How to Choose the Right Voice Over Coach for You

Why Your Coach's Teaching Style is a Critical Business Decision

Investing in a voice over coach is one of the most significant financial decisions you'll make in your career. The right coach can provide a massive ROI, accelerating your growth and booking potential. But the wrong coach can be a costly drain on your time and resources. So, how do you make sure your investment pays off? It starts with understanding what kind of guidance you actually need.

As a voice over business and marketing coach for over fifteen years now, I've worked with countless voice actors of all experience levels. In that time, I've noticed that some people respond more positively to my coaching style than others. And that's cool. Different strokes for different folks, as they say. Every human is different, so naturally every voice actor is different as well as their needs.

The Four Core Archetypes of Voice Over Coaching

I've noticed that voice over coaches fall into one or more of these archetypes:

The Professor

The Therapist

The Cheerleader

The Drill Sergeant

I'd say I'm a hybrid of Professor and Therapist. But here is the most important distinction you need to make as a business owner: All four of these archetypes are specialized performance subcontractors.

Think of your voiceover career like building a house. A great commercial or animation coach is the master carpenter or electrician who builds a specific room. They teach you how to act. But before you hire the crew, you need a General Contractor to draw up the master architectural blueprint, manage the budget, and make sure you aren't building a house on quicksand. That’s where voiceover business and marketing strategy comes in, but we'll get to that later...

What Kind of Coach Will Maximize Your Potential?

Do you need a Professor to break things down analytically?

Do you need a Therapist to help you emotionally engage with the copy, the story, the characters?

Do you need a Cheerleader to effusively praise all of your reads?

Do you need a Drill Sergeant to constantly kick your ass?

Do you need a combination of two or more of these coaching styles?

Your Action Plan for Finding the Right Voice Over Coach for You

When hunting for the right voice over coach to help you build your acting muscles, don't just blindly follow whatever your favorite celebrity voice actor tells you to do. Protect your capital and vet potential coaches using these guidelines:

Watch out for the "Demo Mill" Trap: If a coach promises a professionally produced demo at the end of a 3-lesson package, tread carefully. A trustworthy coach won't let you cut a demo until your reads are consistently competitive in the modern market. Promising a demo to a newb is a cash grab.

Verify Their Modern Industry Footprint: The voiceover landscape changes fast. Is the coach actively working, directing, or casting in the current market, or are they teaching techniques from a decade ago? Even worse, are they putting themselves out there as a coach because they voiced a beloved character 40+ years ago?

Look for the Anti-Guru Mindset: A truly professional voice over coach doesn't try to keep you dependent on them forever. They teach you the skills you need, coach you up as best they can, then push you out of the nest so you can start making your dreams come true.

Diversify Your Voice Over Training: Don't get married to one coach too early. Work with different styles to figure out what triggers your best performances. And remember, your needs will change as you grow. Never be afraid to outgrow a coach and move on to the next level of specialization.

Your Next Step

Before you spend your hard-earned cash on a performance coach, let’s make sure your business foundation is rock solid. Whether you’re trying to figure out which genre to target first or how to budget for your training, let's look at the big picture.

Schedule a Voiceover Business Diagnostic with me today, and let's map out a blueprint that ensures your coaching investments actually yield a massive ROI.

Want More Tools In Your Voice Over Toolkit?

Stop guessing which microphones, hardware, software, and books are worth your investment! I’ve built a curated resource page with the professional tools I trust to save you time and help you make smart decisions for your business.

Please note: As an affiliate partner, I may earn from qualifying purchases at no extra cost to you.

Get my curated list of essential VO tools here.

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As the VO Strategist, Tom Dheere has provided voice over business & marketing coaching since 2011.

He's also a voice actor with over 30 years of experience who has narrated just about every type of voice over you can think of. When not voicing or talking about voicing, Tom produces the sci-fi comic book Agent 1.22.