voice over career

The Troublesome Plight of the Working Actor (and Voice Actor, Too)

June 8, 2015 by Debbie Grattan

The 69th Annual Tony Awards aired last night, and being a Broadway nerd (my car radio is permanently tuned to the Broadway Channel on Sirius XM) I always enjoy the build up, listening to interviews with the nominees, and anticipating the live performances. It was a fun show to watch this year, with one of the best opening numbers in recent memory. My daughter, a child voice over talent, budding stage actress and fellow Broadway nerd, stayed up for most of it with me. It is so great to get to share my love of theater and acting with her!

With a child who has such strong interests and talents in performing, I think about the drive, luck and sheer determination required to get to Broadway (or any top acting gig), and the daily effort needed to maintain that level of success. It’s certainly not for the faint of heart.

As a profession, acting can lure you in with the excitement, the fun, the “glamour” and the promises of fame and fortune. But for most actors who set out on the journey with the goal of financially supporting themselves through their artistic talents alone, it’s a long hard uphill climb. There can be minimal rewards along the way and very little fame OR fortune at the end of the line. It truly is one of the toughest professions a person could choose, yet tens of thousands choose to jump in every year.

Why I Chose the Voice Actor Path Instead

The unstable nature of life as a working stage or screen actor is a big reason why I transitioned to the voice over acting profession many years ago. I could see the writing on the wall of what it was going to be like as a traditional working actor. Even though I had a strong passion for acting, I didn’t want to have to struggle that much. It’s hard to understand the downside of what it’s truly like (see awful things article) until you actually experience it.

I also had other goals, like starting a family and enjoying a full life beyond just my work. Those goals seemed to be in conflict with an acting profession, given the time, energy and sacrifices required to even attempt to reach the pinnacle as an actor.

I think trying to “make it” as a female actor can be especially challenging… The whole working mom thing is hard enough. But the working actor mom seemed exceptionally daunting and full of all kinds of uncertainties.

Voice Over Acting Has Always Had Its Advantage

At that time, (late 90’s) voice over acting was still fairly unknown and a welcome oasis from the competitiveness of stage and on-camera acting. Today, voice over acting has many of the same pressures as other forms of acting, mostly in terms of competition for work. The influx of new voice over actors entering the field and the fact that it is no longer under the radar as a profession, makes success even harder to come by and sustain.

Even so, compared to stage and on-camera acting, I believe there is still a higher likelihood of financial rewards and a slightly less desperate edge when it comes to landing jobs as a voice over actor.

The upside to the voice over industry is this: There is an ever-expanding amount of voice over work across many different applications, platforms and niches. While TV and radio commercials are still highly competitive and the place where voice over talents often try to make their mark, there are many other types of jobs (i.e. business narration, internet advertising, animation, telephony and audiobooks) that can pay an actor’s bills. The sheer amount of work in these other areas is vast and continues to grow. The number of opportunities for a successful voice over talent to make an income are relatively plentiful, especially compared to a queue down the block for an Equity casting call in NYC.

Since my goal from the beginning was always “to be a working actor” it is no real surprise that I eventually gravitated to a type of acting where the odds of making a good living were higher. Keep reading for part two… “The Working Actor’s Relentless Pursuit of the Next Gig” and why there really is “No Business Quite Like Show Business.”

Photo Credits: Will Act for Food is a photo essay collaboration between Cameron Stiehl and photographer, Ana Delao. Please visit http://www.cameronstiehl.com for more information.

A Key Quality to Building a Successful Voiceover Talent Career

June 30, 2014 by Debbie Grattan

I took my son to basketball practice yesterday. As I watched his coach put him through his various drills, I thought about how much of success in sports, life and being a successful voiceover talent, is tied to simple follow-through.

In so many sports, we talk about follow-through. Not only in a golf swing or tennis or baseball, but in following through with practice and strength training and having the correct mental attitude to succeed, whether it’s just for Pop Warner, high school, college or pro.

Following Through to Build a Successful Voiceover Talent Career

In voiceover, there is so much of one’s career that is dependent on follow-through. When first starting out, it’s essential to follow through with research, to uncover the information you need in order to determine if this is something you can and really WANT to do. Finding an appropriate workout group is the next step, to put into play what you think you can do, and get some coaching from someone with experience. And then after successfully completing a workshop, (or 3 or 4, or more) it’s about getting that all important voiceover talent demo together. So much follow-through there, to choose the copy you need, find a great audio engineer to mix it, get it packaged and branded appropriately, and tie it all together. You could spend many months, or several years just getting through this part of the prep work, to even put yourself in play to start looking for voiceover work.

Provided you get to the next level, and you have a demo, then you’ve got to follow through with attempts to secure agency representation (if you choose) or at least get out there on the internet with P2P sites, and other casting rosters, just to put yourself in the mix for the jobs you know are out there. But since there is so much competition for each job, it requires follow-through to continue building on not only your skills to be a successful voiceover talent, but also as a salesperson and marketing maven for your career. You have to follow through with emails, phone calls, social networking, maybe even in-person networking, depending on where you live and what kind of access to studios you may have.

If you’ve gotten this far, then you’ve got to follow through with getting your personal marketing skills in order, by putting together your own website to showcase who you are and what you can do. Again, this is probably something you will devote many man-hours to, and perhaps enlist the help of other professionals in branding, design, coding, SEO, and the list goes on.

Make Follow-Through a Daily Habit

And then, if you are finally a working, even moderately successful voiceover talent, the follow-through doesn’t end. Hopefully, you’ve built a solid engine that will keep chugging along, but you must still continue to stoke the fire. Every day, you are following through with clients who have projects in the works, and are waiting on that approved script. Or you’re following through with accounts payable, to make sure you’re not letting the money you’ve actually earned fall through the cracks. Or if you’re lucky, and have amassed a large database of clients, you must continue to follow through with them regularly, to make sure they know you’re still there, and ready to help with their next VO project.

Follow-Through: Without it, you are floating downstream with little direction or power. It’s not easy to stay motivated, day after day, year after year, with everything necessary to keep that career not only afloat, but thriving.

I know that many people are sometimes challenged with following through. But if you have developed a strong ability to consistently do what matters most, and you have a real passion and affinity for voiceover work, then there is potentially a successful voiceover talent career waiting for you. The secret is in the follow-through.

Debbie Grattan has been a working successful voiceover talent since the late 90’s, racking up thousands of projects and partnering with hundreds of production companies, marketing and advertising firms, commercial voiceover recording studios and corporate/business clients around the United States and throughout the world. Check out her Voiceover Talent Demos and request a CUstom Voice Audition for your upcoming project.

Voice Over Marketing Tips From Producers Who Hire Voice Talent

March 15, 2013 by Debbie Grattan

Female Commercial Voice Actress Debbie Grattan reviews the highlights from her ongoing “Think Like a Producer” series of articles. In Part 2, she looks at some of the best marketing tips that have been shared in recent articles. Check out Part 1, “Voice Over Actress Tips From Producers Who Hire Voice Talent” to see more great tips!

1. A website is a must and a blog is highly recommended. It’s a great way for people to get to know you better as a voice talent and it will help immensely with your search engine results.

2. Email newsletters are good, but they can often be burdensome to read. So, sending an email once a month mentioning some of your latest work is a very good thing to do and will keep you “top of mind” with current and prospective voiceover services clients.

3. Think about sending out postcards once in awhile. It’s nice for producers to connect the name and voice with your face, and it’s a channel of communication that often goes under-utilized in today’s digital age. That means the chances of your postcard getting noticed are better now than they were when more people were sending direct mail.

4. Most producers we’ve talked with are very open to receiving an occasional email contact message from voice talents.

5. Consider sending an MP3 voiceover demos when contacting new producers by email. That often will catch their attention better than a website link.

6. No matter how much marketing you do and how much you put yourself out there, there’s still more people who DON’T know you than who do know you.

7. Several producers commented that they didn’t actually receive very many direct contacts from voiceover talents wanting to make an introduction. They all seemed open to that, but were surprised that they didn’t get more direct solicitations from voice talent.

8. Get your demos listed on as many voice talent sites on the internet as possible. And not just Pay-to-Play sites like Voices123 and Voices.com

9. We live in an instant age. You have to be able to respond very quickly to emails and phone calls. If you’re not around when a prospective client has a need for your services, he is likely to move on to the next voice talent on his list.

10. In cases where clients need very fast turnaround, you just have to be able to deliver that consistently to be hired by the people who are looking for that level of service. This can be very important if you want to be a “Go To” voice talent for a production company that produces a lot of content.

11. The internet has changed the face of the voiceover industry. It’s important to align with the reality as it now exists and to be flexible in meeting the needs of the people who hire voice talent.

12. The need for voice talent services will keep going up, since video production continues to skyrocket as the preferred medium of communication. So there will be no shortage of work for voice talents. The trick is being able to be one of the talents who can capture the really big piece of the pie. This is where skills in marketing, customer service and business management can make or break a voice talent career.

Read Part 1 of this article at: “Voice Over Actress Tips From Producers Who Hire Voice Talent“

Voice Over Actress Tips From Producers Who Hire Voice Talent – Part 2

February 15, 2013 by Debbie Grattan

Female Commercial Voice Over Actress Debbie Grattan reviews the highlights from her ongoing “Think Like a Producer” series of articles. In Part 1, she looks at the tips that have been shared around the Art of Voice Over.

As a working voice over actress, I have a pretty fun (and extraordinarily challenging) job and I get to talk with a lot of very interesting people. It’s been a great experience to have the opportunity to interview several professional producers, marketing and advertising execs, recording engineers and voice over pros during my “Think Like a Producer” series. I plan on continuing this series through the end of 2012 and perhaps beyond. Looking back over all of the interviews we’ve completed to date, I was struck by how much knowledge, wisdom and good advice has been shared. So, I wanted to take stock of what we’ve covered so far and provide a summary of the best voice over actress tips and advice we’ve heard to this point.

Some of these items might seem a bit obvious, but just because they are obvious doesn’t mean you should dismiss them. Sometimes, one little tip can make a world of difference for a humble voice over actress.

Tips On How to Be a Successful Voice Over Actress

1. Be professional: Be open, be on time, be prepared and be totally dedicated to doing that particular project at that particular time.

Consistency is very important. Especially when being hired for a project that may require changes made weeks or months down the road. Everything has to match and line up pretty seamlessly. (Dave Louis of Audio Images)

2. Video production is where it’s at these days. As a voice over actress you need to be able to show your strength in two to three minute videos that have a range of emotion and excitement. There’s a particular skill in knowing how to get into something, drive it along for three minutes and be entertaining at the same time. (Scott Tingwald of Villing & Company, Inc.)

3. Producers love to hire a voice over actress who can deliver a read that’s even better than what the producer had in mind. This usually requires solid training, experience, versatility and good instincts.

When in a session, keep things business like and don’t spend unnecessary time trying to socialize and chit-chat with the producer. It’s fine to do that a little bit, but many times that producer is very busy and has several things to do after your session, so don’t keep them on the phonepatch or ISDN line longer than you need to. (Cheril Hendry of Brandtailers)

4. Very few voice talents can do everything. Play to your strengths and only put your best work on your reel. Develop a thick skin so that you can easily take suggestions and criticism. There is a lot of competition and an enormous amount of rejection built into the voice over actress profession. You have to be able to deal with that on a daily basis in order to have a successful voice over acting career. (Joel Newport of Harvest Creative Services)

5. Be yourself as much as possible when reading copy, whether it be for an audition or for a job. The more truly authentic and real you are, the more attractive you’ll be to the listener. There’s going to be that person that hears some characteristic that appeals to them, whether it’s the tonality, the way you deliver, or how you inflect.

Part of the reason we hear well-known celebrity actors doing so much voice over work is because they instinctively know what is needed to drive the spot and they understand the copy. They have the acting training that delivers the nuance advertisers are looking for. There is also, the credibility factor, which is huge. (Ed Victor, Voice Over Talent and former Advertising Exec)

Read Part 2 of this recap “Voice Over Marketing Tips From Producers Who Hire Voice Talent”, which covers some specific marketing tips that have been shared.

Marketing Advice for Voice Actors

June 10, 2012 by Debbie Grattan

Voice Actors Debbie Grattan and Ed Victor talk about his metamorphosis from advertising executive to international voiceover sensation. Part one of a three-part interview.

Debbie Grattan: Today we have the illustrious Ed Victor: writer, producer, art director, advertising executive, on-camera persona, and voice over master. Ed, how did you get started on your path?

Ed Victor: I wanted to pursue a voiceover career ever since I did high school announcements, but I was side tracked. My first really great job was stage director at WDIV, a television station in Detroit. It was a short-lived career because I wanted to be on the other side of the camera.

Marketing Advice for Voice Actors - Ed Victor Interview — The Big Gun himself, Ed Victor, left an award-winning career in advertising to establish himself as an international voiceover sensation.
Today, Victor is under contract with networks and television stations worldwide and is the voice actor for commercials selling everything from beers to banks to cars.

I went back to college, finished my degree in broadcast journalism, and took a job with a small advertising agency, filling in for somebody who was going on a two-month vacation. While he was gone, they hired me and fired him. That was my first foray into the cruel world of advertising. They knew I did voiceover work, so they thought I could do double, or triple duty.

Eventually, I landed a senior writer job at J. Walter Thompson. I was writing and directing national campaigns, shooting in Hollywood and New York, and meeting big, important people. One day, I was in the studio directing voice actors and one guy just couldn’t seem to get it. I said, “No, read it like this,” and he said, “Why am I doing it? Why don’t you just do this yourself?” I said, “You’re right. You’re fired. I’m going to do it myself!”

Within six weeks, my voiceover career took off. I was astounded how much money could be made just starting out, but the timing was right. Back then, you could walk into a recording studio and somebody would grab you for voiceover work. It was an entirely different time. There was no Internet.

Debbie Grattan: Now that the shoe is on the other foot, does all that knowledge give you a leg up on the competition?

Ed Victor: I think so. After being in the advertising business for 25 years, I understand that there is more to being a voice actor than just delivering the copy. Writing advertising copy for so many years, I’m able to give more to the producer.

I consider the broader scope and I don’t take it personally. That producer on the other end has clients to please, too. When they direct me, I get it. I truly get it.

Debbie Grattan: Your background leads you into retail copy, but you do a broad range of work as a voice actor. What do you consider your niches?

strong>Ed Victor: My niche is promo and trailer work… network promos, television station promos, radio station promos, and trailers.

I’m on contract with about eight television stations around the country and I get copy almost every day. Trailer work is probably one of the hardest things to get into in terms of actual work, but I do a ton of trailer work outside of the country.

In part 2 of this interview, Landing Voice Over Opportunities Overseas, voice actors Ed Victor and Debbie Grattan discuss his experience as an international voice actor.

Secure Voiceover Jobs with Marketing Firms

April 30, 2012 by Debbie Grattan

Part 2 of an Interview with Marketing Executive, Scott Tingwald of Villing & Company, Inc.

Female Voiceover Artist Debbie Grattan chats with marketing executive Scott Tingwald of Villing & Company, Inc. about how voiceover artists can capture the attention (and business) of marketing firms and secure more voiceover jobs.

Scott Tingwald discusses how to secure more voiceover jobs with marketing firms — As a vice president with Villing & Company, Inc., a marketing communications firm based in South Bend, Indiana, Scott Tingwald’s responsibilities range from developing public relations and marketing plans for clients to managing accounts in the higher education and financial niche markets.

DebbieG Voice Actor: How frequently do you need to go outside of your personal rolodex for new voiceover talent?

Scott Tingwald: We have several go-to people at voiceover talent agencies where we can easily secure at least a half-dozen candidates. We also like working with independent voiceover actresses such as yourself, when we know the voice and quality we’re getting is high caliber.

About four-to-five times a month we go through the process of identifying actors for upcoming voiceover jobs.

DebbieG VO Pro: Do you ever have to go outside of the box, such as Google or pay-to-play sites, where voiceover actresses and actors pay to be listed?

Scott Tingwald: We’ve been lucky in that we haven’t had to do that. I still like the fact that we work with voiceover talent and voiceover agencies who we know will get back to us quickly with the appropriate range and who can set up a session without a lot of additional effort.

DebbieG VO Pro: Do you receive unsolicited voiceover jobs inquiries or demos?

Scott Tingwald: Rarely, and since you bring it up, it’s a bit surprising. We certainly get a lot of people contacting us about freelance print and design work, but we rarely receive direct queries for voiceover jobs.

I would think a cold call introduction is a good way to go if you’re looking to get your voiceover name out there — as long as it is done right, that is, not too invasive. I prefer e-mails over phone calls, and links versus file attachments.

DebbieG Voice Actor: Do you prefer to work with voiceover actors that have their own studios or do you have a studio set up as part of your agency?

Scott Tingwald: It varies. In this day and age of digital technology, a couple hundred dollars of soundproofing will get you good quality. A phone patch is a huge plus, but we wouldn’t rule somebody out because they don’t have it.

Here again, we look for consistency. If we need to go back for new tracks, it has to sound consistent every time. As long as we feel we can get that, that is the biggest qualifier.

DebbieG Voice Actor: Have you ever had talent not be able to deliver?

Scott Tingwald: We certainly have had times when something we got from a voiceover talent wasn’t what we wanted. When we’re trying to get a certain voice, we need to have somebody from the agency monitoring and directing the session, but even then, we sometimes realize later it’s not exactly right.

DebbieG Voice Actor: What voiceover trends and opportunities do you see?

Scott Tingwald: Videos. If I were a voiceover actor, that is what I would be focused on. Show your strength in this new video medium, with strong two-to-three minute videos that have a range of emotion and excitement. There’s a particular skill at knowing how to get into something, drive it along for three minutes, and entertain people.

Radio is still part of the mix, but if you can show that you were part of this awesome viral video that got millions of hits, that is something I would say is a unique, valuable skill.

Be sure to read Part 1 of this interview which discusses how to distinguish yourself through voiceover demos.

Debbie Grattan is a professional female voiceover artist who has worked on thousands of voiceover jobs during the past 20 years. She’s the “go to” artist for many production companies and recording studios across the US. Check out her voiceover demos, voice artist bio and client testimonials for more information.

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