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mindset

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 andGoals and confucious 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.

Reaching goalsMuch 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!

Filed Under: About Me, Business Management, Voiceover Tagged With: Coaching, craft, determination, focus, getting it done, goals, Marketing, mindfulness, mindset, outreach, professional voice actor, training, VO, voice over, voiceover

Preparing for Your Free Sessions with a Voice Over Coach

January 20, 2022 by Laura Schreiber

So You’ve Booked Your Session with a Voice Over Coach

Wonderful, you’ve pulled the trigger and you have decided to book a free consultation to meet with a voice over coach. This meeting or call could be the beginning of your voice over career if the coach you are talking to is the right coach for you. Just as much as you want to find out if they are the ideal person to help you build the foundation for your business, they too are looking to see if you are the right fit for their voice over coaching program. Keep in mind that this working professional is setting aside time in the middle of booking gigs, running a business, and coaching others to speak with you FOR FREE. So here are some dos and don’ts to come in as prepared as possible for your consultation session. Remember, you only have one chance to make a first impression:

Do:

  • Actually prepare for your call. Know something about the coach you are speaking to, what genres they work in, their niche in the industry.
  • Educate yourself about the voice over industry.
  • Know why you want to work with a coach.
  • Have some personal goals. Why do you want to pursue voice over?
  • Ask about how this coach is different than other coaches?
  • Do ask about where this coach sources their scripts?
  • Do ask about how this coach designs and creates lessons.
  • Do ask about whether the coach only works on craft and vocal technique or if they cover business and marketing strategy too.
  • Do ask about the path that the coach took, what was their story.
  • Consider pricing and bulk packages.
  • Do a base line read if the coach sends one.

Don’t:

  • Don’t come unprepared.
  • Don’t ask for general life advice, like whether you should commit to voice over or go back to a day job.
  • Don’t ask for guidance for multiple genres all at once.
  • Don’t ask how much the coach earns in a year. It is fine to ask about typical career trajectories, but do not expect a stranger to share the income with you.
  • Don’t ask someone you have not hire to refer work to you.
  • Don’t ask a coach you have not booked work with for discount codes.
  • Don’t take more than the allotted time.
  • Do not continually email the coach who has already given you free time more questions. 
  • Don’t take advantage.

What it it’s a Demo Consultation?

  • Do your homework in advance. Listen to and watch samples to see if you actually want to work with this coach before you schedule the consultation.
  • Do ask what is included in the Demo package.
  • Do ask how the demo recording session is run.
  • Do ask what the demo script selection process is like.
  • Do ask how the demo will be marketed and if that is included in the package.
  • Do ask about different genres the coach produces demos for.
  • Do ask about general demo guidelines.
  • Do ask why this coach’s demos stand out.
  • Do ask how long the demo and the various spots will be.
  • Do ask about the order of the spots and who determined it/how it is determined.
  • Do ask about the demo turn-around time.
  • Do ask about the music/video for the demo.
  • Do ask about different versions of the demo.

So How Do I Know

cicero QuoteIn the end, you have to trust your gut. If the coach has good referrals, and you feel like you will go far from working with them, it is reasonable to try coaching with them. Sometimes you can tell a lot by the demos they have produced and others that have coached with them, sometimes you can’t. One of the best coaches I ever had, Fred Frees, never coached anyone until I begged him to coach me. He was amazing. I found him in a testimonial on another coach’s website, and Fred was incredible. He gave meaningful feedback, he listened, he was genuine, he was kind, and he had years of industry experience. What more could I have wanted? I think about Fred often. Don’t pick someone because of their name. Find the right fit for YOU. We all need something different, and we all learn differently. So, find someone who is the right coach for you!

Conversely, if you are rubbed the wrong way from the start, there are plenty of coaches in voice over. Do not force yourself to work with some you do not click with. That is the point of the free session. See what feels right! See if it’s the right fit. When the free session is over, you should be super excited for the next and first real session to start. If you are not feeling that way, something is terribly wrong. 

Filed Under: Coaching, Voiceover Tagged With: Coaching, consultation, demo session, does, dont's, fit, free consultation, free session, instinct, mindset, preparedness, voice over, voice over coach

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