If you ask most working voice actors how to start, we will send you to the brilliant http://iwanttobeavoiceactor.com/ , tell you do study acting (especially improv or theatre), practice at the mic, consume interviews with pros, and focus on figuring out where YOU shine.

But then what? https://twitter.com/Calamity_Jane87/status/1292837889848545281

How do you get that first round of jobs when you have practiced skills but nothing to show for it?

The answer *isn't* to go spend a month or two's rent on a reel or start emailing agencies begging them to take a chance on you.

You don't need either of those things to start.

Every single person's path is different, and there's no one-size-fits-all solution to working in the industry. So let's talk about how I found MY first projects when I was a VO larva.

(By the way, I made a commercial reel before I was ready, but we'll come back to that.)

1) Help your friends. Offer to do VO for free for something a friend is making. I lent my voice to a few small mobile games and a web series. I narrated pitch videos for an acquaintance's YouTube series. I recorded placeholder scratch tracks for video games in a real studio.

2) Student projects. I would find them on casting websites, or even by reaching out to a particular school's program. Now, there are tons of calls for student games and animation projects on Twitter. Sometimes they want a reel or a sample, but look for ones with open auditions.

3) Put up a post on your social media offering some free VO to mutuals. You probably know one or two people who could really use some help and you could use the practice. Somebody knows somebody who could use an hour of your time, even if it's recording a message for a birthday.

Once all those projects come out, you'll be able to grab a clip of a scene and point to it and say, "It me." Keep collecting these.

Bonus: If you're easy to work with and you do a great job, that creator might reach out to you the next time they have a project you're a fit for.

4) Find all opportunities to play. Do readings of plays over Zoom with friends. Know any writers? Volunteer to help organize a table read of their script and cast it with other folks along the journey with you. Build a library of audition materials to practice with when you can.

5) Make organic relationships. As you take classes or navigate online, you will meet people you click with. Build your peer network by supporting each other and sharing your tools. You will grow a community you trust to refer to projects, and they will vouch for you as well.

My first projects came from all of the above. I collected clips on my website so folks could hear me and what I do. I cut together my own mini reel from those assets as a sample of my work rather than spend money on an animation reel while I was still learning about that world.

I made a commercial reel while I was very green. I grew 10x in the year after I made it, and it didn't do me any good to have it so soon. Be careful with instructors who want to shove you in the recording booth too early; they just like how your money would look in their wallet.

How do you know you're ready to make a reel? If you were hired tomorrow for a job in that genre, could you knock it out of the park? Even if you show up and they want the exact opposite from what you prepared? Then you're good to go. A commercial reel will help you woo an agent.

But the majority of my work hasn't come from an agent. It's come from relationships with people I met through my training. From auditions that I was sent by friends who were casting projects. Friends and coaches that referred me to directors and studios. Eventually, I booked.

As a favorite college teacher would say, "work begets work." You can show you're hireable. You can become a tried-and-true hire of a director or studio. Someone might reach out because they liked your work on another project. And every hour at the mic makes you a better actor.

There are even more places to find VO practice and projects now. @VoiceActingClub and similar groups exist so seek them out. Find mod communities for games, or any place where you can play and learn more about yourself and how to approach each new job. And eventually, paid work.

Exhaustively pursue your own leads. When you're ready for an agent (or to move to a fancier one), you'll have a body of work to point to. You'll get access to opportunities beyond the ones your friends and open calls can provide. But keep hustling on your own, too!

It might be a few hundred auditions before you book. It might be five. And it could be that long between things at the start. In between, you'll learn to direct yourself and to build a repertory theatre in your head of characters you can play. None of those auditions are wasted.

Your first gigs may be incidental characters, or they could be something bigger. I *love* being a utility player and voicing a pile of random weirdos. Sometimes you get to do more "out there" things than if you were a lead character, and it helps you learn to make quick choices.

To reiterate: there's no wrong way to eat a Reese's. No two people have the same backstory to becoming a working actor, but most began by seeking out their own opportunities and relentlessly pursuing their craft . On a budget that worked for them and in their own timeline.

If you'd like to gobble up more advice from voice actors on the rise, my brilliant friend @SeanRohani has a most excellent podcast called Voice Acting Up! There is lots of lovely wisdom and fun stories and encouragement to be heard there. https://anchor.fm/voiceactingup 

Explore VO like you're going on the most delicious side quest, and then make it your main focus at whatever point that makes sense. Or, keep it as an excellent hobby while you make other things happen. Just believe in yourself and keep going. We'll see you at the mic.