–
The Real Story Is in the Becoming:
A Performer’s Truth
–
–
By Joan Baker, 7/27/25
I used to think survival meant silence.
–
Smiling felt like the safest way to disappear. I performed the role of a well-behaved, pleasant little girl to protect myself from confusion and pain no child should carry.
–
Born biracial in a world fractured by injustice, I was always too much or not enough, not Black enough, not white enough. Before I even understood belonging, I was told I didn’t fit. Like many children, I learned to blend in. I found myself reading the room and shrinking myself to ease others’ discomfort with my truth. This survival instinct silenced more than my words. It muffled my voice, gave in to the fear of speaking my inner truth, and taught me that hiding was safer than being heard.
–
I thought this was the way to survive. Unlike thriving, survival mode imprisons the voice and your soul. You become palatable. Invisible. Tolerable. And then, you forget what your own voice sounds like.
–
The woman I am today had to unlearn all of that. Every last bit. I had to find reclaim my voice, piece by piece, like gathering shards of glass and forging a new mirror. I didn’t do it to be loud. I did it to be whole. I did it because my chosen art of acting and voice acting demanded it. This is why I love the process of acting and imparting to newcomers and established. Yes, it is confronting, but it is the way forward.
–
Through the arts and performance, I’ve learned something essential: this journey isn’t just mine. It’s deeply human. Most of us are taught, subtly or forcefully, to hide parts of ourselves. To bury our fire. To mute our grief. To dim our joy and shelve our dreams in the name of being professional, safe, or pleasing.
–
But those very parts we hide are often the source of our truest, most unforgettable performances. Talented people walk into a booth with training and drive, but when the script calls for truth, humor, vulnerability, or power, they hesitate. They edit. They withhold. Not because they aren’t good, but because they’ve been conditioned to fear their full self. That is why voice acting and performing are not just technical skills. They are personal revolutions. My approach to guiding performers is rooted in these principles, encouraging authenticity, presence, and fearless expression.
—
Article Continues After Announcement…
From the Society of Voice Arts and Sciences
–
Article Continues…
–
So how do you become a powerful performer, not just polished but truly impactful?
–
1. Reclaim your truth before you hit the mic.
Your voice doesn’t begin in your vocal cords. It begins in your body, your breath, and your lived story. If you try to sound “right,” you have already left yourself behind. Instead, ask yourself: What does this moment want from me? What emotion wants to rise, unfiltered and unjudged? A liberated voice is a revealed voice.
–
2. Breathe before you speak.
Not just to control the line but to return to yourself. Breath is the gateway to impulse, and impulse is the origin of authentic sound. When you allow yourself to breathe fully, without armor, your voice becomes responsive, not performed. The breath carries the truth before the words arrive.
–
3. Feel it in the body first.
Great performance begins with sensation, not strategy. Before you shape the delivery, ask yourself where the emotion lives. Is it in your chest, your belly, or your spine? Voice connected to feeling does not need to be forced. It flows. That flow, resonant and alive, is what makes people feel you.
–
4. Speak with your whole self.
Don’t compartmentalize. Don’t tidy up your feelings before you enter the booth. The most powerful performers allow the raw, round fullness of their voice to come through, even if it shakes, breaks, or bends. That is not weakness. That is humanity. That is the sound of a voice set free.
–
5. Let the voice lead the technique, not the other way around.
Craft matters. But if technique runs the show, your performance will sound polished but empty. The real magic happens when the voice, your true resonant self, is in the driver’s seat. Trust your instincts. Let the voice play. Then shape what is already alive.
–
If you want a career in voiceover or any art form that feeds both your soul and your bank account, let your path be about becoming, not just achieving. Become the artist who does not just speak but truly resonates. The world does not need another well-behaved echo. It needs the full, fearless depth of you. Because the real story unfolds not in the done, but in the daring act of becoming. ♦♦♦
–
–
Joan Baker is Vice President and co-founder of the Society of Voice Arts and Sciences (SOVAS), a nonprofit organization in support of voice actors, and co-creator of That’s Voiceover! Career Expo, an annual conference for voice actors, and the creators of the Voice Arts Awards, the premier acknowledgment platform for voice actors worldwide. Joan is also the author of the best-selling book Secrets of Voice-over Success and a voice acting coach with a unique penchant for getting to the heart of what inspires her clients to succeed.
–
From the Society of Voice Arts and Sciences
