As I’ve written, I spent just about all last Fall talking to as many voice actors as I possibly could. Again, I wanted to learn…

If my sense that many were getting stuck was accurate, if so,
Why are people getting stuck
Is there any commonality to that, if so,
Is there a definable problem, and if so,
Is there a definable solution

My original goal was to talk to at least 50 voice actors. As I began these conversations, I learned that some folks I was talking to were too new to the business to even have the chance to get stuck yet, so I talked to more and more people along the way.

In all, chatted with 69 voice actors over the course of 70 days. I collected data from 55 voice actors (again, several I talked to were too new). Here’s a quick look at how this group broke out:

Everyone I talked with was based in North America (US: 53 and CAN: 2). With such a small sample size, I’m actually quite pleased with the age range distribution and gender balance of the group.

Given that the State of VO Survey, which is the best data on the industry I know of, says that about 50% of us make less than $8k/year from voice over and 75% of us make less than $40k, I expected to see a heavy skew toward talent that identify as part-time, and that expectation played out in the data (68% are part-time).

Admittedly, the group has an East Coast bias (48%). I don’t know why this is (my guess is because I’m East Coast-based), but I couldn’t screen for geography in any practical way with the time and resources I had available. So be it.

UPDATE: I Googled “US Population by time zone” and here’s what I found, compared to this group:

So it turns out, our group is quite representative geographically, after all.

Frustrations of the Modern Voice Actor

One of the things I was most curious about was what are the biggest frustrations voice actors face in today’s world. This was my way of trying to find out what’s holding people back, what do they find vexing, and what do they need help with.

By far, the biggest frustration for the voice actors I spoke with was around marketing and building their businesses. Of the 55 people I collected data from, 57% mentioned this frustration directly.

Here’s a sampling of some of the responses: (Note: These are not verbatim quotes in most cases, but are closely paraphrased.)

Not having a clear direction of where I'm going or what it'll evolve into. No clear path on how to build the business. I can record edit, and send, but how do I create the business? The tech and acting part is the easy part, the hard part is how do I build the business. I need structure.
The process of finding clients and getting comfortable with that. How do I find them? What do I do?
The biggest challenge is growing my business on my own and marketing myself. I'm not familiar with it.
Not knowing how to market. I have everything else I need, but now what? How to market successfully.
I’m trained, but now I have to find work but don't know how.
Finding clients.
The marketing. It seems so impossible. When I start with the marketing it seems so far-reaching.
Attempting self-marketing that appears to be going nowhere. I have some experience in marketing and the number of unacknowledged outreaches is unnerving. I try not to cold call because I don't have any luck. I've tried to be more strategic. It's been more quiet than I expected.

Other frustrations include:

A lack of mentoring
Not finding representation
Not getting the big pay jobs
Lack of confidence in performance
Time is the biggest constraint - how to fit it all into the day. Not getting responses.
Editing and technology
Social media management
Organizing what I need to do - prioritizing
Clients that don't know what they want but want it done fast
Clients taking advantage of usage and rights
Auditioning on pay-to-plays and getting nowhere. Knowing how to play the auditioning game

What’s at Stake?

I asked every voice actor I talked to, “How much do you think you’ve invested into your career so far?” I asked them to mentally add up all the training, gear, conferences, webinars, books, videos, online courses, retreats…all of it.

The average figure was $10,353, with a low of $1000 and a high of $50,000.

That’s a lot of money for folks who, half of which, make less than that a year on voice over.

And that doesn’t include the countless hours of training, research, networking, auditioning, editing, marketing, and the myriad of activities we invest in to build our businesses.

What We Fear

This one is a little more easily summarized.

The thing we fear the most, the voice actor’s bogeyman, is that all this time, training, gear, energy, passion, and money that we’ve invested will all be for naught. That we will fail. That we won’t be able to support ourselves and our families doing the thing we love. That in the end, it will turn out to be too hard to figure out or just too hard to do, and we will give up.

That fear is real. We all know someone who couldn’t outrun the bogeyman and ended up throwing in the towel. Sadly, it happens every day.

Update:

I’ve created a master plan to take voice actors from booking inconsistently, relying on pay-to-plays, and making a part-time income to the freedom and flexibility of consistent work and a full-time VO income.

The curriculum is live online and is now asynchronous, meaning that you can log in and work on the curriculum at your convenience anytime day or night from anywhere in the world.

Talking to Voice Actors: Their Biggest Frustrations and Fears (updated)