Rome wasn’t built in a day. Slow and steady wins the race. April showers bring May flowers. The words we speak are filled with moralisms about survival. We are encouraged to think about our future by not robbing Peter to pay Paul, by not putting the cart before the horse, and by not counting our chickens before they hatch.
But what does this classical wisdom mean for a voice-over talent? 
The longer view of time is one that makes abundance last. Like a squirrel who buries acorns to survive the winter, voice-over talents can make smart choices that fortify their career and make it more likely to last. They can distribute resources so that emergencies are less likely to derail their career. The following are three common “voice-over winters”. or potential emergencies, as well as strategies to prepare beforehand and make it through.
The Sudden Need
Legal documents often include a clause called “force majeure.” Basically, if events that are beyond the control of both parties (like earthquakes) make it impossible for either party to fulfill the terms of the contract, it cannot be enforced. This is a standard clause in boilerplate voice-over talent agreements.
Chances are that if you work with voice-over clients long enough, eventually a client will need an emergency voice-over read. You may not be required to help in this emergency. It might not have been expected when the work was negotiated. It might be purely bad luck that was beyond the client’s control. One of the best ways for a voice-over talent to develop loyal clients is to be prepared to deliver when the client is in an exceptional bind. Naturally, this is infrequent. But clients tend to remember exceptional availability, which can help a voice-over gig last longer when you personally have an emergency.
To endure a client’s sudden needs, plan to be responsive – even if you’re not always able to meet those needs immediately. Fast acknowledgement, as well as an estimate of when work can be completed goes a long way towards signaling flexibility.
Travel
Many voice-over talents find themselves in hotels, taxis, guest bedrooms, rental cars and other unusual recording environments when they travel. As their careers progress, they might accumulate stories of hanging quilts from lamps, joining the clothes in a closet, or other ad-hoc solutions to delivering a client’s voice-over read without “echo” or a dreaded “apartment sound.”
Thankfully, there are many inexpensive portable-booth options that can help when traveling. Vehicles are already generally satisfactory voice-over recording spaces. It can also be helpful if your cell phone provider offers the option to operate as a Wi-Fi hotspot. On one occasion, I recorded television promos two hours before they were broadcast in the back of a taxi to the airport in New York City. On another, I delivered reads in a sleeper train car. A high-quality handheld microphone worked as a versatile option in both cases.
Vocal Sickness / Injury
We all periodically experience days where we’ve lost our voice or otherwise speak with altered performance. Without dispensing medical advice, there are a few technical tricks that can help smooth through performances when the voice isn’t at one-hundred-percent.
Having a quiet environment to record in increases the signal-to-noise ratio of a vocal recording, sometimes allowing a quieter read to increase in volume without a dreaded “hiss” or room noise. Learning to normalize your vocal recording – a fancy term for using the full volume of the audio format – can help to keep your delivered reads at a consistent volume on “off” days, even if your voice might not be.
The craft of acting also plays a key role in managing the impact of reduced vocal performance. It is always possible to live and experience one-hundred percent feeling even if the voice may not be at one-hundred percent health. Believe it or not, listeners connect with emotion before they connect with volume or tone.
While one should always seek health guidance from a doctor, experienced voice talents can sometimes deliver mission critical reads that draw from non-health-related knowledge to cross the finish line.
In conclusion, a bit of forethought and smart adaptation can help voice talents sustain a long voice-over career.
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