Today we’d like to introduce you to Jake Sanders.
Hi Jake, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I’ve always been into performing whether on stage or in front of the camera. I grew up doing theatre in school and then later in the community after I graduated high school. I had the intention of going to college to get some kind of degree that would allow me to pursue the industry, but ultimately it wasn’t a good fit as I’m just not a school-oriented person.
In my early 20s I was fortunate enough to know some people that had gotten an independent film in the “Austin Independent Film Festival”, and I took a day trip to go see the film. It was there where I met my first agent, Sooze Johnson of “The Agency Dallas” and a few weeks later we had a meeting and she gave me the opportunity to start auditioning for film and TV.
I hadn’t really given Voiceover that much thought at the time, but she suggested that I go see a man named Bruce Carey who was a local voice actor in Dallas. Bruce had me read a commercial script in his booth, gave me some light direction and showed me the difference between just reading the lines and putting myself in a scenario where the dialogue becomes believable.
I fell in love right away, but unfortunately, I wasn’t in a place financially to give voiceover the investment it needs to get off the ground. But from that moment I held on to voiceover, even if it was in the back of my mind.
It wasn’t until about 7 years later in 2018, that my father, who did NOT come from any kind of acting background, was living in Alabama and decided to look into voiceover himself. He found a voice actor named Joe Loesch who taught a kind of “Intro to Voice Acting” workshop in Nashville, TN, which was only a few hours’ drive from where my dad lived.
It was a group of about 8 people and Joe showed them what the landscape of voiceover looked like then and what it was changing into. People were starting to figure out that they could make their own home studios and recording spaces. There were casting sites where voice actors didn’t necessarily need to have an agent to get access to jobs, and some were even starting to turn this from a side hustle into full-time jobs.
My dad told me about everything he learned and started his own little journey into voice acting. He would update me with the equipment he was getting, getting a commercial demo produced and started auditioning on one of these casting sites. While hearing about what he was doing I couldn’t help but feel that I could do this. I grew up acting in school and community theatre, even some small independent projects with some film maker friends, and everything he would tell me, I knew I could easily slip into.
It wasn’t until 2019 that I really started to put the pieces together to jump start my voiceover career. I was in a new relationship with a girl who was nothing but supportive and when I told her I was thinking about trying out voice acting, she immediately told me I should do it! So, I hit up a friend of mine who directed a web series I acted in a few years earlier and one Sunday afternoon I went to his house and we recorded a rough demo comprised of a few commercials and a few narrations. I had recently bought a gaming PC and decent Mic (Audio Technica 2020 USB cardioid condenser). I figured out how to sound treat a closet in a spare office room we had, bought an annual subscription to voices.com and started auditioning by February 2020.
I was about 2 weeks into auditioning on voices that I booked my first job on the site for a local school district, Godly ISD. It was for a website video and it paid $100. I couldn’t believe it! I was going to get paid $100 for a 60 second short, and for just talking into a microphone. Needless to say, I was hooked.
But shortly after, the lockdown happened. I was still working a full-time job at a private aviation company, and thankfully they needed us to stay on, and allowed us to work from home. While there wasn’t a lot of flying going on, the auditions were plentiful. I was auditioning everyday while in lockdown, and I was actually booking some decent jobs for someone who had only started that year. I ended up booking about 43 jobs my first year, all on Voices.com, and ended up bringing in a good amount of money for a side gig.
Year 2 was even better. I was still only auditioning on voices, but I was starting to get better paying gigs. My full-time job however was taking a turn for the worse. While I won’t go into detail on that, I’ll just say that by October of 2021 I was mentally drained, and my girlfriend could see it and was having to deal with me on a daily basis. One day in the last week of October, she looked at me, clearly distraught, and said “Just quit. You’ve been working hard on voiceover, and you deserve better” – So I did. It was scary. I didn’t know what to expect. I figured “hey, I did better in year 2 of voiceover than I did in year 1” So it only made sense that I would keep doing better.
Well, I was right, but I was also wrong. Unfortunately in 2022, voices.com started going downhill. Where I was gaining in skill, voices was losing in job quality. My problem was that I was still ONLY auditioning on that 1 casting site and the influx of people getting into it from covid was taking it’s toll.
I wasn’t booking much, and I was running out of money fast. (I should say that the money I made in 2020 and 2021 allowed me to buy a house with my girlfriend, so we had more expenses during these years that started to add up) So I made a tough decision to not only buy myself more time but really take a gamble on myself. I cashed out my 401k. I know… I know… you should never do that, BUT I still, even when it was hard, knew that I could make this work.
While my 401k did help me, it was about the middle of 2022 that I realized I needed to expand. Not only did I need to find out where and how I could get access to more auditions, I needed to learn how to market myself, connect with talent agencies and find a community.
For marketing, I found Paul Schmidt’s “VO Freedom Master Plan” via LinkedIn. I immediately knew I needed to add this to my plan of action. Through Paul’s course I learned how to identify the right people/ job titles and how I could use my strengths in VO to strategize a way to try and build relationships with new clients. While marketing isn’t so much a sprint as it is a marathon, this investment has paid off and continues to pay off year over year.
Towards the end of 2021 I had gotten my first professionally produced commercial demo and started reaching out to some agencies I had found on a voiceover news site, voiceoverxtra.com. I was able to connect with AB2 in LA, DDO Chicago, NOW Talent in Kansas City and MCVO up in New England.
As for my community, I don’t exactly remember how, but I ended up getting invited to a Facebook group which was a group for people who were voice actors and people who were interested in voice acting. The group itself was essentially a page for a podcast called “The VO Life” with Troy Holden of Murfreesboro, TN. One day I saw a post that said, “Mock Audition”. Troy had a script for anyone who wanted to read and send in a few takes all of for the sake of giving people the opportunity to experience what it was like to record, label and possibly “book” the job. The winner’s read would be featured on his podcast and would get an in-depth dive into things they did right and where they could improve.
Upon sending my audition I quickly received an email response back from Troy telling me I had been shortlisted. Ultimately, I didn’t win as the read that was wanted was for a more mature sound, but Troy liked what I brought to the audition with my younger voice and ended up making a mashup of His read, the winner’s read and my read.
After that, Troy reached out to me and invited me to an accountability group. At first it wasn’t really for me, but then Troy, Myself and the winner, Alden Schoeneberg of Brookfield, MO branched off and made our own accountability group, eventually adding in Charles Coates II of Fort Worth, TX. From there we started a podcast called “Another VO Podcast” because, let’s be honest, there were a lot that of them!
For over a year we met once a week and discussed things we were experiencing in voiceover. Struggles we were having, how we overcame those struggles, advice we would give others who might follow down the same path etc… but on the more intimate side of things in our group chat, we talked about our wins and shared things from our personal lives. It was essentially the “water cooler” of our job. I attribute most of my success to Paul Schmidt and his course and my 3 friends in my accountability group.
As I got more involved in the Facebook groups, I discovered that one of the biggest voiceover conferences was held annually in Dallas. While I couldn’t afford to attend my first year in 2023, I saw a post asking for volunteers. I quickly emailed the right people, and they added me to the list! That was one of the best things that could’ve happened to me. It allowed me to mingle in person with so many voice actors I’d only met online, but as a volunteer I got to have some real face time with Agents, casting directors and even some “elite” voice actors, who had some great advice to share.
Even though I was gaining some traction in 2023 because of marketing and a few small agency jobs, as well as moving on to a better casting site, Voice123, I still wasn’t making the kind of income one could live off of. In the fall of 2023, I started looking for work-from-home jobs that could keep me sustained while still pursuing voiceover.
I had reached out to a few previous co-workers from the private aviation job to see what they were doing now and even looked into a few customer service/ call center jobs. Nothing clicked.
2024 did start off with a bang however, as January of that year was my best month I’d ever had in voiceover. February and March were also good, and then in April of 2024 an old co-worker texted me and let me know there was an opening at a private aviation company she was working at. It was fully remote and was basically the same type of job I had done before. I sent in my resume and by the end of the month I was working again.
Getting that job took all the pressure off. Not only was I able to sustain myself and keep pursing voiceover, but my performance in the booth got better as I wasn’t stressed about needing to book EVERY job.
That was the turning point for me as I started to book bigger and better jobs. Booking jobs for clients like Boston Scientific, Sonic Drive-In, Fidelity, National Grid. I even became the unofficial voice of Marco’s Pizza.
2024 ended great, but all of that exploded in 2025 to levels I only ever dreamed of. I’m currently working on a new demo to try in get into Promo work, like being the voice for a TV channel and all of it’s shows promos. I’m still marketing myself and continue to audition every day.
Charles Coats (from my accountability group) and I also started a small workshop that we do from time to time called “An introduction to the world of voiceover” where we give people a real look at what it takes to make it in voiceover. Treating it like a business and what to really expect if they decide to go down that path. (I included some pictures from one of those workshops)
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It has not been a smooth road.
I’ve faced several moments of self-doubt, imposter syndrome, financial adversary. I had to figure out how to find more jobs when the 1 place I was auditioning started putting out jobs of lesser and lesser quality. Finding motivation to continue on.
I remember one time being so dejected by the lack of bookings, I sat in my living room and told my girlfriend I didn’t think I was good enough to make it. I felt that if it wasn’t happening right then and there, it just wasn’t going to happen. She told me that was nonsense, and while that didn’t exactly snap me out of my mood instantly, she did give me the courage and motivation to get back in the booth and keep going.
As I mentioned in my “story” I did decide to take a gamble on myself and cashed out my 401K. I do not recommend this to anyone, but it is part of MY story.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
As a voice actor I focus on commercial work. My vocal style is characterized by my fresh, millennial, guy-next-door friendliness, though I’ve been booking a little work using the lower register of my voice, with some reads really going the opposite direction of how I actually am.
I’m most proud of my perseverance and never quitting, even when it seemed like I wouldn’t make it. Though I did have a great support system in my girlfriend as well as my friends and family.
I think just staying self-aware is something that sets me apart from others. You see a lot of people who think something like voiceover is a get rich quick kind of thing, but it’s not. It’s very much so a business and that takes not only investment but some humility. You need to get the coaching, you need to learn what’s expected, and quite frankly you need at least some sort of natural talent that you can build on. Most that try and get in, don’t have it, and while I’m not one to tell someone they can’t follow their dreams, I see so many who get in who will lose more than they will ever gain.
My most notable achievement is becoming the unofficial voice of Marco’s Pizza! I’ve been working with them for about a year now and have done all but 1 of their spots in the last year. (They partnered with Sony for Karate Kid: Legends, and Sony got to choose the voice actor for THAT spot. LOL)
Who else deserves credit in your story?
My father, Wayne Sanders. If he hadn’t tried out voiceover himself, I may have never even tried myself. He didn’t make it past 6 months as it just wasn’t for him, but him taking that first step gave me the confidence to do so.
Paul Schmidt. His marketing program, “VO Freedom Master Plan” really helped me take my voiceover game to the next level. I learned about email marketing and figured out a way to automate a lot of the process to give me more time to focus on auditions.
My accountability group, Troy Holden, Charles Coats and Alden Schoeneberg. These guys really helped me through a lot. It was a place to vent, share frustrations and wins as well as get advice.
My girlfriend, Leslie Richardson. I tell her all the time; I really wouldn’t have made it this far without her support.
ALL of my friends. My second year in voiceover, I bought a house with my girlfriend. I moved about an hour away from where I grew up. Because I struggled financially, I wasn’t able to visit them as much as I would’ve liked. Yet they remained supportive.
Notable coaches have been Brad Hyland, J. Michael Collins, Troy Holden, Mary Lynn Wissner, Jeff Howell, Debra Sperling and Billy Collura.
I am forever grateful for anyone and everyone who supported me in this pursuit.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.thatsjakesvoice.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thats_jakes_voice/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thatsjakesvoice
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jake-sanders-42436673/
