commercial voice over Archives - Stephanie Stephens

You want to build a successful relationship with your voice over agent. Navigating the competitive world of voice over work can be daunting, especially when it comes to finding and working with an agent.

A good voice over agent can be your biggest ally, opening doors to opportunities and helping you grow your career. However, it’s essential to establish a solid working relationship. Here are some key strategies to ensure that you and your agent are on the same page.

Whether you’re doing commercial voice over, focusing on corporate narration, or another VO genre, you may really appreciate working with a great agent.

Understand Your Voicer Over Agent’s Role

Before diving into the specifics of how to work effectively with your agent, it’s crucial to understand their role in your career. Your agent is there to:

Market Your Talent: They present you to potential clients and auditions, showcasing your unique skills.
Negotiate Contracts: Your agent will handle the nitty-gritty of contract negotiations, ensuring you get fair pay and terms.
Provide Industry Insight: Agents often have years of experience and can offer valuable advice on trends, skills to develop, and networking opportunities.

Recognizing this will help you appreciate their expertise and build a collaborative relationship.

Maintain Open Communication in the Relationship

Communication is the cornerstone of any successful partnership. Here are some ways to keep the lines of communication open with your agent:

Regular Check-ins: Schedule periodic updates to discuss your career goals, recent auditions, and any changes in the industry. This ensures that both you and your agent are aligned in your pursuits.
Feedback Loop: Encourage your agent to provide feedback on your auditions, and be open to constructive criticism. This will help you improve and stay competitive.
Be Proactive: Don’t hesitate to share your thoughts, ideas, or interests. If there’s a specific type of work you’re passionate about, let your agent know. They may be able to align opportunities that fit your aspirations.

Set Clear Expectations in the Relationship

From the onset, it’s vital to establish clear expectations between you and your agent. Discuss your goals, availability, and preferred communication style to avoid misunderstandings. Here are some areas to cover:

Career Goals: Share your long-term and short-term goals. Whether you aspire to work in audiobooks, or animation, your agent can tailor their efforts to suit your aspirations.
Availability: Be upfront about your availability for auditions and projects. If you have a busy schedule, let your agent know when you can realistically take on new work.
Response Time: Discuss how quickly you expect to hear back about auditions or opportunities. Agreeing on a timeline can help manage expectations on both sides.

By setting these expectations early on, you lay a strong foundation for a productive working relationship.

Be Professional and Respectful in the Relationship

In the creative industry, professionalism goes a long way. Here are some best practices to keep your relationship with your agent positive:

Timeliness: Always be punctual for auditions and meetings, and meet deadlines for any required materials. If you need to cancel or reschedule, do so with plenty of notice.
Respect Their Time: Understand that agents often juggle multiple clients. If you have questions or concerns, try to consolidate them into fewer communications to avoid overwhelming your agent.
Express Gratitude: Simple acts of appreciation can make a big difference. Whether it’s a thank-you note after landing a gig or a message acknowledging their hard work, expressing gratitude fosters goodwill.

Keep Improving Your Skills

Lastly, your personal growth as a voice over artist can enhance your relationship with your agent. Here are some ways to invest in your skills:

Training: Regularly attend workshops, classes, or seminars to refine your craft. This not only improves your abilities but also demonstrates your commitment to growth, which agents appreciate.
Diversify Your Skill Set: Explore different genres or styles of voice acting. Being versatile can make you more marketable and open up more opportunities.
Stay Informed: Keep abreast of industry trends, technology, and changing client needs. This knowledge can be invaluable during discussions with your agent and can help you both stay ahead of the competition.

It’s a Two-Way Street in the Relationship

You can build a successful relationship with your voice over agent, and it requires effort and collaboration. I’ve learned that by understanding their role, maintaining open communication, setting clear expectations, demonstrating professionalism, and continually improving your skills, you can create a dynamic partnership that propels your career forward. Remember, your agent is there to advocate for you, but it’s a two-way street. Investing in this relationship will pay off as you navigate the exciting world of voice over work.

May you and your agent book the most coveted spot in this week’s auditions! Go get it!

So, there are thousands of voice actors in the United States alone. And you, oh great voice, are one of them. Two decades ago, if we can remember that far back (!), there were a few hundred people who did all the “big work.” Please, don’t compare your voice talent to others’ voice talent.

Now, the landscape is very different. Just as script styles have changed, and continue to change quickly, depending on the latest trend, so, too have preferred voice styles. It’s so easy to look at many of the “top” voice talents and think, “He/She sounds so (fill in the blank with a complimentary adjective.)”

Hey, maybe you do, too.

Achieve voice over success just being YOU. — *Your unique sound can help you achieve voice over goals. (Credit: TheDigitalArtist)*

Diversity in Voice Talent Is ‘In’

But remember that “natural” and “conversational” continue to appear in script specs, and all kinds of voices are ultimately reading those lines and making bank. (Mostly) gone are the days of the BIG announcer, shouting voice. Casting directors and marketing pros want voices that reflect the broad brush strokes of America. Even regional accents and dialects book voice jobs, because those people live here, too. And people with accents and dialects buy things.

Voices with texture and character, the ability to be soft and yet powerful, non-salesy and yet convincing, get plenty of work. When someone tells someone else that “You have a great voice,” that can be interpreted in a myriad of ways in today’s uber-competitive voice over environment.

What are “they” looking for? Often, whether it’s casting for acting or voice over, “they” don’t know it until they see it or hear it. It’s totally subjective. That’s why, when we enter the booth, we can stress and strain over “What do they want?” to no avail. We deliver the best, most on-target voice over performance we can, and either they like it for their purposes, or not. So there.

We Are All Different Voices

We live in a world where, no matter what we do or how we do it, there are people who do it better than us or worse than us, but rarely do two people very do anything at exactly the same level, whether it’s sports, educational attainment, or…voice over.

Feeling inferior, lesser than, or jealous? It’s so easy to compare ourselves to X voice talent or Y voice talent, and come away feeling bad, but that’s unhealthy and not beneficial. As psychologist Michael Alcee, Ph.D. writes in Psychology Today, “A violin makes different music than a trumpet; a viola has even subtler differences of sound. This isn’t a fault, but rather what makes the orchestra so beautiful, and what makes each instrument truly special.”

Risks of Comparing Your Voice to Others’

So what does comparing your voice to someone else’s do, if you’re not careful?

It tanks your confidence level: If you need one thing in addition to your voice talent and skillset, it’s confidence.

It creates unhealthy social comparisons: Those can make you depressed and unhappy, and may even prompt you to think, “Oh, what the heck. I wasn’t going to get this anyway.”

It causes you to lose your sense of self: We are all individuals, with an individual sound, much to the delight of those who cast us in commercials or for narration. If we try to mimic the sound of someone else, there goes “us.” If you’ve ever been accused of being a “nonconformist,” it’s OK to do that with your own voice! That’s better than doing a read a certain way because “I think I should,” or “X voice talent does it this way and they’re booking way more than I am.”

It can make you a bit selfish: Don’t you feel good when you compliment someone? It feels like you’re giving freely of yourself, taking joy in celebrating their achievements. Think about X voice talent, “Wow. I

It takes the shine off of your own journey: Very few people hit the mark entirely the first time, coming out of the gate to book the majority of their auditions right off the bat. Achieving success in increments has a good “feel” of accomplishment to it, especially when we’ve worked hard to attain specific goals, some of which may have been rife with challenges.

It prompts you to say “I should”: That can lead to discontent, never being satisfied. Our value as a person, and as a talent, becomes diminished. The breadth of our voice over ability, even if we’re still honing the fine points, is much bigger than a few sentences about what we should or should not do.

Trust yourself in your voice over work. — *You may be just “the voice” “they” want! (Credit: by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay)*

‘Comparison (in Voice Talent) Is The Thief of Joy’

We weren’t around when he was, but America’s 16^th president, Theodore Roosevelt, said “Comparison is the thief of joy.” Even in the mid-1800s, he knew what he was talking about.

So:

Be nice to yourself in the booth or out. Continue to practice your craft, and yes, DO listen to other voice over artists, and do read other blogs about how to maneuver in this crowded voice over business. Do listen back to your reads with “fresh ears,” and ask yourself how you might do them better if you ever have another chance. When you hear a voice you like, think how you might emulate certain aspects of the read and still sound like YOU.

Because, at the end of the day, YOU are just fine in the voice talent sphere. Even better. So please don’t compare your voice talent to others’.

Stephanie Stephens

Voice Over Talent

How to Build a Successful Relationship with Your Voice Over Agent