 So I know this is the video most of you have been waiting for and this is the question I get asked a lot. So let's get into the video. Hi, my name is Kwame. I'm a voiceover artist based in Akragana and I've been doing this for the last eight years. And this one question I do get asked a lot. Fine have shared some of the behind the scenes and how to read voiceovers and I'm going to try as much as possible to share more content on voiceovers as far as my experience and this one is one of the questions that people ask a lot because it's very practical, it's very direct and it helps any voiceover see that while they're doing something right and it makes it easier for them to also earn a living from voiceovers. So the question is how do I get more voiceover gigs? How do I get into the industry? How do I get more clients? That is a question I get asked a lot and people want to find practical steps to earn more or to get more gigs or to get more clients for voiceover work. Now these are the things I have done over the course of eight years and I still actually religiously do. So these are the things that you need to know if you want to get more gigs and one of the things I do or one of the things I did before happens to be something that I think it's applicable to Ghana and West Africa because I don't know any other place or any other place or I don't have any international experience in that sense as in I have not lived in another country I don't know how the voiceover industry work so I'm going to share these three things, two of which are general and accessible to everyone wherever you're watching this video from and one of them is a practical step to do if you're in Ghana or West Africa or even Africa in general. So let's get to the first one and I'm going to talk about that one which is based no I think I'll start with the easiest to the one that is practical or relatable to only possibly relatable to only Ghanians or West Africans or Africans so that's what I'm going to do. So the first one is putting yourself out there the practical step of putting yourself out there. There are so many voiceover scripts out there online you can write your own script if you're a good writer but that's a whole separate story or whole separate video if I have to teach you how to script but you can get voiceover scripts which I say often in all my videos that have to do with voiceovers edge studio.com is one of the places that has a ton of sample voiceover scripts that you can use so you have voiceover scripts that you record and put it out there on social media advertising what you do you can record this in the video form or audio formats if you do in a video format then you introduce yourself go over these scripts and if it's going to be audio formats there's this way you can do it with an online app called Headliner which allows you to post audio especially on Instagram and Twitter and Facebook as video just by adding a picture to it so you add a picture you add your audio to it with your you can the picture can even be your face as your CV or introduction to what you do so headliner headliner.com is one of the websites you can use to do this so you record this audio or these audio which are advised that you do different styles of what kind of clients you want to attract so if you want to do documentary narration if you want to do regular ads or commercial ads or you want to do tv announcer all these things that you want to do get a few scripts which are about 15 seconds long for each of the genres that show your you know versatility about 15 seconds long and piece it together in a one minute or a 60 second audio clip yes a 60 second audio clip piece it together and you can either mix it with music so that it sells to a specific target or do it without audio which is also good for some clients because then they can hear exactly how you sound without any noise or without any music backing you up so you have to do both if you want to sell to different kinds of audiences but i think whether you want to sell to different kinds of audiences or not doing both will help improve your chances of getting noticed because then their clients can listen to you without any noise and then they know how you sound if they mix your voice with music so do both and put it out there on twitter and do it as often as you can the thing is just like you'll be posting photos or facebook posts or whatever it is there is no limit to how many posts you can make with these things you can do it once every month once every two weeks once so long as you're practicing so long as you're putting yourself out there the chances of increasing your getting clients will go up so do this 15 second scripts a mix of them or you can even do one genre which is like maybe commercial voiceovers and do 15 second scripts different scripts put it together as one genre you can do documentary narrations one genre like just do a lot you have the opportunity you have the social media yeah you have social media at your disposal to do all these things and put it out there to see that if you're going to get clients from that also let your friend share and know ask for retweets and ask for shares when you post it on social media let people see what you can do so that is the first step and the most accessible to most people that I I mean I know that do voiceovers and if you don't have a studio it means that you have to either use your phone in a closet like I've mentioned before or go to a studio prepare your scripts do it properly and then mix it up and post it on social media whatever you do make sure the clients is seeing the quality that is to be expected from you this leaks into the second point or the second practical way that you can get voice over gigs and it's online there are online platforms a lot of online platforms that look for specific voice talents and there are hundreds of thousands of voice talents out there there is voices calm there is fiver there is voice booking calm all of them are going to be on your screen as I say them you can check them out I'm actually also going to leave it in the description below you can check all these platforms up which also follows the same method I've just described by recording samples first you set up a profile you add your picture you tell the site or it's more like a CV or voiceover CV tell them what you do what you've done the clients you've worked with and your experience the equipment you use and all that you fill the form out and put out your samples the more the samples the more you increase your chances of getting voiceover work and the good thing as well as the bad thing is sometimes if you are based in these parts of the world and your native accent is West African or Ghanaian then it might work for you to get clients who specifically want native voices you can't compete with somebody who's a native who has a Native American accent or a Native British accent unless you have a really good neutral accent that can cut across internationally then good for you if you can do the West African you get your clients although I must say that there it's not so much it's not so much so chances of getting specific international gigs are not as much as you would get if you put yourself out there on social media for local clients to find you so these websites will help you set up your profile make sure you remind people every now and then as often as you can and yeah hopefully somebody will call you for a voice over gig again if you don't have a studio get a studio to record your voice over and send it over to the client if you have a studio then all the best now the third one is what is most relatable to people in Ghana and West Africa and maybe Africa per my experience in the last eight years and I would say that well good will doesn't count as a practical step because I've been doing this for long and I do get word of mouth I still put out a lot of these sample audios every now and then to remind people that this is what I do by the practical step for the third one especially if you're in Africa and people ask this question what do I do do I need to record a voice over and you know look for the client or apply for jobs or whatever it is so I remember working through agencies most of your clients most of your big clients may be coming or work with agencies they don't work directly with you as a client or as a voice over artist work with agencies and agencies have databases of voices that they use and this is where it becomes more specific to Ghana West Africa whatever it is because then local language plays a key role you can be a tree voice over artists you can be a god voice over artists and ever voice over artists uh how is that or whatever local language that the clients may need for specific um campaigns that you're running so just like the first and second practical steps you need to record these sample audios in ones that are mixed with music and ones that are not mixed with music clean ones even ones that just introduce you as who you are and what you do and how you are willing to work with the clients you can find out how to script one of these um voice over profile recordings and you can record it in different tones you can record it in the tones that you expect that you get clients for either you record it in a commercial style or documentary style or just introducing yourself so that the clients can tell from the tone of your voice or yeah how you sound and whether they want to work with you now these advertising agencies are ones that I have worked with um in my career doing voice overs and I'm going to list them so just remember them I don't have websites for them so just remember them or write them down um in Ghana locally as far as I know I've worked with Innova ddb I've worked with in-cell advertising I've worked with mixed down studios or the company center stage um I've worked with apex advertising um is there renegade as well I don't know if renegade is still running but yes these are five of the most popular places I can confidently remember that I've worked with their agencies that you can literally walk to or go to and share your voice overs with if they think that they can find a spot for you they'll add your voice to their database and call you when they get gigs like I was saying before voice over is by merit you have to be really good to get clients and if you're not good and you're not getting calls then it means that you need to practice more and improve your craft before you get those calls so that is basically it this is how you can get voice over gigs it's either doing that or you get to the point where like I was saying is goodwill you have your own studio you stay at home you record your videos um no your audios and you send the clients you mix it up or don't mix it up depending on how they want it and you get paid so it takes a lot of time a lot of energy a lot of practice to build a voice over career but since you asked for practical steps to do this these are the advertising agencies and this is what you need to know or do some of them would require you to even come to the studio to record your sample that they would be sending to clients because they have sample scripts specific to their studio that is sent to clients that can happen but you have to make the first step of actually going out there and sharing what you can do so if you found this video useful for your course of getting you know more voice over gigs please give it a thumbs up it means a lot to the video and kindly share with whoever needs to see this video as well and I'll try as much as possible to come your way share in the comment section below which other places or which other voice over tips and tricks you would like to know so I know where to go in my next video as far as voice over is concerned in the meantime I hope you enjoy the rest of your day and more gigs to you peace