What are you good at? What's your specialty? After umpteen auditions/bookings, you should start to get a sense of exactly what ignites your spark.
What are your best characters?
Perhaps they are not characters. Maybe you jive with narration. Or you come alive when you have some information to share. Are you a natural born teacher?
If so, maybe it's tutorials or e-learning that gets you going.
Maybe you light up in the kids arena. Animation? Impressions? Is that you?
How about video games? Anime? Can you authentically fall off a cliff or crash your starship into another planet? Are you secretly suppressing your inner power puff girl?
When we're talking animation, you gotta use your whole body. None of this hiding behind the mic thing. If you're heading over a giant cliff, we need to hear it. Just because we can't see you doesn't mean we shouldn't feel the action, the terror, the thrill or the shock...
use that body of yours.
OK, so you've decided you shine at adverts. You've got that great girl next door sound. You're believable, authentic. Hey, you're a mom, you make Christmas fun. If that's your calling, don't waste your time on auditions that don't show you off in your best light.
In other words., don't go for the techno geek when Target's got a special on aisle 5 and you've got the chops to move people right along.
Find your niche. The area in which you shine. Focus on those gigs. Sink into the nuances you discover as you do more and more of these auditions. I'm not telling you not to stretch.
That was a double negative. Sorry.
Stretching is important. And go for it if you think you've got something different to offer.
But be selective. Know where your strengths are and then stretch from there.
I call it VO Yoga.
That's right, sit right down on your lily pad. And let yourself become the character in your mind. See it... is it big? small? clean? dirty? is it young? old? quirky? a certain colour? tired? weary? peppy? what would it sound like if it spoke for the first time?
How about video games? Anime? Can you authentically fall off a cliff or crash your starship into another planet? Are you secretly suppressing your inner power puff girl? they applaud you, well, maybe that's your niche. Hell, it'll be fun finding out anyway.