Voiceover

Fiction Audiobook Narrator Award: Readers Favorite: We Won!!

November 25, 2024 by Laura Schreiber

Winning Silver

While I am still glowing from an incredible weekend at the Readers Favorite awards event celebrating our win of the Silver for the best Fiction Audiobook for the Girl in the Toile Wallpaper by Mary K. Savarese, I figured I would put pen to paper and try to capture the joy of the experience because it really was truly special! When Mary let me know that she had submitted our audiobook and that we won, I was simply elated. We work so hard on these books and put so much of ourselves into them. When you have a passion for what you do, there is simply no other way. Then, to have someone you work with submit is thrilling and to actually have your work recognized and honored amongst such other great talents is extremely meaningful and is not something I take lightly or for granted.

Sharing the Win with Mary

When Mary, the author, informed me that we won for our audiobook I was so excited! She actually lives in Florida and invited me to come down and stay with her to share the win at the Readers Favorite awards ceremony in Miami. I thought about it for about 30 seconds before logging into United Airlines and buying a ticket! As Mary put it, we could attend the weekend festivities together and celebrate as a team. What could be better?

Why it was Meaningful: A Great Collaboration

As I reflect on my experience not just this weekend but in working as the audiobook narrator on the Girl in the Toile Wallpaper in general, this acknowledgment was so meaningful because of the relationship that Mary and I built as professionals collaborating together. Each step of the way we listened to each other, made time for each other, and were responsive to the other’s meaningful feedback. It was the picture of what collaboration should be and the work that resulted was something that we are both so proud of!

The Riders Favorite Experience:

Upon my arrival in Florida, Mary drove us down to Miami for the Book Fair. Readers Favorite had their own tent where all the winning author’s books were for sale for ten dollars and the money was a contribution to St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital! The tent also served as a central gathering place for the Readers Favorite community to stop by and get to know one another and see our books on display. It also happened to be a glorious, sunny day and we all enjoyed our time there.

Mary and I met many of the other authors both at the tent and at the evening “Meet and Greet.” Everyone was so lovely and down to earth. It was thrilling to hear people’s stories and learn about what motivated them to write their stories. Honestly, it was refreshing to not talk politics and that not a single person mentioned AI the entire time! I was thrilled.

A common theme that came up repeatedly over the weekend was not to wait to share or write. If you have something that you want to say or do, do it. It is amazing how many different people said this in different ways. I also was delighted to see how many working moms were inspired to make a difference and set an example for their children. One woman even had her medal put on her son’s neck and shared she would not have had the strength to write without him. It was one of the many touching and poignant moments of the weekend.

Gratitude

In life I always have an attitude of gratitude, but this whole weekend there were so many moments big and small that I appreciate! I was so thankful just to be there. I was so thankful that I recorded the book in the first place. I was so thankful for Mary and her husband Vinny’s hospitality and warmth. I was so thankful to meet so many kind and interesting people. I was so thankful I was able to arrange to go and that my husband could watch our dogs. I was so thankful that in a world with so many super talented narrators our audiobook won!!! I was so thankful that my flights were on time and there was no travel drama. The list goes on and on, but the sum total of all of these little moments is an overall experience that left me filled with joy and with memories to hold onto for years to come!

Next, Mary and I will be collaborating on the next booking her trilogy, the Starwriters Club, in the spring of 2025, so do look out for that!

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.

I Practice What I Preach

October 11, 2024 by Laura Schreiber

Consistency Matters

As a full-time professional voiceover actor and coach, I think one of the reasons my career has continued to thrive and grow through the years is the consistency of my practice. When I work with my VO coaching students on techniques, whether the are voice over acting methods or the practical steps to running a day to day business, I pass on exactly what I practice in my own business. I encourage what I have found to work and hope to foster good habits in students. Conversely, I also share what has not worked in hope of sparing them what I already know not to be helpful. As solopreneurs, we wear so many hats and juggle so many balls. Setting ourselves up for success and holding ourselves accountable makes life much easier. So yes, this many years in, I practice what I preach as a coach and I do as I say in my lessons. Here awesome aspects I focus on regularly as both a professional talent and a coach:

Goals

Goal setting is pivotal to success in voice over. If you don’t know where you want to go, how can you possibly get there? As part of my business plan, I update my goals at least twice a year, if not quarterly. Anyone who has worked with me can tell you I love to help them flesh out there goals and we typically do this early on. When I do my own personal goals, I always post them in my booth and where I like to work upstairs in my house. This helps a lot with mindset. I think everyone has good days and bad, and just knowing your intentions is useful.

Accountability

I have been saying for years that I would not be where I am today without my accountability buddies! We have even presented together at national conferences. At present I am in several accountability groups. My primary one for all of VO is affectionately called “the VO Powerhouse.” We meet weekly and talk about specific touch points and present in order every week. We also chat about our lives. We tend to talk daily on Facebook as well about everything from rates to pronunciation to our families.

I have a mentor for my audiobook work. We meet monthly. This has been extremely helpful in launching that genre of my business. Again, I don’t think you can quite imagine what the possibilities are without being pushed by those who have already gone there.

I am also in an eLearning ensemble. We meet twice a week. We touch base about our marketing goals specifically. This group is great because we push each other and keep our eyes on the horizon.

I always encourage students to find accountability buddies. I personally think that meeting at least once a week is crucial. I think it helps to keep you going and to keep your eye on the ball. I think everyone in VoiceOver should be in one! If you are not and would like to be, you can look at conferences (which is where I met my buddies), Facebook groups, and at local VO meetups.

Craft

As in other professions, voice actors, regardless of how established we are, are never finished working on our craft or technique. And in truth, as industry trends shift, it is extremely important to stay on top of them. Having one on one coaching is still extremely joyful for me, and the last one I worked with at length was Sean Pratt. I love doing online webinars, like Tina Morasco’s library and Dervla Trainor’s Speaker Series. I also love learning at conferences, and conferences are essential both to being part of the community and to staying on trend in VO. While I am often in attendance as a presenter, I try to soak in as much as I can as there are experts across genres from all over the country and often other countries, so if you can afford to go, you should!

Marketing

Just as I encourage my students, having a consistent in-bound and out-bound marketing strategy, staying on top of marketing is crucial to my business plan. From blogs, to social media, to newsletters, all of it matters, both separately and as a whole, to establish my brand. Everyone who knows me knows I can talk endlessly about branding, but in truth, it all matters, a lot, and being consistent not just about posting content, but the quality and quantity of the content matters. It can be daunting to have to post and keep track of all of these moving parts regularly, while staying on top of auditions and recording booked work, but if you want clients to know you exist, it is crucial.

Daily Routine

Having a consistent daily routine and painting a schedule helps to ensure that important “to do” items don’t fall through the cracks. Whether starts with a warm-up, goes to booked work, then auditions, and cleverly weaving social media in, or whether certain days are time blocked for certain tasks, your routine is important. I tend to leave certain days for certain tasks. I also am passionate about healthy living and fitness, so I weave meal prep and pilates into my routine as well. My voice over career would not be where it is today of those items were not part of my schedule. When I work with coaching students, I try to be realistic with them about their schedule. Working moms with young kids have very different demands on them than empty nesters. Still, regardless of the phase of life, routine helps everyone stay on task.

Takeaways

When I coach, I draw from my experience. If I change what I do, I share it so others can benefit. If I find something no longer works, I share that too. I find the best way to coach is to draw from my years of booking and try to help my students build a solid foundation.

Why You Need a Home Studio When You Start with a Coach

June 3, 2024 by Laura Schreiber

Getting Started in Voice Over

When people come to me for voice over coaching, they are at all different point in their VO journey. Sometimes they are quite experience but many are totally new to VoiceOver and are making the bold move to pursue their dreams. Building a strong foundation is extremely important, and my production partner Dave Scott and I work really hard to help our students learn things the right way from the start. Still, whatever regardless of when you plan to do your demos, it is really important to start practicing on an actual microphone with a preamp or interface in a studio setting for several reasons. Here are some thoughts to consider:

Learning Mic Technique

Good microphones are powerful. Whether you are starting out with middle of the road mics like the Rode NT1 or the Cad Equitek E100S, or investing in a more expensive microphone right away like the Neumann TLM 103, these microphones are condenser mics and will pic up all the sound in a large radius around them. You need to learn proper technique to best enhance your sound. Also, technique varies by genre. The way I work with my mic for conversational commercial reads or intimate reads is different. When I do video games I move around a lot and often back away from the mic, especially when I am shouting and doing effects. These are all skills I was taught and worked hard to hone, I did not wake up one day and just know how to do it. It takes time. And you do not want to walk into a studio for a job or worse for a booking and not have the skills necessary to rock that session!

Form Good Habits

Put simply, lessons are expensive. When you pay for a voice over coach or take a voice over class online, you are investing in yourself and your career. Whether it is the time spent with the coach in sessions, the time spent doing your homework in between sessions, or for daily practice, you need to be establishing good habits. You simply cannot do this without the pro equipment. You need to set up your studio so that you can prepare to be a professional. There is only one way to do this and you need to master your technique early on so that it is seamless when you launch your business.

You Might Have Diction Issues

No one in VoiceOver wants to have speech issues. Speech issues that I have had to deal with as a voice over coach range from diction issues, regional accents, articulation issues, plosives, and sibilance. If you only record on your computer and submit, it can be really hard for your coach to pick up some of these, or pick up the severity of some of these. Imagine speeding months coaching, getting ready for demo day, going to a pro-studio, stepping in front of a U87, and your coach hears a major diction issue they never noticed until demo day. What a disaster! This can, however, be easily avoided simply by setting up your professional home studio and working with your coach on real recording equipment.

The other side of this is that you need to become a critical listener of your audio too! You need professional headphones, or cans as we call them, that do not have a filter in them. You can not really hear how you sound without them, and you can not really hear what clients will hear or be listening to without them, so this is essential to your training!

You Need to Practice Recording and Editing

When you are working with a VoiceOver coach, you need to practice recording and editing they way you would when you would submit for an audition or a job. You can only do this if you have a functioning booth with a microphone, preamp or interface, computer with a DAW, and good cans. You need to practice editing your audio every day so that you get used to the ins and outs of your DAW and become efficient at producing pristine audio. Nothing else will suffice in this business. And it does not happen overnight, believe me!

Conclusions

I hope this has helped you better understand why you should not wait to set up your home studio! Timing matters a lot. While budget plays a factor for most people, even with cost in mind we can work with you to help guide your choices as your start to big gear for your home studio. It’s better to have it ready and get going and be well-practiced when your launch your business. For those of you thinking that you might get coaching, do your demos, then build your booth, that is not advisable. Read the blog again and re-think your plan! Now, best of luck in your VO journey!!

Crochet as Metaphor for Making it In Voice Over

May 18, 2024 by Laura Schreiber

Metaphor Between Afghan and VO

Last summer when I was on my voice over retreat with my accountability group, Kim Handysides taught us how to crochet granny squares. I learned to crochet as a little girl and have always loved all needle crafts, but there was something about sitting around

Branded Granny Squares — These are they granny squares Kim helped me start in my brand colors. I am making a tote bag.

with a group of women I was already close with and stiching and talking. It reinvigorated my love of crochet and somehow now linked it to my passion for voice over, so thank you Kim.

Anyway, as a little girl, when I was in second grade, my beloved Mommom Harriet taught me to crochet and knit. We started with crocheting. Her approach to both was the same. She wanted me to get it right. She encouraged me just enough so that I would not give up, and showed me what I was going to make, telling me that I would finish, but as I went along, for any mistake I made, Mommom pulled it out and had me re-do it. When something was nicely done she would say “beautiful work, Laura.” But, if a stitch needed correcting, she would look at it and sho me exactly where the last good stitch was. Then Mommom would pull the stitches out to that last good one, set the needles or hook back, and again I would re-start. Perhaps this is what got me so used to doing multiple takes in VO without flinching?

Well, since last summer, Kim really got me hooked on the granny squares. I decided to do an afghan club where the subscription sends me a kit each month. It is extremely exciting and fulfilling. Every month in the mail I get a package with beautiful yarns and

directions for the squares. At some point it will turn into a blanket. I chose a project called the “Happy Days Afghan.”

The more I work on this project, the more I realize that my approach to it is a rather solid metaphor to my approach to my voice over business. Like crocheting an afghan, our voice over career is a journey giving us multiple opportunities to try, do, and re-do until things look right for us.

How Long We sit With Things

Last month one of my squares turned into a pentagon. I felt fairly confident I had followed the directions flawlessly. I read them over and over. I counted stitches. I looked at the photo. Yet in my hands I held a pentagon, and what I needed was a square. I was not sure what to do. I thought perhaps I would hem it? Clearly any stitcher would no that would really not be okay. After about six weeks, I was looking at it again in dismay and a little bit of disgust. As time went on, my inability to get it right bothered me.

If this were voice over, and I weren’t booking, I would hire a coach or take online classes. I would talk to the gals in my accountability group. I would post on Facebook chats. So why, with the pentagon, was I just sitting there, stumped, paralyzed? When I did seek online help, I knew my stitches were correct, so the flaw was in my perspective, my analysis of the pattern.

Time to Reshape Things

Wanting to fix the pentagon was not about being a perfectionist, I began to realize just like in voiceover, it was about making my blanket what I wanted it to be. I kept hearing my Mommom’s voice in my head, and I got to a point where I just couldn’t leave it as it was. I think what was bothering me was that I had a pattern- a path- a roadmap as it were, and it still went wrong. I did my best and it was not right. So now It was time to re-do it. In VoiceOver, there is no road map for our career- we can build it and change paths, and we can talk to coaches but no one has a crystal ball and much like with my afghan, things can and will go sideways.

So two nights ago feeling the very strong presence of my grandmother I began pulling out stitches. I pulled out until the last good

row, just as she showed me as a little girl. The tricky thing in the square is that the early part of the pattern is round and I had to build corners. Since what I did was very wrong, I had to try something else to make mine look like the photo in the pattern guide. I didn’t rush and I concentrated, and low and behold my pentagon took on a new life as an adorable square.

I had a lot of feelings about this. Much like in my voice over journey, I learned not to rush, its a marathon, not a sprint. I learned to enjoy the journey, because it’s in the doing that a sort of evolution occurs. I could also see that even when someone very specifically tells you how they got to a certain point, that does not mean that you will get to that point using those steps. I think that as both a professional voice actor and a voice over coach, this mattered a lot. Simply, there just is not one right way, or one size that fits all, and you can help people and guide them, but much like my afghan pattern, there are variables. Lastly, there is great joy in discovery. Much like finishing these beautiful squares, learning new genres, working on one’s VO craft, and booking work with new clients or repeat work with cherished ones is quite joyful, and all should be savored.

Mindfulness and Reaching Your VO Goals

April 26, 2024 by Laura Schreiber

Connection Between Mindfulness in all Goals

This month I decided to do a refresh with my amazing nutritionist team, Sugar Snap Shift. My cousin’s wedding is next week and frankly I was nervous about fitting into my dress! While their tips and tricks are under a tight NDA, I started to realize that in addition to feeling better and losing weight, I was actually getting done all of the items on my “To Do” list, something that I confess has not happened for a long time. What I started to realize is that mindfulness in one area, like health, seems to have a trickledown effect into all realms. I know seem to be able to focus much better on reaching my VoiceOver goals, feel like I am making progress, and feel re-invigorated. So let’s do a deep-dive and talk about mindfulness and VO goals!

Sorting Out Your Goals

There are some essential steps in reaching your goals:

Officially setting your goals or intentions matters. I do this multiple times a year and keep them visible in both my work spaces.
Be organized in your daily/weekly planning to make sure that you are meeting your goals.
- - Consider time blocking your schedule.
Set yourself up for success. Are you in an accountability group to remind yourself?
- - - - Do you celebrate and acknowledge meeting bench marks?
      - Do you have industry friends to help you sort out realistic goals?

Areas to Consider when Working on Voice Over Goals

As a full time, professional voice actor, one of the easiest tasks to push to the side is marketing and out reach. Recently, I have found that I am making an effort to get all of my marketing initiatives done! I have tried to be creative. I have teamed up with other voice actors to pursue new leads and I am trying to be creative in my approach, using branded content in a fun an engaging way. If you are excited and proud of your marketing, you are more likely to do it.

Be mindful of audition deadlines. You never want agents and producers to have to chase you down. If an audition is due at 10 AM on a Tuesday, and you could be great for the part, submit. Don’t miss out on a great opportunity because your timing is off! Make sure to continually submit high quality auditions on time.

Keep working on your craft. Voice over is an industry where trends change, especially in genres like commercial. The outside world very much influences what creative directors are looking for in our read. Make sure when updating your goals to continue to work on your craft through on-going coaching. Just like in other professions, on-going professional development is the norm in our industry if you want to continue to book.

Determination and focus come in waves, that’s normal. Being mindful is a skill that is honed with practice. We all have days when we are more motivated than others, but if you push yourself to stick to your routine, and make sure that you submit, market, and work on your craft, you will have more of those good days.

Feeling Good About Things

So I am on a journey to health and wellness with my nutritionists. I need their support because I can’t do it alone. Good recipes and good intentions are not sufficient for me, I have found that I need a paid team who has any back and helps me through each day. Even with this team, some days are harder than others. I have a life time of habits and patterns that I am trying to to turn around, and simply following them on social media is fun but is not enough to reach my goals.

When I work with the Sugar Snap team, I always start out by cleaning out my house of the junk. I get read of any chips or cookies or sweetened chocolate I might have around. I try to set myself up for success in every way possible. Somehow spending the money on my work with these gals gives me a greater sense of purpose.

Much of the same applies to voice over. How might you clean out “the junk” in your VO way? Might it be avoiding negativity or the ill-informed on social media? Why do we assume, in an industry filled with so many talented people, and now we have AI to contend with, that we can work through all of this alone? The simple answer is we cannot. In order to reach our VO goals we need: an accountability group, industry friends, great coaches, reliable engineers, supportive agents and rosters, and good habits. When all of that is in place AND we make an effort to follow through, only then are we lining ourselves up for success. In the final analysis, it is clear the mindfulness begets mindfulness, and mindfulness leads to finding your goals within reach!