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 Drive AMAZING Voice Over Client Experiences

Here's a question: How do you drive an exceptional customer experience, one that generates loyalty among your customers and drives repeat and recurring business? It all starts with understanding customer needs.

And today, we're going to talk about understanding and identifying customer needs, using Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs and just how that applies to the service business of Voice Over.

A Dialogue with Voice123: Can We CHANGE the P2Ps?

What if we could change how the P2Ps work? What if we could have a real dialog with the decision-makers, the policymakers, at the online casting sites? What if we could make actual recommendations directly to the people at the top of the pay-to-plays?

Now, it's one thing to have a monologue to someone in such a position as we did with David Ciccarelli of Voices in a couple of videos prior to this.

But it's another thing entirely to be able to ask questions from and make recommendations directly to the CEO of a major P2P platform.

Now, as it happens, one such opportunity is coming up.

the vo industryPaul SchmidtJanuary 12, 2023voice123, Voices.com, voices, p2ps Comments

Voice Over Conferences 2023 CALENDAR: VO Atlanta and more

So, I thought the first post of the New Year would be a great time to lay out the 2023 Voice Over Conference Calendar for you, not just the big ones like VO Atlanta, but some of the lesser known, more intimate, more boutique conferences like MAVO.

So, at this point in the first week of January, when we're filming this video, some of the conferences haven't announced dates or details yet, but we know generally, historically, when they fall.

So, I want to give you a brief overview of each and, you know, details and all that good stuff, organizers, and event people when I can, in case you've never heard of these conferences or you've never been to them.

conferences/conventions, professional development, the vo industryPaul SchmidtJanuary 5, 2023VO Atlanta, VOcation, One Voice, MAVO, SOVASComment

Voices.com Changes – For The Better or Worse?

In my last video called I Offended Voices.com. and Here's How, the founder and CEO, David Ciccarelli asked me to lay out my points as to why I asserted that Voices puts profit before talent.

Now I laid out five facts that detailed their history of disregard for transparency when it comes to fees, taking egregious cuts of the budgets and a few others.

The reaction was just nuts, Unprecedented. Here's just some of what you had to say…

rates, the vo industryPaul SchmidtDecember 22, 2022Voices.com Comment

I OFFENDED Voices.com. And Here’s WHY…

In my last video, My (No Gear) Christmas Wishlist for Voiceover, one of my wishes was this:

"I wish all of the pay-to-plays were ethical, but the chief offender here, of course, is Voices.com, but they're certainly not the only ones that put profit before talent and clients. These companies control a huge amount of work globally in the voiceover business, and it's a travesty to me that rather than seeing themselves as leaders and stewards of our industry, they couldn't give a reindeer turd about anything else other than putting profit ahead of people - clients and talent."

And the very next day, I got an email from David Ciccarelli. David, if you don't know, is the founder and CEO of Voices.com, and he was NOT happy…

My (No Gear) Voice Over Christmas Wish List

Christmas is right around the corner. And of course, this is the time of year when voice actors get the steamy undies for all kinds of gear. Mics, interfaces, preamps, amplifiers, headphones, you name it. We want all the gear.

But I think in this season of gratitude and giving, I want kind of a different kind of Christmas wish list this year for voice over.

Sure. I love great gear as much as the next voice actor, but what I want for voice over this year is not for me. It's for everybody. Everybody that calls themselves a voice actor.

So, Santa, if you're listening or watching, here's my list. I've checked it twice…

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

How Voice Over Saved My Mental Health

I was in a dark place.

I had been through a series of three jobs in three years. I had largely failed at all of them. I was a single dad. I was paying my bills, but just barely, living paycheck to paycheck. Near the end, I was working for people I didn't respect. I didn't enjoy the job.

I wasn't enjoying any success at the job, and I was pretty sure I was going to be fired within a year. I was approaching 50 and I was sick of at-work politics. Sick of working for other people. Sick at working at jobs I had absolutely no passion for. I was sick of all of it, but I had no real options, no hope.

Plan A was to go back and get another sh*tty job, and there really was no plan B.

Now, just to be clear, I was not suicidal. I was moderately depressed. I loved my son, but I hated my life. I dreaded going to work every day.

But there was one bright spot, and that was voiceover

mindset, personal developmentPaul SchmidtNovember 24, 2022mental health, depression, anxiety, 988 lifeline Comments

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