When starting your voiceover career, it is best to find your niche, what area of this business suits you  the most.  During the process, you will discover all sorts of areas  you probably never realized existed in voiceover, the possibilities are really endless. 

When you are fortunate enough to find your niche and continue to study, practice, network and grow your business, do not be afraid to broaden your horizons a bit. However, it is is important that you explore every aspect of the business and the many opportunities it brings, you will be pleasantly surprised how far it can stretch. 

I know as I started out, studying, taking classes, listening to others in the business speak of their experiences and of course networking with more seasoned professionals and taking pointers from them all. It is not about sounding like anyone or traveling the same paths but, finding your own voice and your own path while learning in the process. 

Like anything else in life we tackle, your voiceover business will come with ups and downs, rejections, etc. but the key is to keep pushing and growing, be willing to learn and taking that knowledge to get better and better. I am still learning and I am now 12 years in, I want to get better and better and broaden my horizons in this field.

Voiceover can lead to so many other amazing opportuniites. You just have to be ready and step out of your comfort zone and do it.  I had to and once I started doing that more and more, the doors starting opening up. Keep pushing, keep learning, keep growing and broaden your horizons. Don't get stuck in your comfort because of fear. You have come this far, now take it a step further, I know I plan to. 

By Paulette Jackson: It has been a little over a year since this unfortunate and devastating pandemic has hit us all over the world. For me, at first, it was a struggle to continue to be creative and find the motivation to continue with my voiceover business. I wasn't sure, as I am sure a lot of us were feeling, just how much of an affect this pandemic was going to have over my voice.

With that, your emotions dealing with life's unexpected twists and turns, plays a part in how your body reacts to it all; stress, sadness, frustrations, etc. all can affect your body which includes your vocals whether you are a music vocalist, public speaker or voiceover professional.

The reasoning, I guess, for my delay in writing this blog was that I wanted to really think about how all of this has really been for me personally and professionally, wanting to be transparent in my experiences and struggles through this pandemic. Then once I cried, prayed, talked to friends and prayed some more, I found through that necessary cleansing period, that even through this difficult period (something I never thought I would experience in my lifetime) that I could still flourish in my voiceover business, it just took focus and a shift of direction to continue on.  I'm grateful...

So, just know that it is ok to shut down for a minute to regroup in order to continue on your path. To re-focus and shift in another direction. The important part of any life struggle and challenges is to not let it take you completely out of the game, do what you need to do to heal but, then get up and keep pushing forward. Yes, you may have to change the game plan but, get to the finish line. 

My voiceover business is still very important to me and I was not going to let this pandemic be a roadblock. Not only did I keep going with VO, I ended up writing 3 books (one just published a month ago) other ventures started coming my way and it can for you too. 

What has been your experiences during this pandemic as it relates to your voiceover business? Have you found a new ways of utilizing your business?

When starting out in the voice-over business, it's been suggested that you find your niche (place or position) that's going to be where you're voice and style would be best suited. For me, it became radio (something I never thought I'd do). My passion and love has always and still is music, (singing in particular) but I never really pursued it professionally.

It wasn't until years later that a friend of mine (who has since passed away) suggested I combine my love for music and my deep, alluring voice and create a radio show! Reluctant at first, I eventually gave in to the idea and my show, The Classic Soul Music Café was born (thank you Dorian and my friend, International Soul/Jazz recording artist, Frank McComb) for making my vision come to life! The show grew more and more and as a result, I was asked and hired to do a lot of radio drops, station IDs and promos! I'd found my niche in the voiceover game, it became more comfortable for me.

I guess this journey to radio definitely helped me discover it, I'm still doing it! What's funny is that I had started my voiceover career, business, long before even getting into radio, auditioning for various oppoertnities but none as lucrative or fulfilling as radio had become. Isn't it amazing how an unexpected turn down your journey's road, that something wonderful can develop and take into a whole new world or at least add on to what you'd carved out for yourself. Bottom line, don't be afraid to explore new territory to help you on your creative path. Step out of your own way and soar into wonderful possibilities and opportunities. Find your niche, find your voice and in doing so, uncover even more wonderful and creative things about your gifts and you! Happy voicing everyone!

Paulette Jackson: Posted on Tuesday, February 24, 2015 3:28 PM

I plan on doing some traveling this Spring/Summer and don't want to miss out on any auditions and opportunities while I'm away........... Does anyone use their iPad or Phones to do any recording and sending demos? What is the best app and mic to use for the iPad?

I'm on one of the P2P sites and found out this past week that I can record new demos to add to my profile right from my iPhone! Any advice and suggestions would greatly be appreciated. Maybe this will help someone else.........

Paulette Jackson: Posted on Thursday, December 18, 2014 12:25 PM

The music industry, in my opinion, has gotten away from the music, creativity and development of it's artist. Gone are the days of the "Motown School of Artist Development" or some form of it..........! It is sad to me that most of today's artist have gotten away from creativity and going more with what is considered "commercial"!

The best eras of music, to me, were the 60's and 70's when music and lyrics meant something and was relateable to everyone no matter what religion, creed or color!

Music has a way of bringing the most unlikley of people together, I saw this recently in a video that was posted on You Tube where this young man was playing music outside and other people walked by or stopped and joined in with him! It was beautiful and totally off the tops of their heads, beautiful!!

Please, let's get back to the days when the lyrics and music was a creative process, using "real" instruments not computers! When you took true experiences and made meaningful and beautiful music..........

Thank you