Marketing/Branding

Scheduling Tips to Book Like a Pro

October 15, 2024 by Laura Schreiber

Having a Schedule Matters

As full time, professional voice actors, it can often seem like there is not enough time in the day. I can’t tell you how often my to do list carries over from one day to the next, with priority given to booked work, live sessions, and coaching students. There is always a difference between what has to be done and what can wait, and essential items like booked work typically can never wait. Some might say to higher a VA, but as someone who has never had great luck with a VA, I am always striving to improve my time management skills. Over the years the have improved. My children have also gotten older. The combination has enabled me to improve my scheduling so that I can book more work. Here are some scheduling tips to help you book more work:

Google Calendar

I switched to google calendar a few years back and this was life changing. This enabled my calendar to sink on all my devices all the time, everyone. It has several features that I love:

I love that I can block out chunks of time in different color
I love that when I am going somewhere (like a VO conference) I can add locations and ticket attachments as a PDF. For those of us juggling way to many balls this is amazing
I love that I can send calendar invites to guests also sharing an event.
I love that it integrates seamlessly with other apps like Apollo, Evernote, and Calendly!
I love that if an event or task changes it is easy to edit.

Calendly

Calnedly client Dashboard — This is what clients see when they log into Calendly,

Years ago I decided I needed to make my scheduling life easier, and Calendly was the answer to all of my prayers. Are you ever tired of the constant back and forth about when to schedule a zoom and how to accommodate your clients or industry friends? I sure was? Calendly put an instant end to all of that. Different types of calls and zooms are available. I have it as a drop down tab on my website. If someone needs to change a time, no problem, they go back in and reschedule. The best part of all is that this syncs seamlessly with Google Calendar which of course syncs with all my various devices.

Calendly User dashboard — This is what I see as the user when I log in. Notice all the functionality options at the left to set my settings.

Without Calendly, I would almost certainly need a VA to schedule my appointments at this point in my career. I simply do not have time for the back and forth conversations and to coordinate between coaching students and voice over clients. Often peoples’ schedules change. I also do not have time to have repeated conversations about the same session. Calendly makes all of this seamless.

Let’s say you never want to work Thursday afternoons because you have a prior commitment. No problem, so set that up in your availability settings. Perhaps your accountability group meets every Wednesday night. That’s fine too, just block the time. Calendly let’s you make yourself available when you are and carve out the time when you are not and you no longer have to explain it!

Planoly

I confess I have a love/hate relationship with Planoly. Her my many years in business, sometimes I am super focussed on it, sometimes I can’t bear to use it, and I think it simply depends on how much I have to say, how much is happening in my personal life, and how much is happening in the studio. With that caveat aside, Planoly allows you to pre-plan and line up your social media posts on sites like Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, and X. You can line them up a month (or more, I think) in advance and they will automatically post for you. You can even pre-plan stories, which I find to be mind-blowing.

There are several pros to this. Planoly allows you to sit down in one fell swoop and make sure, in just a few hours, that posts will happen and you will indeed have a social media presence. Whether you do it or a VA does it, it will get done and those posts will go up! You will have a chance to build great branded content and can cleverly weave themes throughout which is quite nice.

There are cons as well with Planoly. Let’s say there is a natural disaster or terrible, tragic event, whether it be in your personal life or on a national scale. But now, you have used Planoly, and regardless of what is going on in the world, you have a post going up at 3:10 PM on all fronts that is all glitter and hearts. This may not be idea. It may go with your brand but yikes, it may be all kinds of wrong. You need to make sure that wherever you are in the world you can stop or block such.a post in the event of an unforeseen emergency.

Paper Lists

Weekly Planner — I am obsessed with this weekly planner!

Yes, I confess, I am still a woman of a certain age and even though I could do it all with Google tasks and phone apps, there is something about having a paper list and seeing it in front of me. I confess I use several different paper items because I love them so much. I use a paper weekly planner for on-going brain storming so my ideas don’t get lost, I use 3 x 5 cards because I love the size and feel, and I use paper “to do” lists because a girl who has a love of lists can never have too many lists. I’m not kidding, I actually love the paper products and I make no apologies for it.

Hiccups

Nothing is perfect. In VO, a lot of my work books very last minute. Many of my commercials which require Source Connect sessions come in same day and then require that something be moved. It just happens. The other problem is that I am, at the end of the day a human and a working mom and I mess up. Sometimes I schedule everything I’m doing on google for the 1st of the month and then nothing gets blocked an I am double booked. That really stinks. Try not to do that! It is apparently google’s default. I also apparently often put actual religious holidays on the wrong day. I am Jewish and observe a lot of holidays, especially in the fall. We actually go to synagogue, so I cannot take bookings those days, and this year I accidentally left the second day of Rosh Hashanah open. Oops! Basically, you can make mistakes with all of this and the only way to catch it is to inconvenience people and it is very, very annoying. Some people will be kind and others will make snide remarks.

Lessons

Over the years I have learned that trying things and learning from other industry friends is generally a help! Be adventurous, test things out, and see what works for you! You will have opinions and will like some things and really dislike other things, but you won’t know until you try.

VO Sales Funnel Fail

July 18, 2022 by Laura Schreiber

How Something That Seemed So Right Could Go So Wrong

When I first heard about the sales funnel for voice over, I was elated. Basically, their funnel drew me in and it worked instantly. I had several thoughts. First, I loved the idea of paying less for pay to plays. I thought by starting a funnel I could change my pay to play strategy. To be clear, I do not think there is a voice over reality in which pay to plays cease to exist, I simply wanted to be less dependent on them. Next, I loved the idea of positioning myself to be found by the people who were hiring me. In all my years as a full-time actor, I spend A LOT of time doing direct marketing, and we all know this can be a craps shoot, a big roll of the dice. The sales funnel was appealing because I had hoped that through the marketing expertise of the folks I hired the people who needed me would find me and I could focus on what I love to do most, recording and coaching. It sounds great, right?

Perhaps I was also very willing to try because I very much liked and trusted the team I was working with. Rob is very well-known in the industry for his legal expertise and his daughter Mary seems quite savvy. I have put my own kids to work for me in the past and I loved that it was a father-daughter team and their vibe was great. I felt like we could make magic together.

Maybe I Jumped the Gun

In retrospect, Rob and Mary’s sample size at the time that I worked with them was NOT big enough. They had great success with ONE other voice talent who made back his investment in the first month. One. They also had their funnel running to draw in voice over actors and coaches like me, and it worked. Rob told me repeatedly that he had to turn the funnel off within days of running and as he was so booked and the he would have to do the same for me. Perhaps I should have waited until they had worked with more of these other talents to see what their results were before signing on for a three month deal. Or perhaps I should have opted for their one month option. I can say with certainty that signing up for a three month sales funnel with only one person prior was based on a lot of optimism and not a lot of numbers and I have never before in my business career made a snap decision like that.

So you must be wondering how a gal who has made spreadsheets for every single choice in her career, from who to do demos with to which microphone to buy, could make this choice so capriciously? One propelling factor was the lofty financial goal that Rob had set for the funnel. It was so high that I would have covered my daughter’s college tuition in one month, and my son’s by month four. When I heard the numbers, I felt determined to try. Who could pass this up if I could really earn that much from the funnel? I do, after all, have goals that I am determined to reach and this funnel sure sounded like a quick fix.

My Actual Experience

While working with Rob and Mary was as expected in terms of their bed-side manner, and they were responsive and kind, Rob over-promised and under-delivered in terms of the result of the funnel. It was actually shocking. We would look at the same numbers, and they would have a completely different analysis of them. Keep in mind the funnel was supposed to bring in dream clients with large budgets. It was supposed to weed out the undesirables. This was NOT my experience. My experience with the opposite. My dream clients were no where to be found. I had multiple people sign up for calls and not show up. I sent follow up emails and texts to those no-shows. After several weeks I had THREE total calls. One lady thought it was a job interview. One call was actually someone who was interested but did not move forward. The third was a man who had been on unemployed and just took a job as a janitor. He had a very limited budget and knew nothing about voice over and it seemed exploitative to even be talking to him.

Sadly, the funnel was not achieving its goals. It was disappointing. Rob, Mary, and I had a different perspective on how the funnel was working. We parted ways and I was thankful for the funnel to end. I lost both money and time.

I know another long-time VoiceOver professional and coach who started a funnel just after I did. Instead of directing her funnel toward coaching clients, she was going after automotive clients and attempting to market her automotive demo. Like me, she also stopped her funnel and parted ways with the team.

Final Thoughts

The most established member of our accountability group, Kim, has long cautioned that the VO community is always looking for “the next big thing”, and when it comes out we all jump on the band wagon. This happens every few years. It happened with voiceovers.com. I think, in the end, the sales funnel was like that for me. I was looking for the magic bullet, a quick fix. Instead I learned a lesson about listening to those who have been around and seen more. Next time I will slow down and wait for the hard data.

Talking Instagram Reels with Jonathan Tilley!

February 8, 2022 by Laura Schreiber

The Guru’s Advice on Instagram Reels

Sometimes the stars just aline and you are graced with the presence of brilliance. On Friday, fellow VO coach Diana Birdsall and I were lucky to have the amazing voice actor and personal brand strategist Jonathan Tilley in our Clubhouse room. Many know Jonathan from both his courses League of List Builder at nd My Content Calendar, and if you don’t know Jonathan you should. He is both a generous soul who gives his best to help everyone he talks to and a creative genius. From voice actors to models to photographers, working creatives who know Mr. Tilley simply do better! Jonathan himself uses Instagram Reels and was able to book $12,000.00 in new business from one Reel, and if he can do it, so can we! So, if you missed our Clubhouse or if we covered so much you couldn’t get it all down, here are some of my notes on what was covered:

Why Did Instagram Shift to Reels?

We started our chat on this topic. If you think Reels are brand new, they aren’t. This shift actually came in the summer of 2020. The folks at Instagram saw how popular TikTok was. There used to be IGTV. As Reels came into the picture, that went away.

Some of the Best Features on Reels

Jonathan enlightened us to some features that take reels to another level. He loves the timer. The timer allows you to set the button and have 3-10 seconds to wait before filming starts. Jonathan suggests using the 10-second option so that you are tulle camera ready at the start. Next, Jonathan loves the speed settings. He talked about how using 2x can just add a little more energy to your reel. Jonathan also chatted about aligning and how taking the time to align your reels really takes them to the next level.

Should We Be Sharing Our Posts Across Platforms?

Put simply, no. Jonathan explains that just like you don’t go to Tokyo for croissants and to Paris for sushi, do not create your reels on TikTok simply because crossposting is an option. While he hates playing to the algorithm. The algorithm prefers content produced within the app.

What is the Difference Between Videos and Reels?

If you’re like me, you might be surprised to know that there are still BOTH videos and reels!! A reel is a sub-genre of a video. As mentioned before, IGTV, which was the YouTube of Instagram, is gone now. Videos are vertical. Reels do have certain characteristics:

They use trending audio
They are fast
There is no introduction
This is your chance to bring your own style/authenticity

One of our Clubhouse attendees, Jen Greenfield, made the insightful comment that current TV commercials are actually using both trending audio and dances from Reels, so being savvy to these nuances is important to understanding current advertising trends.

The Deal With Hashtags

I learned so much from Jonathan’s discussion about hashtags. He explained that early in 2021 we were allotted 30 hashtags. Then it changed to 8-15 in the Spring of 2021. Then, it shifted again! First, I had no idea that if you use a hashtag in your stories, it is only seen or reached by those who follow you, so it in no way increases your following. Next, in general, in your Reels, Jonathan suggests using three to five hashtags. He personally always includes his name amongst them. Beyond that, he said it is no longer necessary. I can share that in the 10 days that I have been posting reels, I have increased my reach by more than 400% and I am rarely using hashtags. As Jonathan says, it is more important to create good content.

Do You Need Full Makeup for Instagram Reels?

Jonathan said 50% of your Reels should be show stopping. For me, I am more likely to be show stopping when my hair and makeup is done than when I am in my gym clothes. He also emphasized that it is important to show up, have fun, and be yourself.

How Do We Keep Up With current Trends?

Jonathan said it is most important to learn the 5 steps to Reels. Finding and saving trending audio is essential. Aligning is key. Knowing how to edit your Reel matters. Post them from the app without stickers. Once you have mastered the 5 steps, play and have fun! Jonathan says find your own style. Consider creating a series.

Does the Position of Instagram Reels Matter?

The position matters very much. Jonathan says we all need to stop putting that camera way up above our heads. Whatever we think it is doing, it’s not doing that. Instead the phone needs to be parallel to the back wall and we really just need our head and shoulders. Jonathan also suggests that if you have good light by a window this is always wonderful.

When Is it Time to Submit to A Voice Over Agent?

February 6, 2022 by Laura Schreiber

How Do you Know When You Are Ready?

So you’ve been working really hard to build your voice over career. You’ve been working with coaches, you’re on pay to plays, you’ve been doing some direct marketing, but now you feel that your moment has come! You want to make your bold move: it’s time for a voice over agent! But how do you get one? Well, before you begin your official outreach, it’s important to make sure you have positioned yourself for success. What does having an agent really mean? Having an agent really means access to increased opportunities, and you want to maximize this potential. Here are some key considerations when preparing to market ourself to an agent.

https://youtu.be/WPfIhiiG5Cc

Demos Are Done…

You want to begin the agent outreach process once your commercial demo and any others that you are seeking representation for are complete. If you intend to work with an agent, and go after the more lucrative work, it is imperative to understand you cannot produce your demo on your own. Having top notch demos that compete and represent current industry trends is essential. Your demos should be ready to go before you begin marketing to agents.

Website is Up

Your website is your virtual storefront. It established your personal brand and why you are unique from other voice over actors. You should not start to market your self to voice over agents until your website is up. By “up” I mean fully operational. I do have a website planning guide under my “free resources,” but you need to make sure that you have downloadable demos and an easy to find contact page at the very least.

Source Connect is ALREADY SET UP

Most agents require you to have the PAID version of Source Connect in order to sign you. You might be thinking, oh, well, I’ll just tell them I have it and then when I book work I’ll add it. I strongly advise against this. When you get Source Connect, you have to have something done called getting your ports mapped. It is done through a service call on their end. You basically schedule the call, download software, give them remote access to your computer, and they map the ports to your router. It must be done from their end to your end, and it must be set up. Sometimes support appointments are harder to get than others, so it is really important to have Source Connect up and running. The other important detail is that once your ports are mapped, they are mapped to a specific location. So my ports are mapped to the iMac in my studio. If I were going out of town, and needed remote access, I would need to have my ports re-mapped to my MacBook Air. The other alternative is to rent studio space. Why does this matter? Reputable agents expect you to have Source Connect up and running so that if you book a gig with them they can schedule you anytime at the clients convenience.

What Should You Say?

It’s best to keep things short and sweet. Tell the agents who you are, why you are reaching out, and why you are qualified. Attach your VO Resume and appropriate demos. Give them your contact info. That’s it. You can follow up a week later to confirm they got it and then based on what they say decide how often to reply.

International Agents

While it is great to have regional representation, it is also extremely beneficial to have representation abroad as well. As they often need voices of all demographics and accents, it is in your best interest to reach out throughout Europe, Central America, South America, and Asia. The more opportunity you have, the more exposure you will benefit from.

Keeping In Touch

Sometimes agents are kind enough to reply and tell you that the do not have space on their roster at present but they may in the future. This is a great opportunity. This means there is something about you that they like enough to respond, but it is now your responsibility to check in without stalking them! So, you have to decide how often you will pursue this lead and when it is the right time. Such instances include when you have a stellar booking or a very strong month, if you are nominated or win an award, if your earnings start to rise drastically, and if you have been to a conference and met someone from their team. Any of these reasons are great time to circle back and see if anything at all has changed on their end, and to let them know in a fun and casual way about your great successes. The point is to maintain a relationship and keep the possibilities open.

Remember, in the end, there are no guarantees of success in VoiceOver. Having a VO agent does not need that you have made it. It just gives you access to great opportunities. The most direct and sure way to success in voice over is consistent hard work over an extended period of time.

Turning a VO Booking into a VO Client

October 18, 2021 by Laura Schreiber

So You’ve Booked It!

Congrats, you’re a working voice over actor and you’ve booked a gig. Let’s say its a VO for a commercial, and let’s say for the sake of this blog that you booked this 30 second spot on your favorite pay-to-play. Your stoked not just because we are always pleased with every booking, but because it’s actually a rate you deserve. Yippee. So, how do you take this one-off and turn it into a client that keeps coming back over and over again for years?

The Platform Matters

In general, the platform you are on matters! Some pay-to-plays and even many rosters do not allow you direct interaction with the clients. The client belongs to them, not you. Their goal is for the client to come back to their site, to their platform. You, the paying talent, are only a means to that end. Other pay-to-plays, in contrast, let you interact directly with your client. Do your homework and start booking on those sites. Wouldn’t it be great if the next time the client needed you they just came directly to you, and you did not even need to audition? And wouldn’t it be great if that happened over and over with multiple clients? That’s how you build a business!

Bending Over Backwards

So let’s go back to this client that you’ve booked on this pay to play for a commercial that you can interact directly with. Let’s say this job comes in on a Saturday and it’s a “Rush” job. Do you actually have anything else going on? Did you really need to re-shuffle your life to accommodate them? To me, if the client is already paying a nice rate, I would rather dazzle them with my super fast turn-around time and ease of availability than nickel and dime them. After all, how does it make you feel when you are charged extra for every little thing by a service provider? Instead, make it easy for the client to get exactly what they need as soon as they need it. Do an awesome job right away. Do you know what will happen if you do your job well and quickly? The client will be happy.

Building a Relationship

In the course of your email discourse, try to start getting to know your client. You can start with the basics: ask them how they are and share a tidbit about your day or your week. If you live in a different region, chats about the weather can actually be riveting. I happen to be a working mom, so I love bringing that into the fold. Holidays and birthdays are also great ways to get to know people. Studio pets are also a wonderful conversation starter. Then, when you speak next, circle back to what you already know.

Express Grattitude

Every job matters. Clients have a choice when casting and we are lucky to book what we book. An attitude of gratitude goes a long way. At the very least, send a hand-written thank you card. If you have an international client, send a virtual card. Let them know that you appreciate their business and act as if you are part of their team, because you are! Wish them well when presenting the finished audio, and mention your next collaboration. And in thanks. Sometimes, for larger projects, a thank you gift is appropriate. From agents to project managers to video producers to creative directors, it depends who you are working with and what the project was, but I have sent gifts ranging from Starbucks gift cards to chocolate to giant containers of popcorn.

Keep in Touch

Make sure to maintain a relationship with your clients! You already know they like you, they already cast you once! So, don’t lose contact. Sometimes newsletters are great for reminding them that you are still available. More personal quarterly check-ins are, however, extremely important. You can share a tid-bit of wrk that might be relevant to them as well. You can check out their social media and new content and engage and comment on it. It’s really important to be genuine and actually have something to say, but it’s also important to simple stay top of mind. Your voice many not be perfect for every project, but you don’t want to miss out on a casting simply because the client has forgotten that you exist. Be present. Engage. Be the talent they are thrilled to hear from.

Voice Over Must Haves To Launch

September 19, 2021 by Laura Schreiber

But do I really Need it…

As a voice over coach, I get a lot of questions like “Do I really need…” Or, “Oh, you think I should get…” and I am surprised by how surprised my voice over actor students are when I give them the simple answers. Yes, you do in fact need all of these things to successfully launch your voice over business. So, here is a quick check list of sorts to make it easy to know what is essential for you as a voice over actor and small business owner. Without all of these things, your business simple will not go:

Website

Your voiceover website is your virtual storefront. You need to be found. Last week we had Karin Barth from Voice Actor Websites on talking about all that is essential, but you want to bring potential clients and repeat clients to a place where they can hear you and only you. You want them to hear your demos, your booked work if you have it, and be able to contact you easily. Everything else on your website is gravy. If your website does not exist you as a voice actor do not exist. It’s that simple.

Source Connect

If you are a professional voice over actor in 2021, you need to have Source Connect for your home studio. Many agents send auditions that stipulate that the talents must have Source Connect. Moreover, those same agents will not even sign you without the paid version of Source Connect. Telling them you will get it when work comes in is not sufficient because the folks from Source Connect need to map your ports and you cannot do this yourself. Before you pitch yourself to agents, order Source Connect and get your ports mapped!

Pay to Play Memberships

You need a source of auditions. When you are starting out and have no clients, Pay to Play sites like Voice123, Bodalgo, and Cast Voices are a great way to find and book work. These sites are wonderful because they allow you to turn bookings into clients. There are other platforms that prevent interaction between the end user and the voice actor but still charge a premium for voice over actors to use. I prefer these sites as they allow you to build a rapport with the clients and do not interfere with direct interaction between you and the client. While some in the industry may scoff at paying money to build your business, the truth of the matter is that many in casting still want to present their clients with options, so they still prefer to use these platforms. These platforms have been around for a while and you can find some great clients on them. While I advise being selective with which platforms you go on, I also advise using Pay to Plays to get your business going.

Social Media Presence

At this moment in time, if something happened to you in your voice over career, and you didn’t post about it on social media, then basically it never happened. As professional voice over actors, we are only as strong as our last booking. If people don’t know what is going on and that we are working, then we have no “street credit.” There is no one other than you who can create a buzz around you. It’s your business, and you can either shine amongst the stars when you have something to celebrate or keep it quiet and wilt in the dark of your studio. Between Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn, you can find the platform where you feel most comfortable and most relevant, but you need to put yourself out there. Much like your website, if no one knows you exist, you don’t.

Business Cards

Voice over is an unusual business. Anyone we meet could be a potential client. We are not just cast be casting directors and video producers. Often and accountant or a lawyer that we meet at a dinner party is just as likely to need us for their phone system as a talent agent it. Essentially anyone we meet who has a business can become a client. Believe it or not, other voice actors should be treated as potential clients as the more entrenched you are in the industry, the more we all refer other work to each other. So, make things simple. Have a business card on hand at all times. You never know when someone will be thrilled to meet you and will want to get in touch later. Your business card should include: your name, your best phone number, your email, your website, perhaps your Source Connect info, and perhaps the genres of voice over that you work in.