Should I Get into Voice Over? 9 CRUCIAL Questions

Several times a week, people reach out to me, and I'm sure I'm certainly not the only one and say, “People say, I have a nice voice. Should I get into voice acting?”

My answer used to be, “Sure. This is a great business, and it's the best job I've ever had. And second isn't even close. Come on in!”

And while that's still true as much as it ever was, my answer has changed.

Voice over and voice acting isn't for everyone.

Some don't have the talent. Some don't have the drive. Most think it's something it's not - and that is a quick way to easy money with no experience.

So how do I answer the question? Should I get into voice over truth fully when I know little to nothing about the person answering the question?

Today I'm going to do just that. So, if you're considering getting into the voiceover field, if you're wondering if you're cut out to be a professional voice actor, I have nine questions for you that will help you answer that question.

acting, business, mindset, professional development, tech/gearPaul SchmidtOctober 13, 2023marketing, training, mindsetComment

Is Voice Over Work DRYING UP?!? THE 6 BIG CAUSES

As I touched on in my last video, 2023 has been a slow year for voiceover. In fact, this might be the first year in the 21st century that we can honestly say that voiceover work has not… available work… has not grown year over year.

There's no hard data that I know of in the voiceover industry that shows the exact amount of available work. But I talked to a lot of people in this business and pretty much everybody agrees it's been a down year.

This has also been the year that A.I. has exploded onto the scene.

Terms like generative AI were barely on our radar a year ago and they're now part of our everyday lexicon. A year ago, A.I. Voices was a term and a concept we all knew and were aware of and knew was coming. But nobody had any idea what that was going to mean for 2023.

Now, that said, if we agree that voiceover is in a bear market then that begs the question: why?

There are six main reasons VO is slow right now and I'm going to break them down for you today.

acting, AI/TTS, business, sag-aftra, the vo industryPaul SchmidtSeptember 28, 2023AI, ai voices, strike, economy, training, covid-19Comment

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.

Will ChatGPT KILL Voice Acting?!?!?

ChatGPT. A.I.. Text to speech. Speech to speech. Are the digital boogeymen finally here to decimate voice acting and beat us up and take our lunch money?

Today we're going to talk about ChatGPT specifically and A.I. in general to kind of make sense out of all the fear and hype in the voice acting community.

With the rise of artificial intelligence and machine learning, a lot of us are asking ourselves, Well, hell, how do we even stay relevant in a world that is changing at lightspeed?

acting, creativity, mindset, the vo industry, AI/TTSPaul SchmidtApril 20, 2023ChatGPT, AI, TTS Comments

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

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.

The VO Pro Blog