CESD

Talking VO Websites with Karin Barth from Voice Actor Websites

September 12, 2021 by Laura Schreiber

In Good Company…

Sometimes you are blessed with knowing the right people, and knowing Joe Davis and Karin Barth is a blessing indeed! While I am fortunate to have worked with them for years on my website and SEO, I am doubly blessed to call them dear friends and amongst my favorite people in the world. When I have important decisions to make about my business, I trust them not just because of their superior expertise, but because they are truly mensch (someone to admire and emulate, someone of noble character) in every sense of the word. I have shared holidays and dinners out with them, they have been to my home and know my family, I share personal details of my private life with them, so when I tell you that I trust their guidance for websites… I mean that I fully and completely trust what they have to offer.

So this past Friday, even with just returning from Dallas and the Jewish holidays to boot, Karin Barth made time to speak with me and Diana Birdsall on our weekly Clubhouse “Ask the VO Coaches” about all that we could jam in related to websites and SEO. We had some great participation and all were dazzled by Karin’s brilliant insights. In case you missed it, here is a brief recap of some highlights.

Why Websites Are So Important

Karin put it simply: You want to get your voice heard, your demos heard, and people to hire you. I always tell me coaching students your website is your virtual storefront. She did not use those words but that is how I think of it, and your business really does not exist if your website is not up and no one can find you. A regular to our Clubhouse room, Vijayan, offered that people know that you value yourself and your work once you have a website. He also said that prior to his website, he had an issue with transparency in his country. There was always a middle man. Once he had a website, he was able to interact with clients directly and could negotiate on his own. It was so refreshing to hear his reflections, as I had my own website before my business launched, and I had never considered this issue.

What Voice Actors Need to Start

Karin said in order to begin you need to have had some coaching and completed a professional demo. As a voice over coach and video demo producer, I cannot tell you how happy this made me to hear. She shared an anecdote about a woman who wanted to do a website and had no demos. This lady thought she could just record some stuff on her phone. Karin said in this scenario they advise folks new to voiceover to instead invest in coaching and then revisit a website down the road.

We then asked Karin if voice actors come to them with a Wix or Square space page if they can work that. The answer is yes, but there is an advantage to having a Word Press page. Since June, Google has changed its core web vitals. Word press makes it easier to comply.

Diana then asked Karin if we should be regularly changing our videos for our SEO. I was fascinated because while I typically add new videos, I tend not to delete old ones as I am really proud of the work I have done and get attached to my content. It never occurred to me to swap it out. I also like the idea, personally, of amassing a large body of work. Anyway, Karin explained that the idea is to train the google bots to come to the site. You want to continually add more relevant content so that your site continues to rank.

Features All Voice Actors Should Have

I of course found this interesting:

Demos: They should be downloadable, not just playable. Karin also mentioned you should be mindful of how you name them. For instance, don’t just label it “commercial demo” because a casting agent could be very confused if they download it and it does not have your name.
Bio: There are a few important details that Karin mentioned. First, be sure to have unique, original content and not to use the same bio on Linked In, your website, and other places! Next, while folks are often excited to share their backstory, Karin suggests starting with where you are now. What service do you provide? What are your selling points?
Contact Form: I will tell you I have changed mine over the years but they do an awesome job setting this up for you and Karin also sets up “recaptcha” so you don’t get spam.
Testimonials: This is so important to help build your trust factor
Client List or Client Logos: Again, this helps with your street cred.
Videos: We chatted about how people like to take in information in different ways, and offering video to people who do video production just makes a lot of sense!

Insights From Google Analytics

We also spent a little bit of time talking about Google Analytics and what you can learn from them. Your bounce rate is how long someone stays on your site, and Karin explains you can actually look to see the behavior flow and try to see if there are trends in where they drop off. This can give you an idea if you need to add a different call to action. Basically, the longer they are on the site the better. I found this fascinating.

Final Thoughts…

Those of us who work with Karin and Joe know we are lucky. They know their stuff and there is a reason so many of us turn to them.

Be Careful Who Represents You In VO

January 24, 2021 by Laura Schreiber

Common Beliefs or Misconceptions in Voice Over

When I started in voice over years ago, I remember thinking that when I had an agent I will have “made it.” I remember Screwing Up is Part of Success”one of my coaches telling me that she worked for five years before she had her first agent, so that I could align my expectations. At that point, I did not even know about managers. I was lucky, I was able to get on quite a few agents rosters pretty early in my voiceover career. As a working professional, I would hear a lot of chatter on social media about various agents and managers and how to get signed, as if somehow getting on the roster would lead to the ultimate success.

While I understood early on that being represented by these wonderful regional agents meant that I had more opportunities available to audition for, I was in no way guaranteed success. I did not understand that having a manager was not the same thing. I had hoped, quite naively, that as the manager took both a monthly retainer and a percentage of booked work, they would work harder to make deals happen. Boy, was I wrong. More than a year after I severed ties with my manager, I am still undoing the damage that was done. Here is just a glimpse of the reality of what choosing the wrong person to represent you can end up like.

The Email…

Like most successful female voice talents, I do a lot of direct emails. One of the groups of people I target are radio station managers and program directors to grow my radio imaging business. This week I reached out to a station manager again who had wanted to sign me for a monthly retainer in 2019. In 2019 “Mike” called me. We chatted and he was ready to move forward. I handed him off to my manager and never heard from him again. This week, in response to my friendly email check in, I received this message:

Hi Laura,

Sorry, I did not. Last year when I was interested in working with you, I was told that our station was not big enough for your services. That’s why I have not followed up.

This email got me very upset for several reasons. First, I was ready to move forward, my manager who was supposed to represent me, acted in a way that did not represent me. Next, I lost this station which would have been a monthly retainer. Third, this was not only a loss of revenue, it reflected badly on my business and my brand. Fourth, and perhaps most upsetting, this was one of six stations in a six week period that my manager blew deals with. Six stations, that would have ranged between $150 and $500 in monthly retainers, yet I was contractually obligated to pay him his monthly retainer for the remainder of the year. So, let’s dive deeper.

If I Had Leads, Why Sign With A Manager in the First Place?

There were two main reasons I signed with this manager. First, as a working creative and small business owner, one of the hardest aspects of the job is negotiating rates. I have always worked to maintain industry standard rates, often siting both the GVAA Rate Guide and the GFTB Rate Guide to clients. I had felt that I was low-balled on the the last few imaging retainers I had negotiated prior to my talks with the manager. I did not feel that it was related to my ability or experience, it just seemed that I kept getting the same sob story from every single station. None of them had any money. They all wanted so much for so little. It was crazy. I had hoped that with the manager negotiating the rates, each station would be in the ball park of the rates cards, even if the manager now got a cut.

My other hope was that if I was able to seal the deal with more lucrative stations because of the manager, then some of the top agencies like Atlas or CESD would take notice of me and would sign me. I have felt so close to making this step, and just needed something to push me over the edge. I saw other very well known and amazingly talented voice actors post that they were booking stations with the help of this manager. They were then getting repped by these agencies. I also knew some talents at these agencies who were on this mangers roster. It was not hard to connect the dots and in truth did not even seem like a leap of faith. It seemed like a common sense, savvy move. Well, sometimes the evidence can be very misleading.

the Damage

I signed with this manager specifically for the Radio Imaging part of my business in January 2019. Within the first week, I sent him 5 leads of stations who wanted to sign me and wanted to negotiate retainers. The email above was a call I got a week later. Of these leads, my manager destroyed every single one of them. I was not on the calls. I had empowered him to speak on my behalf. The email above “I was told that our station was not big enough for your services.” is a glimpse of how these prospects were treated in my name. Was this the road to the big agencies? No. Worse, when he tried to renegotiate the stations I had, I lost them. There were other odd quirks about the manager. He wanted any auditions to be professionally mastered, which was an added expense. He also sent Sound and Fury auditions, but I get those from other agents, so now I was paying him to get auditions I was already getting. It was terrible. I realized early on and I was stuck. I basically had to stop soliciting all Radio Imaging business or it would be tied to him. Years of hard work and planning came to a screeching halt. Be careful who you pick to represent you.

Undoing the Damage

First I had to wait until I could give him notice as per my contract. As soon as I legally could, I did. Then, as soon as I was legally out of contract, on 1/20/2020. I began reaching out to stations to tell them I was no longer with the manager and that if they were so inclined they could negotiate directly with me to learn my market availability. It was too soon, there were no bites. No one would even reply. I continue to circle back to the stations that were interested. Now I have updated my demo, and my hope is that with some time, and fresh branding, I can rebuild.

https://youtu.be/nrobFDWQVmI

Lessons Learned

THE BEST PERSON TO SPEAK FOR ME IS ME. If you want clients to get to know you and how great you are, then you have to be the one to work with them. If you really feel that you need someone to negotiate on your behalf, you had better make sure you know the tone and tenor of what they are saying

Can’t Win Em’ All

April 29, 2019 by Laura Schreiber

How a Night in NYC Reading for 5 Top Voice Over Agents Went South Real Fast

The Potential for Life Changing Awesomeness

You have to understand that I am a huge optimist. I always think everything will be great and that every single thing I do has the potential to not just succeed but to be life changing. I mean, it’s worked out pretty well, right? I have two ivy league diplomas, married the man of my dreams, I have pretty fantastic kids, and the cutest dog on the planet, so this attitude of hope and optimism has worked out thus far. How could it not? If you’re super smart and you work hard and you try your best what could possibly go wrong?? You see where this is headed….

So like many voice over actors I am in tons of facebook groups. Honestly I can’t even count them all but I really enjoy them both for the useful information and the meaningful social interaction. One night, I think in the Actors in NYC group or something to that effect, someone mentioned the Actors’ Connection. I was excited to see the variety of programs they offered and was super excited to see one that had big agents from top agencies coming to the program. My perception, or rather mis-perception, of the event that I rather enthusiastically signed up for was that it was like speed dating with agents. They were there. We were there. We would schmooze.

My hope was to chat it up. I just got new business cards so I gathered a ton of those. I also printed a list of my top 10 clients of all time followed by my top 5 clients of the month, both of which I am rather proud of. We had to send in our head shots and resume in advance and I was really proud of that as well. I felt prepared and hopeful on the big night.

The working mom in me planned ahead on the home front too. I had my mom coming to give the twins dinner and my mother-in-law was coming to do Latin homework with Jack, so I had all the bases covered. I was prepared for greatness. All I had to do was show up, right?

The Great Debacle: A Fantastic Event For Which I was not Prepared

Did I mention in addition to being an optimist that I am also very type A? I have read for top agents in LA before. Both times I was extremely well prepared and I thought I nailed it. I got very positive feedback and left feeling like a did my best. Was I signed? No. Did my life change in any way from those events other than feeling relieved that I did not f—- up? No. But the key thing is that I showed up prepared.

So last Thursday I also thought I showed up prepared. The thing is, the Actors’ Connection sends A LOT of emails. I do not mean this as a criticism. But I happen to have had a lot of bookings last week, and as a full-time working mom, I do not always read all of my emails. Well, I realized pretty quickly that this was a huge problem. This was NOT speed dating with agents. Not at all. I showed up prepared for an event that was not happening and was totally unprepared for the actual event. You have to understand that I am never, ever unprepared and I was having a silent stroke in my seat.

Every one else had scripts prepared as we were going to read for the agents. Which makes sense, after all, because why would they care just to chat with us? I did not have a script in hand. I pulled one up on my phone but I did this as the agents were speaking

and of course I was in the front row so I was not at all subtle. I felt like an ass. I found a script for a Culligan Water spot I booked months ago and I thought it was cute and showed my range.

The Epic Fail

As if I had never read live before, and in part because I did not have a paper script and was reading from my tiny phone which I never ever would have done, I began my first read. I raced through. Everything I have been trained to do went out the window. I will not recount all the ways in which I sucked, but let’s say that any charm, finesse, and charisma that my actual audition may have had to book the read was entirely missing on Thursday night. I was both petrified and horrified at once.

On the director’s cue I came out from the booth and got feedback from the agents before the second take. The agent from CESD spoke for the group. I held it together and went back in. The second take was not beyond horrible and at least I was not ashamed to make eye contact when I left. Before I departed the building, I was giving “report cards” with scores and comments from each agent. They showed a range of opinions and feedback from good to excellent and I took everything in me not to cry from the stress of it all. Oh how I longed to be in the security of my own booth!

The Aftermath

I walked in the pouring rain back to Penn Station. I felt both crushed and defeated. I left my children on a school night to go into the city and instead of doing something to benefit my family I crashed and burned in front of an audience of folks I wished I had dazzled and charmed.

What did I learn from all of this? First, I need to read ALL of my emails! Next, even though it felt like disaster to me, the comments were actually somewhat encouraging and they were all pleased with my second read, so I suppose I was able to show flexibility and resilience even though I did not enjoy it. Lastly, even if I had been signed by any of those agents, which I would have loved, it likely would have opened more doors but would not have lead to some sort of instant and dramatic change in the trajectory if my life or career.

So what now? I just get up every day and keep plugging. I have a lot of auditions this morning and a live session for radio commercial at 1:30 so I just keep doing my thing. I am thankful that I get to work full-time in the field I am passionate about.