I’m going to tell you a story about an incredibly successful actor who almost threw away her entire career and everything she worked for, just because she no longer wanted to be associated with something that we are talking about today.

No matter how hard she fought it, the industry kept trying to pull her back into it.

Looking at it from the outside, it didn’t make much sense and to anyone who didn’t know what was going on “behind the scenes” it just seemed like she had a little bit of a breakdown.

The thing is, just about every actor reading this right now would have switched careers with her in heartbeat.

When you break down what it was that she was trying to move away from, it doesn’t make any sense but only because she was successful already.

Hardly anyone gets into this category by choice, even though it’s growing quickly and has plenty of opportunities available.

If you want to build a professional acting career, you can’t ignore this any longer...

I’m talking about voice overs!

You might be thinking that you don’t really have much of an interest in doing voice over work. If that’s the case you wouldn’t be alone and in the industry that doesn’t usually turn out very well...

See most actors don’t actively seek out voice over work for one reason...ego.
They want to be seen, not just heard. They want to be recognized walking down the street or in the Whole Foods checkout line.

That can become a career killer very quickly. I’m generalizing here and of course not everyone falls into that category, especially not the ones that go on and build successful acting careers.

Voice acting sometimes carries a little of a stigma, as if it were acting for those that can’t make it on screen. That’s where a big opportunity is for you, since building an acting career requires you to do things other actors are unwilling to do.

Plus, that couldn’t be further from the truth...

There are countless opportunities in voice overs now. Many of them didn’t exist until just a few years ago. Talented voice actors are needed for everything from video games, to animated films and even mixed reality projects.

That’s a big category already and it is set to become even bigger. We’ll talk more about that in a bit...

I often talk to actors about why starting an acting career by first concentrating on voice overs can be a great move.

Using only your voice helps with delivering lines more naturally, so you will be working on your acting skills and getting career experience in a way that is unmatched anywhere else in the industry.

It takes away your ability to reinforce your words with facial expressions, so you really get to focus on your tonality and it makes you communicate using only words, which is a very challenging thing to do for actors.

When actors start to think about going down this road, they tend to get hung up on something that is actually quite simple. Making voice over demos.

All you need is a sound recorder app for your phone and a microphone you can pick up for a few bucks on Amazon.

Of course, there will come a time when it makes sense to increase the quality of your demo but when you are getting started the people that will be listening are the ones that are looking for potential, not perfection.

Don’t overthink it. Keep it simple and keep moving forward.

Depending on where you are in your acting career, you may need a new agent or a second agent. Don’t count on a single agent being able to do it all.

Just like actors specialize, or should specialize, so do agents and you want to have an agent that knows the ins and outs of voice over. That doesn’t mean you will have to leave your current agency. You would just be adding someone new to your representation team.

Actors do it all the time and your current agency shouldn’t have any problem with it all, as long as you keep them in the loop about your plans.

A big concern for actors is that they will be seen as voice actors instead of being seen as actors. Almost everybody overthinks this!

I won’t name her here, but there is a fairly well known and very accomplished voice actor that started to transition her career a couple years ago.

She started to make some pretty decent progress in this but because she had accomplished so much through her voice work it was a little bit of a double edged sword.

The harder she tried to shake the image of her previous voice over work, the more she actually reminded the industry of just how great she was at it and that’s what kept coming her way.

She ended up getting a few big roles in films that did pretty well, and she was then offered even more opportunities for on screen work.

That’s what happens when you have a body of work to point to and when you ​build a reputation for being involved in great projects. Here’s how I can help with the second part.

I’m being vague on purpose because I respect her very, very much and she’s an incredibly talented actor. You can probably already deduce who I am referring to so let’s say that just when she was about to fully make the transition to on screen work, she dropped the ball and accidentally reminded everyone of her incredible voice over work yet again.

The actor I’m referring to did almost everything right, but she made a big mistake.

If you’ve been around Boost My Star for any length of time, you know that I’m a big believer in learning from other people.

What you can learn from her is that, when you have some accomplishments to point to (whether it’s voice over work or anything else) don’t shy away from it.

Embrace it and let it become a part of ​what makes you unique to the industry and it will open doors for you.

The actor we’ve been talking about could have used her success doing voice over work, as the foundation to build her on screen career, instead of trying to leave it behind.

Something that won’t change regardless of what you plan to do in the industry, is that ​you will need to have a reputation that matches your goals. Here’s how I can help with that.

If this is something you want to do don’t wait until late. Get started on this now and let me know how I can help. I’m always only a comment or an email away and I truly want to...

See you at the top,
Scott