Sometimes I wonder why your mind winds up in such random places when you’re focused on something else. Climbing is great like that – I was on a route at the climbing gym the other night, and a few lines from Cool Runnings were running through my head. Again, why? I have absolutely no idea, but it fit the situation at hand! Really! I was trying to get through a section of a route and I thought about how others might approach it. Being a short person, following others’ beta often doesn’t necessarily work for me. So much like the Jamaican bobsled team finding their own way to bobsled, I needed to find my own way to finish the route.
…if we walk Jamaican, talk Jamaican, and is Jamaican, then we…better bobsled Jamaican…
Afterwards, I realized that the voiceover journey is similar. In the same vein that following the Swiss style of bobsled didn’t work for the Jamaicans, following someone else’s VO path isn’t going to be tailors for the individual. This lesson has been a bit of an evolving realization for me! It seems that every new voice over artist is looking for “the way to get started”, but honestly the answer is “it depends!”
For example, how to find work? P2Ps? Direct marketing? Shouting off rooftops? The answer to all of the above is yes(ish). Fortunately and/or unfortunately, a part of the journey is determining the path. And yes, as I am learning, the path can be long and winding…
Oh, fall in Maryland, how I miss you so…
