Voice That Frenchie – Marion Bouquet from Alex Pullen on Vimeo.

 

– “What? You’re a what??”

-“A French Voice Over Artist.”

It’s funny how this profession can be unknown to a lot of people, while voiceovers can be heard every day on the radio, in TV commercials, Ebooks, Explainer Videos, etc.

Voice over talents are everywhere. And what a passionate job it is!

Today, I work from my home studio in France. This past winter, I worked from another home studio in Thailand, and I had a the chance to be a voiceover artist in different places of the world. I certainly feel a lot of gratitude for this lifestyle and happiness in my profession. Like Confucius said, “Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.”

He’s spot on, for sure.
While I cherish this freedom to do a job that I love from anywhere I want, I also love it when I can work in studios with clients and therefore experience a different kind of “workday”, playing behind the mic and interacting with a team of other passionate people. It is inspiring and brings in new energy to my days, but also confirms how much this career path resonates with what I love in life : being playful, moving my body, laughing, smiling, learning new things, making clients happy, interacting with them, giving a voice to their business, and contributing to its growth in that way.

I chose to specialize in Explainer Videos for companies because this is a place where I can truly experience all of that listed above, whether it is for startups, new businesses, or more settled ones that want to expand their services to European countries.

In explainer videos, you have a maximum of 2 minutes to present a problem, THE solution, and all the good things that results from it. Which means, from a voice over artist’s perspective, make it sound like the most wonderful solution ever, and put all of your positivity, trust and hopefulness into your interpretation of the script. You smile, you believe in it, you want to make people understand how awesome this idea is. And this, is what makes me feel alive! I get to share a beautiful and enthusiastic energy, and contribute in spreading the strong messages that businesses have, from behind the mic, with my voice and my body. What a pleasure and honor it is!

I certainly would not trade this amazing job for anything else.

If you’re looking for a Female French Voice Over for your Explainer Video, get in touch with me here and I’ll be very happy to chat more about your project 🙂

Cheers to your success!

Vocally yours,

Marion

Let’s work together!

 

What is your passion in life?
And how early did you know what it was?

For most of us it is not obvious and easy to put work and passion in the same box. But it is possible, and I’ve been lucky to discover it a few years ago.

I’ve been a French voiceover artist since 2012, but I went through all different life and work experiences before realizing that this was what I wanted to do.
And I am very grateful for the path I chose to took, all the mysterious and unknown turns I made, and all the beautiful people I met along the road, all of which led me to where I am today.

How did I become a voiceover artist?

It all started in summer 2012 as I was traveling in Chiang Mai, Thailand.
I had just graduated from Tourism school in the French Alps, and I had done my last internship in Thailand, so I wanted to go back and share a little house and spend time doing all the things that I loved at that time, which were getting into yoga, painting jewelry, reading and riding my bike in town, living at a slow pace and taking time with myself to figure out what I truly wanted to do with my life, especially on a professional level.

I wound up going to the weekly Couchsurfing meeting one night, and I sat next to a guy who happened to be a computer programmer. He shared his story as a « Digital Nomad » with me and ended up moving into my house as a new housemate. We became friends and kept on talking about how sweet it was to work remotely while still being able to travel and enjoy life at the same time.

It rang a bell. I wanted to live this kind of life too ! I always loved traveling and would constantly organize my life around it.

So, what could I do then?

I first thought about doing translations from english to french. I had heard of a freelance website called Odesk where it was easy to get translation jobs.
After a 2 month trip to Nepal, I returned to France in november 2012 and focused 100% of my time on creating a legit and solid Odesk profile. I was determined to start this new life !

It took me 3 weeks of hard work and patience to get my first job, but yes, finally ! It was the beginning of a new adventure !

Only after a month, and a few translation jobs completed, one of my clients asked me to record something that I had translated.
I used my mp3, had a lot of fun doing it, and on top of that I had got an excellent feedback from my client.

That’s when it hit me.

Why not using my voice as a job? I had felt so comfortable recording this script and had so much fun along the way !

I started to make some research online as to what it was to be a voiceover artist, how to become one, and what were the top skills to acquire to start a voiceover carreer.

I found this online voiceover school, which would offer a beginner program at a very affordable price. I signed up right away and started the classes the same day.

It was important to me to first define clear and specific goals regarding my professional carreer, and especially WHY I wanted to do this.

What were these goals?

1) Be my own boss and create a lifestyle that would echoe with my passions in life.

2) Better serve the world by doing something that I love. If I am happy and feel fulfilled, I can emit and spread more positive around me and put passion in all my actions and work.

3) Find a job that allows me to give the best of myself, keeps me challenged and therefore contributes to bring more growth.

4) Make a reasonable living so that I can live comfortably and still be able to live and work from wherever I want = FREEDOM.

5) Short term goals :
– Get a summer job to pay for new voiceover equipement
– Make at least $500 a month before september 2013 – the month I’d return to Chiang Mai, Thailand to grow my business.

So as I was taking these voiceover classes online, I was still working a 9-5 job to sustain myself while in France. I would study in the evenings after work, with an endless determination and passion. I just knew I was meant to do this !

I eventually found this 2 month summer job in the Alps as a receptionist. And all the money I’d make would go into a new laptop and new microphone.

By the end of august, I was ready to go back to Chiang Mai, I had reached my short term goals and was feeling excited about meeting more online entrepreneurs while there and getting inspired by their stories and experience.

The first 3 months were pretty challenging, but so worth the ride !

Within this time, I had come up with a brand name (Voice that Frenchie), a niche, and a website. Needless to say that I could never have figured it out in such a short time if I had not returned to Chiang Mai. I made great friends who helped me to understand this entrepreneur world better, I learnt a lot about marketing, self-worth and gained a tons of valuable tools and skills along the way to develop my business and voiceover carreer. I’ll always feel immensly grateful for that.

I am also very grateful for all my clients, who contributed in their own way to this nice evolution, through their constructive and positive feedback, their trust and on-going collaborations.

And today…?

Since 2013, I worked as a voiceover artist from Thailand, France and the US.
I took a 5 week vacation to Nepal in october 2014 where I did a trek in the Annapurna, a necessary time that I took to step back and reflect on my life, check-in with myself to make sure I was still aligned with my passions and goals. And yes, indeed, I was.

I got a confirmation that what I was doing was what would make me feel alive.

I was free.

I was free to make choices.

I had created a lifestyle that was making me happy, and therefore I would feel fulfilled and available to the world, my family, my friends and the people I would work with.

My plan as for today is to spend spring 2015 in France, and then I’ll fly to Colorado in the US, where I’ll be based for 3 months.

Working as a voiceover artist has been one of the most beautiful, adventurous, fun and challenging experiences I’ve had in my life.
I wouldn’t trade it for anything !

I wish you to find your passion(s) in life !

Here’s to your happiness and success !

Vocally yours,
Marion Bouquet