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auditions

A Day in the Life of a Voice Actor…

December 6, 2021 by Laura Schreiber

My jam

You might be thinking, hey- I wonder what it’s like to be a voice over actor? As a full-time, professional voice actor, sometimes my days can feel a little bit like Groundhogs Day, meaning that there is a certain rhythm to my days that tends to play and repeat. To be honest, as a working mom, I’ve come to count on this routine and structure and don’t mine it at all. I find this order and structure is really helpful and as my business has grown over the years, and I have expanded into coaching and demo production, I have carefully worked all of that into my schedule. There are some basic elements that are to be expected in every voice actor’s day:

Auditions:

Laura Schreiber AuditioningI typically do these quite early, and I think my auditions serve as a great warm up for my actually paid work. Whether they are for pay to plays or for agents, I love running through the pace of auditions and feel that this helps me stay on my toes and understand the current industry trends for what is being sought after. Daily submissions are a must, and I typically submit early morning and late afternoon at a minimum. I like submitting, and relative to other talents I know, I regularly submit a lot. I think it depends on your specific goals, but auditioning is for sure a part of my daily routine.

Booked Work

Then I begin my booked work. Depending on what is do when, and how urgent some bookings are, I decide my order of events. Sometime the vocal age of the casting comes into play for me. For example, if I am required to sound young, I have a specific window when I sound really young during the day, so I make sure to record at that point. Conversely, if I need to sound like a mom, or a 40 something, I save those recordings for after lunch. Thus, I plan my day.

Website Updates

I am often doing website updates. From adding blogs like this one, to adding client logos, testimonials, new demos we have done for students, and samples of finished booked work, the like of website updates goes on and on. I try to do these regularly so they do not become insurmountable.

Marketing and Direct Outreach

Marketing is a constant it my daily routine. I think the only day of the month when I do not send any emails is the day my newsletter goes out. I have different groups of people I work on reaching out to, and I am always keeping in touch with current clients and reaching out to new ones. I also do all of my own social media work, so marketing is a daily constant.

Billing and Invoicing

I do this regularly. Every time I deliver finished audio to a client, I send their invoice along with it. I send regular reminders, and am very on top of my invoicing. After all, voice over is not a hobby!

Equipment

My gear is so important. It is the foundation of all of my work. Whether I am researching my next purchase or neatening my wires, I am doing something related to m studio gear every day. I also constantly watch YouTube videos about equipment and find tis very helpful.

Dog walking

Laura Schreiber Walking DogsA highlight of my day, throughout my day, are the breaks I take with my studio dogs Violet and Daisy. I love walking with the girls and taking these sporadic breaks every few hours is really good for me. It is so good to leave the studio and get actual fresh air. I occasionally run into neighbors and that is really nice too.

Workouts:pilates

In addition to walking, I do Pilates regularly and this is very much a part of my routine. I find that scheduling this time for my self is essential to my mental and physical wellness. I tend to do these reinvigorating workouts either early morning, before work, or mid-day on my lunch break.

Household Chores

As a wife and mother, my daily household chores are endless. From cooking and cleaning to laundry and homework help, the list goes on and on. This time of year, there are holiday chores too like gift wrapping and all of those cards!!

The Glimpse….

So a lot needs to happen to run a successful voiceover business. There are a lot of moving parts, and when something falls off of my radar, ultimately it means less work will come in. So, it’ on me to make sure that my work gets done, and all of my ducks are in a row.

Filed Under: Studio/booth, Voiceover, working mom Tagged With: auditions, billing, booth like, chores, equipment, Groundhogs day, healthy living, lady boss, pilates, routine, solopreneur, studio, voice actor, voice over, voiceover, walking the dogs, website, working mom, working out

When Are you Ready To Make a Demo?

April 25, 2021 by Laura Schreiber

Order of Events

So you’ve decided to make a commercial voice over demo! Where ever you are in your voice over career, there’s nothing more exciting than a new demo to get a voice actor going! So when I, as the coach and demo producer, get the call from a voice talent, it’s my job to assess where they are in terms of demo readiness. If another established talent is working as long as I have calls, they can go straight to demo. If a newbie calls it is obvious they will need coaching. But there is a vast grey area in between a working professional voice actor and someone completely new, so how do I assess what my clients need? Ultimately, no one goes to make a demo unless they are ready to book work at the time the demo is complete.

When a New Talent Needs a Demo

Some Things Take TimeWhen someone brand new to voiceover calls or emails, after our initial consultation, I like to send them an audition script to read to get a baseline idea of where they are starting. From that, I can best assess approximately how many sessions it will take to get them demo ready. Some people are fast learners and they only need a handful of lessons. Others take substantially more time. Here are some factors that influence how quickly you can get to your demo:

  • How much time do you have to practice?
  • How much time do you have to listen to other samples and repeat them?
  • Have you acted before?
  • Have you taken improv classes?
  • Do you sing?
  • Are you a good listener?
  • How determined are you to reach your goals?
  • How good are you at following directions?
  • How often can you meet?

As the answers to these questions vary so much from voice student to voice student, the results vary. In general, when a voice actor reaches out and wants to do a demo, they are pretty determined to make it happen and that determination and passion lead to success.

When an Intermediate Talent Needs to Make a Demo

What makes you different makes you beautifulIn the past month, I have had two clients with acting and entertainment experience who were new to voice over reach out for demos. Again, both were given baseline reads to asses. Both were amazing. You’d think they’d been in voice over for years. Even without coaching, as one had stage and vocal training and the other had on-camera tv experience, their instincts of what to do with the script lead to a natural, authentic, solid read that would be bookable if they submitted.

When someone like that reaches out, I am comfortable moving forward with the demo, as my demo packages include the necessary coaching to prepare the demo. Whether a client chooses the full video package or an audio-only package, their script selection and works on those scripts are included in our process. My goal is for them to have an amazing, jaw-dropping commercial demo that shows their range as a voice over actor, so we choose spots that demonstrate this range.

When an Experienced Voice Actor Needs a Demo

One Size Fits OneWhen a working voice talent needs a demo, again, we can move forward with script selection and a process that showcases their range and strengthens their business’ brand. I work hard not only to bring scripts that enable voice actors to target aspirational clients and showcase their capabilities but also to have the demos be a reflection of what the talents value, care about, and matter. The demo prep process is collaborative and the voice talent’s personality and opinion matter greatly.

Again, the demo packages all include the necessary demo prep, so whether you have been in voice over six months or six years, come demo recording day, my job is to make the demo client shine. I work really hard in the time leading up to the demo to flesh out the nuances of the scripts and talk about the different possibilities so that when the day comes to record the demo client is ready.

My Philosophy About Demos

I believe a demo is an opportunity. A good, solid demo gives you a chance to market yourself to potential clients and them what you can do for them. Particularly when you are new to voiceover, a video demo gives you an instant body of work to market that you would not have. If you have been in voice over and reaching out to video production companies, it is just logical that people connect best in the medium that they work in: video. So, why not give them the content the way they like seeing it? If you are doing an audio-only demo, that demo has to be amazing. Every spot has to show a range and the demo cannot be too long. They have to be attention-getting and leave the listener wanting more. I also believe demos should last for many years and should not be dated, so finding content that the client will not age out of and that will not date the demo is of the utmost importance.

Filed Under: Coaching, Voice Over Demos, Voiceover Tagged With: auditions, coach, commercial demo, demo producer, voice over coaching, voice over demo

As An eLearning Narrator Your Audience Matters

March 2, 2021 by Laura Schreiber

Last Night on Clubhouse

Last night I had the delight of participating on a Clubhouse panel with some other fantastic, professional voice over actors Identify Your Audiencefrom the US and Canada. Our focus was on marketing, and even as a panel member, it really got my wheels turning. I could not help but think of the specificity of my recent outreach, especially in eLearning. I have worked so hard to build my business as an eLearning narrator, and I think in order to really reach prospects, you need to think about who you are working with. From the very beginning of the process through the completion of the booked work, understanding your audience is essential to success as a working female narrator in eLearning.

From the Marketing…

Often our relationships with eLearning clients, whether they be independent instructional designers or larger companies that create content, begin because of marketing efforts. Sometimes our direct marketing is the first interaction a new eLearning client has with a voiceactor. You would never want to send a government client with classified, sensitive content a jovial and silly email that would not resonate. Likewise, you would never want to send a cosmetic company a super serious message that shows no personality.  All of our outreach needs to have the end user, the eLearning client in mind. Our audience matters in every single correspondence.

Design matters to the audienceSocial media content, across platforms, needs to have the target audience in mind as well. This can be a bit trickier, as it is harder to control who sees your posts. You can, however, try to catch the eye of a specific group of clients or prospects by being clever about your target audience. If, for example, you are posing on Instagram and you want to reach out to instructional designers, both the content you use and the tags that you include in your post matters. Another way to grab your audience is to tag influencers and professionals in that field. Quote them. Have a conversation about them. If you want to work in eLearning, you need to be part of the dialogue.

Another tactic I often use is  brochures. I use them to reach out to clients in eLearning when at eLearning conferences when I would love to show my website and samples of my work but cannot because we are in a huge convention center. I find that having a very branded prop is useful in establishing myself as a professional in the field and helps draw the prospect in. Again, in terms of being mindful of the audience, since conference have a range of content creators, the brochure needs to be professional and have all the essentials.

To the Audition…

The eLearning audience must be top of mind when auditioning. You always have to know who you are talking to, and what the audio is being used for. Imagine if you sent an upbeat and humorous toned training to a group of CPAs, it would not fit. Conversely, let’s take the example of the cosmetic company again, because I happen to love doing trainings for them. Imagine if you were doing training for hair stylists about hair brush options available and instead of sending a relatable, warm tone you sounded like a detached CPA. That also really would not work. When submitting eLearning auditions as a female narrator, the audience drives the read you give. It informs the tone, the texture you add, the variation in the pace. An energetic happy read has a very different pace than a professional, thoughtful read. Again, the audience in eLearning matters.

The Booking….

Size of Audience Doesn't MatterWhen you book an eLearning job, understanding the audience or the enduser is so important. For example, I was recently cast in a training for a local hospital: RWJ St. Barnabas, right here in NJ. It was a caller training. When I first read through the script, in my practice read, I sounded warm, gracious, and welcoming. I then re-read my roll: “Bad Caller.” I was the example of what not to do. Everything I just rehearsed had to be thrown out the window and the opposite read was needed. I was talking to the same people, but I was the example of what not to do, and I had to be the best “Bad Caller” they ever heard. Your job as an eLearning narrator is to make it obvious. They should not have had to figure out what was wrong with my phone skills, so I had to make every effort to clearly connect with the listener. Keeping the audience in mind should inform and transform every eLearning performance.

The Rapport with Your Clients

As a voice over actor, understanding your audience is what makes life easy for your clients. If you don’t get it, the narration will never be right. It makes it easier for everyone for you to clearly connect with the audience you are speaking to in eLearning.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: auditions, bookings, Clubhouse, direct marketing, elearning, eLearning clients, eLearning narrator, female narrator, instructional designers, marketing materials, narration, VO, voice over, voice over actor, voiceover

A VO Business in Review: What’s Working and What Needs Work

December 6, 2020 by Laura Schreiber

There's No Reason To Look BackVoice over is a competitive industry, and being a professional female voice over who books mostly commercials and eLearning is something I am very proud of, but it takes daily effort- all day. Every day. I often work weekends. I often work odd hours. And every time I do, I am proud because it means that my small business is succeeding. In order to stay on top of my VO game, it seems like December is the perfect time to reflect on what is working and what could work better. After all, if I’m going to devote to much of my life to pursuing this passion, I want to do as well as I possibly can in voiceover.

What’s working:

Auditions:

I audition a lot. I have a pretty good audition to booking ration, particularly on pay to play sites. I once heard Bob Bergen, renowned voice of Porgy Pig, say that the audition is the job, and I understand just what he went. I also think that my auditions are working in the sense that I submit a lot. Twice in recent months I had clients reach out with direct bookings because they had saved my auditions. Although they had not hired me when I had submitted for that given job, they helpd onto my audition, kept me in mind, and ultimately booked work with me. In this sense, my auditions are going well.

Follow Up:

For me, follow up with both clients and prospects takes several forms. I always send thank you notes after bookings. I send both email follow ups and hand written cards, often with gifts depending on the size of the booking. Typically clients are delighted by this. In addition, I do quarterly check-ins with clients and prospects to maintain the relationships. These are personalized and relevant. I also do outreach, including my monthly newsletter and holiday cards.

Invoicing

I am good at invoicing! I have a great system, so I invoice when I deliver my finished audio. My invoice automatically sends a 30 and 60 day reminder. If it goes to 90 days the client gets a letter from my lawyer/husband. They hate that, but it works really well and I have no money outstanding at present.

Blogs

I blog regularly and am proud of this. I blog so that I am found. In the years since I started blogging, which I was very reluctant to do and did not do when I began my voice over journey, I have tippled my website traffic. In the search terms that I target, I continue to come up on the first page of google. Blogs are going extremely well.

What Needs Work

You'll Know When You're On the Right TrackAuditions

Yes, they were mentioned above. I need to improve my booking ration for agent auditions. I have fantastic regional representation who work really hard to bring me wonderful opportunities. I would love to book more of what they present me with in 2021. I send two takes, I listen to me reads to make sure I am sending my best work, but like I said, the voice over industry is competitive. I am thankful for the agent bookings I had in 2020 and hope to increase the percentage moving forward.

Outreach

Yes, this category was mentioned above as well. The problem is that the possibilities for direct marketing are infinite and I lose focus. I could do a much better job marketing myself. I need to focus on who I want to bring in and what kink fo work I want to regularly book and reach out to those clients with greater gusto. I had been doing it consistently, then work somehow gets in the way of this very important work.

Bringing In New Clients

I need to bring in a few more clients who will send regular work, monthly or weekly. I love the rosters that I am on and I need more clients like that.

Awareness of Changing Market Place

Especially in a year without voiceover conferences to attend, I need to do a better job staying on top of current market place trends. I do not listen to podcasts often, and I have my own perceptions which may or may not be accurate. I think having a better understanding of how the pandemic and election are shaping the marketplace is essential to my new business plan for 2021.

A Glimpse Ahead…

I am lucky that I am not new to VO. I am surrounded by talented women who are innovators and trailblazers. As I plan for the new year, and strategize for my goals ahead, I will be using the network I am so thankful to have built over the years to focus in the right direction.

Filed Under: Voiceover Tagged With: auditions, blogs, bookings, changing market, commercials, female, female professional voice actor, invoicing, outreach, small business owner, talent, VO, voice over, voiceover, working mom

The More Things Change, The More Some Things in VOice Over Are Somewhat the Same…

April 12, 2020 by Laura Schreiber

My Chat With Liz…

So last night I was chatting with one of my besties who is not in voice over, Liz. Liz is one of those amazing geniuses and every conversation could go on forever because she is a goddess of her own life. A phd in chemical engineering, she is one of the most grounded people I have ever met despite her super important job at a pharmaceutical company. We were initially chatting about Unorthodox which I just finished watching on Netflix, and then the conversation shifted to work. She had hoped that my work would be positively impacted by the pandemic, and then I think Liz got an earful that she did not really want about my experience as a working creative during the Covid-19 pandemic.

My Bookings…

What I explained to Liz, and what is interesting, is that during the Pandemic I continue to book what I have always booked, there is just less of it. So what am I still booking? Commercials, eLearning, and telephony/IVR. For me, the amount of jobs I typically have in a day or even half a day on some weeks I am having total in a week. I am thankful for every single booking, but the volume of booked work for me during the pandemic has gone down. Typically, I do a lot of radio commercials. The commercials I have booked this month have been radio commercials. They have been from steady clients who continue to send work. Some are for clients here and some have been for clients abroad, as far as New Zealand.

In terms of eLearning work, again, this is for clients that I had before the pandemic started. They needed me for specific work and we had live sessions booked via source connect. They were not canceled and I was very thankful.

The IVR work that I have had come in, believe it or not, has not been covid specific! This shocked me. It was just companies that needed messages. I gather some companies do not want to invest in temporary phone systems. I would not have predicted this, but this has been the case in the past two weeks.

My Auditions….

There have been some big differences in auditions so I think I should go point by point:

  • Quantity: On the pay to plays that I am on there are significantly fewer auditions. I continue to get a lot of private invitations and I am thankful for that, but in terms of daily numbers of postings, there is dramatically less. There also seem to be a lot of other talents submitting right away. On Friday, for example, I got an invitation for a job that wanted 10 auditions. My kids were off from school last week. Not remote learning, just on Spring Break, so I was giving them lunch. I waited about 40 minutes to submit, which is not so long. By the time I submitted there were already 32 submissions for the listing that wanted 10!
  • Rush Required: I see a lot of jobs, both from agents and on pay to plays, with RUSH in the specs. The turn arounds are very fast and they need availability to record in a very short window. I do not know if expectations have shifted as they know we cannot go anywhere, but I gather a lot of new content is needed and the clients are genuinely in a hurry to put out relevant content that makes sense in light of all that has changed, and the producers just need to accommodate the clients.
  • Source Connect Required: More than any other time in the past 5 years, I have seen Source Connect required when jobs are posted. I am seeing requests specifically for Source Connect more than Zoom, Skype, ISDN, or ipDTL. A lot of specs tell talent not to audition if they do not have the professional, paid for version of Source Connect up and running already.
  • Agent Specs Are Changing: Agent specs are becoming more specific than ever before and there is a sense of no-messing around. All of the above is true of the listings that agents are sending out, and some agents are sending out job listings before they even know the rates. Listings the previously would have been LA only are now open to those of us with Source Connect. Things are shifting…

Feelings About Supporting the Community…

In general it feels like everyone is being very kind and supportive. It feels like it is a time when a lot of people are looking to reconnect. Still, I have gotten my fair share of inquiries from those new to the industry or those looking to move into voice over now. When I started in VO, I never expected free advice, and this does not seem like the time for free advice. After years of working hard to build my business and coming up with clever and innovative ways to get on rosters, with no shortcuts, I find it frustrating when those who have been curious about voiceover for five minutes feel entitled to what the rest of us came by through hard work. This is not the time to expect the keys to the castle for free. I do feel that there is a profound difference between networking and keeping in touch and crossing a line. Let’s all use this time to lift each other up, make the community stronger, and help those in our network already who need it.

Filed Under: Voiceover Tagged With: auditions, Availability, bookings, commercials, elearning, Expectations, invitations, live sessions, RUSH Jobs, Source Connect, Specs, support, training, VO, voiceover, working mom

Vocal Age and Bookings in Voice Over

February 23, 2020 by Laura Schreiber

Real Age Vs. Vocal Age

Ok, so I am at the point in my life when I cringe when I have to reveal on print, or anywhere else for that matter, my real age. I feel as energetic as I did years ago, and in my mind I do not age those around me. But to help you place my age, I am old enough to have twins turning 17 this summer. Soooo… I am fortunate to sound younger than I am since millennial voices are highly sought after at the moment. My vocal age, then, differs greatly from my real age. How does this effect me? Greatly! I am sent, audition for, and book work that is NOT based on my real age but is booked on my vocal range.

Here are some examples, an adult voice:

https://youtu.be/d3AE9RAm2Mw

A kid voice:

https://youtu.be/yPH5gMyPJVI

Auditioning

I pay close attention to the desired vocal range when auditioning. My sweet spot tents to be the 17-22 or 18-35 category. When they ask for the conversational, millennial read little fire works go off in my head as that is my sweet spot. When they want the girl-next-door who sounds like she is on the couch talking to her best friend, that is me. When they want someone with gravitas and rasp, that is not me. Why does it matter that you know how you sound? Why waste the listeners time? And when you only have precious time to audition and submit, why not maximize your own time submitting for what you are most likely to book. Although I can do a character granny voice, if there is a commercial casing wanting a senior female I would never submit. They are not looking for me and there are talented folks in the senior vocal range with a more mature voice who will offer the sound they want in those spots. In those moments I simply move on to the next read.

Demos

Your demos need to show your range within your age range. Your demos also need to be tagged in a user friendly way, especially on pay to plays, so that clients can find what they need. If you sound young, and your demo is comprised of demo spots, then make sure that you actually have spots that would hire someone in your vocal range. No one wants my voice selling adult diapers, hemorrhoid cream, or talking about retirement communities, right? There is a reason I do fitness campaigns and brands like Kind Bar and Dove. I sound young and upbeat, and I market myself directly for brands that want this kind of fun, sassy, playful sound. A funeral home is probably not looking for my happy, bright voice. Although, interestingly I did do a narration for a women’s shelter who wanted someone who sounded happy and reassuring.

https://youtu.be/cn7lkUdKRfc

Bookings

This blog actually came to mind because last week I booked a character job where I played both a mom and a kid in the same job. How? Well with training and years of practice I do a lot of work in kids practice. And the bottom of my voice, and yes I have a bottom, is my mom voice. So if you understand how to use your voice, you can offer this kind of versatility to your clients. I have had this opportunity, as have many of my industry friends, where we are cast in multiple roles in the same job. It can happen in eLearning, commercials, video games, cartoons…And it is about understanding how to use your voice. It is also about understanding the role you are playing, the nuances of the role, and how the characters relate to each other.

Your vocal age is often not your chronological age. I do a lot of work for Pandora, and typically the range they send me is 17-22. That is my natural range. When I work out of that range, I have to understand specifically what the client is looking for, and I have to be able to match it for pickups and revisions. It is much easier for me to sound older late in the day. When I book work, I typically note on the script and in my notes in my CRM when I recorded the job, so if there are changes later I am best able to accommodate the vocal age.

Conclusions

You need to understand your voice. You need to understand how others perceive your voice. Without a strong vocal awareness you will be limited in what you book and what you can provide your clients. In character work you have a chance to shine and to play and to test your limits. While we are acting, to be sure, some genres lend themselves more to being creative and submitting outside the box. Be aware for the sake of your time and of others.’

Filed Under: Voiceover Tagged With: auditions, being found, bookings, conversational, girl-next-door, kids voices, millennial, pay to plays, real age, techniques, VO, vocal age, voiceover

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