We’re very excited to have Sam Ardern talking to us today. Sam runs an animation/ video production company, OnePost Media, in Wellington, New Zealand. He regularly hires voice over actors from BigMouth Voices for his projects. We’ve asked Sam to give our VO talent some tips on how to land gigs for a company like his.

Sam begins by explaining that his studio mainly creates promos for websites and social media for private clients, but they also do a bit of work for the government – creating training videos and simple explanatory content. He’s been using BigMouth as his main source for finding voice talent since 2014. 

“I’ve used other voice agencies before and it can be a real hit and miss,” explains Sam. “The selection on BigMouth is diverse and really great. And as a plus, the artists are really professional.”

“I’m from a news background so I can be a little picky with voices,” Sam explains. “My advice from when I was in a booth in news to now is the same – your voice can’t sound like you are reading words off a piece of paper. You need to do a quick run through and get comfortable with the text, then read ahead, all the while pretend you’re talking to a person right in front of you.”

It’s a tough skill to master, but when you do Sam assures us there’s a lot of work out there for you. 

Most of Sam’s clients want a voice to sound ‘fun and informative.’ Some clients will have additional requests that Sam passes on to the voice actor he hires. When Sam approaches voices about a job, he listens to their demos first, and will sometimes ask if they can make the script sound like a particular section of the demo.

Sam’s favourite thing about his job is doing his own thing and making his clients happy. If you can help him achieve this, he says he’s got plenty of work for you.