Unsurprisingly, as someone who has been hustling VO for the last nine or so years, I have spent many, MANY hours inside of a recording booth.

But a lesser known fact? I’ve also spent a lot of hours in the chair of the audio engineer & producer.

This is one of my favorite things about the shape of my career - working “both sides of the glass” has given me a perspective that’s formed not only by my long history of being a actor, but by my slightly-less-long history of working on the non-talent side of things.

The unexpected twist of sitting through hundreds of sessions where I was not “the voice of ____” has, I think, become instrumental to my process in the booth. It’s foundational to how I audition, how I get booked, & how I keep clients coming back for more.

So, to my friends who are early-on in their 10,000 hours of mastery…

And also to those of us who just need a shot in the arm…

Let me now share with you my thoughts, stemming from both the booth & the chair, about 5 things you should NEVER do in a voiceover session.

To quote Michael Scott - “Don’t ever, for any reason…ever, no matter what, no matter where, or who, or who you are with, or where you are going, or where you’ve been, ever, for any reason whatsoever…”

• Just be “the talent”.
  
  I get this one, I really do. When I was just starting out in my acting career, I hated feeling like I was given a job because I had a bonus skill. Sure, I enjoyed teaching, fight choreography, working with kids, & building sets…but I longed to just be “the talent”. I felt like every additional task I was asked to do would somehow anthropomorphize & whisper in my ear, “If you were good enough, they’d hire you just to act.”
  
  This isn’t an uncomplicated feeling. In hindsight, it’s obvious to me that some of the companies I worked for were just trying to overwork & underpay their artists by loading them down with as many additional tasks as they could. But that constant whisper? I’ve started to think it was, for the most part, just my voice. A voice that was fearful about not being good enough. A voice that was longing for change in an industry that’s pretty darn set in its ways. A voice that failed to apply its own innate creativity to the strategy needed to make a career.
  
  So I’ve changed the way I think about this, & I recommend this change to everyone I can. Stop looking at every additional ask as an opportunity to have a chip on your shoulder. Stop buying into the lie that, if the industry was “fair”, you would only have to do x, y, or z. Instead, relish the opportunity to expand your skills. Be honest about what you can do, what you can learn to do, & what you really don’t want to do. And then, don’t complain about it.
  
  That creativity you have in spades? Don’t wait to apply it until someone says, “Rolling on take 1.” Apply it to every aspect of your career, relentlessly.
  

• Count on having an audio engineer.
  
  I LOVE engineers. They’re fantastic. I love it when a client books one. They make my life as a voiceover actor so much easier. But especially if you’re in the early days of your career, don’t count on one.
  
  In the era of pay-to-play casting sites, in-house marketing agencies, & a rapidly-changing media landscape, you are going to encounter many, many clients who expect you to be your own audio engineer. That doesn’t necessarily mean they’re looking for you to do a master mix on the end product; but it does mean they expect you to record, edit, & deliver clean takes from a live session.
  
  Now, if that makes you want to stomp your feet & decide not to play…refer back to bullet point one. You can choose to spend time thinking about how unfair that is, how it used to be different, or how you could never learn those skills. But I wouldn’t recommend that course. I would recommend you attend good ole’ YouTube University, upskill as much as you can, & - hear this with love, now - buck up, buttercup.
  
  If other voiceover actors can learn these skills (yours truly included), so can you.
  

• Forget it’s a collaboration.
  
  Consider this part two of the whole notion of just being “the talent”.
  
  When you remove that false dichotomy between being “the talent” & doing other things that clients ask of you, you gain an amazing opportunity: to genuinely collaborate with the folks who hire you. This opens a whole new world (go ahead, you can sing it) of fun possibilities. It gives you the chance to figure out who you actually enjoy collaborating with. It empowers you to be an actor who doesn’t just read the words in the right order with a modicum of feeling, but who actively chooses projects that authentically align with their voice.
  
  My determination to think of voiceover as a collaborative process has had so many absolutely joyous results. I’ve had clients write scripts just for me, I’ve had my feedback incorporated into campaigns, I’ve gotten to recommend friends for VO jobs because I have clients who know & trust me.
  
  Believe it or not, if you can frame your work as collaborative instead of strictly performative, your performance will get much, much better.
  

• Let the client get in your head.
  
  Yes, I do remember typing the last bullet point. And yes, this is a funny one - because the client is your collaborator, partner, & boss. It is literally your job to listen to them, read the room, follow their direction, & solve their problems.
  
  But here’s what I’m after with this point: human beings rarely, if ever, bring “clean energy” to the table. We’re all bringing stuff with us into every part of our lives, whether it’s professional & timely or not. So that client who’s coming in hot with aggressive energy? Maybe they just got out of a 3 hour meeting that could’ve been an e-mail. The one who is obviously multitasking on the session, & consequently doing a poor job directing? Maybe they’re texting a family member about a crisis. We’ve all heard these platitudes, but they’re common for a reason. Everybody has a story, & everybody’s story comes along with them in the energy they bring to a project.
  
  So with that in mind, be responsive, listen well, do your job - but stay in your own energetic lane. It IS your job to bring your talent to bear on the project for which you’ve been hired. It is NOT your job to mirror and absorb the client’s energy.
  
  When the product you offer is your talent, intuition, & artistry, remember: don’t buy their energy. Sell yours.
  

• Hyperfixate on the task at hand.
  
  Am I telling you to multitask on a session, instead of giving it your full attention?
  
  Yup, I am. If you follow me on Instagram, if you’ve ever been in my coaching program, heck - if you’ve ever seen me talk, you know that I’m big on kinesthetics. I’m a firm believer in simplifying what’s going on in your mind in order to make way for the connection between your body & your voice.
  
  With that being said, since a live session with a client is all about your voice, it can be tough to not get stuck in your head. Between taking notes, tracking script changes, navigating timing, & the host of other things going on when you’re working in real time with a client…it can feel like a pressure cooker. And that is terrible for any kind of creative process.
  
  So what’s my magical solution? Multitask.
  
  Listen, yes, but stay in your body. Look out the window. Write a couple of post-it notes in between takes. Plan what you’re going to have for lunch. Visualize the person the script is talking to - make it real! Talk to a friend! Heck, text the friend you’re imagining & thank them for their service.
  
  Now, listen, don’t get in so deep that you miss what’s being said - we all know that sound people get when they’re just pretending to pay attention. That’s a bad look. But don’t hyperfixate on every note, every point of discussion, or every piece of feedback. Instead, multitask your way into a free, playful, authentic sound.