Time to get my crystal ball out... Here are my predictions for the voiceover industry

Time to get my crystal ball out... Here are my predictions for the voiceover industry

By Chris Tester - British Male Voiceover Artist

Happy 2023! Time to get my crystal ball out...

The voiceover industry has seen significant growth in recent years and this upward trajectory is expected to continue.

Here are my predictions for the future of the voiceover industry:

Voiceovers will become increasingly important in the marketing industry, for brands to tell their stories and connect with their audiences.

More people will be using voiceovers to advertise, market, and promote their products or services.

There will be an increase in demand for high quality voiceover artists who can deliver a professional sounding product in a timely manner.

There will be more opportunities for voice actors to work remotely and freelance, allowing them to have more flexibility in their lives while also increasing their earning potential.

Voiceover and AI technology will continue to merge, allowing for more sophisticated and seamless audio creation. (this is a big one!)

Voiceover will become even more common in video games, allowing players to interact with in-game characters and environments. This will open up new opportunities for voice actors to work on various projects within the gaming industry.

More and more products, services, and apps will be created for voice-based interactions. This means that there will be an increased demand for voiceover actors to create the audio content used in these products and services.

Do you work in audio, gaming, or voiceover production? I'd love to hear your own predictions in the comments.

Are you planning to release an audio book in 2023?

Are you planning to release an audio book in 2023?

By Chris Tester - British Male Voiceover Artist

Are you planning to release an audio book in 2023?

Then, perhaps you're after the perfect voiceover artist for your project?

Here are a few tips to help you find the right fit:

1) Research and listen to demos: Listen to voiceover artists who have experience narrating audio books, then determine which one sounds the most appealing for your project.

2) Consider the genre:
When choosing a voiceover artist, select someone who is comfortable and skilled in narrating the type of book you have written.

3) Look for versatility:
A good voiceover artist can adopt a variety of vocal styles, from character voices to accents and emotions. Find an actor who has experience performing in different roles.

3) Consider availability and turnaround time:
It’s important to choose a voice artist who can complete your project on time.

4) Don't be afraid to ask for references: It's important to find a voiceover artist who is both reliable and professional. Ask for references from previous clients so that you can get an idea of the quality of their work.


Choosing the right voiceover artist for your audio book can be a daunting process. Make sure to research and consider all these factors when selecting an artist, so you'll have a successful experience from start to finish!


Can I help you with your audio book voiceover? Send me a message to find out how it works.

#audiobook #audible #voiceover

What's the best online course you've done?

What's the best online course you've done?

By Chris Tester - British Male Voiceover Artist

What's the best online course you've done?

Mine was Ali Abdaal's on video editing in Final Cut Pro.

In just over two hours, I went from novice to someone who could actually put together something that looked - alright.

Yes, it took a lot of subsequent practise.
But getting a clear overview of the key features, and learning those CRUCIAL keyboard shortcuts was a game changer.

The course led to the creation of my Youtube channel,
my own courses on Skillshare,
my video case studies,
my Linkedin video,
my Tiktok account (56k?!)

Learning some basics about video editing also made me a better voice actor. Understanding the logic behind cuts from a production perspective informed choices I would make in my vocal delivery.

And the best thing about it? I watched it all for free on a trial for Skillshare - though I'm now a subscriber and teacher on there too.

So what course would you recommend?

#onlinelearning #videoproduction #elearning #videoediting #skillshare

What's your relationship with your voiceover competitors?

What's your relationship with your voiceover competitors?

By Chris Tester - British Male Voiceover Artist

What's your relationship with your voiceover competitors?

You know, the ones who are always trying to outdo you and get ahead of you. The ones who are constantly trying to get their foot in the door before you do.

Or you think they do...

Well, here's a thought: maybe those voiceover actors are not your enemies.
Maybe they're just another person who wants what you want — to succeed, to be happy, to create something meaningful in this world.
Maybe there's room for both of you to succeed, and maybe there isn't.

But what if it wasn't about one of you winning and one of you losing?
What if it was more like a dance?
Or like a conversation?
Or a game where everyone wins but no one is really sure how?

The truth is we don't have much control over our competitors — but what we do have control over is the way we interact with them.

• We can choose to see them as enemies
• or we can choose to see them as allies,
• we can choose to fight them or we can choose to help each other;

Ultimately, no matter what happens, we will always be responsible for our own actions and results — not anyone else's.

So, try approaching your competitors with genuine curiosity... You might even learn something from them.

#business #competitors #voiceover

Intrusive Thoughts

Intrusive Thoughts

By Chris Tester - British Male Voiceover Artist

Intrusive thoughts…

We all have them.
Especially when it comes to ‘content’.

I’m not interesting enough
I’m not talented enough
I’m not entertaining enough

Each post risks showing up our imperfections.

But I’d argue that THAT is what makes the most interesting content.

If your content is just all about the ‘wins’, you’re gonna have problems:

1) Posting wins gets repetitive quickly
2) It stops people getting to know the real YOU.
3) It makes you LESS memorable.

The best content isn’t about you.
It’s about allowing your audience to see THEMSELVES within your story.

The ups and downs
The lessons learnt
The battle - the drama - picking yourself up and going again.

I’m not saying post only for pity or feel like you have to overstate.

But don’t be afraid to share the journey.
It will inform other people’s journeys.
Assure them that THEY are not alone.

That’s what carries real value.

#contentcreation #socialmedia #voiceover #storytelling #personalbrand

Do your voiceover clients give you room to breathe?

Do your voiceover clients give you room to breathe?

By Chris Tester - British Male Voiceover Artist

Many people come to me knowing exactly what they want.

- They’ve written the words.
- Chosen the music.
- They might even have recorded a temp voiceover to signal pace, tone an inflection.

The more of these things in place, the clearer the brief, the quicker the job.

All things for which I’m sincerely grateful

But it’s almost always leaving something on the table.

My most interesting work?

That’s done when all the information has been processed - then we forget it.
Leaving room for instinct to play.
Rather than plotting how a project will go line by line, I’m allowed to focus purely on the moment, the audience, the emotion - and then I play from there.

Unexpected things happen.
Inflections, pace and emphasis might not always go where they were ‘designed’ to be.
But an audience doesn’t respond to design - they respond to emotion.
And when every little detail is micro-managed, that can be the first thing squashed in a creative project.

I’m not advocating dispensing with briefs at all - quite the opposite.
But I love those clients who allow time for just one take with the handbrake off during a session.
It shows a willingness to be open, to engage creatively, to be surprised.

It makes me feel seen as a creative, not just a nice voice.

So how do you carve out a creative space?

#creativity #videoproduction #creativeservices #voiceoverartist #clientrelationships

Let's Go From 10 to Zen - Voiceover Style!

Let’s Go From 10 to Zen - Voiceover Style!

By Chris Tester - British Male Voiceover Artist

Let’s go from 10 to Zen 👇🏼

Monday got you all revved up to anxiety level 10?

Me too. Life stresses… work worries… - we all want to kick them up the derrière.

I don’t profess to have all the answers, so I'm not going to lie and sugar coat this.
Occasionally, I can be quite a stressy person - but only because I'm a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to work and wanting to succeed in life.

Everyone gets stressed on a day to day basis, it's just part of life, and sometimes no matter how hard you try, you just can't kick that stress/mood away. It's just a bad day.

Often though and 99% of the time, there are ways to beat that pressure and just blooming enjoy life and this beautiful world that we live in (easier said than done, I know).

Here are some simple ways I deal with stress:

- Start your mornings with a workout - they're energising and kickstart your day the right way

- Go on runs or walks - a very effective way to clear you mind

- Socialise - the amount of times I've had to prise myself away from my studio to socialise… but trust me, you'll feel a million times better for getting up and having a break. It’s the little things: like popping to your local deli, and having a natter with your neighbour you happen to bump into.

- Have a laugh - laughing and smiling release endorphins which are proven to make you feel happier/are natural pain and stress fighters. So, Google funny cat videos, or go grab a bar of chocolate - they both get the endorphins working!

- Speak to someone - having someone you can speak to about your stress really helps; you should never keep it hidden away. Also, sometimes talking to other people really puts your stress and worry into perspective.

- Music - listening to music is such a mood changer. Find a nice upbeat playlist and have a daytime dance if you feel like it! I guarantee that will release some stress.

And a final reminder: you're only human, you don't have to have it together every single second of every single day.

Do you have any stress fighting tips? What are your favourite ways to combat worry and pressure?

#mondaymood #nopressure #mentalhealth

Battling the Online Noise

By Christopher Tester - British Male VoiceOver Artist

You're wasting your life in screen-time 😨

That's one of my greatest fears.

Almost every aspect of my working life involves the internet.
But even when the working day is done, I know where my phone is at all times.

That little screen that offers just one more update,
one more like or news item 😳

I'm aware of how the internet has changed my life for the better.
I couldn't do what I do or meet the people I've met without it.
My life would be profoundly different, almost certainly poorer.

But keeping a healthy relationship with it is a constant battle.

The below video, all about this subject, is currently doing some numbers on Tiktok, and it's interesting to see why. So many comments on a social media post are from people lamenting their addiction to a social media app.

And now I've opened a different app to share the observation here!

- I've set timers on my apps.
- I monitor screentime.
- I have a no phone rule from 9pm onwards.

How do you maintain a healthy relationship with the internet?

The Five Best Voiceover Tips for Beginners

The 5 Best Voiceover Tips for Beginners

By Chris Tester - British Male Voiceover

Since first embarking on my voice-over journey, I've learned quite a few profound lessons about what not to do that you shouldn't waste time. Arguing with people on Facebook groups about which microphone they like that the voice-over rail might not necessarily be the most reputable platform out there and that German dubbing porn might not necessarily be that good for your reputation in general, but apart from these profound takeaways, what other tips might I give myself?

The decision can be debilitating when starting any new career. There can be so much new information out there. It's difficult to know where to begin or what to prioritize, and I know that I definitely wasted a lot of time going along dead ends or making very obvious mistakes that really wasted a lot of time, money, and energy as a result. And I grant that failure is definitely an essential part of the process.

Let’s dig in!

Five Key Lessons for Beginners

As I've already covered in this video here, there are five key lessons that I would definitely go back in time and tell myself if I could when starting out and so in the absence of having a time machine. I'm going to tell you them instead!

Tip #1:

My first tip is a pretty essential performance-related one, and that is always to make sure that you're talking to one specific person regardless of what type of voice-over project you're actually working on. If you make your voice-over delivery specific and rooted in one person's reaction. Then it's going to make it more personal and go alongside that as well. I would say practicing doing voice over with a smile and seeing how that warm quality basically goes from the outside in can be essential in being able to establish a real connection with the listener as with any form of acting, really being specific in who your audience member is and what they want and what kind of um reaction that you want to get from them is incredibly crucial and something that I wish I prioritized more rather than sounding good at the beginning of my career.

Tip #2:

My second tip is also performance-related, and that would always be worked out what the subtext is. So, a car commercial is never really about the car that you're selling. It's about the lifestyle you'll want to portray that gives access to the person who wants to buy it. Go on an adventure of a lifetime on the road to discovery. The same would go if you're working for an explainer video. You're not just imparting information, but it's because you want to make a difference to the person who's listening in terms of their lives, what do they need to know, and why and again, understanding the importance of the subtext; running underneath why? What you're saying is important in the first place is really crucial in terms of giving the best voice-over that you can.

Tip #3:

My third tip would be to work from a place of relaxation, and this really comes down to the fact that when we're starting out especially, we want to get things right, and when we want to get things right in a career, that prizes speech. Generally, we want to speak very clearly, and in a career that focuses on the spoken word, that usually results in us speaking very clearly and sometimes over-enunciating, and I certainly found that coming from stage work where I did a lot of articulation exercises, so there were a lot of plosives going on and everything like that meant.

As a result, I sounded quite ready when I started out because I was pronouncing every single word, which is not what we do in real life and in speech, of course. The other thing coming from a trained actor that's been drummed into me for years is that your best performance comes from a state of relaxation. You have to be prepared. Still, then you need to let everything go and that I think is really the crucial aspect. Do your warm-ups work on technical aspects that you personally need to address but then when it actually comes to stepping up to the performance. You need to try and come from a process of relaxation. So, again focusing on the message, the connection, and the audience is not on your physical your technical execution.

Tip #4:

My fourth tip is a pretty inevitable one which is don't record your demos too soon. I know I certainly did, and I would say probably the first three commercial demos that I recorded in the early-mid-2000s were absolute and utter trash, while most voice actors are a bit more streetwise in doing their due diligence with demo producers. Now it's still something to be mindful of. You really need to focus on your coaching and your mastery of a particular genre first before you go and actually pay the money for a demo because otherwise, you'll be like me, someone who has to constantly re-record their demos because they're not good enough and you can't really salvage much from them.

You need to have a clear understanding of the genre in question. You need to know where your voice fits within that genre, and you need to know the extremes what is your range within that genre, not so that you display range for range's sake but so that you can set very clear parameters about what reads are going to serve you best as marketing too.

Tip #5:

My final tip would be you can do it yourself. When I started out on my voice acting career, I came very much from an actor's perspective that there were certain gatekeepers, i.e., agents and casting directors, that I needed to get on board with in order to properly make progress and to a certain extent that is true but as well as cultivating those very important relationships. There are many other ways that you can actually source voice-over work, and you don't even need to have a demo in order to be able to do that.

Now with things like Fiverr and freelancing websites, there's a way of being able to cultivate and monetize voice-over work from an early stage and actually build yourself up, or alternatively, you can go through the whole pay-to-play route and also, of course, most crucially you can use direct marketing to really create one-to-one relationships with clients that nobody else owns in terms of the relationships. So, they're yours, and it's a relationship that you can build progressively.

Final Thoughts

As a result, obviously, there's a laundry list of different things that I wish I could tell my former self when starting, but these were the five that I think would have probably made the biggest and quickest difference in getting my voice-over career up and running. I hope you've enjoyed this video and found it useful. If so, please do like, subscribe, please do comment below if there was something specific that you found particularly useful when starting out or that you wish. You had a time machine to tell yourself when you were starting out in the first place. Thank you for watching so much as ever, and I look forward to seeing you next time!

The Rise of AI Voiceover

The Rise of AI Voiceover -

by British Male Voice Actor Chris Tester

The rise of the AI voice has been the go-to anxiety topic for the voiceover industry for the last couple of years. The one before this was arguably the acceptance of home studios. They were more readily available and affordable technology, better remote connections, and more online casting portals allowing people to go directly to their clients. 

That meant that there was a greater acceptance of that as a valid way of doing voiceover work. So before we get into the whole AI thing, it's really important that we set out what exactly we're talking about and specifically that there's a distinction between the two main types of AI voice that are out there!

There's text to speech, and there's also speech to speech. Text to speech is what we most readily accept. AI voices to be so that you're inputting text, and as a result, a synthetic voice is turning that into spoken speech. But there's also speech to speech where there is actually a live performance giving the vocal inflections. But then a digital mask of another voice is being placed over the top of it, and we also need to remember that as most developing technologies AI voice stands on a moral spectrum.

There are better examples of it and worse examples on the one side. Some of this technology is literally giving voice to the voiceless, as demonstrated by the vocal id's work in the area. And then, on the opposite side, you have the model that we as voice actors might be more familiar with, which is something like a product like speechello, which advertises itself overtly as a solution to those costly and unnecessary voice actors.

So I'd say the key questions about AI voices are:

1. How good are they?

2. Will they replace voice actors?

3. What voiceover genres will it affect?

4. And how can voice actor’s best prepare for it?

Every few months, there seems to be another development in the mainstream media that provokes another spasm of anxiety for voiceover actors. Eighteen months ago, it was probably the release of a trailer of an AI voice that could cry called faith by the developer synaptic. 

Most recently, there was a controversy sparked by the troy baker, the voice actor. Now the baker is essentially as close to voice actor royalty as you can get; he starred in a whole variety of different franchises. Some of the biggest franchises in video games have been a running joke within the industry that he's in pretty much every game he tweeted about partnering with an AI voice company to allow everyone the chance to own and invest in the IPS that they create. 

Now part of the controversy was that it was a combination of AI voice and NFTS, which is another subject. And to itself that I don't really want to focus on in this video but what I do want to focus on in this video is that it shows that many voice actors out there already are exploring the different options of monetizing an AI version of their voice. When discussing his thinking and the subsequent backlash on the podcast play, watch listen baker explain a bit more thoroughly about his rationale: you never fire like the middle management. 

You fire the most expensive that's where the change happens; producers, by and large, are looking for how we can get away from hiring someone like a troy baker. Who's really expensive versus that guy doesn't cost that much. He's a negligible amount, or she's not going to be as expensive. So what I'm saying is they're trying to if they're trying to bring anybody's costs down; it's not that person. It's me! 

My job is not better than anything. My job is to solve the problem. Now I'd recommend that podcast, and I would also say that Alana Pierce - the video game writer and Mike Bithell - the video game developer made very good counterpoints in terms of obviously the very explicit risk that AI voices might have, especially for a new voice over talents coming into the industry who aren't as established as a baker. 

But what possibly interested me most about the baker's explanations towards his thinking was that it wasn't just about being as good as he could possibly be as an actor. Still, it was also about his focus on addressing the pain points of the clients that are out there, which rings true to a lot of the marketing that I do where on the marketing that recommends where it's not all about you. And what you can do but it's addressing you're the markets and your potential client's pain points first and foremost. 

But I was meeting about this literally last week with a studio that was like. We don't want to use the robot voice, but it's not a good use of our time to have people in-house. Record all the dialogue what our options are. So I definitely, I get that, and I also. I also understand that smaller voice actors are concerned with it too. I imagine that for similar for the composing community like I would guess people are split on it. Some people like it and some people don't. So given all of this, what should voice actors do? Should we just give up? Should we pretend it? Isn't it existing or happening at all just living entirely in denial, or maybe we should just sell out as soon as possible. 

We still can't be sure what exact voiceover genres will be most affected, but we can take an educated guess on IVR phone messaging. Some e-learning will probably be the most obvious candidates because if an AI program can change the language of an entire course rapidly, that can have some added value. There's also an argument for some commercial content to be specifically catered towards AI programs. Maybe you receive an advert that addresses you by name, addresses the location where you are, and also address what it is that you're playing or watching that commercial experience which some marketers are going to want to engage with is only really going to be feasible using an AI voice rather than having a human talent recording. Potentially millions of different variations in games AI voices are used as a placeholder and in the development process. And there are actual AI voices programs that are being built into and trialed in platforms such as unity which is specifically to aid the game development process because it makes more financial sense sometimes as a placeholder than it would be to hire live talent for in-progress work. Also, the wide availability of decent AI voices generally speaking would obviously invite greater use of voices in indie games. 

Whereas before, they would simply be priced out entirely, and we can see how some of the online casting sites are already catering to this where you have voice 123 and voices.com trialing AI voices and freelancing websites such as Fiverr looking at teaming up with AI providers such as lovo so that people can first of all order samples of existing human voiceovers. But then that leading probably almost essentially to them also having an AI voice offering as well there is also the wider question of diversity that needs to certainly be born in the mind which is that if a whole area is suddenly flooded by AI voice versions of reputable video game voice actors that people are going to be using instead of early voice actors, then it means that there's going to be a narrower pool of actual talent there.

As a result, some of the newer and more diverse talent coming into voice acting might be stifled in their development, but still and I'm sorry this is a cop-out. It is still too soon to know for sure exactly how this will impact. All we know is that there is a greater tolerance now that we're using Alexa, Siri, and TTS in the social media that we imbibe every day. There is a greater tolerance. It will be part of our lives in some form to come; that's as much as we know, and we can't ignore it. So what can us as voice actors do? Well, I suggest five things! 

The first thing I'd recommend is that we focus on being voice actors, and this may seem obvious. But it still bears repeating the one thing that ai voices struggle with is spontaneous, realistic emotion, and even if you do teach an AI voice to cry with specific inputs, then if you give them those same specific inputs, they will cry in the same way, there's not going to be that level of spontaneity. Whereas an actor who lives in the moment has a seemingly limitless way of channeling those kinds of things, you also need to value yourself artistically as a collaborator. As well as just a gun for hire, as a voice actor, you can understand the rules of copy and how to interpret text and give feedback on that. Similarly, with character relationships, characters' background, and the decision-making process. The decision-making process behind that is all added value that you can readily market and sell to potential collaborators, which AI voices simply won't have. 

My second point would be to be as educated as possible about the subject. So I would say podcasts like the VO social podcast about AI voices are great Anne Ganguzza’s VO boss podcasts. She's created a series of interviews with different AI voice providers about their approaches to their ethical standpoints. All of that kind of thing, I would say Hugh Edwards - a gravy for the brain has worked a lot with TTS stuff and spoken to several number developers. And I'd say podcasts like play watch listen where you're seeing game developers, game writers, composers, and voice actors, all discussing this kind of thing. So that it's not isolated but as part of our whole conversation in itself are, invaluable. 

The third thing to do is be open to potential opportunities where AI voice could augment your workflow. Yes, you could have an AI avatar that you market yourself or have someone mark a market for you for a lower stream of paid work. But there's also the potential to use AI voice, maybe just to do pickups in your workflow so that an algorithm can auto-replace those 12 errors for you instead of you having to go back in and do those pickups again. It's just being open to all of the different offerings out there. So that you can then see what might serve you best do you want an AI avatar. Do you want it to be on a separate platform? Do you want someone to market for you again by familiarising yourself with what other people are offering? You can start making some informed decisions.

The fourth point going hand in hand with that is to value your voice usage rights, and I'll always be banging on about knowing what usage is as a voice actor. Anyway, it's essentially making sure that you steer clear of anything which asks for a potential complete buyout. A lot of voice actors will have seen a text-to-speech was programmed. Where you'll have to record anything from half an hour to three hours to ten hours of seemingly nonsensical sentences from which they'll create a text-to-speech program. And then they'll offer com a complete buyout fee of anywhere from between two and a half to three thousand up to ten to twenty thousand pounds or dollars. And all of this kind of stuff is really iffy because they're essentially offering a buyout on that. And therefore, you don't have any say on where that voice may end up, and obviously, we've got a recent example of Bev standing a voice actor whose voice was used on TikTok without her permission. Those usage rights are really going to be crucial because if you sign them away too early and very, very, very cheaply, that's going to be the slippery slope. 

And finally, the fifth thing is to return to a theme of mine, which is the crucial aspect of forging direct relationships with your clients rather than being beholden to freelancing sites or pay-to-plays or anything like this your value proposition. As a voice actor, there will be more and more this human connection and all of the additional benefits that you can add and if other things can get in the way of that. Then that will diminish your ability to maintain a career in this area. The sooner that you're independent and very clear about what value you're adding to every single project you lend yourself with, the more you're going to make yourself independent and more self-sustaining as a business to conclude. 

I'd encourage us to look back at what I was discussing with the advent of home studios beforehand. Those talents that thrived were those who weren't afraid of new technology and were appreciative that their customer's workflows were changing. And therefore, their skill sets needed to change to cater to those new needs; they embraced new technology and saw how that could be able to enhance their client offering. We need to be aware of something that we need to bear in mind in a customer-centric way as much as possible. 

I don't believe that AI voices are going to spell the end of voice actors in their careers, especially when we live in a world where emotional connection and authenticity is a key factors in everything that we do, whether that's particularly artistic projects or voice acting, whether it's e-learning whether or not it's commercial or narration. All of these things, the emotional connection will always be key, but still, we have to be aware of what is developing around us. I hope you found this video of some interest, and if you have, please do like subscribe and spread the word; I look forward to seeing you next time!

With thanks - your favourite British Male Voiceover - Naturally RP

How to set the BEST Voiceover Goals for 2022

By British Male Voiceover Artist Chris Tester

Essentially, what I want to do is bring together two of my previous videos, one of which was about goal setting and the other one which was about taking stock of your voiceover achievements for 2021, and then use myself as an example of how I'm going about setting my goals for this coming year. The trickiest aspect of this can be that you don't really know where to start!

Everybody has their own kind of competing goals. There are loads of posts on it at the moment on social media; various voiceover provider services are all about these things. And you can't really see the wood from the trees. So I recommend that you have to start with what your goal is. You also need to think about how you would go about achieving that goal.

But the thing that I believe is I really kind of missed out from last year in properly interrogating was the why, as well. I think this is of crucial importance to really determine whether or not a goal actually works for you personally, or whether or not you've just taken it from someone else's goal list and assumed it into your own business rather than really properly interrogating it. So it's about the what, it's about the how, but it's also crucially about the why, and this is what's going to be able to make you narrow down your options into something that is actually feeling possible to you in this coming year, as opposed to something that is overwhelming.

Let's talk in-depth without further ado!

#1. Brainstorming 

So to get onto the resolution aspect of this, the first thing that I really recommend is that you brainstorm everything. But you brainstorm everything with three major sectors in mind:

1. Technical Side

The first one is going to be the technical side. The technical side may be equipment, it may be an investment in your space, but it's to do with your recording environment, the process of recording from a technical side. So equipment, all of that kind of thing.

1. Performance Side

The second area to really focus on is the performance side. So that could be working with particular coaches in particular genres. But then that also goes towards the actual demo production you might be involved in if you actually want to showcase your work in that respect

1. Marketing/Employment side

There's the technical side, and there's the performance side, and then there's also the marketing/employment side.

• So this is to do with what are your inbound marketing streams?

• What are your outbound marketing streams?

• Inherently, that's social media and any direct marketing that you do. And then, on top of that, it's also what agents are you represented by?

• How often are you auditioning?

• Are you auditioning through production rosters?

• Are you using pay-to-plays?

• And if so, how regularly you are auditioning, all of that kind of thing.

So we've got those three rough areas from which to start with.

#2. Stock Consideration

The next stage is to make sure that you have taken stock of this year, 2021, to see what targets you've set and whether or not you managed to do so. And then also to interrogate why. So when I look back, I'm not going to try and repeat everything that's already in that pre-existing video. But when I look back, obviously, there are many things that I'm very proud to have been able to achieve.

So, for example, I didn't hit my income target, but I came very close to hitting in terms of working more in games or audiobooks. That was very successful. I managed to get this home studio built, which has made me have to worry a lot less about the technical side of things. And I've also managed to formalise my coaching offering. I've managed to work with a marketing company specifically on defining what my marketing strategies are. And I've also managed to create another skillshare course, which is very, very good and very well-regarded and completely free if you sign up for a trial, just saying.

But there was also something that I completely dropped, completely failed on. And again, this comes back to not having really interrogated the why enough. So, for example, I had this whole idea that I would create a kind of marketing pack for myself so that I could, I don't know, get more varieties of interviews or appear on podcasts or anything else like that. 

Because there wasn't a really clear why behind that, other than I'd heard a few other people do it, that never really kind of came together in any way, shape or form, or more specifically also with working on US general American accents, it's something that I'd set up as wanting to revisit because I'd done a lot of it as a trained actor before previously. 

Many people say it's a very, very good idea, but it never became a priority for me because I just didn't encounter that many castings where it was really an issue. And increasingly, as well, with people looking for really authentic accents, I kind of used it as a bit of an excuse because my why wasn't strong enough in the first place to not even begin touching that. So I'm not saying that's not something that I'm going to focus on in the new year, but I need to develop a strong enough why to justify that being on my goals list. 

So oriented around those three different areas, you brainstorm everything you think of, anything that pops into your mind that you possibly think of as a goal. Don't try and qualify it in any way, shape or form; just put it down there and attach it to one of those three spheres. And then from that, you need to focus on the why which will be a natural process of elimination before you get into the nitty-gritty of the how.

There's no point in wasting lots of time on the how if the why isn't strong enough. It's like any kind of acting objective exercise; if your want isn't strong enough, then the scene won't be successful because you won't really feel you'll need it. So there won't be that tension of drama. It's exactly identical in terms of your motivation. If these are going to be goals that you're going to be pursuing for an entire 12 months, if the why isn't strong enough, you won't do it. 

#3. Documentary Work

So if I look at some of the goals that I'm contemplating in 2022, one example is documentary work. So that's what it is. I want to work more in documentaries and long-form duration and that type of thing. Then why is because I've always had a real interest in that from David Attenborough and his nature narrations, having a particularly huge effect on me, and then more kind of historical narration as well. I've been really interested in it. 

And so, therefore, once I've got those two as established, that's a very positive thing, then I can go into the, how could I possibly do that? And that would be by working with a coach that I think is well-respected. So maybe doing some research on that and working with them to get a demo. And then when you have that demo, well, what can you do? Yes, you can put it on pay-to-play sites. Yes, you can give it to your agents. Still, it would then be working in terms of my marketing as well so that I could identify specific leads that I could reach out to directly and then incorporate into my overall kind of direct marketing strategy as a result.

#4. Consolidation of Income

Another what that I'm really contemplating is that I want to consolidate my income. Before I get into how I want to do that, I really need to think about the why. And obviously, it's because more money is always great, right? Maybe? But the why is actually because I want to take some time off from voiceover without massive feelings of guilt. So that's quite a strong activator for me in terms of a life goal, as opposed to a business goal, to take more time off without going; oh my God, my business will plummet as a result. And then that justifies very much more strongly the, how I want to go about that.

So that's making sure that I am actioning all of the marketing work that I explored with Knowlton Marketing when I hired them as a consultant for my business. In terms of inbound work and outbound work, it's about making sure that the workflow of my content creation is as streamlined as possible so that I can be consistent and do batch contenting. It's led to some outsourcing. It's why I've got a virtual assistant for my outreach to help with that. Now, throughout this process, I'm not saying that the why has always to be ridiculously strong. It's good to have some speculative ones in there that you can subsequently kind of quantify. 

#5. Whole Dubbing and ADR World 

So, for example, with me, one of the goals that I'm contemplating is looking into the whole dubbing and ADR world because it's something that I haven't experienced. I don't know whether I'd love it or hate it because I've never even done a workshop on it or tried it out myself. So I know that I want to go about doing that. What's the why? Because it seems to be such a booming industry at this moment. So do I know whether or not I'd like it? Do I know whether or not it's a genre that would work for me? I'm not going to know that until I explore it in some kind of way. 

And so, therefore, we go down to the how, and that's by seeing what workshops are available, seeing if there are any resources that I'm already paying for, from my memberships to the VoiceOver Network or Gravy For The Brain, or other organisations are available and whether or not they have some resources that I can use, whether or not the friends or people that I know who already work in those spheres, that I can potentially talk to to see what the whole process is like. 

Once you've gone through this entire process, you should have a bunch of ideas that you've brainstormed out, and then they will have automatically kind of funnelled down quite considerably as soon as you've analysed the why. 

#6. Different Colours

I recommend even using a kind of different colours. So maybe all of the ones you've brainstormed are in blue, but when they actually qualify to the next stage, you may put the why in red. And then if they're ones that you actually want to spend considerable time on thinking about the how, then you put them in another colour, like purple for example. And that means that they are definitely going to be priorities for you. And obviously, if they chime with you and you're more excited about them, then that's obviously a very good sign. 

In a Nutshell

One of the practical benefits of having those three areas kind of like mapped out is to make sure that there's some form of balance so that you're not focusing purely, always on the performance side and not at all on the marketing side, because yes, it's great that you focus on your skills, especially when you're starting out. 

But if you want actually to make it function as a business, you need to spend at least as much time on the marketing side, on getting auditions, on getting those relationships, and on the technical side. I know that the technical side, thanks to having invested in the studio and making it such a priority in 2021, is less of an issue for me.

So it's going to be focusing more on the performance side and much more on the kind of marketing side, marketing to new areas. But again, it's about kind of forming a natural process, not by trying to get it right, right from the get-go, but by literally copying everybody else's ideas first and foremost, having them all out in front of you, and then seeing what speaks to you.

Last Words

I hope this video has been of some use to you. And I wanted to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, regardless of what the COVID restrictions may or may not be by the time that we get there. Thank you so much for your support for the channel, as ever. Please do like, subscribe. Please do tell other people that you think might enjoy this content about this content, as it would mean a great deal. 

And thank you, as ever, for your time and support and lovely comments. I will be taking a break for a week just to kind of revise where I want to take this channel next. And I hope that I'll be able to bring you all along with me. Thank you so much, and I look forward to seeing you next year!

How to Hire a Voice Actor

In this video, I provide an overview of all the different ways voiceover talent can be hired - and what’s the BEST way… SPOILER - you’re already on the right website, and there’s a step by step process detailed here.

In this video, I'm going to show you the best way to hire a voice actor. If you've never worked with voiceover talent before, it can be a bit overwhelming to know where to start looking. A lot will depend on your budget, your timeframe and exactly what you need. So it's important to keep these three things in mind when you make a decision. In the next few minutes, I'm going to go over the four main ways of hiring voice over talent and the advantages and disadvantages to each option. Throughout them all, I think it's useful to keep in mind this diagram. Any service land at some point in the spectrum, and the same is definitely true for voiceovers. Option number one, voiceover agents. If you go into Google and type in voiceover agents, then you'll get a list of the most high profile agencies in your area. Are all voiceover agencies created equal? No, but they are typically the first stop for the best high profile talent, because the agencies themselves would have already cherry pick the best in the field. An agent's job is essentially to curate the best talent from a diverse range of the industry. 

Depending on the agency, a lot of the talent represented might actually be actors who also do Voice over on the side, so they might not have access to recording facilities themselves. But they'll either be able to use the agency's own studio or an external one. Especially since COVID, a lot of agency talent have also moved to get home studios as well. And these will have all been vetted by the agents in advance. Essentially working with an agent to result in a high quality product with a cost that reflects that as well as paying the talent. The agent will also be taking a commission of between 15 and 20%. So rates will be on the higher end. Thanks to an agent's knowledge and expertise, you'll be given a number of very credible options and the turnover time will be relatively quick. But there is inherently an extra layer of correspondence within the transaction, which means it's not necessarily the fastest. And it also means that you're often not talking to the talent until the session itself. Option two, pay to play sites. Pay to play sites are essentially voiceover casting sites, where talent pay a subscription fee, in order to play, essentially audition for your project, or someone posting a job. The fee for actually using the platform is often conflated into the overall voiceover fee. But there's often quite a difference from site to site on how ethically that this is done. Some are very ethical, and some really aren't. Pay to plays are extensively fast because you can set the deadline, you can also set the budget which could be well below industry standards, the barrier of entry to the site is very variable. 

Essentially, if you can pay then you can play, which means that you will be inundated with auditions that you'll have to go through which will take a lot of time, listening to countless readings of the same script can get very tiring very fast, especially when the performance levels are very variable, but also the actual quality of the recording itself. It adds an unwelcome degree of technical uncertainty into the mix. But if you do have the time to trawl through everything, then it can be a more budget friendly option, if time doesn't necessarily equate to money for you. Option three, freelancing sites are something that I'm just going to touch on very briefly. Imagine all of the complications and potential issues of a pay to play site but with no barrier to entry. Pay to plays at least have the barrier of entry of a subscription fee that the talent must pay. Whereas on a freelancing site, anyone can have a go. So while turnaround times may be quick and rates often extremely low, finding anything that's actually usable is like finding a needle in a haystack and will require a lot of patience on your behalf. 

And finally option four, hiring freelance voiceovers directly. Returning to Google again, if you search for the type of voice you're looking for, and the word voiceover, you'll be presented with a huge range of talent to choose from. Any voiceover artists who has spent time building up their online presence, recording a range of demos, done their SEO and constructed a clear brand has to be dedicated to their job. If they've managed to get on the first or second page of Google, then they likely know what they're doing. They'll have invested in their own professional studio, which means that they'll be able to turn over recordings quickly, that you won't have to deal with a third party in order to speak to them. And that you won't have to wade through lots of auditions in order to get what you want. You'll be able to immediately check out their work, find out where they're based and make contact with them. And thus the whole process will be conducted directly. There'll be no commission involved, rates will be more competitive, while still respectful of the industry. And just as a side note to that, if you don't know what the proper going rates are for a voiceover, then I recommend you check out the Gravy For The Brain rate card. If you've already got a pretty clear idea of the voice that you want, then you can find a few different talents, ask them for a demo. And they'll usually turn over it in a couple of hours. If you've got much vaguer ideas about the talent that you actually want to use, then probably having somebody like an agent to bounce ideas off would be more useful. But another huge benefit of working with voiceovers directly is that we're a community, which is partly the result of us talking to ourselves all day. The best voiceovers will be very clear about what they can do and also what they can't and be happy to recommend you if someone's more suitable. 

I make personal recommendations to my clients pretty much on a regular basis because it's part of me building a relationship with them. The best voiceovers want to be a resource to you, not just book a job and are in it for the long haul. So don't be afraid to ask them. So there you have it. Each job is a balancing act and no budget or timeline is going to be created equal. But I've hopefully given you a clear idea of the options available to you and what their various pros and cons are. If you enjoyed this video, please do take the time to like, subscribe and turn notifications on so that you don't miss any of the future videos. Thanks so much for watching, and see you next time.