Working with your voice: From Amateur to Professional

Ever wondered how your passion for the world of voice could become a full-fledged career? Here's a 6-steps guide for you!

During my twenty years in the field, I’ve seen many people going from being amateur voice users to becoming professionals in a specific voice-related field. I was (well, I still am) lucky enough to guide many in making the first steps in the business. But how did they get to transform their lives and beings, to unveil their talents, outline their niche, and finally establish themselves in the industry?

In this article I’d like to share with you the 6 major steps most “now established” talents went through to transform their passion for the human voice into a fulfilling career as voice professionals.

First and foremost, I can’t highlight enough the one word that works as an “umbrella” for everything else: Clarity. Everything starts with clarity. 

Clarity in regards of your mission, your intentions, your unique talents, your goals, and eventually your long term plan and your daily actions.

It’s in the moment we start gaining clarity and awareness that we find ourself stepping into the mindset of a professional working with their voice.

Keeping this in mind, let’s dive together into the 6 steps that’ll get you from amateur to professional.

Step 1. Tap into your intuition

The first step would be understanding whether a career in the voice field is something that really resonates with your true purpose and mission. To get a clear answer on this matter it is essential to tap into one’s intuition.

Your inner voice knows, your physical voice catches up later, don’t worry.

Useful tools to connect to your purpose could range from meditations, to journaling, to free sounding.

Step 2. Identifying your big WHY.

Why would you want to pursue a career in the voice field in the first place? 

Tap again into your intuition starting from a place of connection and giving honest answers to yourself. Step away from self judgement, there is no write or wrong who it comes to connecting to your big why. 

Step 3: Identifying your area.

What branch of the voice industry is for me?

There are many fields within the industry, many things you can do with your voice. How do you find yours?

This is the time for you to explore, experiment. Invest time listening to other’s voice work, mostly listen to yourself. Aknowledge what resonates and note it down. Imagine yourself in the long term. Always note down what makes you excited and glow. Is it helping others and healing? You might want to consider a path in sound healing with the voice, or perhaps vocal coaching is for you. The spotlight is were you feel at home? Then maybe a career as a singer is there waiting for you. You are more of an introvert and feel most comfortable in the booth, where there’s only you and your mic? In this case maybe consider a career in voice acting and voice overs. And so on so forth.

Tap into your intuition and spend time in listening mode. Invest some time in practicing different modalities. Observe yourself, but do not worry about your current level, techniques can be integrated later. Narrowing down your area of focus is what matters now.

This doesn’t mean you’ll have to stick to that area for the rest of your life, and most likely you will enjoy working across different areas in the future, like I do as a voice-preneur. But this means setting the ground for a starting point that’s aligned with your unique talent and your mission. A starting point that will evolve with time and that will give the start to your unique path.

Ok now that you’ve identified your field, your big why and you’ve set your fundamental starting spot, what’s next?

Step 4: Picture the big journey first.

It is essential to have a clear vision of your journey. Think of a film director who’s outlining the entire project before getting the crew and the cast to the set. Or a novelist who’s picturing the journey of their characters before starting to write the first draft of their novel. 

Start by setting your ultimate goal and break it down in smaller steps with a time frame. 

E.g. My ultimate goal is to bring healing to the world by using my voice. I see myself working as a sound healer with the voice within 12 months.

An example of a breakdown to smaller goals in this case would be:

Month 1-2: Finding the right training for you. Saving for the training fees. Collecting information on the subject. Participating to sound healing events and sessions. Nurturing your interest and so on.

Month 3-9: Enroll in a training programme. Start growing in knowledge. Start building an idea of branding, and so on.

Month 9-12: Narrowing down your niche. Building your socials and website. Setting up a marketing strategy.

Take the above as a sample but always remember that each person is unique, as every voice is, therefore any path has to be drawn individually, it’s not one size fits all.

Step 5: Balancing your new goals with your current circumstances

Ok you’ve gained more clarity over your long term goal and you’ve also outlined a sort of action plan setting smaller goals into a time frame. What to do now? 

Now it’s time to see how your goals and aspirations meet your actual circumstances, so that you can adjust your veils to reach your desired results.

You’ll start with an analysis of your current circumstances and asking yourself a few simple questions; 

How much time can you dedicate to your new goal on a daily or weekly basis? How important is it to you (from 1 to 10)?

How much money would you need to invest? Understand the financial aspects of your goals, such as training, equipment, or studio time. Establish a budget to manage these expenses while maintaining financial stability.

What else can you leave on a side to prioritise this?

Step 6. Step 5: Taking Purposeful Action

Well done, now you you have come to a place of clarity. You’ve a clear picture of your goal and of the milestones you need to reach in order to get there. You kind of know how to to make room in your life for your new challenges.

With a clear vision and an understanding of your circumstances, it's time to take proactive steps.

• Buy a diary or use a digital one to help you tap into the power of daily habits

•  Establish a routine that incorporates practice, training, and self-improvement activities and assign defined slots to each task. Consistency is key to progress.
•  Shop up for yourself with dedication and cutting off distractions. 
•  Having a coach here can really make the difference, it’s a game changer for overcoming obstacles and keep momentum. But if you can’t afford a mentor or a coach  right now, share with like minded people, use groups and communities, check Vagavoice blog and contents, and sign up to our mailing list to access new tools and resources.

This transition from amateur to professional in the voice world is a deeply personal journey, a truly exciting one. As you step onto this thrilling path, remember that it's your distinct voice that sets you apart in your chosen field. Stay authentic, stay genuine, and keep moving forward. You’ll get there!