Guidance for Radio Talent on How to Book Voice-Over Jobs

Welcome to Voice Over Experts, brought to you by Voices.com the number one voice over marketplace. Voice Over Experts brings you tips, pearls of wisdom, and techniques from top instructors, authors and performers in the field of voice over. Join us each week to discover tricks of the trade that will help you to develop your craft and prosper as a career voice over talent. It’s never been easier to learn, perform and succeed from the privacy of your own home, and at your own pace. This is truly an education you won’t find anywhere else. Now for our special guest.
Mike: Hi, my name is Mike Vincent and I welcome you to this little podcast, courtesy of voices.com. I just wanted to share just some background information about me first and foremost. I’ve been involved in radio and broadcasting since 1986, and since that time I’ve worked in markets in Upstate New York, New York City, suburban Washington D.C. and the Northern Virginia area, and now I’m currently residing in Oakland, California, where I am the national broadcast director or Snow Country. We serve over 700 radio and TV stations in the United States, with top quality snow and ski reports, and when I’m not working with Snow Country, or working events with my mobile DJ business on the weekends, you can find me here right in my home studio, doing what I absolutely love to do, voice over work. While doing radio production and station imaging has long been in my blood, voice over work for other entities is still, kind of, a new chapter in my career. I’ve only really been doing voice over work for business, IVR and other related entities for just a few years now.
Some of you may be coming from that radio background, and if you do I tip my hat to you, but if you’re freshly coming off the radio express and thinking well, this is going to be a cake walk for me, to get into doing these voice overs, this podcast is going to be aimed at you. For those of you trying out voices.com, or new to the voices arena, and you’re not quite sure if you’re doing the audition process right, well this podcast is also for you. I can say with confidence that I tried voices.com not once, but twice before. The first time I had a one year membership, between 2008 and 2009. Well, I didn’t get hired for one job. After a few months I forgot my membership was even active, and by the end of the subscription period I was actually, kind of, glad to be away from it. Then, upon a suggestion of a friend, I tried it again in 2012. This time it was a month to month plan that got me one job at $91.
Again I was frustrated and convinced that this was not the way for me to go, but come the fall of 2013 something in me just wanted to do voice overs more than anything in the world.
I re-did my studio and spent a good penny to update even the littlest of things to get that mega professional sound that people are looking for. Then I talked with artists I knew, that I loved, in the industry and sent out voice demos all over the place. Well, the responses had a common denominator. You’ve got way too much radio in your sound. You’re going to have to get every iota of radio out of your delivery and start getting back to the basics.
Conversational, warm, personal, one to one, and just when you’ve taken every ounce of radio out of you, and have gone back to the most basic of basic, bring it down again. Well believe me, this wasn’t easy, but I was determined to do it. I had to shift into overdrive but, at the same time, I had to engage the reverse gear. Of course I can go on and on about this, but what I really wanted to talk about was the way I have fine-tuned my auditioning process to a well crafted science. It’s something I call the QUINN method, q, u, i, n, n.
Well let me tell you what that entails. Q, it stands for qualify. When you’re looking at a laundry list of job openings, remember one thing, they just aren’t auditioning you. You are auditioning them. It starts with what you see first. If you see a job that is a thousand words long, with a budget of about 100 bucks, this may be a lot of time invested for just $100, and you may not even be interested in getting the job, let alone audition for it. Again, look at the job from start to finish. Is the time invested going to be worth the final payout? They call this ROI, return on investment. Qualify the job to see if it fits you like a glove, and if it doesn’t, move on. U, it stands for understanding the job. Is the client looking for an accent, a particular delivery or an approach that may not be right for you? Maybe it’s a cowboy or southern accent. If you go in there sounding like Mater from the move Cars, oh shoot, you just may upset that client, where they may not ever want to audition you ever again.
You need to understand what they want and audition only if you can deliver the goods. Understanding the client’s wants and needs is a big, big part of this auditioning process. I, investigate. Is there a YouTube or wav file attached that they’re looking for you to emulate? Is there a certain pronunciation in the script that you’re unsure of? Investigate, don’t go in there cold. One wrong pronunciation can show lack of care of understanding on your part for their prized piece. Remember, this is their baby. Investigate and sleuth out what you need to make this audition sizzle. Okay, now let’s talk about that first n in QUINN. It stands for nail it. Roll your recording software and read it like you’ve never read it before. Of course, you may want to take a dry run or two without the software rolling, and that’s perfectly fine, but then roll the software, do it. Feel it, breath it, know that script, and when you’re done take a listen and erase it. Don’t use it, no matter how good it feels, because this is where that second n comes in.
That second n, last n means nail it again. No matter how well you did or felt on that very first take, trust me, you can do it better. That was just a dress rehearsal so you could hear it. Listen back and extract all your strengths and weaknesses of the take. I will guarantee you you’re going to be so much more pleased with that second take. Believe me, you’ll be happy with what you send in and, you know, I know this sounds like an infomercial, but I know my methodology works. Since October of last year, voices.com has brought me nearly 100 jobs. Now that’s not counting tons of repeat business from clients that have come back to me independently for other radio work, TV, eLearning, IVR and other types of voice work. If you look at the average, that’s 13 jobs a month, just from voices.com, based upon this process, and at the time of this recording, 771 likes just based on auditions. Eight months this plan brought in the afterburner, and the horsepower is still coming. You have to really believe it.
The QUINN formula works. Qualify, understand, investigate, nail it and nail it again. Try it. I really think you’re going to love what you see as your outcome. By all means, be patient too. Let the seeds you plant bear fruit after careful nurturing and tender loving care. Pretty soon you’ll see the flowers blossom into beautiful living plants. Before you know it you’ll be looking forward to every audition that comes your way. Well my name is Mike Vincent. It’s been a pleasure to do this podcast for voices.com. I’m always available for one on one coaching and help. Please feel free to reach out to me at any time. My email address is [email protected]. That’s m, i, k, e at m, i, k, e hyphen v, i, n, c, e, n, t dot com. Again my sincerest thanks for taking a listen, and a very big thank you to voices.com. I hope to talk to you soon, take care.
Thank you for joining us. To learn more about the special guest featured in this voices.com podcast, visit the Voice Over Experts show notes at podcasts.voices.com/voiceoverexperts. Remember to stay subscribed. If you’re a first time listener, you can subscribe for free to this podcast in the Apple iTunes podcast directory, or by visiting podcasts.voices.com. To start your voice over career online, go to voices.com and register for voice talent membership today.