Highlights, Takeaways & Quick Wins

You don’t need the fanciest mic or a ton of knowledge to sound good. Just make sure you aren’t clipping and do some basic treatment to your audio.
Not every mic is right for your voice. You’ll need to try some different mics out to see what pairs with your voice the best.
If you want to make a living from voice-over work, you have to think about yourself as a business.
If you’re just getting started as a voice-over artist, a voice coach is one of the best investments you can make.
You can make a living in voice-over without an agent. You don’t need an agent to be successful.
It doesn’t matter how you start, it just matters that you start.
You’re born with the voice you are born with, that’s it. You can’t change that. All you can do is learn how to use your own voice to its best abilities.
You’re not going to get many scripts that you can read in advance, so the ability to read ahead while performing a script is essential.

Cool Stuff to Check Out:

Recommended Gear: https://kit.com/thepodcastdude
Podcast: https://thepodcastdude.simplecast.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/thepodcastdude
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/thepodcastdude
Simplecast Blog: http://blog.simplecast.com
Successful Podcasting: http://successfulpodcasting.com

How Did You Get Started as a Voice-over Artist?
Aaron: How did you get started doing voice-over work? Were you born with a golden voice, did you know from an early age that you were going to be a voice actor?
Jay: Golden voice? Not exactly. I don’t really have a special Barry White kind of voice. I did know from an early age that I wanted to do something with my voice. I blame the Animaniacs and all those kinds of shows for the inspiration. I just wanted to do voices; I was that guy in school who did the funny voices.
Like so many people, I decided to do something sensible after college. I left college and went straight into an IT job for 10 years or so. But I got to a point in my life where IT work was just too boring; I knew I couldn’t do it for the rest of my life. I asked myself what I wanted to do, and knew that it was voice-over. So I slowly started to take some steps towards getting started. Those first steps are always the scariest.
The first thing I did was look for a voice coach. I booked a workshop in London and got some coaching and recorded some demos. Then (slowly) I started to try to find voice-over work.
There was a long journey from then to what I have now; I definitely had a false start, kind of kept it on the sidelines for awhile. I kind of dabbled, I didn’t commit to getting my voice-over business off the ground.
After about 3 years of dabbling, I had a really bad day at my job (still IT) and I was talking to my wife afterwards about how much I hated it. She said, “Why don’t you do the voice-over thing properly?”
So that’s when I started taking it seriously. I went over to the states and got some more coaching, got some real recordings done, got some new kit (that’s gear), and really worked hard to make it my full-time business.
So it started off slowly, but when I made my mind up that it was possible and starting applying myself, that’s when it all started coming together.
Aaron: So how old were you when you started dabbling? And how long did it take you to go full-time?
Jay: I’d just got married… so 27? I’m 31 now, so I got started around four years ago. And I kept my job until recently. My hours at the job decreased as my voice-over work increased, and eventually I ditched the day job altogether.
But in the beginning I’d work the day job Monday-Friday, 9am to 5pm, and as I got more bookings for voice-over work my schedule got a little crazy.
So the transition was hard but it was worth it.
What Kind of Gear Do You Need to Get Started as a Voice-over Artist?
Aaron: What kind of gear did you have when you were starting out?
Jay: I had (and this is terrible)… a $30 USB microphone. It had a built-in pop shield. For my booth (my entire sound trea