Get Started in Voiceover Work: Choosing Your 1st Coach

So you've decided you want to get into voice acting and you want to learn to do voiceovers and maybe even, who knows, become a professional voice actor one day. That's great.

And as the song says, yes, there are two paths you can go by first. Maybe you just want to make a few extra bucks and have some fun and make voice over a hobby.

Or you can jump on Fiverr or Upwork or any of the freelancer sites and find a ton of voiceover jobs to audition for. And that's great.

But if you think you might want to go pro one day or you don't even know, avoid the Fiverr route. Working on Fiverr and Upwork and the freelancer sites can eventually damage your professional career.

Now, if you want to get started on the journey to professional voice acting, it all starts with good coaching.

acting, professional development, the vo industryPaul SchmidtNovember 17, 2022coaching Comments

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.

Using Online Casting Sites SMARTLY: 3 Scenarios

I am staunchly against relying on the voiceover casting sites as a long-term strategy for growing your business.

Note: I said relying on. If the lion's share of your business is coming from the online casting sites, then chances are you're not developing your own relationships and you're leaving your business and yourself vulnerable.

But I do believe that there are certain times and circumstances where you can use websites for voiceover or work strategically.

In this post, I'm going to lay out three scenarios of when and how to use the online casting sites and which ones in each case to your advantage using the voiceover audition sites.

Conference Sneak Peek: MAVO 2022 - Mid-Atlantic Voice Over

MAVO, The Mid-Atlantic Voice Over conference is coming up Friday, November 11th through Sunday, November 13th, at the Westin Dulles in the Washington, D.C. area. MAVO was my first conference, and it's very special to me. And so today we're going to do a little preview of MAVO 2022, the faces you can expect to see what you can expect to hear, why MAVO is different than certainly the 800-pound gorilla conferences in our business and what makes it special.

And to tell us about all that is the chief executive president, owner and executive producer of MAVO, Val Kelly.

conferences/conventions, professional development, the vo industryPaul SchmidtOctober 27, 2022MAVOComment

Absolutely CRUSH 2023: Your 3-Step Voice Over Business Plan

2023 is going to be your year

But only if you have a solid voice over business plan, including a solid voiceover marketing plan.

In this post, I'm going to give you the three most effective steps for building a rock solid 2023 action plan for your voice over business. And stick around because at the end, I'm going to reveal the real secret sauce for success in 2023 and beyond.

The old saying failing to plan is planning to fail is absolutely true. Here's exactly how to plan and rock. 2023.

Paul SchmidtOctober 20, 2022 Comment

Voice Over Jobs Websites – 5 RED FLAGS

There are tons of voice over websites where you can find voice over jobs, opportunities for beginners, voice over work for pros and everything in between. Everybody, it seems, is trying to make money online and jobs websites have become a popular way to find voice over jobs opportunities.

So today, I'm going to give you five red flags to look for on the voice over jobs websites.

And stick around because at the end, I'm going to give you a bonus sixth red flag to look for, which just might be the biggest threat to your voice over business.

KILL Your Fear of Rejection and Failure - 8 PROVEN Methods

“Everything you've ever wanted is on the other side of fear.” That's a quote from George Addair. And it's so true for voice actors. I talked to almost 70 voice actors face-to-face. And by far the biggest fear we have is the fear of failure.

That one root fear permeates everything we do. Fear of auditioning. Fear of rejection. Fear of standing up for our worth. Fear of pushing back on a client. Fear of demanding pro rates. Fear of annoying people. Fear of not executing the audition spec. And the list goes on and on and on.

So today, we're going to give you eight proven methods to kill your fear of failure and rejection.

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 WORST Thing You Can Do on Fiverr and Voices.com

Alright, when it comes to Fiverr and Voices.com, there is one worst thing you can do making money online doing voice over work. Today, we'll discuss that regarding Fiverr versus Voices.com, voiceover freelance sites in general, how successful voiceover professionals find voiceover jobs online, how they make money online, and create income from websites for voiceover work.

5 Career Killers (& 5 Best Practices) Every Voice Actor Should KNOW

Today, we're going to warn you about five ways where you can really damage your voice acting career, things that can truly hurt your voiceover career and give you a negative reputation, which you don't need. Stick around, because I'm also going to give you five best practices to build your reputation in the voiceover industry, build your career, and enrich your life.

Paul SchmidtSeptember 8, 2022 Comment

WHY Negotiate Voice Over Rates?

"How do I set and negotiate proper voice over rates?" That's one of the most common questions I get from newer voice actors. In fact, just this week I had one of my students in the VO Freedom Master Plan ask it in just this way. “I also feel like a huge obstacle for me is pricing knowledge. Knowing how to price myself and how to justify my prices, I don't want to do cheap work in many businesses I've reached out to directly have told me they just use places like Fiverr to buy cheap VO. Drives me nuts"

It drives a lot of people nuts, so let’s get into it.

business, business development, mindset, rates, the vo industryPaul SchmidtSeptember 1, 2022GVAA, rates, bad rates, negotiation Comments

7 Useful CRM Features For Voice Over Talent

Your most important asset as a voice actor and as an entrepreneur is your time. Because whether you're a brand new voice actor who just cracked the mic for the first time, or whether you have 40 years of experience, you still only have 24 hours in a day.

And in order to scale your time, you need ample tools to help you do that.

Now, among the most powerful and useful tools to help you scale your time is called CRM: Customer Relationship Management software.

business, tech/gearPaul SchmidtAugust 25, 2022CRM, tools Comment

3 Hard Truths About Voice Over Agents

Welcome to the three hardest truths about voiceover agents. And stick around because at the end I'm going to give you a bonus truth you're not going to want to miss.

To start, one of the biggest questions for many voice actors in the early years is, "How do I even know when I'm ready for an agent?"

And the best way to think about this question is to think like an agent, which in many ways is just like being a voice actor.

business development, professional development, the vo industryPaul SchmidtAugust 18, 2022agents, representationComment

How I Booked $35K of Voice Over Work in 1 WEEK

Now, I hear you saying, "Well, Paul, surely you're Schmidting me. There's no way you made $35,000 in voiceover in one week." I absolutely did make that money in voiceover. And in this video, I'm going to lay out the systems processes, methods and the specific jobs that added up to $35,000 of voiceover work in one business week.

business development, marketing, messagingPaul SchmidtAugust 11, 2022money, bookings Comments

How To Avoid BAD Voice Over Rates

One of the hardest things to learn when you're in the first few years of your voice over career is rates. Specifically how to avoid bad voice over rates, how to deal with aggressive voice over job listings. You know what I'm talking about? How to negotiate voiceover rates and when and why in perpetuity is bad for voice actors.

Now, when you're in the first few years of your career, rates and negotiation tend to be a bit of a black box.

First of all, why do we negotiate? Why do we negotiate voice over rates? How do we spot aggressive voice over job listings on the voice over websites and voice over job boards? And ultimately, how do we avoid bad voice over jobs and bad voice over deals?

Is Voice Over Rigged? What the VO Business SHOULD Be

Today I want to talk straight from the heart, and I'll start by saying that I am head over heels madly in love with this business we call voiceover. It's given me gifts I can never begin to repay. A sense of accomplishment, fulfillment, freedom over my life. Creative freedom, flexibility in my life, money, deep, rich friendships, you name it. Voice over has given it to me and probably more things than I could ever really list if I sat down to list it all out. I love this business more than anything I've ever done professionally. And second isn't even close.

That said, this business is not perfect. It has things that need fixing.

professional development, marketing, familyPaul SchmidtJuly 28, 2022vision, fixed, rigged Comments

How NOT To Use Linkedin To Find Voice Over Work

Welcome back and welcome to how not to use LinkedIn to find voiceover work. When it comes to LinkedIn for voiceover artists, how not to use LinkedIn is just as important. These are my best LinkedIn tips for voiceover when it comes to how to find voice acting clients. And stick around because I'll also tell you how to correctly use LinkedIn and give you another tool which will save you a massive amount of time and effort in your voiceover marketing.

The VO Pro Blog