demos

Finding the Right Voice Over Coach

June 21, 2021 by Laura Schreiber

I’ve Been In Your Shoes

Laura Schreiber with Anne Ganguzz — Years ago at Atlantis Studios in Santa Monica with Anne Ganguzza, my beloved coach:)

It seems like just yesterday I was just starting my own voice over career. When I was new to voiceover, I, like you, had questions about everything from technique to gear. I had so much to learn, I was not sure where to begin. Coming from an academic background, my inclination was to research, but finding the right voice over coach that was the right fit for my vast VO goals was a goal in and of itself. If you look at my resume, it reads like a “Who’s Who” of the best of VO. I’ve coached with Anne Ganguzza, Bill DeWees, Nancy Wolfson, J. Michael Collins, Eric Romanowski, Dave Walsh, and the list goes on. You might be thinking, why has this gal worked with so many coaches? Well, there are three reasons: At different points in your career, you need different things. And, coaches have varying areas of expertise. Lastly, voice over, like many other professions, is a field for career-long learning.

Now, as a long-established full-time professional talent and working coach myself, Diana Birdsall and I have teamed up and started a Clubhouse room called “Ask the VO Coaches”

Ask the VO Coaches — Join Laura Schreiber and Diana Birdsall on Clubhouse weekly!

where we can have a weekly dialogue where people who are walking on the same path can now have a trusted space to pose their questions. Last week on Clubhouse Diana and I talked about finding a VO Coach that is right for you. Here are some of the issues that we considered:

Clubhouse Screenshot — Are you curious about Clubshouse? Find us there Thursday and Friday afternoons and chat about VO for free!

Vetting the Right Voice Over Coach

During our Clubhouse panel last week, Diana and I were excited to have Randy Thomas and Dan Friedman as guests. Both established voice talents and coaches like us. We discussed that group classes and conferences are great ways to test the waters and see if a voice over coach is the right fit for you. You should consider things like their demeanor and philosophy. See if you can get a sense of their methodology. What is their approach to studying voiceover like?

What Questions You Should Ask

You should ask voice over coaches about their policies. For instance, do they require 24 hours notice for cancellation or are they flexible?
Do they provide the scripts? Some coaches plan the lessons and provide scripts, others expect you to find your own scripts. I always provide scripts, but this is not standard, it really does vary and if you don’t want to go digging you should ask. Or, conversely, if you want to control the material, you should ask.
How do they know what you are ready to go to demo? Not all coaches produce demos. I do work with an amazing demo team, and I do not send my students to demo until their reads are repeatedly bookable.
Do they offer a free consultation? This is very common and is a great way to see if you are a good fit. Do they offer a consultation for demos? This is very helpful as well.

What Guarantees Can They Offer

None. That’s it. You can do everything right. You can have an amazing demo. No one can promise you work. Voice over is hard. It is a grind. It takes hours of commitment and sacrifice and more determination than you can measure. If you have demo producers promising you the starts you should run for the hills. There are no guarantees and anyone that suggests that there are should not be trusted. Gabby Nistico, another amazing coach who I know as an industry friend, has a video about the rule of 10. She talks about how you have to put in years of effort to reap the rewards. The secret is there is no secret.

https://youtu.be/MyuNcKjU9rs

The One Important Secret to Being Successful in Voice Over. (https://youtu.be/MyuNcKjU9rs)

The Right Voice Over Coach Should Make You Better

At the end of the day, you know where you are when you start. You should know how you learn. A good coach should bring

Building Blocks Class Image — It was such a joy to see our students make progress week to week. From top left: Laura Schreiber, Jeffrey Mahoney, Rosemary Le, Dave Scott.

out the best in you and push you. For example, I respond well to positive reinforcement. I do not respond well to criticism, harsh feedback, sarcasm, or cruelty. I am not the kind who can rise above to prove how awesome I am. I will, instead, just fall to pieced. It is not good. So for me, I look for a specific energy from coaches. Ultimately, I was very excited to build my VO career. Now, as a coach, when I work with students, I am trying to build a relationship with them just as I do with my clients. I want them to build a strong foundation of skills that will not disappear when they are nervous in a live session or when there is noise outside their apartment that they cannot control. I want them to hear my voice in their head cheering them on and lifting them up.

My Second Career as Working Mom: My Voice Over Journey

June 1, 2021 by Laura Schreiber

My Son Hates When I Say Journey

I realized this year when my son had to do a rather grueling elimination diet that he hates when I say journey. Whether it is related to food, weight loss, his college search… it doesn’t matter. He hates if I say journey. I think it doesn’t resonate with him. He still thinks that where he is going, the end result, is the most important thing. As a mom of twins, I can say that I have learned I seldom end up where I thought I would. As a professional voice actor, I can say that this career path is for sure a voice over journey. The opportunities that have unfolded since I started my career never cease to amaze me. The combination of passion and hard work seems to result in a delightful array of unexpected options, many of which I never anticipated.

A New Career

When I was in my mid-30s I decided to start my voice over business. I had to work with coaches all over the world to build my credentials. I needed tech training to learn to edit my audio. I had to build my studio. When I say I started then, I came to the industry with no experience. I never did school plays. I never did on-camera work. I took a leap of faith and invested in myself. I plunged in whole heartedly and the only option was to succeed. For six months before my business launched, I spent all day, every day, practicing and preparing. That is how my journey began. You might think that this was an easy choice? While my husband was extremely supportive, many in my family seemed to question my choices. Whether they outwardly remarked about my shift from a career in education to voice over or my snide remarks about how I could so easily “not use my degrees,” I understood the message. They questioned my choice to segue into voice over. Fortunately, the voice in my head propelling me towards VO was substantially louder than the many voices of doubt that surrounded me.

Solopreneur

When I began my business, I understood that it was just that: a business. As a working creative, I wear many hats: mom, voice actor, voice over coach, demo producer, but always the business owner. Over the years I’ve had to think a lot about my practices and policies. I’ve had to think about how the business choices I make inform the relationships I’m building. As I had a liberal arts education that focuses on Political Science and History, I really knew very little about business when I launched. Even though I am surrounded by a family of lawyers, I did not want to constantly rely on others for guidance. I have taken multiple classes to bolster my business and marketing knowledge. This has been very fulfilling. I enjoy all ongoing professional development, but my learning in this area has been very valuable. Whether from a class, a conference, or a webinar, I am proud of the confidence I have in my choices. I also try to read continually about business released topics. This part of my journey has been a true joy.

Opportunity as Working Mom

I will say, that as a working mom, I am extremely thankful to be in voice over. Even as I write this blog, my dogs are sitting on either side of me. Often, I am able to take breaks from recording to have snacks with my kids or go for walks. Some days I schedule my coaching so that I can go to pick them up from school, other days my husband does it. As a working mom, voice over seems like the perfect fit.

New Ventures Within VO

There have been many surprises for me in voiceover. First, I work in many genres I never knew existed when I started. This includes telephony, eLearning, and radio imaging. I never heard of any of those and learned about all of them from online webinars. I have been able to really build those areas of practice over the years.

Another big surprise for me has been voice over coaching and demo production. If you had asked me even three years ago if I’d be doing this, I would never have guessed. But the truth is, the voice over coaching seems like the perfect fit for me as a former teacher. And most of those students need demos, so teaming up with All Systems Go AV to provide my students with what they need just makes sense.

Reflections on the Voice Over Journey

So why do they need to share these thoughts and feelings about my journey? Since I started coaching, quite a few students have asked for reassurance that they are not getting into VO too late. Hearing my story, how old I was, and that it was a second career for me too, has been comforting to them. Do I know where this journey will take me? No. But I sure am thankful for the opportunity to be on it.

What Makes a Good Voice Over Demo?

March 15, 2021 by Laura Schreiber

Nothing gets a group of Voice Actors More Excited…

It happens! Your brimming with joy! The very thing you’ve been waiting for has arrived: your sparkly new voice over demo. In a lot of ways its up there in excitement with new jewelry and a new car. For professional voice talents, our voice over demos are our calling cards, and nothing gets us going like a new demo to fuss over. In my small inner circle, it happened just yesterday! One of my VO besties got a new commercial demo back from a well-known demo producer. She was so excited to share the demo with our group, and with good reason! The demo was clever. It did all that will be discussed below, and it was a joy to listen to. She sounded amazing, and we were really excited to ohhh and ahhh over it. So, what is it that makes a voice over demo stand out?

Voice Over Demos Are Aspirational

This is a voiceover actor’s chance to showcase your dream array of clients. Whether you are a newbie or an established professional, in a demo (vs. a reel of booked work), this is a voice talent’s chance to say “Hey, look what I can do for your brand.” It’s also your opportunity to show how versatile your voice is in terms of how many industries you can work in. Regardless of whether you choose current, hot, very new products, like the latest mobile app, or a trusted household stand-by that has been around for generations, this is your moment to show them what you’ve got. Particularly with commercial demos, but with other genres like narration too, your demo is the perfect place to lay the ground work for what you are working to build.

https://youtu.be/Z2YkGgO_de4

2020 COMMERCIAL DEMO: LAURA SCHRIEBER VO (https://youtu.be/Z2YkGgO_de4)

A Good Voice Over Demo Shows a Range

Those of us who have done multiple demos go from conversational to relatable to sympathetic to humorous all at the snap of a finger. These changes occur in a matter of seconds. We bring a read to life, flesh out the nuances, and just as the reader is connecting and feeling their heard strings or grinning a relatable grin, the spot is over and the next one is starting. Why is this important? Every second is precious. In a demo, we have very little time to convince the listener that we stand out from the crowd, and that they should work with us and not the last demo they listened to. Our ability to convey a range of emotion, tone, style, and pace in a short period of time is essential and a good demo does this.

Ideally Demos Are Short: 50-90 Seconds At Most

If you are lucky enough to have someone listen past your first 2 or 3 spots, just how long will they listen? You don’t know, but they do not want a two to three minute demo. Ideally your demo will be 50 to 60 seconds for a commercial demo. You want to create a demo that is so hot they want to listen over and over. You do NOT want to create something that is long and clunky so the listener never gets to the end. The vogue at the moment is that shorter is better. The only exception to this is in eLearning. Those videos are much longer because each excerpt is longer.

Video Demos Present Like Booked Work

Without doubt, video demos give voice over actors an advantage to others with audio only demos. Whether you are new or an established talent, this holds true. If you are new, a video demo gives you an instant body of work to market. If you are an established talent, a video demo both helps to draw your prospect in and enhances your existing body of work. Who among us, even those of us who have been working for years, does not still have dream clients? The video demo offers this aspirational piece to enhance your body of booked work.

Most Importantly, They Allow You to Market Yourself

At the end of the day, a solid demo is a marketing tool. It becomes another reason to connect. It is another great way to promote yourself. The voice over industry is more competitive than ever. The best way to make yourself stand out, is with a solid demo. Have you ever wondered why you can’t get onto certain rosters? Perhaps you have been trying to get an agent? Maybe you do lots of pay to play auditions, and never get anywhere? If any of this sounds familiar, the answer might be more basic than you think. Have all of these platforms/folks heard your demo? Going back to my VO group, one of my other VO besties says that a good commercial demo has the “bitch slap” factor. You listen and you are just blown away, it’s so awesome you want everyone to hear it. If you’re demo is not like that, you need a new demo!!

We’re Not in the Same Boat, But We Never Were….

April 19, 2020 by Laura Schreiber

A Lot of Ship Metaphors…

When I went to my very first voice over conference years ago, Bill DeWees’ VO Revolution, Anthony Gettig said something that apparently was a beloved FaffCon phrase “The rising tide lifts all the ships in the harbor.” I loved it when he said it. Times were really different than they are today. I was full of hope. I was out of my house and traveling. And my life in the voiceover world was just beginning. The idea of being part of the community, or tide, of ships, meant so much to me.

I guess I have always been a joiner. In high school I was in A LOT of clubs. In college I was involved in campus life too, and was a proud sister in Alpha Chi Omega. As a teacher I was very involved in student/teacher life. Now, in voice over, I regularly attend conferences both in VO and in fields that I do work like eLearning. So this idea of a rising tide lifting us all sounds great when things are good.

Dissecting it a little more…

I guess I happily took the lovely metaphor at face value. Even if one pictures any harbor and realizes that not all ships are the same, I never really thought about what that meant. Then last night my friend and former agent Liz Atherton posted this:

“WE ARE NOT IN THE SAME BOAT …

I heard that we are all in the same boat, but it’s not like that. We are in the same storm, but not in the same boat. Your ship could be shipwrecked and mine might not be. Or vice versa.

For some, quarantine is optimal. A moment of reflection, of re-connection, easy in flip flops, with a cocktail or coffee. For others, this is a desperate financial & family crisis.

For some that live alone they’re facing endless loneliness. While for others it is peace, rest & time with their mother, father, sons & daughters.

With the $600 weekly increase in unemployment some are bringing in more money to their households than they were working. Others are working more hours for less money due to pay cuts or loss in sales.

Some families of 4 just received $3400 from the stimulus while other families of 4 saw $0.

Some were concerned about getting a certain candy for Easter while others were concerned if there would be enough bread, milk and eggs for the weekend.

Some want to go back to work because they don’t qualify for unemployment and are running out of money. Others want to kill those who break the quarantine.

Some are home spending 2-3 hours/day helping their child with online schooling while others are spending 2-3 hours/day to educate their children on top of a 10-12 hour workday.

Some have experienced the near death of the virus, some have already lost someone from it and some are not sure if their loved ones are going to make it. Others don’t believe this is a big deal.

Some have faith in God and expect miracles during this 2020. Others say the worst is yet to come.

So, friends, we are not in the same boat. We are going through a time when our perceptions and needs are completely different.

Each of us will emerge, in our own way, from this storm. It is very important to see beyond what is seen at first glance. Not just looking, actually seeing.

We are all on different ships during this storm experiencing a very different journey.

Unknown author”

It really got my wheels turning. The tide might life all the boats but some of the boats need it more than others… hmmm. I read it to my family thinking we would have a lengthy discussion. We didn’t. But I guess what really touched me was that if we didn’t go into this pandemic equally, both in terms of what we “have” and how we cope, how can we expect to come through it the same?

But back to voiceover…

I have noticed from the start that there are a lot of differences that put those of us in VO into different boats:

We come into voice over from different backgrounds and with different levels of training. Some can afford lots of training. Some find clever ways of getting coaching regardless of their budget. Some find training unnecessary. There are a lot of different approaches.
Demos vary greatly. Some of us invest a lot to have them made by the best in the business. For others they either cannot afford this or they chose alternate approaches. Some know of demo options and others are ignorant and simply chose what they can find.
Websites vary greatly from complex, multi page sites exhibiting lots of demos and samples of work to very simple scrolling pages with few samples and graphics.
Branding is another area where voice talents show a huge range. Some of is run our business like a business and put a lot of time and energy into branding, others do not emphasize this at all.

Social Media is a huge area of variability in voice over. Talents focus on different platforms and spend different amounts of time on each. It’s very, very personal and saying that it varies by generation or genre is an over simplification. It is complicated and talents’ choices are personal.

Reflecting on all of these categories that go into the “ship” that we maintain, Liz is right. We never started in the same boat. So as I ruminate on it, it is amazing that we have overlooked all of these differences and become such a strong community. It is those bonds that are holding us together now. I look forward to daily posts and messages from other voice actors. I think, in the final analysis, it does not matter that we are not in the same boat. It matters that we are all looking out for one another in good times and bad and that we have a good group of folks to toss each other a life preserver when we most needed.

Reflections About Voice Over Business Spending and Priorities

September 1, 2019 by Laura Schreiber

My Wheels Are Turning….

Perhaps because I have been following The Budget Mom, and I have been spending a lot of time thinking about personal finances and where our money goes, it makes sense that in this time of reflection as a working mom I would also reassess what has worked well and been of value in by business and what I might have done or do differently. As a solopreneur, ever single dollar counts and at least in my perception has even more weight than it would in a large company, so for me my choices in my voiceover business matter a lot. I confess that I lay in bed at night thinking about them and praying that I have put myself on the right path so that I succeed for my children. I am passionate about my voice over work to be sure, but I also have a hunger to continue to build a thriving business and every choice matters.

The Demos

The very first choice most talents make is who to work with for their demo and which demo to do. I am EXTREMELY thankful and proud that Anne Ganguzza and I did such an amazing commercial demo. It is the rock solid foundation that my business has grown upon. It was worth every single penny and I am very glad that I invested in that. I feel the same way about my narration demo that I did with Bill DeWees. I also have booked A LOT with my eLearning demo that I did with J. Michael Collins. I am extremely proud of all of my demos, but I have brought in substantially more work from these 3 demos than all others combined.

I watch these adorable videos that my friend Heather Foster posts on Facebook called things I’d tell my younger self. Well, I was in a big hurry to do a lot of demos and for better or for worse they sure helped me build a full and diverse website. But, had I realized where my bookings would fall, perhaps I could have saved myself some money early on and not rushed to do so many demos. It is hard to commit to that statement, because I have done quite a lot of telephony and IVR, and gotten some great clients like Whole Foods, from that demo (also produced by J. Michael Collins) but the majority of my bookings continue to be commercials.

Equipment Purchases

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LY3QVccreqg

Welcome to My Booth! Why I Feel So at Home Here:) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LY3QVccreqg)

I am very happy with my studio. I am very thankful to have high end equipment in a well-treated booth. I built my studio early in my career and made upgrades as I got big, steady contracts for consistent work. This made sense at the time and it still makes sense. I had lots of industry people make digs about spending money and I had to filter them out. In fact, I probably should have invested in my expensive microphone, my Neumann TLM 103, when I started, instead of spending $500 on a mid-range mic only to upgrade within a few years. I intended to succeed and I did, and my studio, which is acoustically treated to perfection and also has an amazing pre-amp, is a huge piece of the puzzle. I am very happy about these purchases and filtering out the nay-sayers was a good move on my part. If you want to succeed in voice over, that is often a piece of the puzzle.

My Website

Home-NEW

I am VERY pleased with my website and my website team, but I have made some mis-steps- not with them, on my own. In the beginning, I worked with the brilliant Anne Ganguzza to do my branding. She was fabulous and I am pleased with all she helped create. When Joe Davis and Karin Barth at Voiceactor Websites came into the picture, we made some great upgrades. I am happy with everything I have done with them and pleased with all I have invested.

At some point a few years ago I decided to create a separate entity for government bidding. I created a separate webpage for this. I regret spending the money on this page and not just adding another page to my current site. I took a lot of advise from a government contracting mentor outside of voiceover, and his did not understand the voice over industry well enough. It is not in my best interest having two separate pages. It is often frustrating. I spent a lot of money and time on this and regret these choices.

I also made another mis-step with my main website. When I initially built my page, I first made it a scrolling page instead of a multipage site. Then when I wanted to add pages, I asked a random person to do it. It was a mess. I had to go back to Joe and Karin and ask them to fix everything. I felt terrible to have sidestepped them, which was years ago, and had to do a major website upgrade. It worked out in the end but I wish I had invested in a more elaborate website from the start. I had no idea how much work I would do.

Final Analysis

Don’t be short sited. Make choices that make your life easier. Work with kind people who are helpful. You can always spend money later, but if you are booking from something, you don’t need something else. Just keep doing what you are doing!