5 BIG CHANGES to LinkedIn in 2024: What VOICE ACTORS NEED to Know

LinkedIn's got a ton of changes in store for 2024. And if you're not up to date, then you could be missing out on huge opportunities and getting left behind.

LinkedIn is bringing a massive change to creator mode, a dedicated services section, search filters, and a whole lot more.

In this video, I'll break down five big LinkedIn changes for 2024, what they mean for you as a freelancer, as a voice actor, and maybe most importantly, how to update your LinkedIn profile to take maximum advantage and have the best possible effect in light of all these changes.

marketing, social media, businessPaul SchmidtFebruary 22, 2024LinkedInComment

J Michael Collins: "P2Ps Are in DECLINE"

In our chat with J. Michael Collins, he emphasizes the importance of using voiceover sites wisely and not overspending on memberships.

He highlights the significance of having a strong marketing game and reaching out to clients on a regular basis.

He also talks about the benefits of search engine optimization for visibility and attracting clients. JMC emphasizes the importance of networking and building relationships in the industry.

Finally, he provides some insights into what can be expected at VO Atlanta 2024.

interviews, AI/TTS, the vo industry, rates, marketing, conferences/conventionsPaul SchmidtJanuary 29, 2024JMCComment

Voice Actors’ Top 5 Biggest Social Media Mistakes

If you're like most voice actors, you feel an immense amount of pressure to post on social media, hoping to use that as a business development strategy, which takes a ton of time and effort and sweat and stress.

You’ve got to plan it, conceive it, design it, produce it, and schedule it. Oh my God. No wonder you're stressed out.

But here's the thing. You're probably going to all this trouble for virtually nothing in return in terms of revenue produced from all that time and sweat and stress and everything else.

The fact is, every voice actor I know is all over social media, and most voice actors still struggle to grow their business. So, what gives?

I'll tell you what gives: content marketing on social media sucks as a business development strategy for voice actors.

And today we're going to talk about why that is, why you're wasting so much time, what social media is good for, and how to properly use it to your advantage.

So, here are the top five biggest social media mistakes voice actors make.

business development, marketing, messaging, social mediaPaul SchmidtDecember 14, 2023social media Comments

Your 6-Point Plan to ROCK VOICE OVER and LIFE in 2024

You have a choice. You can decide right now that you're going to keep doing what you've been doing and keep getting what you've been getting.

Or, you can decide right now that you're done with excuses, done with kidding yourself, and done with half-assing your career and your life.

I said in last week's episode, there are two kinds of people in the world: those that make excuses and those that make it happen. And the fact of the matter is, you can't make it happen without a plan.

Decide. Right now. You're either going to rock the coming year or it's going to rock you.

You already know without me even having to ask you if you executed in the past year or not. If you kept the promises you made to yourself or not. If you were consistent or not.

Now, doing the same things next year as you did this year only makes sense if you made significant progress this year. If you didn't make significant progress this year and you've decided you're done making excuses and you're ready to make it happen, then listen up.

Today, I'm going to give you a six-point plan for killing in the coming year.

The 6 BIG Reasons YOU'LL QUIT VO

If you are a professional voice actor or audiobook narrator, you have one job, and that is to stay in the game as long as possible. Voice over is not a long game. It's an infinite game.

Author Simon Sinek says that in finite games like football or chess, the players are known, the rules are fixed and the end point is clear. The winners and losers are easily identified.

But in infinite games like business or yeah, voiceover or even life itself, the players come and go. The rules are changeable and there is no clearly defined endpoint.

In VO we know this. The players come and go all the time. People every day are coming into and going out of this business. The rules of voiceover are changing all the time. This audition wants natural and authentic. This one wants a classic announcer. Yet, this third one wants quirky and offbeat and on and on and on and on.

And of course, in voiceover, as in all business, there is no clearly defined endpoint. That's why you hear it often referred to as a journey. There is no destination. Again, your job as a video pro is to stay in the game as long as possible.

So, what are the biggest threats to staying in the game? I'm so glad you asked, because that's exactly we're going to talk about today.

Here are the six reasons you'll quit voice over.

The 5 Biggest LIES in Voice Over & the REAL TRUTHS BEHIND THEM

One of the biggest problems that folks new to the business coming into voiceover run into as new voice actors is how to separate, how to sort out the good information from the bad.

In fact, it's one reason I started this channel because there is a substantial amount of factually incorrect garbage going on in our business that's floating around out there and the only way to fight that is with real facts and honest truth.

Now, is truth in the eye of the beholder. Largely, yes. But again, there's stuff out there that is just factually garbage and has to be called out as such.

So, today we're going to do just that. We're going to talk about the five biggest lies in the voiceover industry, what the source of those lies are and the corresponding truths that you need to know to be a successful voice actor.

casting sites, marketing, professional development, the vo industryPaul SchmidtOctober 19, 2023lies, fiverr, upworkComment

The TOP 7 REAL Reasons You’re Not Booking VO Jobs

It's no secret. Actors historically are notoriously bad business people. We just are.

And statistically, we're even bad at booking work, something that we're supposed to be able to do as part of the job.

Even elite voice actors book maybe 5 to 10 out of every 100 auditions they do. And chances are you're booking way less than that. And today I'm going to teach you why.

5 MUST-HAVE Features of Your Voice Over Website

Maybe you’re building your voice over website for the first time. Or maybe you’re redesigning your VO website. How do you design your voiceover website to not just look good, but to actually help grow your business? Specifically, what are the website features you must have? How do you make it easy for customers to do business with you through your website?

So in this video I’m going to give you 6 website features you must have on your voice over website to insure it will help you grow your VO, and at the end I’ll tell you how you can get my Top 10 Website Strategies ebooklet that has 4 additional strategies you can use to boost the effectiveness of your VO website design.

marketing, the vo industry, business developmentPaul SchmidtAugust 10, 2023website design, websites, VO websitesComment

NEW! VO Pro – A Private Global Community JUST for Voice Actors

There are a million voice over Facebook groups and most of them are great, but let’s face it, Facebook itself is a toilet and all the groups are largely the same thing – it’s an online forum and that’s mostly it. Discord is powerful but looks like Slack on meth and has a big learning curve.

So the question has been how do we leverage the power of community to help educate, connect, and support voice actors in a way that we currently haven’t been able to reach.

How do we bring together growth-minded, driven voice actors who are committed to their craft, along with top coaches, the best educational tools in the business, and help them more deeply connect with each other, learn from each other, and support one another?

Well, I have an answer: VO Pro.

Are You Serving SPAM? Demystifying Email Deliverability

One of the biggest objections I hear from voice actors is I don’t want to be spammy in my email marketing. And I get what people are saying here, and they’re right. They don’t want to be perceived as sending irrelevant, salesy, sleazy messages to poorly targeted, or not targeted at all, people.

In other words, if they reach out to prospects, they want that to be a quality engagement and I 110% support that philosophy.

BUT there’s another kind of spam. And it’s this second kind that you may be sending and not even know it. It’s unintentional spam. It’s messaging that you’ve taken the time to craft, taken the time to target your prospects, taken the time to try to do all the things right, and yet it’s not even making it to your prospect’s inbox, because the ESPs, the email service providers are marking it as spam and culling it from the system before you’ve ever had the chance to say Hello.

The ONE Thing that Changes EVERYTHING in VO and LIFE

There's one hack, one great secret. One thing you can do for your growing your voiceover business. And it's so powerful that it works for not just growing your video business, but for improving your physical fitness, your mental fitness, and your emotional intelligence. It works for improving your relationships.

It's the difference between setting goals and achieving them. Between a dream and reality.

And it's so simple to understand that even a sixth grader can get it. And when I say what it is, you will kick yourself because you already know it to be true.

So what is this cheat code to all good things in your life?

Two words…

marketing, mindset, professional development, personal developmentPaul SchmidtJune 22, 2023consistency, perfectionismComment

Overcome Common Objections and BOOK the Gig

As a voice actor, as really any freelance creative writer, developer, designer, you name it, your ability to attract and retain clients is going to be key to your success. And as a freelancer, you're going to run into some pretty common customer objections. And those customer objections can get in the way of or at worst, completely derail closing deals and booking gigs.

And when I say common objections, I'm not kidding. They happen all the time.

Today I'm going to help you do just that. We're going to explore some common customer objections. And I'm going to give you some strategies to overcome them so you can close more deals and book more gigs.

business, business development, marketing, messagingPaul SchmidtMay 25, 2023overcoming objections, closing salesComment

DIY Voice Over Demos – DON’T DO IT!!!

There are a lot of coaches,, one in particular, and even Voices dot com who will tell you how to make your own DIY voice over demo.

And I'm here to tell you in your best interest, especially as a beginner, do not do your own demo.

Today, I'm going to tell you in no uncertain terms why it's an absolutely awful idea to make your own DIY voice over demo reel and why it can significantly damage your career before it ever gets started.

marketing, the vo industryPaul SchmidtMarch 9, 2023demosComment

7 Truths You MUST Know Before You Get Started in Voice Acting

Today's post is essentially a letter to my former self. It's all the stuff I wish I knew when I was starting out in voiceover and stuff that you should know, maybe even before you get into voiceover.

My goal and hope are that you can learn from some of the mistakes that I made and learn some of the lessons that I learned. As I've gotten older, I've learned that when you can learn from somebody with a little bit more experience than you, it can save you a lot of heartache and hurt. I'd like to think as a voice actor, I've done a better job of listening, but I still have made my own fair share of mistakes and learned lessons that I hope to pass on to you here.

So here are seven truths you need to know before you get into VO or at the very least, as you're getting into VO.

business, marketing, professional development, the vo industryPaul SchmidtJanuary 26, 2023getting started, voice actingComment

How To Survive Losing a Big Client: Voiceover Crisis Management

I was completely freaking out.

Seven months into my full-time voiceover career, I lost my biggest and best client, one of my gateway clients, one of the ones that helped me make the leap to full-time voiceover. I had lost a huge client and I had never seen it coming.

I was a single dad, a one-income house. I had risked everything for voiceover. Not only that, but I had fled a job that not only I hated, but I knew I would be fired from and could not go back to.

What in the hell was I going to do? Well, I'll tell you what I did, and I think it'll help you if the same situation or one similar ever happens to you.

This is your VO Crisis Management Plan.

business development, marketingPaul SchmidtDecember 1, 2022crisis management Comment

NEW Voices.com Affiliate Program – BRAZEN. RIDICULOUS. SHAMELESS.

The email goes like this:

We are excited to officially announce the Voices affiliate program and we are inviting you to become a part of it. You're already getting paid for doing what you love, so why not get paid twice as a Voices affiliate? Refer your network to Voices and receive a commission when they hire their first voice talent.

Learn more about the Voices affiliate program here and apply now to start earning.

Let's click that apply button and see what this is all about.

A Voice Over Marketing Plan Is CRITICAL to Your Business

It's a cold, hard fact: A voiceover marketing plan is critical to your voiceover business.

Marketing for voice actors is a fraught subject, and most voice actors don't have a voice over marketing strategy, email marketing strategy or even any vague, faint direction in their voice over email marketing. Most voiceover artists are petrified at worst and nauseated at best over marketing for voice actors.

Today, we're going to get you over that fear. So buckle up, Buttercup.

How To Go Full Time in Voice Over – 7 Steps

Welcome back and welcome to How to Go Full Time in Voice Over. When starting a career in voiceover, figuring out how to become a voice over artist and how to make voice over a full-time career can be daunting. Going full-time in voice over ain't easy. Today, we're going to talk about what it takes to go full-time in the voice over business, including voice over training, voice over marketing tips, voice over coaching, and more.

The VO Pro Blog