Meet Melissa, a vivacious storyteller with an insatiable curiosity
Meet Melissa, a vivacious storyteller with an insatiable curiosity and a voice you’ve probably heard before. Melissa is the go-to Voice Over Artist for many Australian and international production houses and agencies for radio and television commercial, on-hold productions, in-car Bluetooth voice. With a 15 year career as a freelancer, she knows a thing or two about going out on your own, so we took 5 mins and sat with Melissa to get the cold hard facts.
When and why did you ditch the 9-5 and go out on your own?
I started working for myself as a freelance Voice Over artist over 15 years ago. While I continued to work as a freelance presenter and producer for a while after that, Voice Overs took over and has been my mainstay since.
What’s the best piece of advice you’d give to someone who is waiting to take the leap to work for themselves?
Find out what you do best and stick to it. For example, I am not all that good at accents. I am a good mimic, but I can’t hold it. So there’s no point in trying to audition for roles like that. I know I do warm retail style commercial reads and messages-on-hold best so I promote that.
Best tips for winning new business?
Always make the marketing calls yourself and remember the names of receptionists or assistants you are put through to when calling about opportunities. They are the gatekeepers and they decide how well you’re received, so be nice!
What has been your favourite client/project you’ve done to date?
I love it when my friends call and tell me they have heard me in their car. I have been providing my voice for the Bluetooth audio for Mazda’s and Mitsubishi’s for about 8 years now.
What is a business win you’re currently celebrating?
I am doing the voice for an Australian version of educational software that is in use in the UK and NZ.
When did your passion for Voice Over work begin? And have you always known you wanted to do it for a living?
My last full-time role before I freelanced as a voice over artist, was as Creative Director of 4BC/4BH where we had started sending scripts to voice over artists to supply reads as mp3’s or wav files. I liked the idea of that so I made the leap then and it’s grown from there.
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