Welcome to episode 199 of the Voice Acting Mastery podcast with yours truly, Crispin Freeman!

As always, you can listen to the podcast using the player above, or download the mp3 using the link at the bottom of this blog post. The podcast is also available via the iTunes Store online. Just follow this link to view the podcast in iTunes:

http://www.voiceactingmastery.com/podcast

I’m honored to share with you the second and final part of my interview with the resourceful Sara Secora. You may have heard Sara’s voice acting work in games such as Genshin Impact, Warframe, and Fallout 76. In animation and dubbing she’s worked on Enchantimals, Boonie Bears: Back to Earth, and Rumble Garanndoll. Sara also works as a casting director and voice director on games like Smite, and Paladins. She’s also written a book on voice acting called The Anywhere Voice Actor about what it takes to work as a voice actor no matter where you live. You can find her book on Amazon, and you can even get private coaching sessions with Sara by going to Jennifer Hale’s amazing website, skillshub.life.

In the previous episode, Sara shared with me how she got started as a voice actor. Her journey was quite unique since she has a disability that keeps her homebound. She was gracious and courageous enough to talk about her agoraphobia in detail and explain how it prohibits her from traveling to a recording studio in order to work. Despite this challenge, she has been able to develop both her acting abilities and her business skills to a professionally competitive level. Sara got her start in the world of independent video games and has expanded into commercials, American Animation, Anime and AAA video games. I’m very impressed by her bravery and tenacity in the face of such difficulties.

In this episode, we begin by discussing what inspired Sara to become a performer in the first place. In fact, I ask Sara to go back to the time before she decided to pursue voice acting, and to explore why she originally wanted to become a YouTuber. She explains that her love for games and her wanting to share this enthusiasm with others helped motivate her to create a YouTube channel. The more she and I discuss this, the more she begins to realize that she has always had a deep desire to entertain other people. Even prior to becoming a YouTuber, Sara would share silly videos with her friends just to make them laugh or smile.

I then ask Sara how she began working as both a casting director and a voice director and to share some of the challenges she faces in both of those pursuits. Then, we wrap up our discussion with Sara’s advice to the aspiring voice actor. She always begins any of her coaching sessions by asking her students what they want to accomplish as a voice actor and even more importantly, why they want to do it. If her students express the desire to pursue voice acting professionally, Sara has a lot of practical advice to share with them from her own time “in the trenches” so to speak. She always wants to make sure her students have realistic and actionable plans that can make their voice acting goals practically achievable and not just dreams that never come to fruition. I love Sara’s no-nonsense approach to voice acting and I think my listeners will really benefit from hearing more of her journey and insights.

Download Voice Acting Mastery Episode #199 Here (MP3)