Is Voice Acting Right for You? The NO BS Truth No One Tells You

Thinking about becoming a voice actor? Wondering if you’ve got what it takes to actually make money in the voiceover industry? 

In this video, I’m pulling back the curtain and giving you the real, no-BS, no-hype voiceover career advice you wish someone told you before you dropped cash on a mic and a dream.

💥 I’ll cover:
✅ What voice acting really is (and what it’s NOT)
✅ The truth about voiceover income potential
✅ The pros and cons of a VO career
✅ Beginner mistakes and how to avoid them
✅ Whether voice acting is right for YOU

This is NOT one of those sugar-coated “work from home and get rich” videos. This is the real deal—the good, the bad, and the brutal truth about what it takes to succeed as a voice actor in 2025 and beyond.

🔥 If you’re serious about starting a voiceover career, or you’re at the beginning stages wondering “Is voice acting right for me?”—you need to watch this.
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Episode Transcript

(00:01):
Alright, well if you're here, it's probably because you've heard one of three things inyour life.
Number one, you've got a great voice.
You should be a voice actor.
Number two, you can have a profitable voice over business in just 90 days.
Or number three, all you need is a mic and a closet.
So now you're sitting there staring at me going, is voice acting even right for me?
Alright, first, if you're new here, my name is Paul.

(00:22):
I'm a long time pro voice actor and VO business coach and I don't sugarcoat shit.
This isn't the shiny happy VO channel.
This is real-world advice from somebody who gratefully has had success and wants you tosucceed too.
So if you want smoke blowing up your ass, this is not the place for you.
That said, yes, voice acting is a phenomenal, creative, fulfilling, empowering career.

(00:45):
But it's also mind-bogglingly hard, competitive, it's uncertain, and sometimes it'sglorified by people who just want to sell you a shitty course, a bad demo, and a dream.
Buckle up kids, it's reality check time.
So most people, as I said, stumble this into this business because somebody told them theyhave a nice voice.

(01:05):
Maybe you read stories in a way that brings people to tears.
Maybe you nailed an announcer voice at a karaoke night.
Or maybe you heard that voice actors make $500 for five minutes worth of work and youthought, easy money, I'm in.
Well kids, here's the first suppository of truth, having a good voice.
means absolutely fucking nothing in this business.

(01:28):
The voiceover industry and your career in it is built on skills.
Performance skills, business skills, marketing skills, and tech skills.
So if you're just showing up with a nice voice and you have no clue how to tell a story orconnect with the copy or run a business, you're gonna get your ass handed to you.
End of story.
Voiceover road is long and it's not paved with compliments, Snowflake.

(01:51):
It's paved with work.
as in the kind you do and lots of it.
So before you start googling how to start in voice acting or even watching this videohere, which is a great starting point, you need to start asking better questions such as,
I really want to learn the craft or just skate by on my voice?
Am I really willing to run a business and not just sit behind the mic?

(02:12):
Can I handle rejection and uncertainty on a regular basis without spiraling out ofcontrol?
If you're still nodding yes,
That's a good sign, let's keep going.
Let's talk about the work from home myth for a minute.
Yes, you can work at home in your pajamas.
I myself prefer Cookie Monster.
But when you're new, you are not going to make six figures from your closet overnight.

(02:35):
The biggest lie in the VO industry is that this is easy money.
The truth?
You're not just gonna be competing with other beginners.
You're gonna be competing with...
Seasoned pros experience people who have been training and booking for years if notdecades.
They know how to deliver clean audio exceptional performances and they know how to maketheir clients lives easier.

(02:56):
The learning curve in this business is steep.
I mean like climbing Everest and crocs steep.
You'll spend hours sometimes even entire weekends just learning how to edit and recordyour audio properly.
How to clean up mouth clicks, ambient noise, how to level your files correctly.
You'll invest thousands in training and gear and marketing and coaching long before youstart to get a return on that investment.

(03:20):
The real question isn't can I make money as a voice actor?
The real question is can I handle how long it will take before this gives me a return onmy investment?
All right, let's talk about voice acting income potential because that's the elephant inevery beginner's DMs.
Can you make six figures in voiceover?
Yes, people do.
Yes, I do.

(03:41):
Will you?
Not right away.
not probably even in the first few years.
Your income as a voice actor depends on several things.
Number one, your proficiency, both technical and artistic.
Second, your business and marketing strategy.
Third, your consistency.
And fourth, your ability to niche and scale.
And don't forget, as a freelance voice actor, you are a freelancer.

(04:04):
There's no salary, there's no guarantee, there's no paid time off, no regular every twoweeks paycheck.
No paid company benefits.
You, my friend, are the product, the salesperson, the admin team, and maybe mostimportantly, the marketer.
So how much do voice actors make?
This is what not enough people are talking about, honestly.

(04:25):
In years one and two, you might make from zero to $10,000 annually.
In fact, 47 % of all voice actors made less than $10,000 in 2024.
according to the National Association of Voice Actors or NAVA.
Now, in years three to maybe five with strong marketing skills, strong business skills,you can expect to make maybe 10 to $60,000.

(04:51):
In fact, the estimated average income of a U.S.
voice actor last year in 2024 was almost $54,000.
I personally believe that it takes three to six years to build a reliable
full-time voiceover client base in this business.
Starting in maybe year five to six, you can absolutely cross over the six-figure mark.

(05:14):
But only if you treat this like a business, not a hobby.
Only 15 % of voice actors in the U.S.
reported making six figures or higher.
And remember this.
You will have dry months.
This is not that reliable paycheck every two weeks.
It is feast or famine.
The best voiceover advice I can give you is not about what mic to buy.

(05:35):
It's about how to approach your career strategically from day one.
Here's the stuff that's actually going to move the needle.
First, learn the craft.
Take acting classes, take improv classes, work with a bunch of coaches.
Don't even worry about a demo for the first year to year and a half.
Second,
Treat it like a business.

(05:55):
Yes, that means getting incorporated, usually with an LLC if you're in the US.
It means contracts and getting in touch with a good lawyer.
It means bookkeeping and invoicing software.
It means client management and onboarding.
Next, have a pep talk with yourself and get brutally effing honest about yourexpectations.

(06:16):
If you're thinking, I'll give this three months and see how it goes, don't even bother.
You might as well throw that money down the toilet.
This is a multi-year game.
Also, be willing to suck for a while until you get really good.
That's why I say you gotta give it several, several months.
You will cringe at your first auditions eventually.
Eventually, you will cringe at your first demo.
The cringe is a good thing.

(06:38):
The cringe is your friend because that means your ear is developing.
Everybody makes beginner mistakes.
You will, I did, sometimes I still do.
It's part of the process.
So, is voice acting right for you?
Here's a simple litmus test.
If you are looking for a
creative, challenging, self-driven career that combines both art and business, you verywell might do very well in this business.

(07:02):
If, on the other hand, you're looking for a quick paycheck or an easy work-from-home gigor to cash in on your cool voice, you're gonna be broke, disappointed, and burned out
within a year.
VoiceOver's not a shortcut, guys.
It's a long game, but it can be ridiculously rewarding if you show up for it.
What does that look like?
Well, in your head you might be thinking a day in the life of voice actor looks like this.

(07:26):
Wake up at 10 a.m., record a couple of lines, cash a $500 check, spend the afternoonsipping a nice coffee and bragging on TikTok about how you made all this money.
The reality looks more like this.
A 5 a.m.
live session for a client in Europe, spending time every day researching and prospectingnew clients, recording dozens of auditions you most likely will never hear back on.

(07:47):
Unless you book, and by the way, in the beginning, when you're well trained and you startauditioning, you might book one in every 100 auditions.
Updating your CRM and following up with leads.
Booking one $400 gig with a new client, getting all excited and then you don't hear fromthem for six months, a year or two years.
This is why most people quit, because it's hard as fuck.

(08:08):
They get the highlight reel, they don't get the behind the scenes, and they think it'sgonna be easy.
What does it take to succeed?
Okay.
The what the successful voice actors I know have in common.
First, they are obsessed with learning, growing, and getting better.
They constantly invest in their craft, in coaching, and becoming a better business person.
Second, they are maniacally consistent.

(08:30):
They show up every day and they do what they have to do, whether they feel like it or not.
That's what being a professional is.
Third, they know their market inside and out.
They're not just sitting on the casting sites, they're not just waiting for their inbox tofill up with auditions from their agents, they're going out and they're getting work from
the market.
Because they know their clients inside out and they know exactly how to talk to them.
And lastly, and maybe most importantly, they can take a punch.

(08:54):
They can handle rejection.
They can handle dry spells.
They can handle tough criticism without quitting.
Now, if you hung in here this far and you're still thinking, hell yeah, I can do that,well then, voiceover might be a really good option for you.
But if you're thinking somebody's gonna hand you a mic and a paycheck just because youhave a cool voice on voicemail, well, you better think again, kid.

(09:14):
All right, let's wrap it up.
In the end, the best voiceover advice I can give you is this.
Voice acting is not a voice job.
It is a business job, it is a performance job, it is a resilience job.
And if you want it to be a business but you treat it like a hobby, it will chew your assup and spit you out.
But if you treat it like a career, if you put in the time and the effort, if you invest inthe craft and the marketing and the gear, and most importantly yourself, there's a lot of

(09:43):
money to be made and a lot of freedom to be had.
Is voice acting right for you only if you're willing to play the long game?
And if you are, welcome to the ride.
Please keep your hands inside the car at all times and make sure your harness is fullyfastened.
promise you, if you stick, you're gonna love it here.
Before I go, I will ask you one thing, and that is to give us a like, a follow, and sharethis video with someone who may be considering getting into the voiceover business.

(10:07):
The more people we can help, the more dialogue that we have in the comments, and by theway, please do drop a comment.
The more we exchange information and have civil dialogue, the better, stronger industry wecan have for everybody.
Thanks so much, and we will see you back here again real soon.