7 Habits of Highly Successful Voice Actors + 2 Bonus Tools

Every Olympian has a goal of winning gold. Every team starts the season with the goal of a championship.

It’s the systems, the habits, that separate elite from very good, very good, from good, good from mediocre, and mediocre from bad.

So today, I’m going to lay out for you the Top 7 Habits of Highly Successful Voice Actors – the seven strategic systems or habits I believe to be the most effective for building a successful career in VO. And stick around because I’ll have a two special free bonus tools for you as we go through these.

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The VO Toolkit: 11 ESSENTIAL Apps for Your Voice Over Business

There are hundreds of apps out there to help run our voice acting businesses, but finding the right ones can be like finding a needle in a haystack. After a lot of trial and error, I’ve found a set of tools that works for me.

In this video, I’m going to break down why I prefer these specific apps, what the learning curve is like, and how much they’ll set you back.

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Top Animation Coach Everett Oliver: "Animation Down 75%!"

Our guest today is not only a good friend and my personal animation coach, but he's one of the most accomplished coaches in the entire genre. Everett Oliver has worked on prime time shows, including The Simpsons, King of the Hill, feature films like Men in Black, Jackie Chan Adventures.

He's worked with Disney. He's worked with Columbia TriStar, he's worked with stars. is one of the greatest coaches in animation today. In fact, the way I found Everett Oliver was when Dave Fennoy mentioned to me, he said, if you're going to go into animation or seek any animation work, Everett Oliver is the best in the business.

And I still believe that to this day. Please welcome my good friend and coach Everett Oliver

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9 BEST YouTube Channels for Voice Actors - SUBSCRIBE TO THEM

Welcome to the 21st century – the age of information, misinformation, and disinformation. Even with topics as niche as voice over there’s a ton of information out there about voice acting on YouTube, and like every other topic in the world, a ton of crap out there about voice over on YouTube.

So today I’m going to [WARNING: PRETENTIOUS WHITE PERSON WORD AHEAD] curate for you the Best 9 YouTube Channels for Voice Actors, especially if you’re newer in your voice acting career. I’m going to break them down by category, including Performance and Business, and give you one bonus channel at the end which is especially helpful for newer voice over actors.

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What To Do When It’s SLOW in Voice Over (YES, IT WORKS!)

Just about everything in the voice over business slows down in June, July, and August.

But I also hear a lot of talk about a more macro slowdown in the voice over industry overall. Is that real? Is that just a chicken little reaction to AI? Are there other forces at play? Is this a perfect storm that means existential crisis for our business?

It doesn’t even matter if there’s a slowdown in the industry or not. If it’s slow for you, it’s slow. And if there is a slowdown in the industry, macro or micro, you can’t do shit about it.

But you can do something with it. You have the choice to not just survive, but thrive.

Today, we’re going to talk about doubling down, leaning into the slowness, and using it to your competitive advantage so that you emerge from the Summer Slowdown, and any slowdown or crisis, even stronger, better, and more successful.

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How to Get Started in Voice Over for Beginners: Complete Guide

One of the problems with voice over advice on YouTube and in general is that it often comes from successful people. Huh? Well duh, why would we take advice from idiots, Paul?

Stay with me.

Among the things it takes to be successful is time. So, the people that are successful today started years and often decades ago.

And the problem with that is voice over is a very different business than it was 30, 20, 10, even 5 years ago. And so many of the strategies and paths and techniques that made successful voice actors even in the 20-teens don’t apply today, here, now, in the mid 2020’s and beyond.

If you’re just getting into the business today, that’s a problem.

So today I’m going to tell you exactly what I would do if I were a new voice actor. I’ll give you the timeline and how I would spend my time, money, energy, attention. I’ll tell you what tools I would use, gear I would buy, and just as importantly, mistakes I would not make that rookies today make often.

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My Most HONEST, BLUNT ADVICE for Voice Actors (& Grown Ups)

We need to talk. Whenever a conversation starts with that sentence, you know it’s going to be uncomfortable. But you need to hear this and I need to say it. I say it with love and kindness, but it’s going to be real, honest, and direct. Blunt, even.

Voice actors, I talk to dozens of you every week. I ask you straight up what’s holding you back in your voice over career.

Here are the Top 5 most common answers I get: Procrastination. Time management. Shiny object syndrome. Perfectionism. Distraction.

Sense a theme?

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The 7 DEADLY Sins of Voice Over – NEVER DO THESE!

Today, I’m going to break down these Seven Deadly Sins, explain to you why they are gigantic no-nos written across the sky in red neon, and what the consequences are for committing them are.

In fact, let’s get the consequences out of the way. Are these sins deadly as in will they kill your career? Some actually can. But at the very least, they will kill the most important relationships you have in this business, damage your reputation in the industry, and in some cases, will get your ass hauled into court.

In case I haven’t made it clear, NEVER, as in ever-ever-never do these seven things:

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