J. Michael Collins

It’s basic economics. Leave money in the bank, or in low-risk investments with a defined annual yield, and over time the initial principle will grow substantially if it is not touched. Compound interest is the topic of many articles and talks by financial experts and with good reason. Smart, disciplined saving and investing can lead to long-term security. Slow and steady frequently wins the race. As the voiceover industry evolves, this principle of compound interest can be applied to building your career.

With commercial and other classic broadcast genres becoming lower-pay volume hustles, the days of staking your fortune on a few high-dollar campaigns are rapidly coming to an end. Voice actors must now build strong businesses for the long haul, steadily developing a roster of clients that will lead to income compounding over time. Ultimately, the end goal of most modern voice over artist’s careers is likely to be predictable daily work, as opposed to one-off windfall jobs.

What does this mean in practice?

Build for the long-haul, and be practical. Rate cutting and accepting abusive pay is never encouraged, but a healthy dose of realism is necessary to build a sustainable flow of daily work. Local automotive commercials, for instance, often only pay a couple hundred dollars. If you become the voice of a group of dealerships, however, you might do 10, 20, 30 or more spots per month, every month. Become the voice of numerous dealership groups across the country, and the pay compounds along with the security of knowing that losing one client won’t break you. Casino & gaming work can function the same way.

Corporate narration and explainer video voiceovers work much the same way. You won’t get rich off of either on a per job basis, but with the average corporate job paying $400-$500 for a few minutes of narration, and the average explainer just a bit less than that, accumulating regular customers in these sectors can lead to steady work and growing income. Corporate and explainer clients tend to be more loyal than commercial clients, who deal with frequently changing tastes and campaign directions. Many of these narration clients will stay with the same voice for years, often providing monthly or even weekly work. Building a base of 20, 50, 100 or more of these clients is a powerful route to income stability in voiceover. Moreover, pay is rising in these sectors, whereas it has fallen and stagnated in commercial work.

E-Learning has the dual distinction of being both well-paying, ($1,000-$3,000 per finished hour is a common standard,) and also filled with loyal, long-lasting clients. The barrier to entry is higher, requiring a considerable facility with language, stamina for long narration, and attention to detail, but the results can be the backbone of a VO career built for the 2020s. Like corporate narration, rates are steady and climbing, demand outpaces supply, and clients are likely to stick with a narrator for the long haul. A base of 10 or more solid E-Learning clients will keep the cash flow steady.

We all love the glamor of hearing our voices on the air, and the good news is that there are more commercial opportunities than ever. That said, the smart money in voice over is moving to genres that are less populated with talent, where demand is causing rates to become stronger over time and where client loyalty is consistent. Whatever segments of the industry you play in, build a core business that creates a self-fulfilling snowball effect…..compounding the rewards of a large client stable and regular work.

In this first series of articles on vocal health, I talk to Shannon Torrence, a successful and talented voice actor who has recently struggled with vocal issues.

JMC: Tell us about how you got started in voiceover

Shannon: After college I was living in Orange County with my parents, with no career plan. I was working at a shipping supplies company as a customer service representative doing the, “Office Space” thing. My coworkers seemed to enjoy my impersonations of the customers I’d take calls from but other than that, I wasn’t doing any performing. One day I was in the break room breaking open my office lunch bag when I happened to notice an ad in the paper for voiceover classes. I didn’t even consider that voiceover was a real profession I could get into and get paid to do it, but I thought acting classes would be a fun diversion from the monotony of my clock-in, clock-out existence. I got home that afternoon and my mom said to me, “I cut out this ad from the paper today and thought you might be interested.” BIG REVEAL: It was THE SAME ad I had taken home from work with me. My dad was kind enough to offer to pay for classes as a sort of grad school equivalent, and told me he’d always thought I should be a clown, and I began studying at Del Mar Media Arts in Irvine, found out I had a natural knack for it, eventually moved up to LA, met MJ Lallo who offered to manage me, and an agent followed.

JMC: What did your career look like before you started having vocal health issues?

Shannon: Before I started having vocal issues, I was literally living my dream. I had always said I wanted a job I didn’t HAVE to go to, felt I wasn’t really good at much other than communicating and connecting with people and wasn’t sure how that would translate to making a living. I’d worked for many years in offices as a low level assistant, bored out of my skull and feeling unfulfilled. I’d also worked in catering, as a babysitter, in commercial casting and many other odd jobs that were fun but I was struggling to pay my bills. More importantly I just KNEW I had more to offer but for years I’d given up on the idea of making a living JUST from acting so I took a lot of “safety” jobs and I’d become stressed out and exhausted. When adrenal fatigue finally set in, I decided to give up my day job in casting and pursue VO again on my own, with only a couple of regional agents, using casting sites. I drove for Uber for 2 weeks before I didn’t need to anymore, and then the bookings just started coming in. I was so busy I had to invest in a proper home studio and equipment and before you know it, I was excited to wake up in the morning to go to “work”. I was doing everything from business narration to commercials to video games and every day was fun and new and different. I was suddenly no longer lacking for income and the anxiety lifted. I was happier than I’d ever been in my life, and a total workaholic.

JMC: Can you describe how you first knew there was a problem?

Shannon: I first started noticing that I was frying or graveling out at the ends of sentences, or when trying to land the brand name or website address. A client once asked if I could stop, “growling”. I was working 8-9 hours a day, auditioning nonstop and doing recording sessions every day, with very few breaks, and was still transitioning out of working late nights at a music club as a booker, talking over noise for hours. Having come from a place of lack, I was just so intent on keeping the work flowing, I wasn’t thinking about vocal health. My voice started to feel really strained and tired but I pushed through it. I started having postnasal drip a lot, and there was a lot of throat clearing and frustration. I went to Amy Chapman, a wonderful voice therapist in LA, and she taught me some vocal exercises and told me to use a standing desk and I noticed improvement and I thought, “There. All better now.” But I didn’t stay diligent about the daily exercises and had so little knowledge of what was happening in my throat and vocal cords, I just kept pushing. One day after having dinner in a very loud restaurant where I had to shout to speak with my friend, I woke up and my voice was so tight I could hardly speak. It wasn’t like laryngitis; it was as if my throat was in a vice, and I couldn’t squeeze the words out. I went to an ENT, was told I had some reflux, told to take TUMS and I’d be good to go. Things got worse. Then I was told I had allergies and was given allergy medication. Found out I did not actually have allergies. I was given cortisone for my swollen vocal cords. Eventually, I couldn’t speak without sounding extremely hoarse, breathy, and constricted, and I’d lost so much range I couldn’t do any intense or passionate or soft and contemplative reads at all.

JMC: Tell us about how your condition progressed and where you are today

Shannon: I am beyond grateful that by continuing to treat my chronic reflux and staying on top of it, and being strict with my diet and lifestyle choices, I am finally back to work again. I still do have reflux every day. Some days I have hoarseness or difficulty in my lower range, but I am able work through it using vocal techniques and sometimes simply resting and coming back to it later. Voicing is never as easy and fluid as it used to be, and that’s frustrating, but I’m actually learning to work with my new rasp and embrace it and my clients have been happy with my work. I do vocal exercises every day, eat a lowfat mostly vegetarian diet, refrain from eating 3-4 hours before bed, sleep on a wedge pillow and take PPIs daily.

JMC: How has it impacted your voiceover business, and what lessons have you learned?

Shannon: While this was a traumatic, upsetting experience and a long, difficult road, it has actually brought me to a much better place.  I was working WAY too many hours and on weekends.  Voiceover was actually an addiction for me.  A football player can’t just run out on the field and play football 24/7 without risking serious injury.  A dancer can’t dance every day all day without repetitive use injuries. We are vocal athletes, and rest is JUST as important as doing the work.  I have found the balance.  I now do 5-10 auditions a day as opposed to 40 and focus on quality, not quantity.  This leads to 1 job a day rather than 3-4, but that’s OK with me now.  I now also work as a part time babysitter and I LOVE the kids I work with and find that work SO fulfilling.  I’ve learned that I don’t  have to bang out every job RIGHT NOW, that a client is perfectly happy to wait.  I used to treat auditions like a Whack-A-Mole game.  I had to do them ALLLL or I’d have FOMO (fear of missing out), wondering if I missed a single one, if THAT would have been the job that was supposed to be mine.  Now I truly believe that the jobs that are right for you will come to you, one way or another, and I relax into that faith and let it be.  I only do the auditions that I know I can really rock and that pay the fairest rates and a lot of my work comes directly from repeat clients whether I audition or not.  The amazing coach Dave Walsh helped me to re-learn how I read copy.  He taught me to really lock in to my own authentic voice and sound, rather than sounding the way I think the voice of the spot SHOULD sound.  And so in a way, having reflux related vocal cord dysfunction has been a helper–it FORCES me to speak in my natural range and style because if I don’t, my voice WILL crack and fry.  It helps me stay in my lane and I’ve learned that not every job is for me and my type, and that’s OK.  It’s not worth manipulating my voice to try to sound older or more futuristic or more commanding and causing vocal strain when there are so many jobs I’m perfect for that I can do breezily.  I have such a great appreciation now every time I step into the booth and record.  I understand how my voice works, how reflux affects my voice, which exercises help keep my vocal cords limber, and how important rest and self care is.  I’m really excited to be back in the game and am enjoying being more selective about the jobs I go after.  I’m saving my voice for what’s really important … communicating with and being present for family, friends and for life both in the booth and outside of it!

Many of us take our instruments for granted. As voice actors, we’ve become used to opening our mouths and producing our work product almost reflexively, often without a second thought to the genuine danger of strain, stress, or vocal failure. Health for voice actors is rooted in various causes, including medical issues, performance stress, poor self-care, environmental issues, and genetics. We can’t control all of these things, but we can learn from those who have suffered the devastating effects of losing their voice and adapt our behaviors as much as possible to avoid similar struggles and be aware of the warning signs.

In a forthcoming series of articles I will visit with talent who have experienced vocal health issues to discuss their experiences, and talk with some leading vocal health experts on how to best prevent and prepare for vocal health challenges.

Stay tuned!

I’m a bit late to the game this year as far as VO Atlanta wrap-ups go. Between a touch of jet lag, (I made a rare-for-me decision to take an overnight flight back so as not to miss too much work,) a multi-day marathon of jobs and administrative stuff to sort through upon our return, and some post-conference crud floating around the house this weekend, I’ve been a little preoccupied.

That said, three things stuck out for me at VO Atlanta this year, and all three are, in my opinion, highly important for our community and industry. I’ll get to them in a moment.

Let me begin by paying the usual homage to the event itself, it’s familial undercurrent, and the brilliance of Gerald Griffith and his team. No battle plan survives first contact with the enemy, and I never fail to find it remarkable how the VO Atlanta organization pivots successfully when confronted with the unexpected.

Kay Bess was an inspiration to everyone, and there wasn’t a dry eye after her keynote.

Seeing old friends and making new ones was as joyful as expected. The traffic at the JMC Demos booth left my whole team with little downtime, (and a huge thank you to AJ, Kayla, Jas, the Sundholms, Megann, Brigid, Brad and Jace for their help.) And the closing ceremonies were moving and uplifting as always. I expressed my gratitude to Gerald for filling a few minutes between bringing young Briley on stage and the Unicorn Award presentation…..I’m not sure I could I have held it together otherwise after seeing that courageous little girl.

The tribute to Pat Sweeney put together by Elley-Ray and Jenn Henry was breathtaking, and it was a privilege to present a token of the community’s appreciation to his family.

And, Michelle Blenker is our new Unicorn, selected from an impossibly worthy field of three finalists including Bev Standing and Doug Turkel….all examples of the better angels of humanity.

So, on to the takeaways.

1.) Families Come Together

This year there was an unusual amount of behind-the-scenes politics and contentiousness heading into the weekend. Various quarters of the industry had been quietly quarreling for some months, for reasons well known and others more esoteric. A number of us had some concern that petty disagreements and personality conflicts would come to a head this year in Atlanta in ways they had not before.

It was refreshing, (which is appropriate,) to see that this was not the case. As always seems to happen in Atlanta, the communal celebration of our industry eased whatever conflicts may have been percolating, and reminded us all that while we may disagree on methods and philosophy, the kind of people who take the time to make the annual pilgrimage to the South all have the best interest of the industry at heart.

2.) Non-Broadcast Narration Is Now Sexy

For years, broadcast sectors have held the glamor position in voiceover. As competition has increased and pay has come under pressure due to market forces in Commercial VO, among others, many of us have been championing the advent of less-traditional parts of the industry as the path to a prosperous future.

This year’s conference made clear that E-Learning, Corporate Narration, Explainers, and formerly niche areas like Political Commercials and Live Announce are becoming bell cows for a lot of talent. Instead of being treated as beneath or less-than high profile broadcast work, these genres were recognized in Atlanta as abundant, lucrative, and less competitive than other parts of the industry. E-Learning masters were highlighted as stars in a VO version of Revenge of the Nerds that most wouldn’t have seen coming five years ago.

3.) Online Casting Is Changing Rapidly

A lot has been written about my interview series with the CEOs of Vocie123, bodalgo.com, and Voiceovers.com. I’ll let the interviews and commentary by others stand without adding anything else here, other than one observation that I believe is critical.

My big takeaway is that we may be seeing a gradual shift among online casting sites to two fairly distinct models, both based solely on the long-term interests and intentions of the site owners.

Going forward, I would expect to see online casting sites start to take two very clear forms, (keeping in mind that some sites, like Voice123 and Voiceovers.com, don’t currently fit either mold.)

Where the intention of ownership is to scale up operations with the possible purpose of cashing out in the long term via private sale or IPO, you can expect to see sites adopt models that look more and more like other gig economy platforms.

This will take the form of paywalls at almost every interaction for the labor force on the site: Membership fees, commissions, possibly the introduction of paying small amounts for individual auditions, (see what Upwork is doing to their freelancers at the moment,) and the monetization of any possible convenience on the site. The more aggressive sites will try to implement the same on the buyer side.

These sites will also center more and more around sorting metrics and AI, rating and categorizing talent in ways that make sense to Silicon Valley types but which seem cold and impersonal to creatives. The feel will be far more corporate than artistic.

Ultimately, the philosophy is driven by chasing volume, not quality, and sites that follow this model will start to resemble Fiverr and freelance sites more and more, allowing virtually anything onto the platform and making their money in small increments on massive traffic. Private equity and corporate investors don’t really care about quality…..there is no money in a boutique high-end professional VO site. At least not what the investment community would consider real money. It is all about traffic and turnover. The more the merrier. Uber doesn’t care if you are going five hundred yards or fifty miles. They make money on both.

Sites that follow this model will become less and less responsive to the community and to talent concerns, seeing themselves as tech platforms first, not stewards of the industry they serve. Customer service will cease to exist on these sites, and every encounter will be transactional.

On the other side will be the industry-centric matchmakers. Sites which derive their income strictly from membership fees, playing no other part in the transaction and making the process as simple as possible for all players.

These sites will continue to support and interact with professional talent, and will screen the jobs on their platforms for at least a minimum of quality. Their ownership and customer service philosophy will remain accessible because community acceptance and backing will dictate their success. Without recourse to pennies on the dollar volume transaction profits, they have to be responsive to talent and buyers alike in order to thrive. Ownership of these sites will find profit, but it will be in concert with that of their talent, and the owners will not be getting rich from these platforms.

The biggest challenge they will face is attracting jobs when they are forced to compete for SEO relevance and traffic with the big aggregators. How well they meet this challenge will determine if the model will survive.

Ultimately, online casting is in a state of flux, and other models may emerge, but for the moment this is where things seem to be moving. As always, diversifying your job sources will be critical to your future VO success. Platforms change. They will come and go. I remain convinced that a VO portfolio without online casting is a poor idea for most talent, but online casting should not be over-weighted in your mix. If it accounts for more than 20% of your income, it’s time to take a hard look at your approach.