Advice for mounting a successful voiceover career is everywhere. Even that guy — Dave Courvoisier — wrote a book about it…so how tough can it be?
Tough. Success at VO can be elusive as hell. You hear from those who make it…but we’ll never know how many tried and gave up. Thousands, probably.
Once you’ve got some seasoning under your belt, you KNOW your shortcomings, and it’s safer to find help in that direction, ’cause you can rely on peers for referrals.
Problem is: advice — although well meant — may not be the advice YOU need. ‘Cause while there are some rock-solid tried ‘n’ true ESSENTIALS to VO success, there are scads more ELECTIVES.
Here’s a short-list of the essentials:
- Practice
- Get good coaching
- Acquire acoustics and audio knowledge
- Find hardware/software knowledge
- Practice
- Acoustically treat your studio well.
- Engage in effective marketing
- Develop a business plan
- Practice
- Curry Internet skills
The list of electives is beyond the scope of this blog, but include:
- make cold calls
- buy expensive mics
- hire a manager
- go to conferences
- buy throat coat tea
- send postcards
- read CourVO’s blog
- read Strikwerda’s book
- subscribe to Pay-to-Plays
- join FaceBook, Twitter and LinkedIn
