from working with the bands, I used to produce my own stuff as well… all a little esoteric… Musique concrète loops, textures and the like… I became quite adept at building the electronics and manipulating tape. I’m certainly no stranger to the splicing block and china-graph (grease) pencil! I have fond memories of twenty-foot tape loops wrapping themselves around microphone stands and door handles as I built ever changing (and ever-decaying) loops and “aural sculptures”. I walked away from my “hobbies” when my company moved me to the US about fifteen years ago.

As a Brit in the US (especially when not in the big city) you get used to people commenting on your voice and can become quite dismissive about it. It took my partner to convince me that it wasn’t just the accent that was being remarked on… but my timbre, delivery, vocabulary and all that other good stuff. She convinced me that what I had was a saleable commodity, and as I was reluctant to climb back on any type of corporate horse (I’d run screaming from the corporate world in 2004), maybe there was a path here. To be honest, she was keen to get me out of what had become a post-corporate malaise and lack of focus. God bless supportive partners!

So, I launched forth in late 2009. My technical background and familiarity with the tools, both hardware & software, made it a relatively easy option to start up with a P2P site… and my experience from being a training officer and a corporate presenter used to ducking and diving in front of a big room was going to get me lots of work… right? Well, not exactly, but that’s when my journey really began. A couple of technical narration gigs gave me the impetus to push forward.

2. What is the one thing you know now that you wish someone had told you when you first started out in voiceover?

When I started I didn’t understand the market properly. Educational work was fairly straightforward as I was able to draw on experiences from my years of writing and presenting course material… I had no problems with technical subject matter, but I seemed to be getting nowhere with other work. I was either delivering clearly and concisely, or stretching too far. I had no middle ground. It was listening to other VOs via the on-line community that helped me identify my strengths and weaknesses. I began to understand what was saleable, and what wasn’t… and where I needed to concentrate my efforts, both in honing my saleable skills and developing my shortcomings. It’s all about playing to your strengths and not trying to be something you’re not. I’m now happily resigned to the fact that I’ll never be asked to read “Sunday, Sunday, Sunday” or “In a world…”

3. What do you see as the biggest professional or personal obstacle you face that impacts your voiceover business and how are you working to overcome it?

Currently I have a reasonably healthy repeat client list for educational and narration work, but have had limited exposure on the commercial side. Like every other Brit in the US, I’ve done the standard Jaguar dealer spots as the “sophisticated” Brit, and a fair amount of success when anyone’s looking for a Michael Caine or Jason Statham type, but this is an area I really need to work on. Since last year, I’ve been getting some success with audiobooks, but I feel that I really need to work on my accents. I still am very unhappy with my American accent, which is a little surprising as I’ve lived here fifteen years! I can generally be comfortable with regional British, European or various world accents, but my American accents still sound pushed and false. The remedy is practice, and getting over being too self-conscious in my delivery. That, and acting lessons!

4. What personal trait or professional tool has helped you succeed the most in your career so far?

I think I have developed an ability to picture my audience. The whole issue about who I’m supposed to be talking to… one person, a small group, a boardroom or whatever. Once I’d embraced what I was doing wrong, it started to fall into place. I try to keep a picture of my audience in my mind during a read, and it helps a lot.

5. In your development as a voice over performer, who has been the one particular individual or what has been the one piece of performance advice (maybe a key performance trick, etc.) that you felt has had the most impact on your actual voice over performance and why?

This one’s difficult to answer. It’s impossible to single out any one person or piece of information as making the difference… there are so many who have been helpful. The main aid to my development has been the community of VOs that have welcomed me. It’s too easy to be insular and locked away in your own world, but once you start to relate to peers and share, the effect is astonishing. To this end, the greatest community “enablers” for me are DB Cooper for all her work with the VO-BB… without which I would probably never have launched my career, and Amy Snively, the driving force behind Faffcon, without which I probably wouldn’t have been able to go completely full-time last year. To be with peers and learn from them is invaluable. I have found VOs to be the most helpful and sharing group of people… we are not in competition, but follow the ethos of “a rising tide floats all boats” with a passion.

Tags: 5 Questions for a Professional Voice Over Talent, 5Q:VO, voiceover advice by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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Today’s 5 Questions for a Professional Voice Over Talent are answered by Michelle Ann Dunphy, a professional voice-over talent based in Los Angeles, CA.

1. The beginning: When did you know you wanted to be a voiceover talent; how did your career begin (please include what year it started) and then when did your passion for voiceover develop into something professional?

Alright, well I knew I wanted voice over to be a part of my life at a young age. I decided that I wanted to be a Disney Princess, like many young girls around the world. When I learned that there were voices behind the Princesses, I figured that was how I was going to accomplish my ultimate goal. My parents bought me a $10 mic at Radio Shack and now… ?! years later, here I am. I did radio plays and fandubs (fan made ADR for Japanese animation) as a teenager, then I went off to college to study Theatre and worked a part time radio DJ job.

It was always a professional goal for me, but the big turning point that pushed me to move to Los Angeles happened right after graduating from college in 2005. I got a job as a DJ at an oldies radio station in a small town in Wisconsin a few days after taking my last final. I was on air for only a couple weeks when I realized that I hated being on air, but I loved doing the voice over work for commercials during the break. I came home that day and told my husband to start applying for jobs in Chicago, New York and Los Angeles. I signed up for the online voice over lead websites to start practicing. He got a job in LA and I immediately dived into voice over classes upon arrival.

2. What is the one thing you know now that you wish someone had told you when you first started out in voiceover?

Be prepared to spend a lot of money. I like how Bob Bergen explains preparing for a voice over career. It’s an investment of both time and money. I worked a lot of long, hard hours at my day job and spent a lot of money on training, demos, equipment, etc. to get where I am today. Why? Because I’m insane! Voice over is part of who I am. I’ve tried to quit. I can’t, which is why I did whatever I could to be able to wake up every morning and play pretend for a living. 🙂

3. What do you see as the biggest professional or personal obstacle you face that impacts your voiceover business and how are you working to overcome it?

My biggest personal obstacle is being a mom of a toddler. While I have a home studio with ISDN & the works (Thanks George Whittam!), I still have to do the babysitter scramble in order to have someone keep him quiet while I record or to watch him while I drive to a session at a studio in town. It’s tough trying to balance work and family when your job is mostly from home and you have a strong sense of urgency involved. I know most moms would agree that it’s hard to balance work and family.

Professionally? Knowing my worth. Turning away work is the hardest thing in the world to do, but I’m starting to really feel comfortable knowing what I’m worth and not doing something that isn’t on par with industry standards. If we want the industry to be respected, we need to respect each other and ourselves so that we can all get fair rates! 🙂

4. What personal trait or professional tool has helped you succeed the most in your career so far?

Perhaps, my insanity? I say this with a laugh, but seriously, you have to be a little insane to do this job. You are constantly facing rejection. 99% of the job is doing auditions. You send them out into the world and forget about them. That was hard for me at first, but it’s definitely a professional attitude I worked on cultivating to help me make it through. It also helps that I’m a pretty big goof most of the time and just love being in the booth – be it audition or job. 🙂

5. In your development as a voice over performer, who has been the one particular individual or what has been the one piece of performance advice (maybe a key performance trick, etc.) that you felt has had the most impact on your actual voice over performance and why?

If this were a verbal interview, you would have heard me state “Richard Horvitz” here without even letting you finish the question. Richard has been my mentor for awhile now and I do not know where I’d be without him. Not only did he help me learn how to relax and just have fun playing pretend, but he’s also been a supportive and kind friend throughout the whole process. I actually organize his classes now because I feel so passionately that everyone should have a chance studying with him! He is an absolute gem of a person and a fantastic actor & teacher to boot.

Tags: 5 Questions for a Professional Voice Over Talent, 5Q:VO, commentary, voiceover advice by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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Today’s 5 Questions for a Professional Voice Over Talent are answered by Mercedes Rose, a professional voice-over talent based in Portland, Oregon.

1. The beginning: When did you know you wanted to be a voiceover talent; how did your career begin (please include what year it started) and then when did your passion for voiceover develop into something professional?

I knew I wanted to be a performer…but I had no idea voice acting even existed until I auditioned for my first role. (Don’t ask where I thought those voices on the radio came from…) It was a total fluke that voiceover came into my life. I was an on-camera actor when my agent sent me to an audition one day. A VOICE audition. I had never done one before (Remember, I didn’t even know VO existed!) but I jumped right in and had fun with it. Must have worked because I booked the gig. The rest is history. And I thank my lucky stars (and my agents) every day for the chance to have a career that I love.

2. What is the one thing you know now that you wish someone had told you when you first started out in voiceover?

Many years passed before I realized how much ACTING is in VOICE ACTING. That would have been helpful to know on day 1!

3. What do you see as the biggest professional or personal obstacle you face that impacts your voiceover business and how are you working to overcome it?

Balance. I face a daily struggle with remembering which hat I am wearing when. Am I a producer today? A mom? A voice actor? A spokesperson? Usually, it is all of the above and the hats change every 15 minutes. My constant reminder (and the sign on my desk) is: “Be present”.

4. What personal trait or professional tool has helped you succeed the most in your career so far?

Being a good person that people want to work with over and over again has been the best tool for my business! Over 75% of my work is repeat clients. Making sure I bring my A-game, am professional and timely for every single gig is my goal. I also think having a name like Mercedes Rose helps…people don’t tend to forget me!

5. In your development as a voice over performer, who has been the one particular individual or what has been the one piece of performance advice (maybe a key performance trick, etc.) that you felt has had the most impact on your actual voice over performance and why?

Voiceover people, in general, are the most giving performers in show business. From Ritah Parrish, the gal at that very first voice audition who told me what a mic was to Linda and Michael Bard that got me that first gig (and many more after) to Stacey Stahl, my first voice agent that made me realize voice could be a job to Amy Snively and every person that I have met at FaffCon! So many people have changed the course of my career and therefor, my life! Not to be dramatic or anything ….

Tags: 5 Questions for a Professional Voice Over Talent, 5Q:VO, commentary, voiceover advice by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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Today’s 5 Questions for a Professional Voice Over Talent are answered by Randye Kaye, a professional voice-over talent based in Trumbull, Connecticut.

1. The beginning: When did you know you wanted to be a voiceover talent; how did your career begin (please include what year it started) and then when did your passion for voiceover develop into something professional?

Well, I just wanted to be an actress/singer – on stage (big fan of musical theatre from Rodgers and Hammerstein to Sondheim) in film/ TV, in bands – and oh yeah pay my bills that way. Plus have a fulfilling off-stage life too (I eventually figured that one out). So – in 1982 I moved from LA to Connecticut (okay, it’s kind of a a suburb of NYC), got married, and eventually had a couple of lovely kids. While pregnant with my son (1982), I got into voiceovers as a way to keep the acting chops up, and the income coming in. And I never left! I love how it has either supplemented the other corners of show biz I have inhabited (full-time radio, teaching drama to kids, Equity stage work, etc.) or taken top spot. Now, as I also travel to promote my book (yep – wrote it and narrated the audiobook!) Ben Behind His Voices (published a few months ago), voiceover is the perfect accompanying job. Some of my clients have been with me since 1982!

2. What is the one thing you know now that you wish someone had told you when you first started out in voiceover?

Marketing is a big part of the job! Even though regular clients are the best (and 90% of what I do is for repeat customers), never be afraid to offer your talents to help a new client. As we used to sing in Girl Scouts, “Make new friends but keep the old; one is silver and the other’s gold…” Something like that!

3. What do you see as the biggest professional or personal obstacle you face that impacts your voiceover business and how are you working to overcome it?

Probably being tempted to rest on my laurels and not reach out to those new customers who just may need me to take the first step. I am learning that many clients don’t love the casting process; they’d rather find someone they love and not have to hunt again.

Still, making the move can be as scary as introducing yourself to a group of strangers at a party. But, also, exciting – and just as rewarding. Some steps that are helping: I am in a Mastermind Group with other Voiceover talents – we met at faffcon – and we encourage and inspire each other all the time. Also – I break the “cold contact” process into smaller, more reasonable steps. LinkedIn and Twitter heal break the ice as well. Some of my favorite clients are ones I contacted first.

4. What personal trait or professional tool has helped you succeed the most in your career so far?

Personal? Perseverance, belief in myself, insatiable curiosity about this business (well, about just about everything, actually) and a desire to keep learning, keep getting better, all the time. Professional? The friends and colleagues I have worked with along the way; and my experience in improv, musical theatre, radio, and coaching for Edge Studio. It all helps. Every bit!

5. In your development as a voice over performer, who has been the one particular individual or what has been the one piece of performance advice (maybe a key performance trick, etc.) that you felt has had the most impact on your actual voice over performance and why?

Okay, believe it or not, I think about neuroscience and how it affects our learning and performance– how we need the technique/intellect side of things (left-brain) to be well-practiced so we can be even more confident to “jump in and play” with our imagination and emotion (right-brain). Body and facial language can help us access that Right-Brain playground: they really short-cut us to acting places that more instinct than over-thinking. Let your body do the work, so the energy is out to the listener not inward to yourself – but the left brain still has to do some work confidently (like staying on mike, remembering the rhythms/pitch you just used, etc). Knowing this helps with the confidence to jump in and play, have fun – but prepared!

Tags: 5 Questions for a Professional Voice Over Talent, 5Q:VO, commentary by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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