Voiceover

Boundaries when Reaching out to Coaches

February 18, 2024 by Laura Schreiber

Reaching Out to A Coach

You have a burning question, that’s great! And the good news, actually the really good news, is that there are A LOT of really wonderful coaches in voice over depending on both what genre you are looking to study and what your specific learning style is. Even better, many coaches have lots of free resources to offer! Between blogs, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and linkedIn, you can learn so much before you even have to open your wallet. So when it is time to actually invest in yourself and your voice over career, whether it is signing up for a class or a private lesson, there are som best practices to build a good relationship with your coaches.

Free Consultations

Most coaches offer a 15 to 20 minute free consultation. This is meant for BOTH of you to see if you are a good fit for each other. This is the time to ask your coach how they are different from other coaches and to see what their policies are. This is NOT the time to expect free training. This is not where you pick their brain for free. This is also not the time to expect an hour from their twenty minutes. They are offering you a glimpse. Be professional and assess. Take the glimpse for exactly what it is.

Blogs

Use and enjoy blogs to enhance your knowledge base. Is it okay to reach out and introduce yourself? Of course, connect with your industry peers. Is it ok to ask a question or two to extrapolate more in-depth understanding? Sure thing. Is it okay to try to get a free session out of the coach? No. There is a line. Begging for free advice because you like their blog is both distasteful and unprofessional. It also shows a genuine lack of understanding for what we do. Each of us are on such a unique and personal journey in voice over. So, writing to a coach who you have no relationship with and asking them to venture a guess is more than useless. Just don’t. Instead, save up for a session. Invest in coaching. Dive deeper! More training is never, ever waisted! We all have to keep working on our craft!

Social Media

Connecting with coaches on Social Media is great. It is a great way to learn about them as a person, a talent, and as a coach. You get to understand who they are within the parameters they have established. Some are very responsive to DMs and to comments, others are less so. Some may be responding directly while others may have a team who does this for them. Either way, be mindful of professional boundaries. This is meant to be a professional, working relationship. Would you message your doctor or accountant at 2 Am with questions repeatedly? If the answer is no, then perhaps also do not reach out to your voice coach at that time expecting a reply. They too maintain regular business hours.

Texting

In general, coaches do not have text relationships with students. Unless a coach says the words “Please text me about….” I would assume NOT to text a voice over coach. It is appropriate in this professional relationship to email them and let them respond in a timely manner.

Business Hours

Coaches are working professionals. They typically maintain normal weekday studio hours. Some may also offer coaching on the weekend, I do not. When you are looking for the coach who is the right fit for you, respect their business hours. It is common practice that they are available when you have them booked. Some coaches have time to answer questions between sessions, others do not, but each coach is different in this regard. Regardless of their practice, no coach wants to be stalked. They are instead looking for a meaningful working relationship where they can watch their students thrive.

Takeaways

I remember well what it was like to pay for one lesson at a time. Voice over coaching is expensive, it’s an investment. You want to feel like you are getting a lot of value for your money. I am also someone who likes to feel like I am building meaningful connections with the people I work with, so when I was the talent as opposed to the coach, feeling like the coach “got me” mattered a lot. I think if you really want to connect with your coach take the time to read their coaching profile, have that consultation, and check their references. At the end of the day, you are going to have to trust your gut a bit too. Sometimes we just click with someone and sometimes we don’t. I can tell you the one way to push a coach aside and ruin things from the start is to start asking for free coaching and advice before you know each other at all. Whatever you decide to do, please do not do that!

Case Study in Good Customer Service: Trader Joe’s and What Can Be Learned

February 13, 2024 by Laura Schreiber

The Text

Yesterday morning my husband and I woke up to a text from our daughter Emma. Emma is a sophomore in college a small liberal arts school in central Pennsylvania called Elizabthethtown College. She texted us this photo of gluten free donut holes. She said she urgently needed us to go to Trader Joe’s right away to get them for her. She was concerned that they would sell out immediately. Even though Emma has a car, there is no Trader Joes near her school so she was very much hoping we could help her out with this.

Our Mission

Harlan had to travel for work yesterday, so tasked with our highly sensitive and urgent message, as soon as the store opened I went to Trader Joe’s, armed with my iPhone so that if need be I had the photo. First, I did two laps myself, looking in the logical places I thought they would be. No dice, the donut holes were no where to be found.

The Rescue Team

Not wanting to disappoint me super sweet kid, both because she is super sweet and because I am totally Type A and could not leave without the donut holes, I sought assistance. The first guy was working on oranges. He went to where he thought they’d be. They were not there. He pulled in another gal who then pulled in a third woman from the bakery who then pulled in a fourth woman, a manager. So yes, I had FOUR people helping me look for the donut holes. We worked hard and were thorough. Two of them were positive they had been in the store.

Ultimately, the manager took to the computer. She discovered that the highly coveted donut holes needed to be special ordered. They placed an order and told me to call tomorrow morning and that they would set some aside for us. I felt so valued and was so appreciative of the help. Then, as if that was not enough, they let me take a lollipop even though I had not located the stuffed turtle hidden somewhere in the store. I’m not kidding.

Customer Service Takeaways

If Trader Joe’s was being ranked as a business or a super marked or for what kind of human beings they were, basically on every single lever, they deserve an A plus plus. As voice actors, we can all learn a lot from their behavior and over all mentality so let’s take a moment to dissect what happened at Trader Joes:

They were a shining example of team work. One person did not need to steal the show. They worked together to accomplish a common goal. In voice over some of us have the opportunity to work as a team. Whether we are demo producers and have partners, or work on a multi-talent cast, or are at a conference and are on a panel with industry friends, sometimes we are fortunate enough to work with others. This is our moment to take a note and lift everyone up. It goes back to the old falcon saying, “the rising tide lifts all the ships in the harbor.” This has always been my experience in VO, and it was for sure my experience at Trader Joe’s. I am quite sure this is why the store is packed as soon as the doors open on a Monday morning, and if you want your voice over business to be booming, this is a great lesson to learn!
In this incidence, the price tag didn’t matter. I did not go in saying I needed 100 boxes of donut holes. I was not some prized Trader Joe’s client. Yet each member of the team treated me like I was the most important sale of the day. I will confess that this is an area where even I need to do some re-thinking. I do not treat all of my clients the same. I certainly will treat a national spot differently than a $200 one-off gig. Perhaps this needs to be re-thought. It made me feel really good to be helped and values, period.
At Trader Joe’s the employees bent over backwards to help. I do always try to do this. Whether I have a voice over client, a demo client, or a coaching client, I want their experience working with me to leave them feeling exceedingly happy. In a business like VO where clients have an abundance of choice on all fronts, I am extremely appreciative of their trust in me and in return I ben over backwards to work as hard as I can to do a good job.
At Trader Joe’s the entire experience, from beginning to end, with the lolly pop, was extra. I try to do this! I am always reachable. I have helped get students on rosters of clients and agents. I have redone their resumes. I audit their auditions. But being extra is typically not something that is asked of you, it’s just something you bring. So my friends, bring it!!
Most importantly, my recent shopping experience left me, the, client feeling valued. When it comes time to go back… where will I go? That’s right. And that is how we want each and every one of our voice over clients to feel.

We want to do our very best in voice over always. Well often times being and doing our best has nothing to do with our sound and our audio. A lot of the time it has to do with who we are, how we treat others, and the services we provide that go beyond our voice.

Often the voice over is the last piece of the puzzle. Video producers and others who are casting may come to you very close to the deadline and need help to make their project incredible. We have an opportunity to take their time of stress, take them by the hand, and turn it into something wonderful. As someone who also coaches and does demos, it’s the same thing. I can use this as a defining moment in someone career to help make it memorable. My experience in Trader Joe’s can only be described as excellent. I only want to leave my clients feeling this way.

End of Year Reflections in 2023

December 22, 2023 by Laura Schreiber

On Conferences:

This year I had the great joy of attending several conferences. I presented at OneVoice USA and at MAVO and I was an attendee of Johny Heller’s New England Narrator’s retreat. As a presenter at OneVoice, I sat on a Demos panel with some of the people I OVC Demos Panel look up to most in the industry, including Anne Ganguzza, Clif Zellman, and J. Michael Collins. In addition with being in such good company, I try to pick up public speaking tips as well. At MAVO, I attended sessions of other industry greats like Michael Scott, and I took note of his presentation style. I also spent a lot of time talking to Joe Cipriano, who I have looked up to for many years, and learned a tremendous amount from him.

At Johnny Heller’s workshop, as an attendee, I was able to spend all my time honing my narration skills. It was nice to be able to just participate and be amongst my peers. While I did also want to network with the publishers in attendance, my primary focus was learning about the different genres and developing my skill set. The time away from my booth felt like such an indulgence and I came away feeling inspired and like I did, indeed, learn a lot.

On Awards Nominations:

This year I was nominated for a Signal award for an ensemble podcast cast that I have been part of for several years for PJ library. I also personally only submitted to the OneVoice Awards. My demo partner, All Systems GO AV, and I were elated to snag a OVC Awards night nomination for one of the demos we did, an eLearning demo for the super talented Dallas based John Guccion. I also earned a nomination in the bloopers category which was good fun. While we didn’t take home any statues this year, I will say it really meant a lot to be in such good company and it was for sure a highlight of the year.

On Coaching:

My coaching business has continued to thrive. As a former teacher, I really love helping people work on the voice over skills and grow their businesses. I am very passionate about my coaching and often I wake up super early in the morning with enthusiasm for my lesson plans. A lot of the people I coach have met me at conferences, and it means a lot to get to work with them afterwards. I genuinely want to help each and every coaching student, so this aspect of my 2023 work has been very meaningful.

On Travel with VO Friends:

With Diana Birdsall, Michelle Blenker, me, Kim Handysides, and Dearbhla Trainor in Montreal This summer I got to go on a trip to Canada with the gals in my VO accountability group! We had been talking about going away together since before Covid. We had so many ideas, but really, the most important detail was that we were all included and beyond that everything else was secondary. To have this time together to bond and to reflect was so meaningful. We are all exceptionally close, and this trip was as wonderful as can be.

On Getting Sick and Working Through It:

Immediately after the Canada get away I got a really, really bad stomach bug. It started in late July and lasted until late October. I was profoundly ill and they did not realize that it was a food born bacterial infection until I had been suffering for several months. I was so sick when I went to OneVoice that I had to bring my son with me to help, and he was immensely helpful. I was frankly thankful I could get through my sessions. I missed uncle Roy’s BBQ which was so upsetting. I was a mess. By the time they figured out what it was I was beginning to worry I would never get better. Never was a girl so thankful for antibiotics!

On Working While Kids are in College

2023 marks the second year of working while my twins are away. While you would think I have unlimited time and could simply do as I please, having the twins in college presents new challenges. When they call I feel that I need to drop everything to tend to their immediate needs. I also certainly block days from my calendar to visit, whether it is a Friday print to parent’s weekend or a Monday post-conference. This time is precious and my fear is that it is fleeting. So while the day to day life may be freer, they certainly take up large chunks of time still. Also, when they are home, I do try to black my schedule and limit my coaching so that they have my undivided attention. I have also noticed I need to remind them of the “rules” when there are live sessions, as if they never new them. They seem to have forgotten about staying quiet or keeping away from the space over my studio. It’s funny how these things can be un-learned.

Over-all Reflections

I always to people thinking about voice over that it is a marathon not a sprint, and 2023 felt like I jus kept marching along, doing my thing. Do you remember the children’s board game Candyland? I lot of times I feel like that is my life, I’m just on this sweet ride, winding around the board, wondering where I’ll land next, trying to take a deep breath and actually enjoy the people I meet along the way and the ride that I am on!

Having VO Industry Friends Matters

November 16, 2022 by Laura Schreiber

Sometimes things Go Sideways

As a well-established professional voice actor I wish I could say that when I recorded my first audiobook everything went well, but that is not the case. I learned quickly that narrating audiobooks is vastly different than recording a 30 second spot. Actually, the recording was fine. I marked the manuscript on my iPad just like Sean Pratt taught me. I used iAnnotate and I was proud of how the audio and the editing when. The snag happened quite unexpectedly when I uploaded my audio to ACX.

Learning the Ins and Outs of ACX

If you have never used ACX, when you upload your audio it has a tool that immediately measures the quality of your audio. So my audio was immediately flagged as being insufficient for their needs. You get a little orange or red, depending on the screen settings of your monitor, triangle with an exclamation point in it. ACX is kind enough to tell you precisely what is wrong with your audio. In my case, my RMS, or Round Mean Sound, levels were not within the precise range of -18 to -23. Mine were between -25 and -27.

First I called an engineer I work with regularly and he had gone to both college and graduate school for audio production and he had no idea what an RMS was. I sent him a photo of my audio because I could see there was a meter for it in my DAW, which is Twisted Wave. His best guess was to play with how I normalized it. No dice, nothing made this better. And I had already applied my commercial effects stack to the ENTIRE recorded book. At this point the only thing I had going for me was that I had saved the RAW audio. Note, ALWAYS save your raw audio!!

The Meltdown

So at this point, dinner was not being cooked. The audio couldn’t be uploaded. I was in my booth in tears. For someone who has been in VO for years, I was loosing it completely. Just then, I happened to have been, over several days emailing back and forth with Jack de Golia. I had questions for him about some programs I could use for audiobooks, and I had the luck of getting an email from a friend at that moment.

I told Jack I was having a meltdown. Jack phoned. He asked what was going on. He talked me off a cliff. He also showed me how to use the analyze function on Twisted Wave which I never knew was there. Jack actually showed me quite a few thinks that night.

He told me I needed to call George Whittam and that I needed a stack specifically for audiobooks. The only way to meet the A CX specs is with such a stack. I had no idea. The thing is, you don’t know what you don’t know until you’re in the trenches. I did in fact reach out to George. I paid extra for the stack, and I was very quickly back in business.

When I had my Meltdown, I had people to call

I was lucky, the right guy happened to reach out precisely at the moment I needed him. If you don’t know Jack de Golia, his is a brilliant voice talent best known for his work in eLearning and Audiobooks although he excels in other genres too. He is a coach as well and is based in Las Vegas Nevada.

So let’s dissect why I had a friend like Jack in the first place? Jack happens to be a really nice guy, and exceptionally good at what he does, so he’s easy to be friends with in the first place. But how did I maintain the friendship on my end? Well, I have made the effort to go to voice over conferences for years. I had attended Jack’s sessions at past conferences like WoVoCon. When I would go to other conferences like DevLearn in Las Vegas, I kept in touch with Jack and we had lunch. Over the years I also sent correspondence emails because his friendship and the friendship of my industry friends is extremely important to me. I did not have a crystal ball and I had no idea that Jack would one day come to my rescue, but I did know he was a good guy and I valued having him, like so many others I have been blessed to meed in my life.

The Take-Aways

I can tell you that while we all work alone in padded foam booths, we are stronger together than we are apart. Whether we are two months in are ten years in we always need good, smart folks who have our backs. It is worth making the effort to spend time with people on your visit. It is work keeping in touch with people beyond the reach of social media. Make actual friends. It is so important and it is what will make all the difference.

Lessons From My First Audiobook

November 15, 2022 by Laura Schreiber

Why Try A New Genre at This Point in My Career?

You might be wondering, as a full time voice actor with pretty stellar commercial bookings, why would I go after a new, and frankly uniquely different genre now? Well, if you are new to my blog you might not know that my twins left for college this year. So at the age of 45 I became an empty nester in the snap of a finger. My life was turned upside down and for someone life me downtime is not desirable. I need to be busy every second. The notion of learning a new skill set, something I could get lost in and spend hours studying, became very appealing. When I started in voice over many years ago, long before I ever had a single client, I looked at the study of the craft of commercial voice over as my full-time job. It served me well. My passion for a given genre can lead me to success when I apply that passion to the detailed study of it. So, non-fiction audio books, here I come!

Working With an Awesome Coach

As a voice over coach myself, I can tell you that learning from a top coach is essential to success. I started to work with Sean Pratt. He is a perfect fit for me. If you don’t know Sean, he has a very specific curriculum. He takes you through both the craft or study of how to work on the copy, and also teaches you about the business side of audiobooks. I LOVE my lessons with Sean. I love the homework he gives. I can actually feel myself learning. I very much enjoy working through the assignments. The challenge, the struggle, is something I have not had for years. His curriculum is excellent. I am confident that next year, after going through all of the lessons, I will be prepared to work in audiobooks.

Applying the Skills

In our last session Sean told me it is time to start putting myself out there and auditioning on ACX. Sean advised me that I need to get titles under my belt. Fortunately, I have a sense of where my voice fits in and what kind of texts I want to read. I seem to have a decent booking ratio here too, and in the first two weeks I actually booked two books. After doing my elated happy dance in the booth and celebrating with my husband, the real work of recording the books began!

What I didn’t Know…. The Tech

Well, if I thought I was learning a lot from Sean in terms of technique and craft, I can’t tell you how much I learned from actually working on a book. Initially I began marking my script in iAnnotate just as Sean recommend. I was using my trusty Apple Pencil and quite happy. I realized I needed help with iAnnotate so I paid for Karen Commins’ videos. They are outstanding by the way, as are all of her resources, and if you are new to audiobooks like me her website is a must visit!

Organizing the audio and staying organized was the next part of the learning. I found myself writing notes both on the iPad and in my booth. I also found myself creating lots of different subfolders in dropbox that were new to me due to the length of the audio.

I was quite pleased with everything and it was time to upload it into ACX when I hit my first major snag. ACX has something that analyzes your audio when you upload it. I had processed it same as I always do for commercials and eLearning. The same stacks that make producers all over the world happy got flagged. I learned about something called and RMS and apparently my number was too high, which actually meant my sound was too low. If you are on Twisted Wave, this is the meter on the right side. Well, I was in a panic. I had no idea what to do.

All these years as a full time talent and it was like I was starting over. I was at a total loss. I called an engineer who does commercial and explainers and he told me to normalize it. I did that and I was still not within the range. If an engineer who went to college and graduate school for this couldn’t help, how on earth would I sort this out? I went to YouTube and I did find videos with others talking about the issue, but most of them used Audacity or Audition as their DAW, not Twisted Wave.

In the midst of my break down in the booth, I heard from a friend and fellow coach Jack de Golia. G-d his timing was good. He told me I needed to reach out to George Whittam (AKA George the Tech) for a specific stack just for audio books. Hallelujah. There was hope in site. If you don’t know George, you can actually pay for 911 emergency service to get bumped to the front of the line in cases like this, otherwise it takes about a week.

I got online and both emailed and Facebook messaged George. George is a G-d-send, and angel, and a genius all wrapped up in one. To me delight he was available and helped me right away. I followed the steps of sending my audio and my gear. George followed up, within the hour, (I actually think it was less) of sending me a stack and a video just for me about how to work with all of this.

I got lucky. George happened to be free when I needed him and I had a friend who could point me in the right direction. Crisis averted! This is the very short abridged version of the story that skips the details of missed dinner, a very supportive husband who tried hard to do what he could, and me acting like a toddler having a tantrum. The good news is that very night I submitted the book to the ACX specs. I wish I could say I behaved better, but I did learn so much!

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.