When you're listening to the radio, what makes you stop flipping from channel to channel? Of course your favorite song will make you pause, or maybe you catch an important news broadcast. But do you sometimes find yourself stopping to listen to a commercial? If a commercial is read correctly by a voiceover talent then you should be drawn in to the story-line. If it's a topic that you're interested in, and if the voiceover actor is acting the script well, then it really comes to life!

Voiceovers can be a fun, flexible and an incredibly lucrative career! Last year, the industry grew 7% to $11.7 billion! Having a "marketable voice" is definitely important in voiceovers but there's a lot more to it than that. Voiceovers are voice acting. You need to do more than just read the words on the page. Before you read a script, you want to ask yourself a few basic questions that will help you analyze the product, as well as understand your listener.

1) What demographic is the script geared toward? Who is the audience that you're speaking to?

2) How can you connect with the product? Because voiceovers are voice acting, think about personal experiences that you can relate to. If you can't relate to it, how can you pretend (aka, act) to relate to it?

3) Understanding the emotion of the script is very important to be able to bring it to life. Ask yourself what the emotion will convey the message of the script.

4) Who do you know who you can picture while reading this script? If you can't personally relate to it, then who (as the actor in this situation) are you picturing that you're talking to? Visualization is very important in voiceovers!

There is always a big-picture reason for reading the script, other than being hired by a client for the voice over job! You can have the best voice in the world, but if you sound like you're reading, you're probably not going to book the job.

In addition to analyzing the script, another important skill you want to master as a voiceover talent is breathing. Using proper breathing techniques as a voice actor is critical in helping you sound natural. When we talk, we take a breath when needed, and usually we never sound like we're running out of air. When a person is reading, if they don't breathe properly, they will sound that way. So the key is to always sound like you're SPEAKING, not reading. Remember to breathe naturally in the correct places within your script.

In order to breathe properly as a voice talent you need to intentionally engage your diaphragm. This will help you control your breath, help with your phrasing, and give you stamina for longer reads.

How to take a diaphragm breath:

1. Stand with your feet slightly apart and raise your arms up straight over your head. Then lower them gently, while focusing on keeping your ribs raised. You don't need to do this to take a diaphragm breath; however, it helps to position your body when learning how to do it properly.

2. Place your hands above your waist with your finger tips touching your belly button and your thumbs on your back. Again, not needed, but a great indicator to feel if you're moving correctly.

3. Then take a low, deep breath. This should feel more like a down/outward motion versus upwards. Make sure that your shoulders do not move up. Instead, your stomach should go OUT when you INHALE and IN when you EXHALE. (Just like a babies stomach moves when they're sleeping).

4. In addition to seeing your stomach move and feeling the motion on your finger tips, you should also feel a slight movement in the palms of your hands as your entire diaphragm is moving outward. If you were to study your body while you're taking a proper breath, the front, sides and back of your lower torso should be moving with each breath that you take.

5. Here are a few exercises you can practice to learn how to breathe with your diaphragm:

a) Sit down on a chair with your legs together in front of you. Then bend over so that your chest is touching the top of your legs. Let your arms hang down towards your feet and take a low deep breath. Focus on feeling your stomach moving against your legs.

b) Using a floor or a bed, lie down flat on your back with your hands placed on your stomach. Take a low breath and focus on feeling your stomach move against your hands, upward when you breathe in, and downward when you breathe out.

c) Lastly, try lying down with your body curled over a large yoga ball (or equivalent) with your arms hanging along side, kind of like you're hugging it. Then roll back and forth to position yourself so that your stomach is the center of your weight, not your chest. Then focus on taking a low, deep breath and feel your stomach move OUTWARD against the ball while you're inhaling.

Breathing properly is very important in voiceovers, but so is knowing where exactly to breathe. You want to make notations in your script ahead of time telling you where you should breathe so you don't accidentally run out of air. When notating your script, you want to keep in mind natural phrasing and conversational pauses as well.

You can use whatever notations work the best for you to show breath. Often times voiceover talent will mark a breath by using a mid-air comma (like a musical breath notation), or a line like this | or this / You can also draw a long, continuous line in an arch shape over the words you want to notate NOT to breathe in between.

Taking a proper diaphragm breath, knowing where to breathe in the script and analyzing what you're talking about and who you're talking to before recording are all key elements in voiceovers. If you keep all three of those things in mind, you're sure to get a natural, conversational recording.