My 6th Sennheiser 416-aversary! A little over six years ago, I bought a Sennheiser 416 microphone (FYI that's an affiliate link). I got it because as much as I love my old AKG 420, I needed something much more portable. I wrote a blog about a mic shootout I put together and it is by far my most popular blog entry. I mean like it has thousands more hits than the next most read blog entry. I guess a lot of people Google the 416 or maybe it's just so well written. Probably the first one. "Vague goals give you vague results. Specific goals give you specific results." - Tom 6 years later... The 416 is still da bomb. I have had virtually no issues with it. At one point, the XLR port got loose so I sent it in and they fixed & returned it super-fast with no problems. Oh, and I custom-built a carrying case but it got flagged by the TSA way too many times so I had to get rid of it. Looking at the picture, you'll see why: And no, the Str Wars stickers didn't make it look innocuous enough. Tip Of the Week The key to getting the most out of a Sennheiser 416 is positioning. There are many articles, blog posts, and YouTube videos out there and I suggest you check them out. I can't give you specific advice on how to set it up because I don't know which genres you regularly narrate, how loud or soft you usually speak, or the dimensions of your booth. I will say that you should experiment to find your sweet spot, then mark where your chair and/or mic stand is. As to pop filters, there are as many opinions as there are voice actors. Some voice actors are more "poppy" than others so needs vary. Some use the pop filter it comes with, but some argue that's it's not very good and eventually it degrades and the particles can get in your mic and mess it up. I don't know if that's true. Others use no pop filter at all. I use the OCTO 842S Pop Filter made by The Hook Studios. It's very popular right now as it's small, fits right on the 416, is easy to travel with, and is reasonably priced. Paid Links Want more studio gear & reading recommendations? As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Tom Dheere is the VO Strategist, a voice over business & marketing coach since 2011. He is also a voice actor with over 30 years of experience who has narrated just about every type of voice over you can think of. When not voicing or talking about voicing, he produces the sci-fi comic book Agent 1.22.

I have been in this game for over thirty years. I have made plenty of mistakes so you don't have to. When people ask me for an honest review of Voice123, they usually want me to unconditionally trash it or tell them the one big secret that will take take them two second to do and then will get showered with bookings. But the truth is simple. The Voice123 platform isn't a snake oil salesman, a treasure chest, or a slot machine. It's a Lead Generation Tool. As an affiliate for Voice123, you'd think that every blog I publish or social media post I make is dripping with effusive praise about Voice123 just so I can make a few bucks. That's not how I roll. I am a realist. I value data over feelings, and the data says most talent are using the platform completely wrong. The Top 5 Mistakes Voice Actors Make On Voice123 Playing Only The Audition Game Most voice actors treat online casting site like The Voice or A Chorus Line. You sit by your computer, wait for an invite, submit an audition, and pray. That is the Audition Game and it's exhausting! Voice actors who use Voice123 effectively understand the Search Game. 60% of Voice Seekers do not wade through hundreds of auditions. They use the search function to find talent and either send them a Client Invitation, a Booking Request, or cast them offsite. If your profile is not set up to be discovered by the algorithm via search, you are partially invisible. Choosing the Wrong Voice123 Subscription Tier Voice123 has a tiered subscription model. You have options ranging from a free account up to $5,000 per year. A lot of talent buy a low to mid-tier membership because that's all they can afford, which is totally understandable. The problem with that is many voice actors sign up & pay but they aren't ready to dive in. By "aren't ready", I mean they haven't completed their voice over training, didn't optimize their profile, or don't have the time to audition enough and at the right times of day when Voice123 sends them auditions. FYI the auditions don't show up in everybody's inbox at the same time. Your tier and Ranking Score determines when you get them. I think a lot of that speaks to the myth that Pay-To-Play sites are an entry-level platform and the dream is to "grow out" of them and leave them behind for the supposedly greener pastures of Direct Marketing and getting an agent. While I agree that many successful voice actors use Direct Marketing strategies and have Representation instead of Online Casting Sites, that doesn't mean P2P sites like Voice123 are lower or lesser or only for newbs. It's not true and it has never been true. Treating Your Voice123 Profile Like a "Set it and Forget It" App Your Voice123 profile is your digital storefront. Too many voice actors upload two generic demos from 2018 and call it a day. To win on the Voice123 platform, you need highly specific, bite-sized samples. Think 20 to 30 seconds each. Label them precisely. Do not just write "Commercial Demo." Write "Commercial, Upbeat Retail, Guy Next Door." Feed the robots the metadata they need. If the algorithm cannot categorize you, the humans will never discover you. Fearing AI Instead of Protecting Your Intellectual Property AI is here. It is not going away. You can complain about it on social media, or you can manage the risk. Voice123 is part of the NAVA fAIr Voices pledge. They let you create and monetize your own AI voice models on your own terms. You set the pricing. You set the usage rules. On top of that, they have implemented the Voice Authenticity Initiative. Every file you upload gets a digital fingerprint to detect misuse and protect against unauthorized cloning. Stop running from the tech. Learn the tools and use them to protect your business. Ignoring the Rest of Your Voice Over Business Ecosystem Online casting sites like Voice123 is only one piece of the puzzle. You cannot rely on a single platform to sustain your voice over business. You need to utilize all three Portals. The 3 Portals of VO Marketing Representation: Agents and managers who provide white-glove opportunities. Online Marketplaces: Platforms like the Voice123 platform to build a steady pipeline. Direct-to-Talent: Relationship-driven self-marketing to find your own Voice Seekers. Voice123 does not take a commission. You keep 100% of what you earn, and you can communicate directly with clients to build long-term relationships. Use that to your advantage to pull clients into your direct marketing ecosystem. Voice123 Isn't Perfect But it may be perfect for you and where you are in your voice over journey. At the end of the day, Voice123 isn't going to build your career for you. It is a tool. And like any tool, it only works if you know how to handle it. You can read this list, nod your head, and promise yourself you will fix your profile tomorrow. But we both know tomorrow usually turns into next month. Information is easy to find. Anyone can read a blog. Implementation? That is the hard part. That is the poopy grown-up stuff that actually separates the amateurs from the pros. If you are going to treat your voice over career like a real business, you have to stop treating your marketing like a guessing game. Feed the robots, charm the humans, and stop leaving your bookings up to luck. Your Playbook for Decoding Voice123 If you're ready to stop guessing and start running the plays I use to keep my profile in the top 10%–20%, you don't need theory. You need execution. Download The Voice123 Playbook for only $20 right now, learn how effectively feed the algorithm, and start booking! As the VO Strategist, Tom Dheere has provided voice over business & marketing coaching since 2011. He's also a voice actor with over 30 years of experience who has narrated just about every type of voice over you can think of. When not voicing or talking about voicing, Tom produces the sci-fi comic book Agent 1.22.

The Voice123 Strategy Summary Voice123 is a lead-generation engine that runs on data. While the drop-down menus (Language, Gender) get you in the door, the Keyword Field is where you actually book work. Since voice seekers can type whatever they want into that search bar, your job is to reverse-engineer their intent. Success on Voice123 means matching your sample names and tags to the specific terms clients are typing in real-time. If you aren’t engineering your profile to be the exact answer to their "free-text" query, you’re throwing money away. So, is Voice123 "worth it?" Let's look at the numbers. When you hear "Pay-to-Play," do you cringe? For many voice actors, sites like Voice123 feel like a slot machine you pour money into, hoping to hit the jackpot. You create a profile, pay what you can, submit a pile of auditions, and then...nothing. It’s easy to get frustrated and declare the whole thing a scam. I get it, but I don't look at it as a slot machine. I look at it as a line item in my marketing budget. Voice123 isn't some magical client dispenser; it's a lead generation tool. And like any tool, you have know how to use it. If you’re doing nothing but auditioning & praying, you’re ignoring a valuable part of the platform. But if you shift your Systems of Thought & Execution and implement an effective strategy, the results can be huge. My Voice123 Experience As a business-minded mutant, I love number crunching! Let’s breakdown my own Voice123 investment & returns... I joined V123 way back in 2006. Over the last 19 years, I have invested over $10,000 in my Voice123 membership. Sounds like a lot, right? Maybe, but that $10,000 investment has generated well over $80,000 in voice over income. That’s a 8-to-1 return on my investment. This can work, and work pretty damn well if you know what you're doing. But it wasn't a straight line. My income from the platform was great in the early years, then I left due to poor judgement on my part of how effective a P2P site can truly be. In 2020, I rejoined, and in 2022 I invested in the $2,200 tiers The results? Over $30,000 in bookings in 2022 and 2023 alone. That’s because I stopped guessing and started engineering. Why Your Voice123 Strategy Isn't Working Most voice actors fail at Voice123 because they’re playing the wrong game, and there are two games happening on the platform: The Audition Game (The 40%). This is the reactive game. You see a casting call, you submit your audio, and you hope you get picked from the pile. This is what almost everyone does, and it’s where 1,000 other people might be right for the same project. The Search Game (The 60%).This is the proactive game. This is where clients don't post a public job. They go to the search bar and type in what they need—"warm, trustworthy, professional," "high-energy, retail, friendly"—and the algorithm gives them a list of our profiles. This is where clients send you direct invitations. Most voice actors spend 100% of their time on the 40% and 0% on the 60%. That's leaving money on the table. Start Engineering Your V123 Profile Winning the 40% search game means treating your profile like a storefront designed to be found. The engine of the Voice123 search algorithm isn't your demos or even your auditions. It's your samples. Voice seekers don’t listen to your Commercial Demo. They search for "perky, college, university" and listen to the sample that matches. Your job is to create a library of samples that are tagged with the right keywords, Voice Styles, and Purposes of Recording. You have to think like a client. A producer for a healthcare company isn't typing "great voice" into the search bar. They're typing "empathetic, knowledgeable, medical." Your profile needs to be populated with those terms, or you will be invisible to them. This requires a system. I call it my "Content Bible"; a spreadsheet where I map out every single sample, its name, its description, and its keywords to ensure I'm covering every possible search term a client might use for projects that I can match up with. The "Secret Weapon" Hiding in Plain Sight Look at the "Additional Proposal Details" section when you submit an audition. Most people leave this blank or write something like "Thanks for the opportunity!" That's a waste of real estate. This is your chance to both manage risk and build trust. You can communicate your value before they even listen to your audition. My Additional Proposal Details section includes: My studio specs (Sennheiser 416, Adobe Audition, etc.) to build confidence in my quality. My Source Connect profile name to signal I'm ready for a directed session. My typical turnaround time to manage expectations. My revisions policy to prevent scope creep. A direct CTA: "If you like my audition, please give it a thumbs up and favorite my profile." (this feeds the algorithm) This turns my proposal from a hopeful audition into a professional bid, making it easier for the client to say "yes." IMPORTANT!!! I strongly recommend following these steps to start feeding the Voice123 algorithm the right way the first time. Get a FREE Voice123 account FIRST Download The Voice123 Playbook for only $20 right now to learn how effectively feed the algorithm. Optimize your Voice123 profile using the The Voice123 Playbook. Subscribe to at least the $495 tier discount. You must be a new Voice123 account holder to get a discount! As the VO Strategist, Tom Dheere has provided voice over business & marketing coaching since 2011. He's also a voice actor with over 30 years of experience who has narrated just about every type of voice over you can think of. When not voicing or talking about voicing, Tom produces the sci-fi comic book Agent 1.22.

Most of us didn't get into voice-over because we had a burning passion for audio engineering. We love to perform, create characters, and tell stories. The technical stuff (DAWs, sample rates, compressors) is the necessary evil we need to master to do the fun stuff. But here’s the thing: your Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) isn't just another piece of software. It's the hub of your entire voice over business. It's your recording studio, your editing suite, and the gatekeeper of quality you send to clients. Choosing the right one is one of the most critical business decisions you'll make. I should know. I’ve been in the trenches with DAWs since 2006. I’ve seen platforms come and go, I've experienced the growing pains, and I've built my business on the back of one particular workhorse. After nearly two decades, I’ve learned what works, what doesn't, and what's just a waste of time and money. So, let's break it down without the confusing tech-speak. The Basics That Actually Matter Before we talk brands, let's demystify what clients ask for. You don't need an audio engineering degree, you just need to know what the important buttons do. Sample Rate/Bit Depth (The Quality Question): Think of this like video resolution. A grainy 480p YouTube video from 2008 looks very different from a crisp 4K stream today. Sample Rate and Bit Depth are the resolution for your audio. The professional standard is 48kHz / 24-bit. Recording in anything less is like showing up to an audition in a wrinkled t-shirt. It just doesn't look (or sound) professional. Gain Control (The Volume Knob): This is how loud your voice when you record. It’s a Goldilocks game: not too quiet, not too loud. If it’s too loud, your audio will "clip," which is the digital equivalent of a blown speaker. It creates a nasty, distorted sound that is unusable. Aim for your peaks to be around -6db to -3db and you'll be in great shape. WAV vs. MP3 (The File Formats): A WAV file is the huge, uncompressed, high-quality master recording. An MP3 is the smaller, compressed version you can email easily. Always record your bookings in WAV unless the client says otherwise. Always ask the client what format they want for the final delivery. The DAW Showdown Now for the main event! Which software should you use to actually do the work? Audacity: The Perfect (and Free) Starting Point Audacity is the gateway drug of DAWs, and I mean that in the best way possible. It's free, it's relatively easy to learn, and it can be used to record and submit professional-sounding auditions. It's the perfect tool to use when you're starting out. However, if you're serious about making this a full-time career, you will eventually outgrow it. The workflow can be clunky for more complex tasks, and it lacks the tools that save full-time pros hours every week. Pro Tools & Reaper: The Powerful Powerhouses On the other end of the spectrum, you have titans like Pro Tools and the highly customizable Reaper. These are incredibly powerful, industry-standard pieces of software for music producers and post-production engineers. For a voice actor whose main job is to record a single voice track and edit it quickly, using Pro Tools can feel like using a Formula 1 car to go to the grocery store. It's impressive as hell, but you'll likely never use 95% of the features you're paying for. Adobe Audition: The Best DAW for Voice Actors I've saved my personal recommendation of the best DAW for voice actors for last. I have been using Adobe Audition to run my voice-over business since 2006. It is the engine of my daily workflow, and in my opinion, it is the perfect intersection of power and usability for the working voice actor. It’s not just a piece of software; it’s a business partner. Here’s why: The "Just Right" Factor: It has all the power you’ll ever need, but the interface is clean, intuitive, and designed for voice/dialogue editing, not just music. The Spectral Display is Magic: This feature alone is worth the price of admission. It allows you to see the sounds in your audio. That annoying bird chirp? That little mouth click? You can visually identify it and erase it like using the healing brush in Photoshop. It is an absolute game-changer. Punch and Roll: This is a standard feature, but Audition's implementation is seamless. Mess up a line? Just back up a bit, hit record, and "punch in" a new take without missing a beat. It makes long-form narration like eLearning modules and audio books MUCH faster. Workflow Efficiency: From customizable presets to the "Essential Sound" panel, Audition is packed with tools designed to make you a faster, more efficient editor. In this business, time is money. The hours Audition saves me every month pay for the subscription many times over. I've built my voice over career on this platform. It's stable, it's professional, and it has never let me down. If you're ready to move past the beginner stage and invest in a tool that will grow with you, this is the one. Full transparency: The link below is an affiliate link. This means if you decide to subscribe, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you. I’m recommending it because I’ve personally used it to build my own business for nearly two decades. Click Here to Learn More About Adobe Audition and other products. Your DAW is one of the most important investments you'll make. Choose the one that doesn't just record your voice, but also respects your time. Want More Tools In Your Voice Over Toolkit? Stop guessing which microphones, hardware, software, and books are worth your investment! I’ve built a curated resource page with the professional tools I trust to save you time and help you make smart decisions for your business. Please note: As an affiliate partner, I may earn from qualifying purchases at no extra cost to you. Keep Going - Watch this next: Adobe Audition for Voice Actors Want to stream as many How-To videos as you want? Get a Video Subscription - use code FORWARD for 20% off your first month! Don't know where to start? Let's chat. Grab 15 minutes free - let's see what your business needs... As the VO Strategist, Tom Dheere has provided voice over business & marketing coaching since 2011. He's also a voice actor with over 30 years of experience who has narrated just about every type of voice over you can think of. When not voicing or talking about voicing, Tom produces the sci-fi comic book Agent 1.22.

Last week you booked a great voice over gig. The session went smoothly and the client was happy. This week your calendar is empty and you wonder when the next booking is going to hit your inbox. This is when many voice actors panic. Panic is not a business strategy! Well, it can be one, but it's not a very good one. Getting consistent voice over work is getting harder & harder to do, especially since AI is rearing it's head and our current economic situation, well, sucks right now. So how do voice actors get consistent work these days? Build Marketing Pipelines Your bookings today are a result of the marketing you did yesterday. A voice over job today pays you 30 to 60 days from now. Therefore, your marketing strategies must be consistent regardless of how busy you are right now. If you think I'm about to tell you to send more cold emails: well, no. Sure, email campaigns can and should be a part of your overall marketing strategy, but the overreliance on it by the vast majority of voice actors is gets most of them nowhere. Hunting Vs. Farming I strongly recommend a healthy balance of Hunting vs. Farming marketing strategies. Hunting: This is short-term, high-intent action. Hunting means auditioning, cold emails, and following up on previous correspondences. You are looking for a job to book right now. FYI this doesn't work most of the time. Farming: This is a long-term strategy that requires patience. Farming means writing blog posts, maintaining your website SEO, and building authority on social media platforms. FYI this doesn't work most of the time, either. Diversify Your Portals You'll never become financially stable if you use only one marketing tactic. You need to use all three Portals consistently. Representation: Agents, managers, and casting directors Online Casting Sites: Both free and Pay-to-Play (P2P) sites Self-Marketing: Direct Marketing Indirect Marketing How and how often should you use each Portal? That depends on the genres of voice over you wanna book. The VO Strategist Protocol For Consistent Voice Over Work Booking consistent voice over work means understanding the guts of your business model. You gotta balance those three Portals against the five categories of your business: Cash Flow, Tools, Technique, Marketing, and Health. Health is the big one. Because you can't pay the bills if you're sick or burn out. There is no one size fits all method. You need to build your own. One that leverages your website, social media, casting sites, CRM, and much more. You can read my blogs all day, but it won't get you over the hump. Let's figure out exactly what you need to do today to land some tasty voice over gigs tomorrow. Book a free 15-minute consult to get the ball rolling! The VO Strategist Blog is designed for voice actors at all stages of their career looking for concrete business diagnostics, mentorship, and actionable strategies to scale their freelance operations. Want More Tools In Your Voice Over Toolkit? Check out my VO How-To Library! Want to stream as many How-To videos as you want? Get a Video Subscription - use code FORWARD for 20% off your first month! Upcoming Events & Appearances Here's what I've got going on in the next few months - register to attend and add your voice to the mix! Don't know where to start? Let's chat. Grab 15 minutes with me for free - let's see what your business needs... As the VO Strategist, Tom Dheere has provided voice over business & marketing coaching since 2011. He's also a voice actor with over 30 years of experience who has narrated just about every type of voice over you can think of. When not voicing or talking about voicing, Tom produces the sci-fi comic book Agent 1.22.

Backstage, an entertainment industry magazine and casting site, just acquired the online casting site Voice123. Here's an article making the announcement. Here's a take on the acquisition from voice actor, demo producer, and thought leader J. Michael Collins. DISCLOSURE (and fun to share) I have subscribed to Backstage over the years, auditioned for projects on it, and have been featured in an article. TIP OF THE WEEK What does Backstage buying Voice123 mean for the voice over industry in general and online casting sites in particular? Will Voice123 and all of the other platforms that Backstage has & will acquire turn into one big site that a Silicon Valley powerhouse will eventually absorb like JMC theorized? Maybe. Will Backstage use Voice123's massive database of audio files and get into the AI game? That would potentially take away work from thousands of actors (which I assume goes against their mission) so I doubt it but I can't speak for whomever may acquire Voice123 or Backstage in the future. FYI here is a Voice123 article about their take on AI. But what does that mean for us voice actors? Should we join Backstage and/or Voice123? Quit them? I do think that Backstage will market to their massive database of stage, film, and TV actors so even more people may flock to the voice over industry. This may continue the trend of more competition and lower rates so keep that in mind. It's not something you can control but it is something you can be proactive about. Keep training, keep learning, keep growing. Understand the new reality of the voiceover industry and what may lie just beyond the horizon. Harness the power of Direct Marketing while it's still viable. You need to determine which course of action aligns with your business model and your value system. The reality of the voiceover industry continues to evolve. You have to evolve with it or risk being left behind! IMPORTANT!!! If you decide to join Voice123, I strongly recommend following these three steps to start feeding the algorithm the right way the first time. Get a FREE Voice123 account FIRST Optimize your profile (see below to learn how) Subscribe to at least the $495 tier. Here's my affiliate link to do that with a discount! Your Playbook for Decoding Voice123 If you're ready to stop guessing and start running the plays I use to keep my profile in the top 10%–20%, you don't need theory. You need execution. Download The Voice123 Playbook for only $20 right now, learn how effectively feed the algorithm, and start booking! NEWS AND NOTES Wednesday, September 15th @8PM ET: The VO How-To webinar: "Explainers Explained". What is an Explainer Video? How do you narrate one? Where do you get the work? These and many other questions will be answered in this online workshop! If you can't attend the night of the event, the webinar will be recorded so you can watch the video at your convenience. Thursday, September 16th @8PM ET: The Business and Money 201 webinar "Cost/Benefit Analysis". This class will give students an understanding of how to analyze their voice over business, figure out where their voiceover work came from, and how to read metrics. Sunday, September 19th @12PM ET: The VoiceBox Business & Marketing Seminar. I will be one of four speakers/panelists talking about all things voiceover business & marketing. Saturday, September 25th @8PM ET: The webinar "Set Goals and Build a Business Plan". Now is the perfect time to create your voiceover business plan and set your goals for the next week, month, quarter, and year. In this online workshop, I will walk you through how to determine what success can look like for you and how to make it happen. Thursday, September 30th @8PM ET: The Marketing 201 webinar "The Sales Funnel". In this class, students will explore the concept of the “Sales Funnel,” and how it can yield more paying clients in the long run if used properly. HAPPY HAPPYS Happy Chocolate Milkshake Day and Fortune Cookie Day! QUOTE OF THE WEEK The more you know who you are, and what you want, the less you let things upset you. Lost In Translation. Tom Dheere is the VO Strategist, a voice over business & marketing coach and demo producer since 2011. He is also a voice actor with over 20 years of experience who has narrated just about every type of voiceover you can think of. When not voicing or talking about voicing, he produces the sci-fi comic book Agent 1.22.

The 2026 Studio123 Strategy Summary As the VO Strategist, I define Studio123 as a managed-service for voice seekers who value their time over the traditional casting process. It’s essentially the Search Game on steroids, a curated sandbox where the robots handle the matching so you can spend less time auditioning and more time being a voice actor. Success here isn't about audition & pray; it's about feeding the Voice123 algorithm. What is Studio123? The voice-over industry in 2026 doesn't look much like it did even five years ago. As the VO Strategist, I always say that Legacy Thinking destroys careers. If you aren’t auditing the platforms you use, you become invisible and irrelevant. So when I heard about Studio123, as a $2,200 tier subscriber and affiliate for Voice123, I reached out to see what it's all about. They signed me up, and I’ve been a member of Studio123 for a few weeks now. Here is the breakdown of what it is, how it differs from the standard V123 platform, and why you need to keep your CEO hat on when looking at the details. Voice123 vs. Studio123: What’s the Difference? Think of Voice123 as the "Audition Game." You pay for a tier, the algorithm sends you invites based on your Ranking Score, and you engage in the age-old tradition of Audition and Pray. Studio123 is different: it’s the "Search Game" on steroids. The Model: Studio123 is a curated wing of Voice123 designed for voice seekers who want high-quality audio fast without dealing with the traditional casting process. The Talent Pool: Unlike the open V123 marketplace, Studio123 uses a curated pool of vetted human voice actors. The Workflow: Clients submit project details, and Voice123 matches them with a specific voice actor from this pool. The Deliverables: The platform emphasizes rapid delivery and includes up to three revisions in the base price. Seven-Year Usage Here is where we need to move from "Employee Mindset" (just wanting the job) to "CEO Mindset" (protecting the asset). Studio123 offers clients complete, long-term ownership of the recordings for 7 years. Seven years is pretty long for broadcast usage. If your voice is selling a car or a soft drink on TV for seven years, that’s a potential loss of residuals and more potential for exclusivity issues. However, there are nuances: Non-Broadcast: For internal corporate training or a short Explainer video, a longer term like this is often acceptable. The Math: You have to weigh the upfront fee against the opportunity cost. As I've written before, understanding the difference between a simple usage fee and a full buyout is the difference between having a hobby and running a business. My Studio123 Experience So Far Within 24 hours of being added to the Studio123 roster, I booked a gig. It was a short industrial video that took me about ten minutes to do. It turns out that even though I clicked the Accept button and uploaded my audio files, the gig went to another voice actor. The Voice123 support team said that wasn't supposed to happen and they will look into. It's a new platform in beta so no big deal. The following week I booked another gig. Let's call it a marching band intro. I did three takes and sent it off. The client thought I was AI and said it was too polished. I did three more takes. The client said I sounded flat and emotionless. I did three more takes. They finally accepted the audio! My Thoughts Every platform is a lead-generation tool, not a slot machine. Treat it as such. Since the program is in Beta, many aspects, including usage terms, will likely evolve. I give them credit for developing a new platform that streamlines the process of casting voice actors and I'm all for that. Less auditions, more bookings, fine by me! Is this another Voice Bunny? Only time will tell! IMPORTANT!!! I strongly recommend following these three steps to start feeding the algorithm the right way the first time. Get a FREE Voice123 account FIRST. Don't pay for a tier yet! Optimize your profile (see below to learn how) Subscribe to at least the $495 tier. Here's my affiliate link to do that with a discount! Your Playbook for Decoding Voice123 If you're ready to stop guessing and start running the plays I use to keep my profile in the top 10%–20%, you don't need theory. You need execution. Download The Voice123 Playbook for only $20 right now, learn how effectively feed the algorithm, and start booking! GET THE VOICE123 P LAYBOOK Want More Tools In Your Voice Over Toolkit? Stop guessing which microphones, hardware, software, and books are worth your investment! I’ve built a curated resource page with professional tools I trust that will both save time and help you make smart decisions for your business. Please note: As an affiliate partner, I may earn from qualifying purchases at no extra cost to you. Get my curated list of essential VO tools here. AND Check out my VO How-To Library! Want to stream as many How-To videos as you want? Get a Video Subscription - use code FORWARD for 20% off your first month! Upcoming Events & Appearances Here's what I've got going on in the next few months - register to attend and add your voice to the mix! Looking for help navigating the entertainment industry? Check in and Stay on Track... Don't know where to start? Let's chat. Grab 15 minutes with me for free - let's see what your business needs... As the VO Strategist, Tom Dheere has provided voice over business & marketing coaching since 2011. He's also a voice actor with over 30 years of experience who has narrated just about every type of voice over you can think of. When not voicing or talking about voicing, Tom produces the sci-fi comic book Agent 1.22.

Back in 1995, my voiceover CRM strategy was an index card box. It was clean. It was simple. It worked. Fast forward to today, and my modern voiceover CRM strategy had devolved into a digital junkyard. Over three decades in this industry will do that, you know. You bounce from index cards to spreadsheets to various CRMs, and before you know it, your data is a hot mess. Until recently, my contacts were spread out across Wix, Cloze, spreadsheets, and Wave Apps. None of these systems talked to each other. I had thousands of names floating around with zero cohesion. It makes Direct Marketing campaigns almost impossible. If your contact list is a junkpile, you don't have a voiceover CRM. You have a ticking time bomb. How 30 Years of Data Chaos Threatened My Business Domain The realization hit me when I prepared to move my data into HubSpot for a new email campaign. I had 1,678 contacts sitting in my Gmail account. It was a wreck, a mix of potential clients, active clients, past clients, VO Strategist students, industry friends, and more. Even worse, Gmail has a hidden junk drawer called the "Other Contacts" folder. That folder held an additional 3,783 contacts from decades past. If you put an ancient, unverified list of contacts inside a new CRM, your bounce rates and spam complaints will skyrocket. When that happens, internet service providers notice. Google or your email host could freeze your account. Trying to build a business with a blacklisted domain is like trying to audition with a busted microphone. CRM maintenance is not just about staying organized. It's critical to protect your business. The Blueprint for an Voiceover CRM Strategy To fix this, I implemented three rules to restore order to my CRM galaxy... Rule 1: Isolate Your Target Audiences I run two operations: a B2B voice actor business (The H Is Silent) and a B2C coaching business (the VO Strategist). They can't live in the same sandbox. The good news is that my coaching student database is in Wix. It won't touch my voice talent sales pipeline so I'm good there. Rule 2: Trust Your Invoices, Not Your Inbox Your accounting software is your source of truth. I went into Wave Apps and pulled the data for my paying voice over customers since 2020 (that's when I started using it). Rule 3: Use Guardrails Before a single contact was allowed anywhere near my new CRM, I ran the lists through DeBounce. It filters out bad emails before you ever hit send. Going Nuclear with the Clean Slate Once I identified the real data, I did something terrifying. I wired all 1,678 Google Contacts. Then, I imported the "debounced" contacts back into it. I also decided to keep my Wix CRM disconnected from HubSpot. Why? Because websites are spam magnets. By keeping them separate, my cleaned up database won't get polluted. Remember my silly farmer analogy? You need fertile soil to grow your business. If your database is full of potentially toxic, unverified data, you are poisoning your own field. More data does not equal more value. A database of 500 hyper-focused, deliverable voice seekers is infinitely more valuable than thousands of random entries that threaten your domain health. Do not fear the clean slate. Thanks for Reading! Managing the technical parts of your business can feel overwhelming. If you suspect your data is a mess, or your marketing strategy is stuck in legacy thinking, we can map out a clear path forward. Are you currently using a dedicated CRM to track your voice seekers, or are you still running your business out of a handful of spreadsheets? If you're tired of guessing and want a professional audit of your business practices, let's look at the numbers. together Sign up for a comprehensive 60-Minute Voice Over Business Diagnostic to establish your own clean slate. Want More Tools In Your Voice Over Toolkit? Stop guessing which microphones, hardware, software, and books are worth your investment! I’ve built a curated resource page with professional tools I trust that will both save time and help you make smart decisions for your business. Please note: As an affiliate partner, I may earn from qualifying purchases at no extra cost to you. Get my curated list of essential VO tools here. AND Check out my VO How-To Library! Want to stream as many How-To videos as you want? Get a Video Subscription - use code FORWARD for 20% off your first month! Upcoming Events & Appearances Here's what I've got going on in the next few months - register to attend and add your voice to the mix! Looking for help navigating the entertainment industry? Check in and Stay on Track... Don't know where to start? Let's chat. Grab 15 minutes with me for free - let's see what your business needs... As the VO Strategist, Tom Dheere has provided voice over business & marketing coaching since 2011. He's also a voice actor with over 30 years of experience who has narrated just about every type of voice over you can think of. When not voicing or talking about voicing, Tom produces the sci-fi comic book Agent 1.22.

You're probably reading this because you wanna be a video game voice actor, right? Great! I'm here to help. BUT, if you think you all you need is a cheap microphone, some goofy voices that make your friends on Steam laugh, and a couple of selfie Tiktoks that will get you magically discovered by Rocktstar Games, well, that ain't gonna work. If you want a profitable, sustainable video game voice acting career, you gotta approach it like a business, not a lottery ticket. The Video Game Voice Actor Gameplan If you want to be a video game voice actor, you need a plan, you need to develop a bunch of skills (and I don't mean just voices), and you need to be patient. There are no shortcuts. By a plan, I mean you need to figure out what kind of video game voice actor you want to be, research how you're going to get training (and you need LOTS of training), build a website, produce a video game narration demo, put together a home recording studio, and much more. By skills, I mean performance skills like breath control, how to handle exertions, etc. but I also mean business skills like billing and taxes, marketing skills like social media, blogging, cold emails, etc. and much more. By patient, I mean that video game voice over is a very difficult industry to get into. The competition is fierce and it takes time and money to execute the plan and develop the skills you need to get cast in the video games you're played your whole life. But if you want this badly enough, you can make it happen! The Video Game Voice Over Playbook The Video Game Voice Over Playbook is a course designed by me (whose video game credits include Red Dead Redemption and Inspector Gadget: Mad Time Party) and my partner Nadia Marshall, a phenomenal character specialist who has proven success in massive JRPGs like Zenless Zone Zero and indie hits like Cassette Beasts. Together, we built a course that strips away the fluff and covers both the business realities and the performance standards you need to become a video game voice actor. Here's the first module of the course. It's free! Unlock the full playbook for just $199 by visiting blueprintcourseware.com/videogamevoiceoverplaybook. Want More Tools In Your Voice Over Toolkit? Stop guessing which microphones, hardware, software, and books are worth your investment! I’ve built a curated resource page with professional tools I trust that will both save time and help you make smart decisions for your business. As an affiliate partner, I may earn from qualifying purchases at no extra cost to you. Get my curated list of essential VO tools here. AND Check out my VO How-To Library! Want to stream as many How-To videos as you want? Get a Video Subscription - use code FORWARD for 20% off your first month! Upcoming Events & Appearances Here's what I've got going on in the next few months - register to attend and add your voice to the mix! Don't know where to start? Let's chat. Grab 15 minutes with me for free - let's see what your business needs... This content is specifically configured for voice actors seeking concrete business diagnostics, objective marketing frameworks, or long-term industry mentorship to scale their independent operations professionally. As the VO Strategist, Tom Dheere has provided voice over business & marketing coaching since 2011. He's also a voice actor with over 30 years of experience who has narrated just about every type of voice over you can think of. When not voicing or talking about voicing, Tom produces the sci-fi comic book Agent 1.22.

The use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to produce voiceovers and its effect on the industry has been a topic of serious discussion lately. The latest round of debate started around some recent developments: When the producers of the Anthony Bourdain documentary "Roadrunnner" used AI to simulate the late chef's voice. When the Society of Voice Arts and Sciences (SOVAS) published an article regarding voiceovers and Artificial Intelligence When voice actor Bev Standing sued TikTok for using her voice without her permission. When Voice123 published a survey regarding Artificial Intelligence and the opinions of voice seekers. There is a lot to unpack here so I suggest you read the above publications and check out the other blog entries & articles out there regarding the subject. How much will Artificial Intelligence disrupt the voiceover industry? Nobody knows. I think it will depend on: How much voice seekers care if the narrator is an AI How much listeners care if the narrator is an AI What agents, SAG-AFTRA, and Pay-to-Play sites will do to protect voice actors I think that eventually many of the lower-tier narrators will lose their livelihood. There is no hard data to support this, but did you know that many audio book listeners increase the playback speed? All of that hard work narrators are doing to include nuance and subtlety in their narration is never noticed. I have a feeling many listeners will not care if an AI narrates many of the audio books they listen to since they will speed it up anyway nor will they care about whether many other genres of voiceover use it either. Many people don't give a moment's thought to whom or what is narrating most of the the content they listen to, anyway. Artificial Intelligence And You Yes, Artificial Intelligence is already beginning to disrupt some aspects of the voiceover industry. Yes, some voice actors may lose their livelihood eventually. The big question is, is that going to be YOU? Ask yourself these questions: What is the ceiling of your talent, your skill sets, your marketing acumen, and your intestinal fortitude? Is that ceiling high enough to keep you in the voiceover industry? What are you doing to protect your voice when you audition for and book projects? Are you willing to license your voice to an AI company? You need to answer these questions ASAP and do whatever you can to stay educated and relevant. RESOURCES & RECOMMENDATIONS In this new section of the VO Strategist Blog, I will occasionally suggest stuff that may help your voiceover business. Some of these suggestions may include an Amazon Affiliate link. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. That means if you click on the link and purchase the item in question, I get a few cents at no extra cost to you. Today's recommendation: shock mounts! Last year I bought the Eggsnow universal shock mount & mic clip. The problem is that a few of the rubber bands broke and apparently Eggsnow has no website, contact info, or any way of buying replacement rubber bands (I bought it on Amazon, BTW). Since I'm not interested in playing the guessing game of what size the rubber bands are and ordering from someone else, I decided to get a new shock mount. I purchased the Rycote InVision INV-7 HG mkIII Microphone Shock Mount. While the Eggsnow shock mount was under $10 and the Rycote shock mount is $75, if nothing else this shock mount doesn't require rubber bands to secure my Sennheiser 416. And it looks really cool! NEWS AND NOTES Thursday, August 12th @8PM ET: Time Management. In this one-hour webinar, this class will give students a game plan of how to best utilize their day and where you need to focus your time as a voice talent. Saturday, August 14th @5PM ET: Be a Practical Voice Actor. In this webinar, you will learn how to develop your decision-making skills so you can move your voiceover business in the direction you want it to go. You’ll also learn to determine what questions you need to ask yourself and how to find the right answers in order to be the voiceover artist and business you truly want to be. Wednesday, August 18th @8PM ET: Tracking Your Stuff. In this 90-minute "VO How-To" webinar, we will discuss how to effectively and efficiently track your clients, your Cash Flow, and your invoices. This webinar will be recorded so if you can't attend you can still sign up and get a copy of the video. Thursday, August 26th @8PM ET: Brand Yourself. In this one-hour webinar, students will be given insights on how to brand yourself as a voice over talent in order to get the right kind of attention and grow your business. HAPPY HAPPYS Happy All or Nothing Day and International Chicken Wing Day! QUOTE OF THE WEEK If I fret over tomorrow. I'll have little joy today. Lloyd Alexander Tom Dheere is the VO Strategist, a voice over business & marketing coach and demo producer since 2011. He is also a voice actor with over 30 years of experience who has narrated just about every type of voiceover you can think of. When not voicing or talking about voicing, he produces the sci-fi comic book Agent 1.22.

As part of my voice over audition strategy, in 2025 I stepped into the booth 1,659 times to record auditions. Crazy? Maybe. Waste of my time, asks the Direct Marketing, anti Pay-to-Play cultists? Definitely not. Auditioning that much reveals patterns that you can use to your advantage. One thing I noticed is that more and more, corporate and commercial scripts look alike. They use the same buzzwords, the same formats, the same analogies blah blah blah. But clients can hear it when we phone it in. They want us to create a genuine connection, not engage in uninspired regurgitation. Every read must sound like those words have never been spoken in that particular order before. It must sound entirely spontaneous, even if it's the tenth "relatable neighbor" script that hit your inbox today. The Pivot That Increased My Commercial Revenue My 2025 commercial revenue nearly doubled compared to 2024. To be fair, a chunk of that came from one major booking via my manager, but listening back to my commercial auditions that turned into bookings revealed more patterns... I stopped trying to sound bright, clean, and polished. I leaned into my naturally lower register. I slowed my cadence down to create breathing room between lines and thoughts. I got comfortable sounding imperfect. Like me! These adjustments allowed me to blow up in a genre that's usually a second-tier revenue generator for me. More importantly, it made up for my declining eLearning and Explainer narration revenue, (thanks AI!). Why Volume Validates Your Voice Over Audition Strategy High volume and rapid execution are critical for a profitable voice over career, not a compromise on quality. Speed is big. On a good day, I can record & submit eight auditions in about 30 minutes. This isn't about rushing the creative process or delivering sloppy work. It's about the strategic use of your time. Hell, I'm writing this blog while I'm waiting for my laundry to finish the spin cycle! If you treat every single audition like a precious piece of art and analyzing every syllable you utter, you're operating like an employee instead of a CEO. Auditioning is a short-term marketing play for long-term growth. You must constantly balance Farming vs. Hunting. Farming represents your long-term strategies that require patience and time, such as content marketing, search optimization, and networking. Hunting is immediate. Recording an audition is hunting. When you are hunting, you need to make strong acting choices quickly, submit clean audio, and move on to the next one. Mapping Your Marketing Across The 3 Portals of Voice Over Landing steady voice-over work requires distributing your efforts smartly among representation, online casting sites, and self-marketing strategies rather than relying on a single source of leads. In my 30+ years of experience, I've learned that you can't build a sustainable business relying on one Portal. Your auditions must be distributed across the voiceover ecosystem. Casting Portal Strategy Type Target Voice Seeker Execution Speed Representation Hunting (Short-Term) Ad Agencies & Casting Directors High Velocity Required Online Casting Sites (P2P) Hunting (Short-Term) Video Producers & Indie Creators Instant Turnaround Self-Marketing Farming (Long-Term) Corporate Instructional Designers Patient Relationship Building HOWEVER, where and how you focus depends on where you are in your voice over journey: Crawl, Walk, or Run. If you are navigating the Crawl phase during your first two years, I recommend heavily utilizing Online Casting Sites like Voice123 to establish your genre viability and develop both your confidence and Project Management skills. Once you get to the Walk phase, then you can expand your efforts into Self-Marketing. This means using platforms like Apollo.io paired with LinkedIn to find the email addresses of potential clients and send those cold emails. By the time you reach the Run phase, you should be on agent & manager rosters to scale your business even more. Be aware of where you are in your voice over journey, be flexible with your audition technique & marketing strategies, and be patient! Want More Tools In Your Voice Over Toolkit? Stop guessing which microphones, hardware, software, and books are worth your investment! I’ve built a curated resource page with professional tools I trust that will both save time and help you make smart decisions for your business. Please note: As an affiliate partner, I may earn from qualifying purchases at no extra cost to you. Get my curated list of essential VO tools here. AND Check out my VO How-To Library! Want to stream as many How-To videos as you want? Get a Video Subscription - use code FORWARD for 20% off your first month! Upcoming Events & Appearances Here's what I've got going on in the next few months - register to attend and add your voice to the mix! Looking for help navigating the entertainment industry? Check in and Stay on Track... Don't know where to start? Let's chat. Grab 15 minutes with me for free - let's see what your business needs... As the VO Strategist, Tom Dheere has provided voice over business & marketing coaching since 2011. He's also a voice actor with over 30 years of experience who has narrated just about every type of voice over you can think of. When not voicing or talking about voicing, Tom produces the sci-fi comic book Agent 1.22.

Recently, I was talking with a new voice over student who was stuck. They've been on a major pay-to-play site for awhile, sent out dozens of auditions, and couldn't book a single gig. They wanted to know the secret to booking voice over work. When we looked under the hood, it became clear pretty quickly what was going on. The problem was the massive wall of friction they built between themselves and potential clients. The Danger of Hiding Your Real Identity The first piece of friction was a total lack of transparency. This student refused to use their real name. They wanted privacy. I'm sorry but that just doesn't work. When a Voice Seeker likes an audition, often they do a quick background check. They look you up on Google or LinkedIn because they want to know who they are dealing with. If they searched for this student, they found nothing. No digital footprint. No past professional history. To a client, a completely blank history looks highly sketch. They may assume you are an AI clone, a Luddite, or an impersonator trying to commit fraud. You have two jobs when you market your business: Job #1: feed the robots by optimizing your website, social media profiles & posts, and casting site profiles. Job #2: charm the humans with your personality & branding to create trust. By wiping away their identity, this student was failing at both. Voice seekers want to work with real people. Hiding your name does not protect your privacy. It just maximizes client suspicion and vastly lowers your chances of booking voice over work. Turning Your Past Into Your Advantage This student spent decades working in the financial sector. When they transitioned into voice over, they assumed that chapter of their life was useless and would lower their chances of booking voice over work. They asked me why a potential client would ever want to hire someone for a voiceover job who did something "not-voiceover" for decades. That is classic legacy thinking, and it is completely backwards. Decades of experience in the financial sector give you a deep understanding of corporate terminology, culture, and operations. That background is a massive advantage. It makes you far more qualified to handle high-level corporate narration, financial explainer videos, and internal training modules than someone with years of traditional voice over experience who couldn't identify a P&L statement if it bit them on the ass. Your past career is not something to hide. Your past is YOU! Storytelling Training There was another massive roadblock in their way. This student had zero performance background. No theater training. No film training. No improv, singing, or stand-up comedy training. Why does that matter? Because they were missing foundational storytelling training. In the modern VO landscape, storytelling is what separates a human narrator from an AI voice. AI can read words on a page just fine. What AI cannot do is connect emotionally. If you can't be better than an AI voice right out of the gate, your chances of building a sustainable career are much lower. You cannot compete on purely vocal quality anymore. You have to compete on human connection. "But Tom, all human voices are superior to all AI voices because human voices are human!" False! These days, a synthetic voice created by a voice actor with storytelling training and years of experience is often better than a human narrator with no storytelling experience and is early in their journey. That is the reality that aspiring voice actors have to deal with. Skipping the Foundation Destroys Credibility On top of the identity and performance gaps, this student skipped the fundamental business phases. They spent hundreds of dollars to jump straight onto a P2P site, uploaded a handful of unoptimized, self-recorded samples, and started pumping out auditions. But their home studio setup was subpar. On a technical level, every single sample they posted was unacceptable. This student ignored the Crawl, Walk, Run framework. Phase one of your career is the Crawl phase, where you focus purely on product development, professional coaching, and market viability. If your Tools, Technique, and Marketing are broken, paying for premium platform access is a waste of time & money. You're broadcasting your lack of preparation to potential clients, blacklisting your business before you even learn the craft. Remember the farmer analogy: you cannot plant a tomato seed today and expect to eat a salad tomorrow. You need the fertile soil of a treated studio, the fertilizer of coaching, and the sunlight of marketing. The Booking Voice Over Work Friction Breakdown To see where your business is leaking opportunities, you must look at it objectively. Business Category The Friction Point The Strategic Risk The 2026 Fix Tools Subpar gear and poor acoustic treatment. Bad audio signals amateur status instantly to the client. Book a session with an audio engineer like George The Tech. Technique Zero storytelling, theater, or performance training. Inability to beat AI text-to-speech tools out of the gate. Invest in professional storytelling and performance coaching. Marketing Hiding your identity; unoptimized profiles. Voice seekers assume identity fraud or AI scams. Use your real identity and develop a clean, human digital footprint. Cash Flow Buying premium memberships prematurely. Negative ROI and an immediate drain on starting capital. Conserve your cash until your product is certifiably viable. I get it. The beginning of the voice over journey is confusing and you're impatient. I made plenty of my own boneheaded, expensive mistakes over my 30+ years in this game. But this student was actively fighting the mechanics of the modern voice over industry. Right now, you might be auditioning constantly and wondering why the bookings aren't coming in. There is a massive knowledge gap between uploading random audio files and running a viable voice over business. If you're tired of guessing why your profile is being passed over by voice seekers, let's stop guessing and look at your data. Schedule a 60-Minute Voice Over Business Diagnostic today, and build a concrete Action Plan to eliminate the friction holding you back. DM me for a coupon! Want More Tools In Your Voice Over Toolkit? Stop guessing which microphones, hardware, software, and books are worth your investment! I’ve built a curated resource page with professional tools I trust that will both save time and help you make smart decisions for your business. As an affiliate partner, I may earn from qualifying purchases at no extra cost to you. Get my curated list of essential VO tools here. AND Check out my VO How-To Library! Want to stream as many How-To videos as you want? Get a Video Subscription - use code FORWARD for 20% off your first month! Upcoming Events & Appearances Here's what I've got going on in the next few months - register to attend and add your voice to the mix! Looking for help navigating the entertainment industry? Check in and Stay on Track... Don't know where to start? Let's chat. Grab 15 minutes with me for free - let's see what your business needs... As the VO Strategist, Tom Dheere has provided voice over business & marketing coaching since 2011. He's also a voice actor with over 30 years of experience who has narrated just about every type of voice over you can think of. When not voicing or talking about voicing, Tom produces the sci-fi comic book Agent 1.22.