Describe Your Voiceover Style in Four Words

If you visit my Facebook Page, under the About tab, you can find a short biography, including information about my career as a voiceover talent.  In the additional information section, there is an even shorter bio.  This is the perfect place to test out your ability to give your elevator pitch.  After all, you are only allowed a small amount of space to tell your story, and to give potential clients a feel for what your voice can do.

Whether you are doing this exercise for the purpose of creating a better Facebook bio, or because you want to be able to promote yourself, even if only provided the time that it takes to ride up a couple of floors on an elevator, then you’ll find that it is a bit more difficult than it sounds.

The key is to select adjectives that really describe your voice.  We’ve all seen (and likely written) the resumes that describe the person as driven, motivated, hard-working.  This really doesn’t tell the potential employer much about the person at all, but I like to think that the following four adjectives tell you (and potential clients) a great deal about my voice:

• Warm
• Real
• Rugged
• Rural

My aim was to describe the sound of my voice in as few words as possible.  Take a listen to my demos and I think you’ll agree that I did that quite well, but it took me some time to determine the best descriptors to use.  I do have four tips for you as you come up with your own four adjectives:

1.  Listen to your own recordings and jot down ideas as they come to you. Listening to the recordings while brainstorming will help you hear yourself as others would.
2. Keep in mind the type of voiceover work that you most enjoy doing. You may not be able to narrow down to that niche just yet, but describing yourself in the right way can help you appeal to that particular segment.
3. Consider nicknames and adjectives others have used to describe you in the past. Your voiceover work is just an extension of you.
4. Ask friends or family members to describe your voice in four words. You may not wind up using any of these, but it can lead you in the right direction.