From young, I was learning how to speak properly, having shown signs of not developing proper speech patterns. I can happily say that I've overcome them by far. Then through schooling, I've done singing, lots of singing. Finally, I hit work, where customer service was paramount.
Then people started to comment I had a wonderful voice, my aunt, who is blind, as well as customers who could only hear my voice through a crackly speaker or on the other end of a phone.
Idly suggesting this to family and friends, they all agreed that I would make a wonderful speaker. I then worked on stories that people wrote, for free, I was trying to get myself ready for when I started to advertise myself for narration services, when someone I narrated for as practice asked me for a contract on their book!
I was happy to say the least, but I only had a mediocre microphone. Instantly, things were changing, I got a microphone, better sound quality control and noise reduction, and I was starting to get paid, and this was only in September 2013!
As such, I'm still very green, but apparently, I have raw talent, and a good ear and voice for narrative and voice over work.
While I only have specifically 3-6 months of work into getting myself set up for narration, I have had years of training my voice due to singing and ongoing speaking practice.
I've done no training in voice over work officially. I have had to work on the fly, and do narration work for practice in the last 3-6 months, and have done singing training to strengthen and modulate my voice. My voice is trained, but I have not done much voice over work as of October 2013.
I have a small, home-made studio. My recording equipment is an AT2020 condenser microphone, a US-122 Audio interface, and I use audacity for all my editing and noise cancelling headphones to assist. The studio structure itself is a sectioned off portion of a bedroom, padding all around the sectioned area with clothes and roof insulation. The ground has carpet to deaden the sound, and the general area I live in is also very quiet.
I've been singing all my life, and have a good pitch, and musical ear. I often work on my voice to get certain sounds right, if I don't think I'm ready to showcase it, I won't, however, people have liked my voice acting on an unprofessional level. I have done several reads of different writing styles, from amateur to professional, and know how much easier the latter is to narrate.
I've also been in customer service for 5 years, I often get remarks about how well I treat the customers, from the customers themselves.