Susan Berkley                                                       Judy Rodman

Did you notice the 'B' word in the title? Billions of dollars are now being made in the multi-niche field of voiceover. Even when the wounded music industry gets going full steam again, professional singers of all stripes (recording artists, backing vocalists, session singers, club singers, jingle singers, etc) are always going to have to deal with potential financial insecurity. There's a reason Tammy Wynette famously kept her hairdressing license renewed!

This interview I did with veteran voiceover talent and coach Susan Berkley offers you a glimpse into the real possibilities of a successful vocal career where it doesn't matter what you look like, what you're wearing, how old you are or where you live. (Except as Susan says, you need broadband, baby:) I think you'll enjoy it, and you might want to sit with the idea of at least a side alternate income stream using your voice. 

Some topics of our conversation:

• Susan takes us into her own ongoing voiceover career
• How the requirement to have 'the voice of God' for success as a voice talent has morphed into the preference for more diverse, normal every-day, authentic voice.
• Susan takes us int o many of the 14-plus niche markets she's identified as now actively seeking voiceover talent... including broadcast and non-broadcast roles. For instance:
• commercials
• political ads
• cartoons
• terrestrial and satellite radio
• store P.O.P. (point of purchase) radio 
•  E-learning (teaching anyone how to do anything) - now a $150 billion niche!
• computer telephony
• traffic/weather/siri, etc
• medical professional training narrations (a huge field)
• audio books (last year alone 40,000 were recorded, now raking in $1 billion with a skyrocketing demand for more)
• video gaming character voices ($250 billion niche market with as many as 90 voices per game, all ages.)
• Simulation narration for projects including military fighter pilots.
• We talk about the skills needed (and not needed) for a successful career in voiceover
• We discuss ways of deeply connecting to the person you're talking to, and delivering the script
• Susan gives examples of how to make small and sometimes very weird stories important with empathy for the person you're talking to.
• Susan shares some tips for actually marketing and promoting your voiceover career like a business. We chat about the entrepreneurial spirit, empathy that makes selling a 'holy art', and 
• We also talk about gear, plugins, iso booths, and how singers can be especially good candidates for voiceover.
• Susan shared some links to her training.

About Susan Berkley

Susan is also a renown teacher for voiceover talent. 

Labels: all things vocal, Judy Rodman, susan berkley, voice talent, voiceover, voiceover career, voiceover talent