Laura Schreiber

They Day We Met

It all began last June 2017, one scorching hot day in Las Vegas. I stepped off a flight from San Diego, it was over 120 degrees in Vegas, and before going to the WOVO conference (professional organization of voiceover talent), I had to go record three commercials that I had booked at Adrenaline Studios. I have never spent much time off the strip and despite the oppressive heat I was really excited to see some more of Las Vegas.

I was extremely thankful that Dustin Ebaugh and Dave Courvoissier had made arrangements for WoVo members to record at Adrenaline. Since I had just been at an eLearning Guild conference in San Diego, and I knew I had access to a professional studio in Vegas, I had decided to leave my travel rig at home. When I got there I was greeted by the engineer I was going to work with, Brandon Perry. I also immediately saw other WoVo folks who had had bookings, including Liz DeNesnera and Brad Venable. I was delighted to be a part of the professional community. Brandon took me to the studio to get started. And there, there is where it happened.

First I noticed the Neumann mic. It was not the TLM 103 that I have at home, but they assured me I would sound great and my clients would be happy. Then I saw the Avalon 737. I asked Brandon about it and he showed me how it worked. I asked him if he thought I could handle this preamp on my own and he said absolutely. If you are not familiar with this equipment, your mic goes into the preamp and your preamp goes into an interface which converts the analog signal to a digital one that your computer can read, and then the interface plugs into your computer. The Avalon is a high voltage preamp and it has a very sensitive gain and an amazing filter.

In that moment I set my sites on the Avalon. I had not read anything about it yet, but I knew I was going to begin saving for one. That night I started researching the Avalon and I was pleased to learn that the M5, a smaller version of the one I had seen, existed and would suit my needs perfectly.

So, Why Does Our Equipment Matter?

You might be thinking, is this more than just a pretty box? There are lots of preamps, what’s the big deal. Well, a LOT goes into a successful voiceover career. There are plenty of talented folks and a lot of people with lovely voices. Our job is about so much more than the voice. We must have good technique and constantly be working on our craft. But more than that, we are only as god as we sound and that is entirely dependent on our studio quality!

A lot goes in to setting up a studio. I worked with two different engineers to set up mine. I worked with “Uncle” Roy Yokelson from Antland Productions and George Whittam, and then as I can afford to I have made substantial upgrades so that my equipment is what is expected for network jobs. Put simply, you will never book the high end campaigns if you do not have the good equipment behind you. On a philosophical level, you are not willing to invest in yourself and your studio, the folks who cast you will not have confidence that you are the right choice for their projects.

Next, the more your learn about gear as you advance in your career, you simply cannot bear the thought of not owning it and working with it. Our ears are trained to hear the nuances in our voice and our work. Once we hear it one way, we want to be able to provide that to our clients every single day. It isn’t as simple as saying that there is one right microphone or one right pre-amp, but it is as simple as saying that once you learn to do something better you want to do it that way from that moment on.

The Joy of the M5

The day that my Avalon M5 finally came home, I must admit I was both excited and nervous about hooking it up. My first delight was that I could actually assemble the equipment without incident. Immediately I was pleased with the sound! I had two big eLearning projects and was so excited that I could test it out on those jobs.

I also posted with glee on Facebook. To my surprise, so many highly esteemed voiceover talents posted about how much they love their Avalon M5s! Randy Thomas remarked about how great she sounds on it. Jack Daniel talked about how happy his big network clients are with his Avalon sound. Carson Beck and Tim Tippets engaged in a long thread about the signal chain and the sound. Christian Lanz shared a photo and apparently owns two so that he even has one with him when he is on the road! I have to say, I completely understand why and the only thing better than having one Avalon M5, would be for me to do well enough to have a place at the Jersey shore to put the next one in! A girl can dream….

Professional Voiceover Actress, Mom, Chef, What Day is it?

In my previous life as a History teacher, one of my student’s mom’s wrote a book called I Don’t Know How She Does It. This is the story of the modern women, trying to balance it all: work, home life, friends- and do it all well. That’s the thing for me, I’ve blogged before about being a perfectionist, and there is not an on/off switch for that either. When that book came out, I was a newly wed with a young husband and a puppy. I myself had boundless energy. Now, as a full time professional voiceover talent, a working mom, a wife- I now find myself trying to do it all. Momtrepreneur seems to some it all up. I am so proud of both the family that I have built and of the business that I have built, but how can one be both so proud and so tired at once? Work. Kids. Cooking. Laundry. So many countless tasks. Every. Single. Day. The words that come to mind: coffee, please?

What I can Count On

As a working mom, the consistency of my daily routine helps. Both as a mom and as a voice over actress, there are certain aspects of my day to day life that I can count on. From our morning breakfast and lunch packing routine with my twins to our after school routine and sports, knowing what to expect at a given time of the day is extremely helpful. As I work from home, I am typically the parent to get my children to school and to their activities in the evening. I also cherish that being a solopreneur gives me the opportunity to attend school events like science fairs and poetry readings. My kids seem to be growing up so fast and I cherish every single moment.

Another blessing that I can count on as a working mom is the support of my children. The twins are truly amazing. They have always had chores like making their beds and putting away their laundry. As they have gotten bigger, they have taken on even more around the house. From unloading the dishwasher to walking the dog, they are innately helpful and they do a lot of little things. Those little things all add up. I think I am most proud that the kids are innately helpful and seem to have a sense that we are all in this together. The truth is each and every contribution from them makes a profound difference in the way our family functions and I am quite grateful.

Lastly, my husband makes the balance between work and home life bearable. For years I was with the kids full time and asked little of Harlan besides taking out the trash. When I went back to work as a professional voiceover talent, everything changed. Harlan started helping in every way. From taking care of dinner on nights that I am still working to driving the kids when I am tied up in the studio, Harlan not only stepped up, he did so as if he had nothing else going on. My husband is an attorney and commutes to New York City every day, so it is not exactly like he leads a life of leisure. When I have had to travel for work Harlan takes over completely and runs the show. Knowing that he has my back means everything.

The Challenges

While some parts of my life as a working mom have fallen into place, there are some big challenges to be sure! First, work often comes in at odd hours as I often wok with video production companies and advertising agencies both across the country and internationally. For example, just last week I was in my room watching tv with the twins as we often do before bed. I love spending time with them at night and talking about our day. At 9:15 I got a call from a new client in California who I had auditioned for earlier that day. At the snap of a finger I needed to leave my kids, the coziness was totally interrupted, and off I went to go record a new sizzle reel. I was thrilled to book the work, but leaving my kids tugged at my heart.

This often happens when I try to take a vacation too. As a voiceover talent, I always travel with my travel rig. Sometimes work comes in when we are out having quality time. Whether the work is for a well-etablished client or a new client it doesn’t much matter, keeping clients happy is a top priority. The problem is, turning off the AC, hi-jacking all the pillows to build my pillow fort, and silencing my family who I have just dragged back to the room is often not appreciated. The exception to this is when it’s a super cool job and they are impressed by the client! Then they are totally fine and seem to mind a little bit less.

Even though I love my voiceover work, and people who talk about sprawl clearly have friends in my industry, being a mom is not actually something I want to turn off or escape from, ever. So, if there is something at the school or if my kids are sick, when it comes down to it, that comes first. Always. And once that choice has been made, everything else falls into place. It is not always so neat or easy, but it does.

What keeps me going

Setting a good example for me kids means a lot to me. Even before I started my studio and began pursuing voiceover, I tried hard to make good choices throughout the day every day. I only get to do this once and I don’t want to screw them up.

Even though I often feel that I am being pulled in a million directions, the truth is that kids are expensive and I want to be able to live a certain life with them. The difference between a hobby and a job is that I am rather aggressively pursuing an income day in and day out. I have a great passion for what I do, and this passion fuels the work, but I do it to earn a living.

I also chose voiceover quite intentionally because of the proximity it gives me. I can be in the booth and the twins can be just outside. Emma can be doing arts and crafts and Jack might be playing foos ball or video games. Or they might be upstairs doing homework. The point is, I am near by and there for them when they need me. I don’t have FOMO of my family and I don’t have the exhaustion of a commute because the studio that I built is right at home. This enables me to better savor my time with the kids. What else can a momtrepreneur ask for?

Laughing at myself

With all the hats I wear, a healthy sense of humor helps a lot. I couldn’t do my job as a professional voice talent if I couldn’t laugh at myself, and I think it is fair to say the same for motherhood too. Late last night, sometime between 2 am and 5:30, I went to the bathroom, as many of us post c-section moms need to do. Last night, however, I glanced in the mirror. My hair made flock of seagulls look tame. My pjs were a mess. Even though I had been sleeping I looked exhausted and drained. It made me think if a silly statue/sculpture my mom had on her night table when I was growing up. My dad had gotten it for her and it had a beleaguered mom with the caption, “Insanity is inherited, you get it from your kids.”

It’s not about the voice, or is it?
Any voice over professional will tell you that at the end of the day our job is not simply about the voice, it’s about so much more. This week, I find myself inspired by so many experiences and so much of what I’ve read and consequently I I have a lot floating around in my head. That sounds funny but I do. In this blog post, I want to reconcile, or tie together three seemingly separate things that I keep thinking about: my father’s recent trial in the third circuit court in Pennsylvania, the WoVo slogan, and Abby Wambach’s speech at Barnard’s commencement. What is the unifying element in all of these three things: being the voice of those who would otherwise not be heard, which as a voiceover professional, is my raison d’etre.

The tie that binds
As a gal who found her passion, or one of her passions but for sure her career, rather late in life, I strongly identify with the slogan of WoVo (World Voices Organization): we speak for those who speak for a living. As a creative, it is a joy to work in such a wonderful field, but to be able to use my voice to actually help others is actually the icing on the cake. My very first job in voiceover was a narration for a women’s mental health clinic in Islamabad, Pakistan. The script was heart wrenching and the video was quite poignant. Besides that it articulated the differences between my life and the lives of the women that I was speaking up for, this was likely the only chance that I would even have to impact these women in any way. Having studied the economics of women in less developed countries in college, this project meant so much to me.

More recently, I did a project for a Women’s shelter and that project touched me the same way. That video was about breaking the cycle of abuse in the lives of children who were exposed. As a professional narrator, it was my task to maintain an upbeat tone through out, but it was a challenge with such touching copy. The video can be seen here.

I asked some other professional female voiceover talents to talk about how they use their voice to help others. My close friend Kim Handysides says: “I try to think of every job as helping someone with my voice. Whether it’s talking about a product or service that might help make someone’s life better, teaching someone something or lightening their day with humor or entertainment. Once in a while, I get asked to do pro bono VO. And I pretty much always agree. It’s one of the ways I give back. A couple of years ago Simentel approached me to help them with a campaign for Easterseals. It inspired me to make charitable voiceover part of my regular value proposition. I now have a Giving website page under my Services section showing people how they can access me to help them with their pro bono campaigns. It also inspired me to donate 1% of the money I make in voiceover toward my own favorite charitable campaign #kissipfgoodbye.”

I also spoke to my dear friend Shelley Avellino. Shelley says, “I try and do a lot to inform people about research and how to cope with Cancer as much as I can. All the medical e-learning I do is cancer related.” One video Shelley narrated is quite informative and can be seen here. Another video which Shelley is particularly proud of is one that helps children support their siblings who have cancer. This is extremely meaningful to me as my husband’s sister had leukemia when they were growing up and it effected him profoundly. Shelley’s touching video can be found here.

Why does it matter so much to me?
Besides that I am a mom and I came to voiceover from a career in education, I think that my father’s career has set such a precedent in my family that helping others is essential to my daily life. My father, Mike Levin, is an attorney in Pennsylvania. He has a unique practice representing school districts all over the state. Recently, he had the opportunity to defend Boyertown Area School district in a landmark case both in District Court and in the Third Circuit, at the same time working with the ACLU to protect the rights of the LGBTQ community and specifically of transgendered students. This case is just one example of a 40 plus year career of such amazing acts, but at a time when so many of our rights are in question and the current administration is taking away so many of our protections, the third circuits unanimous decision to protect the transgendered students right to use the bathroom and locker room with which the identify was extremely important. Seeing my father argue on their behalf, hearing his eloquence and listening to him flesh out both the laws and the Supreme Court precedents, I could not have been more proud of my father’s intelligence, ability, and expertise. More than that, I was overwhelmed with the sense that it seemed like he was meant to be there as he argued for their rights, as if that was the path he was supposed to be on in life, speaking out for the rights of this marginalized group. I admire my father for so many reasons, and if I have my verbal ability from him, then I am glad that in some small way through my voiceover career I too can help others.

Be the wolf…
I also feel that so much of what I feel compelled to do every single day, is of course, for my children, Emma and Jack. Unequivocally one of the best things that I have read recently is the speech that Abby Wambach made at a Barnard (yes, my Alma Mater) commencement. If you haven’t read it, you must take time to watch it. Wambach talks about how she spent so much of her life being little red riding hood, until she finally realized she needed to be the wolf.

Let me tell you, so did I. It took me entirely too long to have a fire in my belly and once I did there was no putting it out. Every single day I am relentless and I think for me what has made all the difference, what has given me the fuel to fight for and be the wolf as Wambach says and rise up as my father has done for years, is my children. Frankly they deserve nothing less. Wambach also talks about using fear as your fuel.

As a mother, I constantly hear Janis Joplin’s words from Bobby McGee ringing in my head “Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose” and that fear burns like an inferno in me every day. Maybe that is the same thing fueling my father? The fear of not speaking. Perhaps this is true for others in voiceover too: once we open our mouths to help others, how on earth can we bear it to stop?

So you have a phone message system and instead of having your assistant record your greeting you have decided to use a professional voiceover talent for your greeting, on hold messages, and the rest of your phone tree system. Fantastic! This can be so much fun. Fun? That’s right, that’s what I said, and this is from a gal who does a lot of commercial and radio imaging work. Some of the most clever and snarky scripts I have voiced have been for phone systems, so put on your thinking caps because it is time to get creative!

When hiring a professional voiceover talent for your next telephony job, there is a lot to think about! You want the voice that you select to work in concert with everything else that you identify with your brand. If your brand is warm and welcoming, do not choose a voice that is aloof and mechanical. Instead, select a voice that through its vocal attributes matches the characteristics of your brand. If you want someone to sound welcoming and gracious, they should have representative spots on their telephony or IVR demo. If you are looking for someone to have a corporate and professional sound, they should have samples of that as well.

Casting a multi-faceted talent for your phone stem

There are many advantage to choosing a professional voiceover talent who displays a broad range of skills on her or his demo. For example, if that talent can sound like a conversational millennial, you will be casting a very broad net for potential callers. That talent might be a very safe choice.

If that same talent can also have a more serious, corporate tone to appeal to Baby Boomers and or sophisticated and luxury brands, then you are casting an even broader net with your one voice. It is quite common that all you have to do is request what you are looking for, and your voiceover talent will be able to accommodate multiple styles for you.

Another opportunity for brand awareness

A lot of clients that I have worked with use both their greetings and their on hold messages as a valuable opportunity to promote their brand. For example, I do a lot of on hold messages for Whole Foods markets, particularly the ones in California and Arizona. They use these messages as an opportunity to talk about specials coming up that are related to seasonal changes and approaching holidays. Another company that I do telephony for is called Coastal Business Supply. They use their messages to let folks know about trade shows they will be at and about promotions they are running. They are also using their messages to raise awareness about the quality of their products. INSERT CONCLUSION ABOUT THIS

I think all of the companies that I do telephony for have one common characteristic: their scripts are extremely well written and entertaining. Just like in other forms of advertising, this allows the spot to get the attention of your listener, in this case a client, customer, patient, or colleague, right off the bat. In our new culture of 6 second ads, the fist few seconds of communication are even more vital than ever before and as the voiceover for a Telephony spot, we need to use this opportunity to draw in the person on the other end of the phone.

So, when considering talents for your next telephony spot, you really want to hire a professional voiceover talent who will imprint the message of your brand effectively. The voiceover for a telephony job is as much a part of the advertising team as the commercial voice or the narrator on your website. It all needs to be cohesive and flow together as one unit. Even better when the telephony voice is so excellent that you are giving your caller an audio experience that they enjoy, and not just have to persevere through.

The next time you case a voice for your phone system, think about a person you would most like to hear on the other end of the phone and cast that voice. If you imagine an actual person and not just a set of adjectives that describe a voice, you are far more likely to connect that person with your brand, and then the character that you are really seeking will come into place.

What is the goal of telephony voiceover casting?

When you cast a voice for your phone system, the point is not simply to get people who want to reach you on the phone. If it were you would not spend so much time thinking about branding and the qualities that you want. The actual goal of telephony is to get the people who call to want to work with you. You want them to enjoy the call so much that they are delighted and not pulling their hair out when they come on the line. So please, when casting your next voiceover talent for a phone job, think about what kind of greeting in person makes you feel most welcome and then try to emulate all of that within your phone system.

I admit that this may date me a bit, but as a little girl in the 80s’, one of my favorite parts of the week was watching the Golden Girls on Saturday nights with my sister. Sometimes we watched with our Mommom (that’s Philly speak for Grandma), but typically our parents were out to dinner and our time with Sophia, Blanche, Dorothy, and Rose was the highlight of our evening! When I reminisce about the time spent watching Golden Girls, it’s hard to separate the actors from the parts that they played as we both identified with these characters and adored them.

Building Strong Characters

Now, as a professional voiceover talent, I not only remember the show with nostalgia, but I am inspired by the work as these actresses set the bar high in terms of talent. First, as characters, the savvy and quick-witted women of Miami serve as archetypes of characters. As a character voiceover actress, thinking about what each of these women and their lives represent on a higher level is as meaningful now as it was to me as a child. While I learned so much about life, love, and romance from them then, now I also appreciate what they represent in a new light. For example, Dorothy has dead-pan, stoic sense of humor, strength, and wisdom. But, at the same, time she can also be a martyr and a know-it-all. The way Bea Arthur used her timing and in a single glance could say a thousand words- it was pure brilliance.

As a voiceover talent, it isn’t just their comedic timing that I appreciate, and I really think these actresses nailed it every time, but I also love the word emphasis. Rose’s character is particularly charming. I love the way Betty White delivered the “foreign” words from St. Olaf, Minnesota. She does so with such charm and panache is if they just role off the tongue, and as someone who speaks for a living I can assure you that vertunkenflunken does not just roll off the tongue. As a character actress, I think it isn’t just Rose’s delightful sweet side, her innocent kindness, or her determination to help other’s that I admire in terms of how the character was written, but I think that I really connected with Betty White’s delivery because dialects are so difficult to master and her pacing and word emphasis was always flawless. The result was a lovable and endearing character.

Female Characters that Set the Bar So High!

Understanding the subtext seems to be part of the essence of what these actresses do best. When Sophia starts a sentence with “Picture it, Sicily….” it isn’t just that we know what’s coming, it’s that we know that something so much bigger than what she is really saying is coming. As a professional voiceover talent, understanding subtext is a part of every single read, and the craft of delivering it without the audience even noticing is a brilliant gift that happens throughout each episode of Golden Girls.

Another reason that these actresses give the rest of us so much to live up to is the emotional depth that they build within each character. Perhaps we feel this because Rose, Blanche, Dorothy, and Sophia do not just exist as individuals, but they have a group identity that we relate to as well. In my life I have had the priviledge not just of having my sister who I am exceptionally close with and speak to constantly every day and share everything with, but I am also blessed to have very close girl friends. My girl friends are amazing, smart women and on my best days and on my worst days I am so thankful that they are there. In Golden Girls, we see this aspect too. What would Blanche be without Dorothy in her life? Sophia doesn’t just need Dorothy, but she needs Rose and Blanche too. The symbiotic relationship that exists is quite special but is also quite realistic. The actresses who built these characters had so much chemistry.

What’s the takeaway for voiceover?

So how do I bring all of the richness that these brilliant actresses spent years developing in their multi-faceted characters and take that into something that can help me with me and my work?

• First, when I get a script, I always spend so much time thinking about the information that my client has given me and what they are looking for in terms of the read.
• Next, since it is not stage acting and I am not typically in the presence of the other voice actors, I really do need to think about the relationships and how this character fits in. I need to develop the character not just as a voice, but a full fledged being, so that when I step in front of the mic, that presence comes out of me, and with it is a suggestive wink like Dorothy or a flirtatious shake of the hip like Blanche, everyone hears it in my voice.

There are some things you can never get enough of, chocolate for one, and a great program like the Golden Girls!